Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Seems not even Darwin’s finches are sacred

As David Tyler writes over at Access Research Network: Introgressive hybridization and the Galapagos finches A branching pattern of variation was central to Darwin’s concept of speciation. As one population of organisms follows one trajectory, another population may spin off in a different direction. When they are sufficiently far apart, they are considered to be separate species. The Galapagos finches have been regarded as exemplars of Darwinian transformation, even leading to the claim that one newly developed population is “behaving as a separate species”. However, the most recent study, from one of the smaller islands (Floreana), concludes that the most likely cause of the disappearance of one of these species is hybridization. “The authors suggest that hybridization may have been Read More ›

Copenhagen Cowboy

Quantum Physicist 1:  Did you hear about the quantum cowboy? Quantum Physicist 2:  No, do tell. QP1:  There was this cowboy who was in a quantum superposition of states between reaching into his back pocket for a little round can of snuff or not reaching into his back pocket for a little round can of snuff, all the while waiting for an observer to collapse the wave function. QP2:  Yeah? QP1:  Yeah, it seems the cowboy subscribed to the “Copenhagen interpretation.”   Ha ha ha ha! QP2:  I don’t get it. QP1:  Don’t you see?  The joke plays on a pun between the “Copenhagen interpretation” of quantum mechanics and the brand of snuff called “Copenhagen.”  It also plays on the irony Read More ›

Peer reviewed article “misquotes” creationist Duane Gish by one word

The saying “nothing in evolution makes sense in the light of biology” is widely attributed to famous creationist Duane Gish. In 2006, I used the phrase myself here. Casey Luskin points out a recent peer-reviewed article critical of Darwinism almost got the phrase right: The evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky famously noted that “nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution,” but perhaps, too, “nothing in evolution makes sense except in the light of biology.” Combatting Evolution to Fight Disease They didn’t get it exactly right, but still that’s progress. 🙂 You don’t need to understand evolution in order to understand biology! Evolutionism provides no useful insight to biology. HT: BA77

Does lopsided universe mean problems with standard model?

Probably not. The standard model is widely critiqued today not because of its occasional problems—or because of the normal skepticism of science—but because it provides support for a universe that many in science don’t like (one with theistic implications. Read More ›