Awareness of the subjective self that is aware has been called the “primordial datum.” It can be denied only on pain of descent into absurdity on the order of “I do not believe that I exist.” Sadly, these pages have seen all too many who have rushed eagerly off that particular cliff.

Design theory infers to design on inductive inference on tested reliable empirical signs. While many are disinclined to accept such inferences on matters linked to origins, that says more about lab coat clad materialist ideological a prioris and their cultural influences than it does about the actual balance of evidence on the merits. But also, design implies designer. One who exhibits creative, purposeful, imaginative, skilled intelligence adequate to configure a functionally specific, complex organised information-rich entity. Ranging from the text of this contribution (well beyond the 500 – 1,000 bits of FSCO/I that are easily shown to be beyond the plausible reach of blind chance and mechanical necessity on the gamut of solar system or observed cosmos), to complex body Read More ›

Strictly speaking gene guns are inessential for living organisms, but does being inessential for life make this tool of genetic engineering non-functional? If there are tools for innovation and exploration, they might not be essential, but does that mean they are non-functional? Of course not! In like manner transposons and some forms of polyploidy might not strictly speaking be essential, but they might be important for evolutionary innovations and may useful for exploring and innovating. As James Shapiro suggested, the statistics suggest living organisms have some capability for natural genetic engineering, and if they are natural genetic engineers, tools like transposons and some forms of polyploidy may be functional because they are used as part of the process of natural Read More ›

Recently I came across two thought-provoking articles which contained insightful quotes that I wanted to share with my readers. One is from a former magazine writer and editor named Misty, who is now actively involved in home-schooling, and the other is from a theologian and philosopher named Callie Joubert, who holds degrees from the UKZN (Ph.D.), Univ of Johannesburg (D.Phil), Univ of Stellenbosch (M.Phil./B.Phil.) and Unisa (BA). The first quote comes from an account by Misty of her personal pilgrimage from unbelief to faith: I had lived as an avowed atheist for more than a decade and couldn’t imagine that The Truth even existed, much less it could be found. Especially when I couldn’t even accept that God was real. Read More ›