They reveal: “we met and mated with other types of human – like Neanderthals, Denisovans and Homo erectus.” Further to: 40 kya human bones contain Neanderthal and current genes (And raise an interesting question about the use of the term “hybrid.” Is every mixed ancestry human being today a “hybrid”?), PBS notes, re a new series on human evolution that premieres June 24, tomorrow night: It’s a story that revolves around a shocking revelation. In prehistoric times, we met and mated with other types of human – like Neanderthals, Denisovans and Homo erectus. This mixing of genes helped us survive – and ultimately thrive. Scientists are beginning to realize that ours is not a pedigree species, but a patchwork. We Read More ›

And raise an interesting question about the use of the term “hybrid.” From The Scientist : Recent research has revealed that all non-Africans living today retain a genetic trace—1-3 percent of the genome—of Neanderthal ancestry. And 40,000 years ago, human genomes may have contained twice as much Neanderthal DNA, according to a study published today (June 22) in Nature. Genetic material recovered from 40,000-year-old human bones unearthed in Romania harbors about 6-9 percent Neanderthal DNA, the study reports. Some of this DNA was contained in three relatively large chromosome segments, suggesting the individual had a Neanderthal ancestor only four to six generations back. “I think the conclusions are quite clear, and it’s really quite remarkable that they were lucky to Read More ›

O’Leary for News ‘s night job: Pope Francis on new media’s positive side: New media do not force us to live in Selfie World; they only make it possible. Pope Francis vs. new media’s fake world: We can build it, but we can’t live there This girl has one smart dad… He didn’t just get out his check book Social media created the flash mob: Social media enable a large group of people to co-ordinate a criminal event. Best apps for busy moms: Just choose the app that best suits you. Ready for download? The death of the online ad agency? Thanks to increasingly sophisticated adblockers? Follow UD News at Twitter!

Never ends: (See also: Pants in knot: “Creationism” in Louisiana schools ) “The vocal activists who oppose the LSEA are seeking to confuse the issue, since the LSEA is not about creationism. In fact, when a group of Nobel Laureates recently signed a letter calling for the repeal of the LSEA, it is noteworthy that their letter refused to quote from the law itself and instead harped upon the distraction of ‘creationism.’ The truth is that LSEA does not permit teaching for or against any religious viewpoint,” Louisiana College biology professor Wade Warren, Ph.d., said in written testimony submitted to the Louisiana Senate Education Committee in 2011. “If Darwin were alive today, he would urge us to teach his theory Read More ›

With a lot of help from Christians for Darwin (This story should have run yesterday, but Father’s Day took priority.) A reader writes to remind us of a recent book, doubtless forgotten in the current silly season of new atheist claims, a Pulitzer-winning history of America during the period 1815-1848 by Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America,1815-1848: The quotation proved the perfect choice, capturing the inventor’s own passionate Christian faith and conception of himself as an instrument of providence. As Morse later commented, the message “baptized the American Telegraph with the name of its author”: God. [footnote omitted] The American public appreciated the significance of the message, for biblical religion then permeated the culture in Read More ›

In my initial post about the Pope’s environmental encyclical, Laudato si’, I highlighted its positive aspects: its affirmation of human uniqueness, its rejection of biocentrism and its firm insistence that each species of living creature was designed by God to play its own special part in the order of Nature. In today’s post, I’d like to focus on the issue of human dominion over Nature. The question I want to examine is: do we have the right to kill off an entire species of living creatures? The Pope says we don’t; I would argue that we do. To some of my readers, it may seem pretty impertinent that a mere layman like myself should publicly oppose Pope Francis. The only Read More ›

It would help if a key exponent was anyone but Paul “Population Bomb” Ehrlich, a contender for the heavyweight champ of wrong-headed predictions: “In real terms, we’re in trouble,” said Paul Ehrlich, a Stanford professor and president of the Center for Conservation Biology who co-authored the study. “This is another indicator that we are sawing off the limbs that we are sitting on.” Ehrlich and co-author Anthony Barnosky, a paleontologist at UC Berkeley, said extinctions thus far have been the result of overhunting and habitat destruction from overdevelopment, but climate change is likely to push things over the edge. Some of Ehrlich’s other predictions, courtesy Hot Air: So, let’s take a look at some of his predictions, made in 1968: Read More ›

In a comment to a prior post daveS writes: It’s not that string theory and the multiverse are known to be false yet persist because they conform to favored narratives. The existence of the multiverse is not known to be false.  Nor is it known to be true.  It is literally unknowable by scientific means, because, by definition, the only universe we can test empirically (i.e., by the methods employed by scientists when they are doing science) is the one we are in. Yet, it is undeniable that the non-scientific idea of the multiverse persists among many scientists, some of whom go so far as to push ( or at least imply) the clearly false idea that the existence of Read More ›

Here: (10) The Church does not presume to settle scientific questions, and we need an honest and open debate: (60) Finally, we need to acknowledge that different approaches and lines of thought have emerged regarding this situation and its possible solutions. At one extreme, we find those who doggedly uphold the myth of progress and tell us that ecological problems will solve themselves simply with the application of new technology and without any need for ethical considerations or deep change. At the other extreme are those who view men and women and all their interventions as no more than a threat, jeopardizing the global ecosystem, and consequently the presence of human beings on the planet should be reduced and all Read More ›

Further to Barry Arrington, asking: Why Does NBC News Continue to Employ a Known Liar?, Here’s an analysis of the Brian Williams story that makes sense to me (O’Leary for News): Williams will lose his lofty NBC position and face a reduction of salary from $15 million to $10 million per year. On MSNBC, Williams will handle special reports and anchor breaking news coverage. While it is astonishing that he still has any journalistic position and will be earning such a salary after his downfall, the reality is that Williams will be working for MSNBC, a network watched mainly by liberal zealots. Williams survived because he is also a liberal. Unquestionably, a conservative in a similar position would have been Read More ›

From the BBC: Few people have saved more lives than Louis Pasteur. The vaccines he developed have protected millions. His insight that germs cause disease revolutionised healthcare. He found new ways to make our food safe to eat. Pasteur was the chemist who fundamentally changed our understanding of biology. By looking closely at the building blocks of life, he was at the forefront of a new branch of science: microbiology. Here, from a letter to an atheist: Science brings men nearer to God. Posterity will one day laugh at the foolishness of modern materialistic philosophers. The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator. I pray while I am engaged at my work Read More ›

That is called cherrypicking patterns. A common argument against design in nature is that humans randomly evolved to see patterns where there are none. Many a Darwinian airhead advances such received wisdom at the usual bongfests. He can be fairly sure that few bong-ees are going to point out the obvious: We evolved to see patterns that are there, for our own best interests. We are sometimes mistaken, but disparaging the seeking of patterns supported by evidence is hardly a solution. Most often the patterns we see are there. Indeed, more people come to grief by not noticing than by noticing them. (“But I thought this would be an exception, you see…” or “But I never thought it would happen Read More ›

Is this a fair assessment? From City Journal: Shortly after the Argentinian cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was consecrated Pope Francis in 2013, news stories reported that the new pontiff wanted to build a stronger relationship between the Catholic Church and science—one that saw science not in opposition to, but compatible with, religious belief. Some months later, the pope declared that evolution and the Big Bang theory of creation are real and don’t conflict with belief in God. Now, in the wake of the pope’s encyclical on climate change and the environment, Laudato Si (or, Be Praised), the press has exulted in the pope’s apparent effort to find even more “common ground” with science. Nothing could be further from the truth. Read More ›

Celebrating Charles Darwin’s genius as the undetected and unsung father of modern science fiction. Follow UD News at Twitter!

Readers may remember Misshelver and her new man, who take it upon themselves to move design-related science books to the “religion” section, inconveniencing staff and customers alike. Well. At Barnes and Noble, where misshelving Steve Meyer’s Darwin’s Doubt is corporate policy (amid a continuing financial slump), a friend write to complain, I was at a Barnes & Noble in my neighborhood today and noticed that they are still shelving Meyer’s book in the Christian section of the store. It wouldn’t be so bad except when we consider all the ideological rubbish that inhabits the science section, turning it into some kind of naturalist fantasyland. Have a look at today’s Top 10 in evolution. At this point, when we are learning Read More ›