Professor Jason Rosenhouse has written an unflattering review of Michael Ruse’s new book, Atheism: What Everyone Needs to Know, which also discusses the trial of Galileo. Rosenhouse gets one important point right about Galileo, while lambasting Ruse’s assertion that “much of the problem was brought on Galileo by himself.” (In the interests of fairness, I should mention that Ruse’s book has been highly praised by no less an authority than Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson.) For my own comments on the Galileo affair, see my earlier posts here and here [scroll down to #2]). Rosenhouse writes (bolding in all passages below is mine – VJT): The fact is that the Galileo story is exactly what Ruse’s “anti-religious zealots” say it Read More ›

Assumes they are/were separate species. Wouldn’t the logical—and economical—conclusion be the exact opposite? That they weren’t separate species? But then she lives in Darwin World, coterminous with pop science journalism. Remember, Darwin’s Origin of Species was the “most influential academic book,” so we can assume that vast numbers who haven’t read or thought about it “get” the basic messages she would receive and transmit. From BBC News: I am 2.5% Neanderthal. That’s according to a genetic analysis of snippets of my DNA. It is slightly less than the European average of 2.7%. I owe my part-Neanderthal nature to an accident of history. Thousands of years ago, modern humans ran into Neanderthals somewhere in Asia or Europe. We don’t know exactly Read More ›

From National Geographic: Which Animals Have Barely Evolved? That said, two mammals that have undergone the fewest evolutionary shifts are the platypus and the opossum, says Samantha Hopkins, associate professor of geology at the University of Oregon. You could say the platypus is a survivor: It’s one of the few living descendants of an ancestor that diverged from all the other mammals about 150 million years ago, Hopkins says. The platypus has “a number of primitive features,” Ibrahim says, “both from what we know from fossils and from what we can see in their [modern-day] anatomy.” More. What does “primitive” mean in the context? Maybe we should call it a “durable species”? Oh, and the opossum, A 2009 study published Read More ›

Over on a recent thread, we witnessed some flailing about with respect to abiogenesis (see comments 374-376). Thoroughly confused about critical distinctions, such as the difference between deterministic forces and contingent possibilities, some seem to think that the fact that “nature forms stars and planets” means that nature can do just about anything. No need to ask any hard questions, kids! Just close your eyes and imagine the possibilities. This is what so much of the materialistic abiogenesis creation story amounts to. I have posted essentially this challenge before, but for Zachriel and anyone else who thinks materialistic abiogenesis is anything more than a laughable made-up story, here it is again: —– For purposes of this challenge, I’m willing to Read More ›

And that is what is killing it. From Yahoo News: Women’s rights, the foundations of capitalism and the warping of space-time can all take a backseat to meticulous descriptions of long-beaked finches, at least if public opinion is any measure. “On the Origin of Species,” Charles Darwin’s famous tome on evolution, has been voted the most influential academic book in history, according to an online survey answered by the public. The biology bombshell edged out competitors such as “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare”; “On the Vindication of the Rights of Women,” by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley; “The Wealth of Nations,” by Adam Smith; and even physics classics such as the theory of general relativity by Albert Einstein and “A Brief Read More ›

And when I say deadly, I do not mean “potentially deadly.”  I mean the environmental movement’s junk science has already resulted in the death of tens of millions. Some years ago I spent some time working in Kenya’s bush country.  The experience was heart rending.  I will never forget one man in particular pleading with me to give him ten dollars for malaria medicine for his daughter. Why did this man’s daughter have malaria, a disease that has been all but eradicated in the developed world?  Because after we eradicated the disease in the rich West through the use of DDT, we took steps that prevented poor Kenya from doing the same thing. But Barry, haven’t you forgotten that in Read More ›

From time to time I write in these pages concerning the concept of “materialist poofery” otherwise known as “emergentism.”  Today I noticed an article by DBH on the subject: [An] emergent reality is [according to sociologist Christian Smith] one that, though remaining ever dependent upon the native properties of the elements composing it, nevertheless possesses new characteristics that are wholly “irreducible” to those properties.  But this is certainly false. At least, as a claim made solely about physical processes, organisms, and structures—in purely material terms—it cannot possibly be true. If nothing else, it is a claim strictly precluded by most modern scientific prejudice. From a genuinely “physicalist” perspective, there are no such things as emergent properties in this sense, discontinuous from Read More ›

In the comment thread to a recent post we were discussing the following biological design inference Dr. Moran had made: Moran: Craig Venter and his colleagues constructed a synthetic genome and inserted it into a cell. The DNA determined the structure and properties of the organism that grew and after many subsequent generations we have a new species that behaves exactly like it was supposed to based on the genes that the scientists built. Barry: Now Dr. Moran, suppose that new species escaped the lab and was captured by a researcher who had no idea about Venter’s work.  Suppose further that researcher concluded that the genome of the creature had been intelligently designed.  Would that researcher’s design inference be the Read More ›

That’s what driving while “intexticated” seems to be: An auto safety site in the United States claims that 23% of auto accidents in 2011 involved a cell phone. If correct, that should be no surprise. The minimum distraction is 5 sec, which is just enough to close the “window of opportunity” that our driving instructors told us about—the few seconds when we can avoid an anticipated crash. Fifty-five percent of young adult drivers think it is easy to text while driving, but 10% were found, when studied, to be driving outside their lane at the time. No wonder they call it “driving while intexticated”: Social media addiction comes, like other addictions, with a free I-deny-I-have-a-problem package. A problem yes. But Read More ›

From Mental Floss: From the outside, Elena del Peral seems to be like any other high-achieving college senior. She goofs around the campus quad of Massachusetts’ Curry College with her classmates and posts pictures on Facebook of birthday drinks with girlfriends. She holds a philanthropic job at a childhood cancer foundation and is on the dean’s list. She’s friendly, bright, and fit. Outwardly, perhaps the most provocative thing about her is that she’ll wear both a Yankees cap and a Red Sox jersey at the same time—a peacemaker among the long-standing rivals. But beneath her cap is one remarkable mind. Elena del Peral has only half a brain. She was born with very severe epilepsy which not only destroyed the Read More ›

From Smithsonian: Ancient volcanic rocks may have preserved tiny samples of the planet’s original moisture A new analysis in Science suggests that at least some of Earth’s current moisture derives from water-soaked dust particles trapped deep inside during the planet’s formation. … The ratio of deuterium to hydrogen in the universe was fixed shortly after the Big Bang. But various processes can alter that ratio in certain locations. On Earth, hydrogen can be stripped out of the atmosphere by the solar wind, and deuterium can be added through cometary impacts. More. In the most ancient rocks, researchers found some of the lowest ratios of deuterium to hydrogen ever recorded, suggesting that water was there from the beginning. From New Scientist: Read More ›

Recently, Karl Giberson, author of Saving Darwin and former BioLogian, claimed the following in the Huffington Post, about the Seattle-based Discovery Institute: In their minds the possibility that the earth is 10,000 years old is an open question, even though geologists settled that one in the 18th century. They still think that Adam and Eve were real people and Noah may have rescued all the animals in the ark — claims settled in the 19th century. But most of their energy is spent promoting the idea that Darwin’s theory of evolution is implausible nonsense or, at best, a controversial theory with widespread scientific dissent. Why on earth would anyone write such obvious nonsense? As John West observes at Evolution News Read More ›

Leah Libresco, here, including: Both my parents don’t believe in God, so I was raised as an atheist. We had a Christmas tree, but my parents were definitely upfront about the fact that they thought religions weren’t true. I was the kid in high school who worked to get us to stop doing a toy drive for Samaritan’s Purse (which uses the toys to evangelize to poor children). And, post-conversion, I still think that’s a wildly inappropriate charity for a public school to partner with. I grew up on Long Island, where the vast majority of my classmates were secular Jews, so between that and my family, I thought of religion as something that was not only wrong, but wrong Read More ›

We’ve followed the adventures of the Pastafarians with some interest because of the strange turns they take. Originally a concept invented by new atheists to mock the growing evidence against Darwinism as their creation story, pastafarianism has seemingly morphed into ridicule of actual religions by insisting on getting one’s face on a driver’s licence while wearing a spaghetti strainer. And so now, from Masachusetts: The Mass. Registry of Motor Vehicles is allowing a Pastafarian woman to wear a colander in her driver’s license picture. This comes after The American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center’s attorneys were enlisted to assist with the woman’s appeal after she was denied the right to wear it in her license photo by the RMV. Read More ›

… by wiping out the dinosaurs Just as, we are told, climate change jump started evoltion and fast food is derailing it, we learn from a “leading Harvard physicist” a radical new theory, courtesy Yahoo News: Lisa Randall, a theoretical physicist at Harvard University, has a different, and novel answer, which she describes in her latest book, “Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs.” … In her latest book, she posits that the extinction of the dinosaurs — necessary for the emergence of humans — is linked to dark matter. Dark matter is the mysterious, invisible matter that astronomers estimate makes up 85% of all matter in our universe. … In her book, Randall describes a dark, pancake-shaped patty of densely packed dark Read More ›