That evolution occurred is known to be a fact but howevolution occurred is not known. In particular we are ignorant of how evolutionary innovations arose. Of course biological novelties and innovations arose from a series of random chance events, but it is less than reassuring that we cannot provide more detail. How exactly did the most complex designs spontaneously arise? What mechanisms overcame, over and over, the astronomical entropy barriers, by sheer luck of the draw? As Craig MacLean’s and Andreas Wagner’s, and coworker’s, new PLOS Genetics paper begins, “Novel traits play a key role in evolution, but their origins remain poorly understood.” Could it be that evolution is not actually a fact? No, not according to evolutionists. And this Read More ›

Here. See Michael Behe online webinar May 7 Via Jonathan McLatchie, ID theorist Michael Behe, author of Darwin’s Black Box and Edge of Evolution is going to be presenting an interactive online webinar on May 7th (8pm GMT / 3pm Eastern / 2pm Central / 12noon Pacific) to my group, the Apologetics Academy (http://www.apologetics-academy.org). Behe will present on the biochemical evidence for design for approximately 1 hour and then field questions from the floor. YouTube to be posted later. More info here. Global clock face.

Structuralism is a reasonable approach to biology, according to which many patterns in life forms are not the result of Darwinian selection but rather underlying constraints of nature. Functionalism is best represented by Darwinism: The forms life takes are due to survival of the fittest. Contrary to what one hears from Darwinists, there are good arguments for structuralism. In terms of the debate between structuralists and functionalists, Denton is a structuralist. From Michael Denton’s Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis (2016): Although this book is primarily a critique of Darwinian incremental functionalism, as was Evolution, it is also—much more than my original book—a systematic defense of typology. Obviously, if the Darwinian enterprise fails ad the taxa-defining homologs cannot be approached Read More ›

As I have pondered the current exchanges at UD and wider circumstances and trends with our civilisation, I have been reminded of the local prolonged volcano eruption triggered disaster and crisis that is now of over twenty years standing. Yesterday, I put up this visualisation of what I am thinking about — prolonged crisis with double, linked slippery slopes: Here, I see how a window of opportunity for sound change can narrow down to a dangerous ridge line with two slippery slopes, where divide and domineer tactics can trigger falling down BOTH escarpments in a mutual ruin of polarisation and folly. At the same time, I think of Tsubakurodake ridge, Japan, with a ridge-line trail (as we can see). What Read More ›

Michael Flannery, writes, An important point to remember when we talk about ID is what David Klinghoffer mentioned in an extremely insightful ENV article titled, “The Quality of ‘Shyness’ in the Evidence for Intelligent Design.” It bears reading (or re-reading) and reflection. David Kohn has said, I think accurately, that “for Darwin special creation is the equivalent of creation by the miraculous intervention of a personal God.” Now I happen to believe in both. But is this absolutely the only option when we talk about nature and design? Darwin’s mistake was attacking the notion of God as a wand-waving Wizard, not a real God ,and I think it was a failing of William Paley to leave that impression. It made Read More ›

That post, by WJM, asks: Does a man have the right to identify himself as a woman and enter their locker rooms and bathrooms, demanding equal rights for their self-identification? Comment of the week has just got to be an excerpt from Ziggy Lorenc at 25, who writes, quoting News at 20: News — “Very few women want to use washrooms also used by men, whether they claim to be transgender or not, or whatever is the story.” It must be great to be rich enough for you and your husband to have seperate bathrooms. My husband and I must share the same one. News replies at 31 Ziggy Lorenc at 25: You must be very proud of yourself thinking Read More ›

From U Penn psych prof James Coyne: Never confuse eminence-based with evidence-based, even if something’s coming with awards from big-name universities. – Robin N. Kok Good advice. Also I don’t know about you, but I get damned angry at the APS sacrificing its integrity and damaging itself as a trusted source by promoting this crap. This is not the first time that APS has let ithe public down with promotion of bad science that exploits people in need of credible psychological advice You just can’t interpret claims as being credible because they are endorsed by the APS. More. One wonders what science eminences would end up as patios if this advice were taken to heart. See also: First Things has Read More ›

From Gary Marcus at the Edge: People get very excited every time there’s a tiny advance, but the tiny advances aren’t getting us closer. There was a Google captioning thing that got a lot of press. I think it was the front page of The Times. You could show it some pictures and it looked like it was great. You’d show it a picture of a dog, a person, and a Frisbee and it might be able to say, that’s a dog catching a Frisbee. It gives the illusion of understanding the language. But it’s very easy to break these systems. You’d show it a picture of a street sign with some stickers on it and it said, that’s a Read More ›

Does a man have the right to identify himself as a woman and enter their locker rooms and bathrooms, demanding equal rights for their self-identification?  Does a person have the right to identify herself as a native American and, when filling out forms for employment or college, indicate her ethnicity as such, even though she is not?   Should the force of law support such self-identifications which contradict the physical facts and insist that society accommodate any such self-identifications? Where is the line between socially protected self-identification in conflict with physical facts and delusion?  Can physically unrelated people identify themselves as family and represent themselves as such on legal forms?  Can an adult self-identify as a child and thus obligate his Read More ›

From Suzan Mazur’s The Paradigm Shifters: Overthrowing “the Hegemony of the Culture of Darwin”: Scientists remain divided in their assessment of whether origin of life and evolution are linked. One investigator I’ve discussed this with for The Paradigm Shifters, Eugene Koonin, an expert in viruses and microbes, comments: “So, in a sense, you cannot help thinking the origin is a boundary, so there is something distinct in the origin problem from the rest of evolution.” Koonin also thinks paradigm shift is crucial since viruses and microbes, which transfer “genetic” information nonlinearly (non-Darwinian) and are the largest part of the biomass, were left out of the Modern Synthesis. And, says Koonin further, “in nature, any multicellular organism – animal, fungus, or Read More ›

Jellyfish April 24, 2016 at informally named “Enigma Seamount” at a depth of ~3,700 meters: From April 20 to July 10, 2016, NOAA and partners will conduct the three-cruise Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas expedition on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to collect critical baseline information of unknown and poorly known areas in and around the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. See also: Sea creature, nearly 600 mya, wobbles current classifications of life Brainless jellyfish shows purpose and Cornelius Hunter: Okeanos Explorer Searches The Deep Sea In this far away land the mission has found all manner of strange life forms never before seen. Follow UD News at Twitter!

From National Academy of Sciences Press: Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion (2007) by Francisco Ayala, Thinking Evolutionarily: Evolution Education Across the Life Sciences: Summary of a Convocation (2012), and In the Light of Evolution: Volume III: Two Centuries of Darwin (2009) by John C. Avise and Francisco J. Ayala, and More. If you live in the United States, you may well have already paid via your taxes, so do take advantage of this offer. Of course, one would have to pay to get more correct information, but life usually does work that way. Follow UD News at Twitter!

There is a reason why explorers have always gone forth—they are rewarded. And so not surprisingly there have been many rewards for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Okeanos Explorer which is exploring the ocean floor, several miles beneath the surface, near the Marianas Trench. In this far away land the mission has found all manner of strange life forms never before seen. You can watch the video live and, as one report put it, “The video makes for strangely addicting viewing. There’s a constant cliffhanger: What will they find next?”  Read more

From Sarah Emerson at Motherboard: A team of geneticists from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine and the Centre for Genomic Regulation discovered that several billion years ago, the genetic code reached a point of self-preservation. Namely, it could continue evolving and risk mutating the building blocks of life it was responsible for creating, or it could remain limited, albeit functional. That was a really big decision an the genetic code must have been really mature to make it. Explorations into both primordial history and our genetically altered future can open the door for exciting innovations in the field of genetics. Evolution’s successes and failures can tell us more about our tenure as a species than any science-fiction manifesto. But Read More ›

The toxic and invasive cane toad (fossil found from Miocene era, 23 to 5 mya) is offered as an example. From ScienceDaily: The researchers looked at over 600 species from all classes of vertebrates worldwide and did a phylogenetic analysis to consider the evolutionary relationships between species. They tested for an effect on geographic location; reproduction mode; newborn dependence behavior; body size; and color variations between individuals of the same species. They found that species with varying colored individuals; those that give birth to live young; and/or those that live at low latitudes, were the most resilient to past environmental changes. Species found at higher latitudes tended to be younger because extinction rates are greater at high latitudes, while low Read More ›