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Michael Chaberek: Darwinian theory is past its best-before date

Laszlo Bencze writes to say, Michael Chaberek. I’m currently reading Catholicism and Evolution, by Michael Chaberek. It would be easy to assume that the book deals in esoteric matters of interest to Catholics only. However, I’m finding that it offers one of the best summaries of the history of evolution that I have ever read. It’s scope strikes me as broad and it’s tone is scholarly but in a highly readable style. It is also extremely ID friendly and proposes ID as far superior to theistic evolution as a way of understanding biology. Here’s an excerpt, from a section explaining what ID is up to: A proposition for the improvement of an outdated theory. The proponents of intelligent design are Read More ›

Eugenics: How consensus science can be dead wrong

A friend writes to urge us to listen to John West’s podcast on eugenics: John’s account is thorough and accurate onthe application of Darwinian principles to the “improvement of humankind.” Most Darwinists today would like to forget this, but as John shows, eugenics wasn’t an aberration of those principles but a natural and logical outgrowth of ideas presented in Darwin’s Descent of Man. It was mainstream science. It is not hard to find leading faculty in the early 20th century praising eugenics as “cutting edge” medical science. This dark chapter must not be forgotten. As John has frequently said, “ideas have consequences.” From David Klinghoffer: Eugenics was the scientific “consensus,” the mainstream science, of its day. It was wreathed in Read More ›

Fossil human footprints challenge established theories: Non-ape feet

From ScienceDaily: Newly discovered human-like footprints from Crete may put the established narrative of early human evolution to the test. The footprints are approximately 5.7 million years old and were made at a time when previous research puts our ancestors in Africa—with ape-like feet. Ever since the discovery of fossils of Australopithecus in South and East Africa during the middle years of the 20th century, the origin of the human lineage has been thought to lie in Africa. More recent fossil discoveries in the same region, including the iconic 3.7 million year old Laetoli footprints from Tanzania which show human-like feet and upright locomotion, have cemented the idea that hominins (early members of the human lineage) not only originated in Read More ›

Another Problem in Dating Human Origins

The dating of human origins seems, at times, to be all over the place. However, the one constant appears to be an increasingly older dating of the split between humans and apes. This is bad for Darinian theory since the incredible differences between humans and chimpanzees, i.e., our consciousness, not to mention just the physiological differences, have less and less time to arise via ‘gradualism.’ E.g., some date the divergence between chimps and gorillas at only 8 1/2 million years ago (mya), while the split between chimps and humans had to have occurred, according to this new finding, at least 7 1/2 mya. One million years to bring about the immense differences between chimps and humans? Quite a problem. Here’s Read More ›

Neanderthal technology was hardly dumb

From Andrew Masterson at Cosmos: The development and employment of tar in tool-making, however, implies a significant level of intelligence in its makers. “Neanderthals must have been able to recognise certain material properties, such as adhesive tack and viscosity,” the scientists conclude. “In this way, they could develop the technology from producing small traces of tar on partially burned bark to techniques capable of manufacturing quantities of tar equal to those found in the Middle Paleolithic archaeological record.”More. Some science writers might need to find another dumb primate that isn’t an ape (because for PC reasons they wouldn’t b allowed to call th ape dumb). See also: Neanderthal Man: Neanderthal technology was hardly dumb The long-lost relative turns up again, Read More ›

Science education: Keep on marchin’ marchin’ — into oblivion, unfortunately

From an op-ed at Nature: Scientists might have made a difference, had they protested against laws that now threaten what can be taught in our classrooms, argues Brandon Haught Haught is complaining about an academic freedom law in Florida that restricts the use of science courses for propaganda purposes: Advocates of the law were widely quoted as claiming that evolution is just a theory and that anthropogenic global warming is in doubt. It would have been invaluable if scientists at local universities had issued simple statements: yes, evolution is a fact; the word ‘theory’ is used differently in science from how it’s used in casual conversation; and the basics of human-caused global warming need to be taught. Perhaps authoritative voices Read More ›

Are there really 22 genes associated with intelligence?

From Alexander P. Burgoyne and David Z. Hambrick at Scientific American: In a GWAS recently published in Nature Genetics, a team of scientists from around the world analyzed the DNA sequences of 78,308 people for correlations with general intelligence, as measured by IQ tests. … Of the over 12 million SNPs analyzed, 336 correlated significantly with intelligence, implicating 22 different genes. One of the genes is involved in regulating the growth of neurons; another is associated with intellectual disability and cerebral malformation. Together, the SNPs accounted for about 5% of the differences across people in intelligence—a nearly two-fold increase over the last GWAS on intelligence. Examining larger patterns of SNPs, the researchers discovered an additional 30 genes related to intelligence. Read More ›

Claims about flawed science and ape intelligence

Okay, so onto a more normal science subject than whether Evergreen State College in Washington (state) should be declared a state pen on account of the fact that biology prof Weinstein can’t go back there for his own safety (no guff, apparently). So let’s talk about science, as such, rather than the latest fashions in campus jackboots: From ScienceDaily: Dr Leavens said: “The fault underlying decades of research and our understanding of apes’ abilities is due to such a strongly-held belief in our own superiority, that scientists have come to believe that human babies are more socially capable than ape adults. As humans, we see ourselves as top of the evolutionary tree. This had led to a systematic exaltation of Read More ›

Could Evergreen State College in Washington, USA, be declared a state pen?

What? In the world of “social justice,” someone actually noticed biology prof Bret Weinstein? Someone took time out from hearing the angst and hoo-haw of “[fill in the blank] studies” students to look at the science education issues? From Michael Shermer at Scientific American: One underlying cause of this troubling situation may be found in what happened at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., in May, when biologist and self-identified “deeply progressive” professor Bret Weinstein refused to participate in a “Day of Absence” in which “white students, staff and faculty will be invited to leave the campus for the day’s activities.” Weinstein objected, writing in an e-mail: “on a college campus, one’s right to speak—or to be—must never be based Read More ›

“Intersectionality” and anti-Semitism

We’ve noted here the growing cave-in of hard science to post-modernism. One of the signs is talk of intersectionality among people supposedly committed to science. We knew it was bad news but we didn’t realize that it was enmeshed with fashionable anti-Semitism. Maybe we should have realized that. From Alan Dershowitz at the Washington Examiner: Students at the University of Illinois recently took to social media to express their distress after flyers were plastered around campus calling for the “end of Jewish privilege.” The flyer stated in bold letters that: “ending white privilege starts with ending Jewish privilege.” The posters had outlines of silhouettes with Stars of David printed out, and an arrow pointing to them with the accompanying caption Read More ›