Monthly Archives: June 2018
Michael Shermer: We can never solve mysteries like consciousness, free will, or God
| June 30, 2018 | Posted by News under Intelligent Design, Mind, Naturalism |
From Michael Shermer at Scientific American: Are these “hard” problems, as philosopher David Chalmers characterized consciousness, or are they truly insoluble “mysterian” problems, as philosopher Owen Flanagan designated them (inspired by the 1960s rock group Question Mark and the Mysterians)? The “old mysterians” were dualists who believed in nonmaterial properties, such as the soul, that […]
The Atlantic asks experts where the aliens are… seriously
| June 30, 2018 | Posted by News under Extraterrestrial life, Intelligent Design |
From Derek Thompson at The Atlantic: In the seventh episode of Crazy/Genius, a new podcast from The Atlantic on tech, science, and culture, we put the question to several experts, including Ellen Stofan, the former chief scientist of nasa and current director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; Adam Frank, a writer and […]
John Farrell Versus Isaac Newton
| June 30, 2018 | Posted by Cornelius Hunter under Intelligent Design |
The title of John Farrell’s article in Commonweal from earlier this year is a dead giveaway. When writing about the interaction between faith and science, as Farrell does in the piece, the title “The Conflict Continues” is like a flashing red light that the mythological Warfare Thesis is coming at you. Read more
Maybe atheists really ARE into the paranormal and superstition…
| June 30, 2018 | Posted by News under Atheism, Intelligent Design |
Otherwise how do we explain this? From Matthew Olson at Digg: This Collaborative Map Of The Paranormal In Seattle Is The Best Thing Online This Week Founded by Seattleites Garrett Kelly (@boontdustie) and Jeremy Puma, the Liminal Seattle map is the region’s new go-to tool for tracking “fairies, ghosts, bigfoot, time travelers, extraterrestrials, ultraterrestrials, crow […]
Anomaly: Human mortality hits a plateau after 105 years of age
| June 30, 2018 | Posted by News under Culture, Human evolution, Intelligent Design |
From Mark Barna at Discover: A study published today in Science indicates that people are indeed living longer and that the maximum lifespan for humans has not yet been reached. … And what they found was that after the age of 105, human mortality seems to hit a plateau. That is, you aren’t any more […]
From RealClearScience: No, we can’t trust government data on diet and nutrition
| June 30, 2018 | Posted by News under Culture, Intelligent Design, Peer review, Science |
In a world where some researchers earnestly study the question of why so many people don’t ”trust science,” we learn from Michael Marlow & Edward Archer at RealClearScience: In contrast [to confidence in politicians], public confidence in the ‘scientific community’ runs at 40% and has remained stable since the 1970s. This trust, however, turns out […]
Do crows’ vending machine skills “redefine intelligence”?
| June 29, 2018 | Posted by News under Animal minds, Intelligent Design |
From Victoria Gill at the BBC: Now, an experiment using a vending machine specifically designed for crows has revealed something about how intelligence evolves. These are, of course, the famous New Caledonian crows, very smarter at manipulating objects. They were able to peck the right size paper token in order to get a treat from […]
External testicles as poor design? The few mammals that don’t have them turn out to have lost them, say gene researchers.
| June 29, 2018 | Posted by News under Darwinism, Design inference, Intelligent Design, Naturalism |
From ScienceDaily: In almost all adult mammals, testes are located either in a scrotum or in the lower abdomen. But testes initially develop deep inside the abdomen at a position close to the kidneys, as seen in mammalian embryos. The final testicular position is the result of a descent process that occurs during animal development. […]
At Forbes: About extraterrestrial life, “fancy probabilistic analysis” just isn’t science
| June 29, 2018 | Posted by News under Extraterrestrial life, Intelligent Design |
From astrophysicist Ethan Siegel: No amount of fancy probabilistic analysis can justify treating guesswork and wishful thinking as having any sort of scientific weight. Applying scientific techniques to an inherently unscientific endeavor, such as inventing estimates to unknowns about the Universe, doesn’t make it any more scientific. The opposite of knowledge isn’t ignorance; it’s the […]
Mystery: ENST comments on the fossil African turaco found in North America at 52 mya …
| June 29, 2018 | Posted by News under Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design |
How it got to North America is a conundrum for evolution studies thugh hardly a new or unusual one. From Evolution News and Science Today: In a delightful article here yesterday, German paleontologist Günter Bechly documents the many absurdities that result when the Darwinian teaching on universal common ancestry runs up against a consideration of the […]
Francisco Ayala has stepped down in sexual harassment controversy at University of California Irvine
| June 28, 2018 | Posted by News under Biography, Culture, Intelligent Design, Science |
The library named in honor of the well-known theistic evolutionist and 2010 Templeton winner is to be renamed. From a university media release: UCI proposes new name for School of Biological Sciences, science library after internal investigation substantiates sexual harassment claims against signature donor June 28, 2018 IRVINE, Calif., June 28, 2018 – The University of […]
Experimental physicists devise test to find out if dark matter really exists
| June 28, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics |
From the University of Bonn: A new study found a way to determine whether the mysterious “star putty” really exists Researchers at the University of Bonn and the University of California at Irvine used sophisticated computer simulations to devise a test that could answer a burning question in astrophysics: is there really dark matter? Or […]
Does an arrested galaxy violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics?
| June 28, 2018 | Posted by News under Astronomy, Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics |
“…stuck in an unproductive state of arrested development…” From Tim Collins at the Daily Mail: A rare galaxy stuck in a state of arrested development is providing scientists with a unique window into the early days of the universe. The unusual cosmic region has remained frozen for the past 10 billion years, producing no new […]
Researchers: Ediacaran animals increased in size to spread their offspring rather than compete for food
| June 28, 2018 | Posted by News under Ediacaran, Intelligent Design |
From ScienceDaily: The research, led by the University of Cambridge, found that the most successful organisms living in the oceans more than half a billion years ago were the ones that were able to ‘throw’ their offspring the farthest, thereby colonising their surroundings. The results are reported in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. Prior […]
Life on other planets? Yes, for sure, if Earth’s microbes get there with our help
| June 28, 2018 | Posted by News under Extraterrestrial life, Genetics, Intelligent Design |
The discovery of complex organic molecules on Saturn’s moon Enceladus raises the question:What about introducing organisms from Earth, even if none exist out there now? From Laurie Fickman at the University of Houston: In professor George Fox’s lab at the University of Houston, scientists are studying Earth germs that could be contaminating other planets. Despite […]
Shaking the bird family tree: African-type bird fossil from 52 mya found in North America
| June 27, 2018 | Posted by News under Evolution, Intelligent Design |
From Helen Briggs at the BBC: The fossil’s weird features suggests it is the earliest known living relative not just of the turacos, but of cuckoos and bustards (large long-legged birds). And the fact the remains were unearthed in North America shows the distribution of different birds around the globe would have been very different […]
Complex organic molecules found on Saturn’s moon Enceladus
| June 27, 2018 | Posted by News under Extraterrestrial life, Intelligent Design |
From Michelle Starr at ScienceAlert: These findings bolster the hypothesis that, deep under its icy crust, Enceladus could be harbouring simple marine life, clustered around the warmth of hydrothermal vents. Previously, simple organic molecules detected on the little moon were under around 50 atomic mass units and only contained a handful of carbon atoms. “We […]
Darwinian just-so story: Some migratory birds do better with weak immune systems
| June 27, 2018 | Posted by News under Darwinism, Evolution, extinction, Intelligent Design |
From Asher Elbein at New York Times: Europe’s migratory songbirds can’t fight off diseases as well as African species that stay put. But that may be to the European birds’ advantage. The evolutionary origins of bird migration are a longstanding puzzle for ornithologists, and the role of disease in influencing the behavior has never been entirely […]
Looking for life in all the hard places – a guidebook
| June 27, 2018 | Posted by News under Extraterrestrial life |
Okay, They’re not Out There. But maybe something is. Any form of extraterrestrial life could shed light on at least some questions. In that spirit, we learn from ScienceDaily of a newly published guidebook, in th form of a seriesof papers based on finds here on Earth: Some of the leading experts in the field, […]
Physicist: It’s good news that aliens likely don’t exist. And a space entrepreneur’s surprising reaction…
| June 27, 2018 | Posted by News under Extraterrestrial life, Human evolution, Intelligent Design |
Further to researchers announcing that they have dissolved the Fermi Paradox (They can’t be Out There), physicist and science commentator Jim Al-Khalili at the Guardian: In 1950 Enrico Fermi, an Italian-born American Nobel prize-winning physicist, posed a very simple question with profound implications for one of the most important scientific puzzles: whether or not life […]
