How about this: Breasts and bipedalism both evolved to create a market for theories.
Month: March 2019
Sabine Hossenfelder: Is science harmed by an illusion of progress?
Tellingly, Hossenfelder adds, “So here is the puzzle: Why can you not find any expert, besides me, willing to publicly voice criticism on particle physics? Hint: It’s not because there is nothing to criticize. ”
Robert J. Marks: The mathematics underlying our world is fascinating and full of surprises
He offers some here: When I teach a course, I too like to sell the sizzle at the beginning of each lecture. For a graduate course in information theory I teach, the students are told that they will learn why their cell phones use recently discovered coding that pushes the boundaries of what is mathematically Read More…
LoneCycler on paradigms advancing one funeral at a time, etc
LC also has some food for thought for Friday fun: LC, 18: >>From the OP “Today’s dominant school of thought can become tomorrow’s dead theory, often one funeral at a time.” This is true. Every time they find another fossil they have to re-organize their phylogenetic trees. Some trees have been changed so many times Read More…
Harry’s food for thought on “Materialistic Scientism Is Fundamentally Irrational”
This is the first of two food for thought pieces coming from comments in the scientism thread: Harry, 7: >>Materialistic Scientism Is Fundamentally Irrational In order to demonstrate how a given instance of functional complexity might come about mindlessly and accidentally, one must first know how to create it intentionally. Then, one can at least Read More…
Octopuses even have “smart” skin
So much complex, specified information and we are to believe it all just sort of happened via natural selection acting on random mutation (Darwinism)? Interestingly, this particular item doesn’t even make that claim. Maybe just too ridiculous.
Heavyweights defend philosophy in science at PNAS
The thing is, scientists do philosophy whether they admit it and try to be coherent or don’t admit it, with distressing results.
Darwin vs the polar bear ;)
Michael Behe, author of Darwin Devolves, responds to claims that he has misunderstood the polar bear: This is the first in a series of posts responding to the extended critique of Darwin Devolves by Richard Lenski at his blog, Telliamed Revisited. Professor Lenski is perhaps the most qualified scientist in the world to analyze the Read More…
Physicist: How the multiverse can save the soul of physics
A physicst calls it quantum monism but he more or less means the multiverse. The problem, as he sees it, is that “the laws of physics appear to be finely tuned to permit the existence of intelligent beings who can discover those laws—a coincidence that demands explanation”. However, if we accept that there are zillions Read More…
Kirk MacGregor: Evolution Proves Molinism
“Evolution provides a theological solution to a theological problem, and the science is sandwiched somewhere in between. But the theological premises are denied so the theological result is seen as coming from science, and science inappropriately attains the status of truth giver.” I made that observation in Darwin’s God, and unfortunately it remains just as true Read More…
US prez Trump vows to tie federal funding to campus free speech
Details are unclear but U.S. President Trump has threatened to cut off federal research funds to colleges and universities that deny free speech: In an interview after Trump’s speech, Terry Hartle, senior vice president for the American Council on Education, called the executive order “a solution in search of a problem,” because “free speech and Read More…
Would you know if a robot was writing the news about ID? How?
It’s not that robots are really thinking up new things so much as that so much of what passes for news coverage doesn’t require much thought.
Bill Dembski on censorship of books at Amazon
You think you’re free to read what you want? Think again: Three days ago on this forum, I raised the question how long would it be before Amazon, which has now started banning videos skeptical of vaccines, starts banning books. I thought books would be safer. But no. Tommy Robinson’s book Mohammed’s Koran has now been banned Read More…
Deemed “officially weirder”: Octopuses edit their RNA in response to environment
Well, first, we don’t really know for sure that no other life form does this. Maybe others do and we haven’t caught up to them yet. It would be easier to place in a context if we had a group to study rather than an outlier.
Fetal development seen as work the work of an intelligent artisan
Like blowing glass? Biology’s language is poorly adapted to Darwinism.