In a comment to PaV’s recent post about the insurmountable problem the Cambrian Explosion presents for Darwinism, materialist fundamentalist Seversky writes: the Cambrian Explosion is no longer such a problem for Darwin’s theory Of course this is nonsense of a high order, which has been refuted 10,000 times including in the very post Sev was commenting on.  My point in this post is not to add a 10,001st refutation.  Rather, I will discuss how fundamentalists of whatever stripe are able to insulate themselves from what non-fundamentalists would consider glaringly obvious conclusions from the observed data. Consider two examples: 1. Seversky’s assertion above 2. A Christian fundamentalist who asserts the universe is just a few thousand years old Neither Sev nor Read More ›

Eric Holloway takes on a reader’s question: Reader: Harris basically reduces everything to atomic physics and says all causality happens there, so the world is deterministic (i.e. no free will). While I vehemently disagree with that idea, I do respect that at least he can articulate himself well. Do you have any thoughts on the matter? Eric Holloway: A deterministic physical world does not imply that free will doesn’t exist. Look at it as an argument in four steps: Free will is not deterministic. The physical world is deterministic. ? Free will does not exist. Harris needs to fill in missing step 3 to arrive at his conclusion. One possible premise is that the physical world is all that exists. Read More ›

It is beginning to meet many of the definitions of one, which matters to those of us who use the search engine: Project Veritas announces that a new rebel Googler has sent nearly 1000 documents on algorithm bias to the DOJ. While we prepare a news story on Zach Vorhies’ revelations, it may be worth asking why one of the world’s largest companies has developed what appears to be the atmosphere of a political cult… Tiku offers an account of the underlying intensity that went well beyond the needs of a sound strategy for helping stranded co-workers: “Finally, to a remarkable extent, Google’s workers really do take “Don’t Be Evil” to heart. C-suite meetings have been known to grind to Read More ›

The Cambrian Explosion, demonstrated time and again to be an ‘explosion,’ is a problem for Darwinian theory. Darwin postulated gradualsim; in fact, he insisted upon it when pressed by supporters to modulate this position of his. The problem is that multiple life forms are required to “build” new life forms. You need lots of species for higher taxa to accumulate over time. But we see almost the complete opposite in the Cambrian Explosion. Steven Meyer wrote a book about this: Darwin’s Dilemna. Now there’s more. Another ‘explosion’ during the Ordivician. The authors of a study published in Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology had this to say: The early evolution of animal life on Earth is a complex and fascinating subject. The Cambrian Read More ›