Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Trinity Radio on cosmologist Sean Carroll and ignoring reality

But doesn’t a multiverse cosmologist like Sean Carroll get to pick and choose the reality he prefers from an infinite variety? Who says there is only one reality, the one he doesn't like? Read More ›

Peter Atkins vs Jonathan McLatchie debate: “Is there a God?”

A friend writes to comment on Atkins’s “smarmy condescension.” Indeed. In an age when serious scientists wonder whether the universe itself is conscious—because they cannot otherwise account for intelligence in nature— it’s not clear what smarmy condescension would achieve. Read More ›

Large and giant virus proteins not linked to any known virus lineage

So giant viruses often boost host metabolism instead of destroying it and “the team was still unable to link 20,000 major capsid proteins of large and giant viruses to any known virus lineage”? Creation ex nihilo? Hey, don’t laugh.. Look, these days, they can’t even get mouse or human sperm to buy into Darwinism. Why would giant viruses care? Read More ›

Quote of the Day

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.” ― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism Think about this the next time a progressive tells you that a man who says he is a woman is in fact a woman, or that there are 50+ genders. Think about it and be very afraid. Scratch a progressive and you will find a fascist underneath.

Rob Sheldon on whether information can be the missing dark matter

Rob Sheldon: The location of the mass has to be "outside" the galaxy in order to account for the dark matter attraction. How does information occupy empty space? Landauer would have said it couldn't. Read More ›

Could information be—at long last—the missing “dark matter”?

One physicist now suggests that this “fifth state” of matter (the other four non-dark states are solid, liquid, gas, and plasma) might be information. But then information must be a physical thing… Read More ›

Today (Fri., Jan 24th 2020) is the annual March for Life,

. . . which, we will monitor and update across the day, including DV, inputs from our person on the ground as usual. This year, of course, will be the first MfL attended and addressed in person by a President of the United States, here, Mr Donald Trump. Other speakers will be present and hopefully we will not see the sort of agit prop media stunt and smear game that happened last year, leading to a lawsuit that was just settled by CNN after attempts to dismiss it failed. Today’s schedule: Friday, January 24, 2020 March for Life Expo: 8:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Pre-Rally Concert: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Rally Program and Read More ›

Jordan Peterson and cultural Darwinism

On these types of topics, University of Toronto psychologist Peterson often sounds as though his approach is very much in the midst of formation and he is or feels forced to say something now, on account of his celebrity for other reasons. But he is worth keeping an eye on, so a bit of background. Read More ›

French administration tries to subject scientists to “Darwinism”; revolt follows

Rob Sheldon: On the whole, Darwinism looks like it makes short-term gains at the cost of long-term stagnation. It clearly sacrifices the group for the sake of a few aggressive individuals. Read More ›