Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Edward Feser on mathematics and the sense of the divine

Feser: Mathematical truths exhibit infinity, necessity, eternity, immutability, perfection, and immateriality because they are God’s thoughts, and they have such explanatory power in scientific theorizing because they are part of the blueprint implemented by God in creating the world. Read More ›

The beginnings of Western science vs the Galileo myth

Lindberg: "It is little wonder, given this kind of scholarly backing, that the ignorance and degradation of the Middle Ages has become an article of faith among the general public, achieving the status of invulnerability merely by virtue of endless repetition." And Bimbette Fluffarelli, talk show hostess, learned it sixteenth-hand at school… Read More ›

How Christianity aided modern science

The troubling part is that many sources won’t talk about this stuff because it is “religious” but they don’t mind parroting some flapdoodle from a village atheist, of whom it might be said that to call him merely ill-informed would be to shower him with unearned praise. Read More ›

Galileo’s contemporary science opponents made a lot of sense

Christopher Graney: “… seen from Earth, stars appear as dots of certain sizes or magnitudes. The only way stars could be so incredibly distant and have such sizes was if they were all incredibly huge, every last one dwarfing the Sun. Tycho Brahe, the most prominent astronomer of the era and a favourite of the Establishment, thought this was absurd, … ” The true history is a warning to thoughtful people to avoid popular science written by the village atheist; he knows just enough to get it all wrong. Read More ›

Unexpected finding: Growth of brain cells and neurons is guided by a pattern

The researchers chose the flatworm, whch can grow a new head after amputation. They didn’t expect a pattern but they found “This unique arrangement means that no single neuron sits flush against its twin, while still allowing different types of complementary neurons to be close enough to work together to complete tasks.” "We surprised ourselves when we discovered there was, in fact, such a rule." You ain't seen nuthin' yet, folks. Read More ›

Rob Sheldon on dark energy: Does it exist?

Sheldon, our physics color commentator, writes to say, “I’ve mentioned before that Subir Sarkar at Oxford has questioned the existence of “dark energy” and by implication, the award of the 2011 Nobel prize. Sabine Hossenfelder’s blog links to a 7 minute summary of the Nobel prize and Sarkar’s work: But even more compelling is her 45 minute interview with Sarkar here: In the 45 minute interview, note (29:30) how cosmologists assume dark energy in order to prove dark energy. It is a logic popularized by Darwinists but in my experience, it is also endemic in all fields of physics. For some reason, in all the effusive praise for the scientific method by both educators and scientists alike, no one ever Read More ›

Tiny 99 mya bird (?) skull trapped in amber raises many questions

But get this: Benson goes on to explain that one of the “bizarre” features of Oculudentavis is qualities present in lizards but neither in birds nor in dinosaurs. It is smaller than most hummingbirds but had over a hundred teeth… The more research we do, one suspects, the more of this type of thing we'll find and the harder it would all be to explain to our old Darwinian schoolteacher. Read More ›

Michael Behe muses on design and COVID-19

Behe: … most viruses do not affect humans and may well have a positive, necessary role to play in nature of which we are currently unaware. (I would bet on it.) From time to time a storm arises in the virosphere and affects humans. But that’s no reason to think either that viruses weren’t designed or that the designer of viruses isn’t good. Read More ›

Beetle larvae (“superworms”) can survive on waste plastic

Recent evolution? Maybe. Doesn’t sound as though much evolution is needed, actually. Later in the article, it is suggested that the required enzymes may have existed for some time (that is, the plastic is what’s new). Read More ›

Homo erectus from nearly 1.5 million years ago was “more behaviourally flexible” than thought

But why did we think they wouldn’t be? Isn’t there an underlying story here that is slowly being confuted (but no one wants to really discuss the history in those terms so everything must be treated as a big surprise)? Read More ›