Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Some Problems Can Be Proved Unsolvable

Here are two mathematical problems for you to work on in your spare time, and one problem from biology: Find positive integers x,y, z and n>2, such that xn+yn=zn. Remove two diagonally opposite corner squares from a chess board, and cover the remaining 62 squares with 31 dominoes, each of which covers two adjacent squares. Explain how life could have originated and evolved into intelligent humans, through entirely natural (unintelligent) processes. You can spend a lot of time trying different solutions to mathematical problem #1. After a while you might begin to wonder if it can be done, but don’t give up, there are an infinite number of integers you can try for x,y,z and n. For problem #2, get Read More ›

At Snopes: Creationism “bears all the hallmarks of a conspiracy theory”

Curiously, Snopes admits, regarding the piece from The Conversation, “This content is shared here because the topic may interest Snopes readers; it does not, however, represent the work of Snopes fact-checkers or editors.” So… they can get away with publishing this kind of thing because they did not check it out? That is further evidence that Snopes is going downhill fast as a rumor squelching site. Read More ›

At Closer to Truth: Is the universe fine-tuned for life and mind? Well-known scientists respond

Calvert: This is an interesting set of interviews of cosmologists as they uniformly agree that there is essentially no known evidence that supports chance and/or necessity as the best explanation for the fine tuning of the universe for life. Read More ›

This amazing Rube Goldberg device happened just by accident in a mindless universe, you know

Sean Pitman: After all, anyone who has watched cartoons as a child knows what a Rube Goldberg machine is and that this machine will not work if any one part is removed. So, how can something evolve in a stepwise way where each step is functionally beneficial if there is no function until all the parts are in place? Read More ›

Eric Holloway: Is GMO detection an application of ID theorist William Dembski’s explanatory filter?

Holloway: Have you ever heard people say that intelligent design (ID) theory has never been applied to biology? They are wrong! In fact, it is applied frequently in the very important field of detecting genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Read More ›