Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community
Year

2022

Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 6, 2022
Categories
Darwinism
Evolution
Intelligent Design
rhetoric
Tagged
, ,

Ant can create pain in mammals – “evolution” story assumed

News
March 6, 2022
Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design, rhetoric
2
Curiously, we actually don’t know that this extreme targeted pain defense “evolved.” No evolutionary pathway is indicated. It could have been natural selection or horizontal gene transfer. Which? Or maybe the ant was always like that. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 6, 2022
Categories
Animal minds
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, ,

What bats learn from echolocation: “much more complex than previously thought”

News
March 6, 2022
Animal minds, Intelligent Design
2
This raises an issue: Social intelligence seems to imply an underlying intelligence in the universe. It’s not at all clear that it is merely a matter of natural selection acting on random mutations (Darwinism). For one thing, if there were no intelligence, there would be no need for social intelligence. Social intelligence is a response to existing intelligence. And no one knows how it arose. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 5, 2022
Categories
Climate change
Culture
Intelligent Design
Media
Science
Tagged
, , ,

Has anyone else noticed the blatant political flavor of many sciencey mags these days?

News
March 5, 2022
Climate change, Culture, Intelligent Design, Media, Science
4
Yes, it was always there but recently, as the editors become ever more self-righteous (= Us vs. the Unwashed), it has become more open and that sure isn’t an improvement. Science writer Matt Ridley thinks science is reverting to a cult. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 5, 2022
Categories
Artificial Intelligence
Intelligent Design
Origin Of Life
Tagged
, , ,

At Mind Matters News: Will AI chemistry robots finally discover the origin of life?

News
March 5, 2022
Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Design, Origin Of Life
2
One problem: Before life exists, there is nothing for purely natural selection to select. How the robots, themselves a product of design, can help is unclear. Read More ›
Type
post
Date
March 5, 2022
Categories
Control vs Anarchy
Geo-strategic issues
Lessons of History
News Highlights
rhetoric
Tagged
,

DEVELOPING: The US Truckers’ protest convoys converge at Hagerstown MD, head for the DC Beltway March 5th

kairosfocus
March 5, 2022
Control vs Anarchy, Geo-strategic issues, Lessons of History, News Highlights, rhetoric
1

According to Gateway Pundit (a handy source not an endorsement): On Friday, the largest group, ‘The People’s Convoy,’ merged with another massive group when it arrived at its final rest stop in Hagerstown, Maryland, which is just 75 miles (90 minutes) away from the nation’s capital. The convoy is now well over 10,000 vehicles long, including thousands of trucks. There are so many participants in the caravan that it has taken over three hours for them to get off the highway, and there is still no end in sight. We will monitor, including watching out for a riot that can conveniently be made into a further Reichstag fire framing incident. DEVELOPING

Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 4, 2022
Categories
Human evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, , ,

Macaque study casts doubt on early human tool use

News
March 4, 2022
Human evolution, Intelligent Design
3
A wise approach going forward would be to find the tools first before making assumptions. Note the gratuitous slur at the end of the media release: "We are so used to trying to prove that humans are unique, that similarities with other primates are often neglected. Studying living primates today may offer crucial clues that have been overlooked in the past." Sorry, bodkins. We don’t have to do anything to prove humans are unique. The fact that you are studying macaques for a journal while they wreck their teeth on sand and grit demonstrates that fact beyond reasonable doubt. And thoughtful people should be suspicious of UNreasonable doubt. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 4, 2022
Categories
'Junk DNA'
Intelligent Design
Tagged
,

A new, useful, description for (former) junk DNA… ?

News
March 4, 2022
'Junk DNA', Intelligent Design
3
“the large proportion of our genome that does not instruct our cells to form proteins” The phrase is a bit longish, of course, but concision is usually a product of usage. It’s better than “non-coding DNA” because it’s more specific and limited as a privative. That is, there is a specific thing that that vast mass of DNA does not do. The longish phrase does not come with the implication that it doesn’t do anything. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 4, 2022
Categories
Cell biology
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, ,

Casey Luskin comments on the New Yorker article, Journey to the Center of Our Cells

News
March 4, 2022
Cell biology, Intelligent Design
2
It’s a sort of shift in perspective. The very fact that no one is rushing in with a reductionist explanation points to the significance of the shift. Researchers are pausing to observe and reflect for once. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 4, 2022
Categories
Cell biology
Darwinism
horizontal gene transfer
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, ,

Common sensor in bacteria and humans highlights reason for doubt re Darwinian tales

News
March 4, 2022
Cell biology, Darwinism, horizontal gene transfer, Intelligent Design
5
At this point, claims that Darwinism can “accommodate” HGT should be seen for what they are special pleading in the face of challenging new findings in evolution. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 3, 2022
Categories
Culture
Darwinism
Philosophy
Science
Tagged
, ,

Neil Thomas on Darwinism’s place in the Victorian culture wars

News
March 3, 2022
Culture, Darwinism, Philosophy, Science
3
Anyone familiar with popular science writing on evolution will see what Thomas means here. Darwinism is introduced as a hypothesis/theory but then treated as a dogma/article of faith — and (this is emotionally very important) a way of segregating the Smart People from the Yobs and Yayhoos. Appeals to science-based analysis fall on deaf ears because the dogma has become what “science” now means. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 3, 2022
Categories
Cosmology
Fine tuning
Intelligent Design
Physics
Tagged
, , ,

Deepening crisis in particle physics — Rob Sheldon responds

News
March 3, 2022
Cosmology, Fine tuning, Intelligent Design, Physics
5
But when theoretical physicists start messing with reductionism, they are messing with the core assumptions of the meaningless universe. Many attempts are in progress to revalidate those assumptions, of course but... Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 3, 2022
Categories
Culture
Intelligent Design
Philosophy
Science
Tagged
, ,

A pharma science prof explains how to “confront anti-science”

News
March 3, 2022
Culture, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Science
3
No. The question isn’t whether science is a good thing but whether the current establishment is in fact focused on science or on maintaining/regaining control through pronouncements about “science” and edicts stemming from those pronouncements. One needn’t look far to see examples of the latter. And what to do about that is the discussion we need to have. Read More ›