We’ve recently noted with sadness the passing of Dr. Stephen Hawking, noted theoretical physicist and cosmologist, and one of the most well-known authors and speakers on these subjects in our lifetime. Over at Evolution News, David Klinghoffer points us to an interview of Professor John Lennox by Dr. Jay Richards regarding some of the things […]
Author: Eric Anderson
Is OOL Part of Darwinian Evolution?
Recently I had a lengthy discussion with an acquaintance about evolution and the various concepts and claims that we find under the heading of the word “evolution.” At one point I brought up the origin of life and he promptly insisted: “that’s not part of evolution.” “Perhaps,” I offered, “but consider that the origin of […]
Minnich and the Materialism
Denyse recently linked to a presentation by Scott Minnich regarding the bacterial flagellum. Minnich is probably among the dozen or so leading experts in the world on the bacterial flagellum. Much of the information in his presentation will be familiar to followers of the issues, but a few points bear further examination. First a couple […]
Confusing Probability: The “Every-Sequence-Is-Equally-Improbable” Argument
Note to Readers: The past few days on this thread there has been tremendous activity and much discussion about the concept of probability. I had intended to post this OP months ago, but found it still in my drafts folder yesterday mostly, but not quite fully, complete. In the interest of highlighting a couple of the issues […]
The Antikythera Mechanism and the Design Inference
Today’s Google Doodle honors the Antikythera mechanism discovered in 1901 from the Antikythera shipwreck. This remarkable object has been the subject of intense study for more than a century, with various theories about its precise origin and construction still being put forward. Debates have played out about when it was constructed, by whom it was […]
The Materialist Mindset
Weak materialists do not necessarily reject the idea of non-material realities. As a result, many arguments against strong materialism do not directly address the viewpoint of the weak materialist, resulting in a disconnect in the debate over free will and morality.
Programming by Accident – The Darwinian Paradigm
The last couple of days I have spent too much time trying to rescue a hard drive. This drive was intended for a Windows 10 system, but it would not appear anywhere in utilities. BIOS could recognize it was plugged in, but that was it. Nothing in Explorer, nothing in Disk Management, not even in […]
Similarities Between the Debates Over Evolution and Global Warming
For years I have closely followed both the evolution debate and the global warming debate.* There are some important differences between the two debates, which may be the subject of a subsequent post. However, the number of similarities is striking. Enough so that for some time I have seriously considered writing a book detailing the parallels. […]
New Evidence Against the Existence of God: Antarctica, Arizona, Atlantic Ocean
Recently over on this thread started by Barry we have been discussing one of the tired atheist arguments against God’s existence: bad design. The discussion has been primarily in the context of some of Carl Sagan’s remarks cited by john_a_designer, but Sagan is by no means unique in his failed efforts. Commenter rvb8 had the […]
The Big Bang, The First Cause, and God
Over on a recent thread there has been much interesting discussion about a recent debate between theist philosopher Rabbi Daniel Rowe and atheist philosopher A.C. Grayling. HeKS provided a review of the matter, focusing largely on his analysis of Jerry Coyne’s responses. I agree with HeKS’s general observation that Coyne failed to adequately address the […]
Evolutionary Theorists Discover How mp4 Videos Work
Over on this thread we’ve had a lively discussion, primarily about common descent. However, one of the key side discussions has focused on the information required to build an organism. Remarkably, some have argued that essentially nothing is required except a parts list on a digital storage medium. Yes, you heard right. Given the right […]
Back to Basics: Understanding the Design Inference
This is prompted primarily by a recent post and by the unfortunate realization that some people still do not understand the design inference, despite years of involvement in the debate. Specifically, there was discussion at Barry’s prior post about whether Elizabeth Liddle admits that “biological design inferences” may be valid in principle. Over 200 comments appeared […]
Alicia Cartelli on Abiogenesis
Please see the note and apology at the end of this post. —– Over on a recent thread Alicia Cartelli responded to my request that if she had “an idea how abiogenesis works” I would post it as a head post for discussion. I have not yet had time to parse through all this, other […]
Abiogenesis Challenge
Over on a recent thread, we witnessed some flailing about with respect to abiogenesis (see comments 374-376). Thoroughly confused about critical distinctions, such as the difference between deterministic forces and contingent possibilities, some seem to think that the fact that “nature forms stars and planets” means that nature can do just about anything. No need […]
Spetner’s Non-Random Evolutionary Hypothesis
Note: This is a guest post by Virgil Cain. I have left it as is, with just a couple of typographical corrections. See my brief comments and caveats at the end. —– By Virgil Cain In 1997, “Not By Chance” by Lee Spetner was published. In it he argued for a “non-random evolutionary hypothesis” which […]