Today there was a great article in the OU Daily about the controversy surrounding the Darwin 2009 Project at OU. Not only were all parties fairly represented (at least as best as I could tell), but they even got the definition of ID right!
Author: johnnyb
Controversy Brewing over the Darwin 2009 Project at the University of Oklahoma
This year, the University of Oklahoma is celebrating Darwin with the Darwin 2009 Project. It appears from the speaker list (at least for the names I am familiar with) that where this project touches on the mechanisms for evolution or the wider debate about its potential implications for other areas of life, this is going Read More…
Book Review: Slaughter of the Dissidents
I just got through reading Slaughter of the Dissidents, and I must say, it is fantastic. I was a little skeptical at first, simply because the title of the book was so extreme. After reading it, I still think that the title is extreme (there are real slaughters of people happening in different parts of Read More…
The Production of Variations – a Case Study in Spiders
Last week I posted about issues with the production of variation that Darwinists often overlook. So then, the question becomes, what is the mechanism for variation production? In a recent book, called Eight-Legged Marvels: Beauty and Design in the World of Spiders, Chad Arment invites us to examine that very question. In the introduction, Arment Read More…
Thoughts on Parameterized vs. Open-Ended Evolution and the Production of Variability
Many of the advocates of neo-Darwinism argue that abilities of evolution is obvious. The idea is that, given variability in a population, selection and/or environmental change will cause a population to move forward in fitness. Basically, the formula is variability + overproduction + selection = evolution. The problem is that the equation hinges on “variability” and its abilities to create the kinds of variations the Darwinists need.
Neo-Darwinism Impeding Research… Again
Remember the dark days of vestigal organs? You know, back when there was a list of 180 vestigal organs? Or remember the days of junk DNA – when repetitive DNA, large regions of non-protein-coding DNA, and all sorts of mobile DNA were assumed to be non-functional simply because the investigators had assumed Darwinism rather than Read More…
A Personal Story about Random Mutation and Selection
I’ve been reading a lot of the classic literature lately on mutation and selection from the 20s, 30s, and 40s. It’s interesting to read old science material with the advantage of hindsight. It’s like watching a movie — you might know what’s going to happen next, but the characters don’t. And so, reading Muller’s experiments Read More…
RNA Designed to Evolve?
I’m currently working through Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems, and came across the following information which seems to be right in line with Denton’s evolution by natural law ideas: A final, especially counterintuitive feature of RNA sequence space is that all frequent structures are near each other in sequence space. Consider a randomly chosen Read More…
Not Nearly Enough Pro-Evolutionary Propaganda in Research Papers
A recent essay in PLoS biology bemoans that researchers are not using the term “evolution” nearly often enough in research papers. The essay lays out the horrendous possibilities that this could mean: A critical question is whether avoidance of the word “evolution†has had an impact on the public perception of science. To investigate this, Read More…
How Controversies Within Evolution Add Up to a Controversy About Evolution
It is often said that while there are many controversies within evolution as to the specifics of how evolution works, there is no controversy about the fact of evolution. Often times, when ID’ers talk about problems with evolutionary theory, they are accused of misrepresentation — that certainly there are controversies about aspects of evolution, but Read More…
Luria-Delbruck, Random Mutation, and Planning for the Future
Does Luria-Delbruck really mean that mutations are random? Or might it indicate something else?
Chimeras and Transitional Forms: Examining the ID Position
Many people who argue against Intelligent Design’s position on transitional forms often don’t have any clue what it is that is actually being said. I’d like to take a moment to clear it up. If anyone disagrees with my commentary (especially ID’ers — I’d hate to misrepresent other’s opinions), please post below. My main point Read More…
Fired for Being Irrelevant
In shocking news this morning, johnnyb was fired from his job for being irrelevant. When asked about why he was fired, ABC Co. gave the following response — “We looked at the operation of the company, and, while there were many programs attributed to him, and some people claimed that the network worked because of Read More…
Pretending that Evolutionary Theory is Separable from Abiogenesis
Do traceable lines of descent exist that might ultimately permit characterization of the genomes of organisms basal to the clades for the highest categories? The answer to this question increasingly appears to be no. Recent work on genomic structures demonstrate that all living organisms are genetic composites: mosaics and chimeras composed of bits and pieces Read More…
Thinking about ID as a Theory of Causation
I think one of the biggest confusions about Intelligent Design is that it is a theory of origins. This has caused a tremendous amount of confusion on both sides of the fence. If Intelligent Design was a theory of origins, many of ID’s criticisms of ID would make much more sense. But I think that Read More…