In “Neanderthals: Bad luck and its part in their downfall” (New Scientist, 07 April 2011), Mark Buchanantells us, The popular theory has it that humans soon displaced Neanderthals thanks to their superior skills and adaptations. But mathematicians Armando Neves at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Maurizio Serva at the Read More…
Author: News
Denyse O'Leary is the News blogger for Uncommon Descent
Mind: Genius flares … yet often just goes out
Recently, we were apprised that the rarest of intellectual qualities, true genius, is merely an overdose of testosterone before birth. You heard it here first and forgot it here first. Recently, real news – of another child genius – has been making the rounds At 12-years-old, Jacob Barnett is a genius. He’s already in college, Read More…
The gospel reading for today, courtesy Christian Darwinism …
In “Dissolving the Fall,” a chapter in his Saving Darwin, theologian Karl Giberson argues that Darwinian evolution created humans selfish; there was no actual fall of man. Selfishness … drives the evolutionary process. Unselfish creatures died, and their unselfish genes perished with them. Selfish creatures, who attended to their own needs for food, power, and Read More…
A science writer’s “ratatouille” religion
Here and below, Jeff Brown, offers his thoughts on the new pastiche religion that a writer at New Scientist would like to invent. Brown, a pastor in Nuremberg, Germany, holds a B.S. in Biology and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology.
Mysterious new elementary particle?
Kerry Sheridan advises that a “US atom smasher may have found new force of nature” (YahooNews, April 7 08:07 am) Data from a major US atom smasher lab may have revealed a new elementary particle, or potentially a new force of nature that could expand our knowledge of the properties of matter, physicists say.[ … Read More…
Where is astronomer Howard Van Till now?
Howard Van Till was once one of the best-known Christian evolutionists, but since his “What good is stardust?” article in Christianity Today arguing that nature is “fully gifted” and thus God never intervenes, he has increasingly moved toward what some describe as process theology. He acknowledges his change of views, and has this to say Read More…
He said it: Darwinist philosopher Michael Ruse’s view of ethics as illusion
How can someone who says, almost proudly, that ethics is an illusion of the genes mesh with Christianity, a religion that puts obedience to God’s word and will right at the heart? In fact, it is not as difficult as it seems, so long as you remember that I am offering a naturalistic account of Read More…
Catholics and intelligent design: Jay Richards’ response to Ed Feser
Pro-design Jay Richards has responded to neo-Thomist Ed Feser’s attack on evidence for design in nature. Also: “Thomas Aquinas as ancient evolutionary psychologist”
Key biologist Lynn Margulis tells Discover Magazine “Natural selection doesn’t create “
The Discover interview with non-Darwinist (whatever she may feel forced to claim) evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis: “All scientists agree that evolution has occurred… The question is, is natural selection enough to explain evolution? … This is the problem I have with neo-Darwinists: They teach that what is generating novelty is the accumulation of random mutations Read More…
They said it: Materialist atheists Jerry Fodor and colleague dismiss Darwinism/evolutionary psychology
… allegiance to Darwinism has become a litmus for deciding who does and who does not hold a ”properly scientific’ world view. ‘You must choose between faith in God and faith in Darwin; and if you want to be a secular humanist, you’d better choose the latter.’ So we’re told. We doubt that those options Read More…
He said it: Atheist prof says there is some evidence for design in nature
Bradley Monton, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder:Bradley Monton, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder: The theory of intelligent design holds that certain global features of the universe provide evidence for the existence of an intelligent cause, or that certain biologically innate features of living things Read More…
Media: Political orientation touted as brain-based
In “Left brain, right brain: researchers link neurology to political orientation” Andrew Duffy, Ottawa Citizen Postmedia News April 7, 2011) tells us, The study, published in the online edition of Current Biology, found that people who identified themselves as liberal tended to have larger anterior cingulate cortexes (ACC), a region of the brain that monitors Read More…
… we heard you singin ‘in the wires
Overheard, on the “supernatural” and design in nature: … the supernatural is not necessarily a religious idea. Metaphysics was founded by Greek ancient philosophers and it has nothing to do with religion in the sense that it does not deal with concepts born out of Revelation but out of pure rationlity. Antony Flew ended up Read More…
The forgotten non-materialist side of James Clerk Maxwell
British physicist David Tyler, who posts here, has a comment in Nature on “Laird of physics” James Clerk Maxwell, particularly the Laird’s disquiet with materialism, a fact not noted in the article on maxwell: As the Victorian age matured, science leaders became increasingly materialistic. At a meeting of the British Association in 1874, President John Read More…
Tennessee would permit critical thinking on received science dogmas
From AAAS’s ScienceInsider we learn: “Bill Allowing Teachers to Challenge Evolution Passes Tennessee House” (Sara Reardon, 7 April 2011): If the bill passes, Tennessee would join Louisiana as the second state to have specific “protection” for the teaching of evolution in the classroom. The effects of the Louisiana law, which passed in 2008, are still Read More…