Jack Scanlan, over at Panda’s Thumb, asks, “Does intelligent design have a dualistic assumption, not a theistic one?” Interesting question, his point being that dualism is not the same thing as theism. A dualist may hold that nature is governed by a meta-nature, without that latter realm being “God.” Without being God, a meta-nature could Read More…
Author: News
Denyse O'Leary is the News blogger for Uncommon Descent
If anyone wonders what new (or “gnu”, as some prefer) atheist Darwinists think of Christian Darwinists …
… here’s Jerry Coyne on Giberson and Collins’ Biologos: Finally, Uncle Karl [Giberson] and Francis Collins have a new book! It’s called The Language of Science and Faith (the subtitle is Straight Answers to Genuine Questions), and appears to be based largely on the “frequently asked questions” section of BioLogos. Now Collins wasn’t supposed to Read More…
Shocka! Chimps’ mental agility “cast into doubt”
In “Chimps lose out by aping others” (New Scientist, 23 April 2011), we learn, Chimps seem curiously unable to use their own initiative to gain the best possible reward if this means behaving in a different way to a dominant group member. However, Hopper is not convinced that this behaviour means that chimps are less Read More…
Evolution of human mind best understood by studying bees, says prof
According to “Evolution of Human ‘Super-Brain’ Tied to Development of Bipedalism, Tool-Making” ScienceDaily (Apr. 20, 2011), Scientists seeking to understand the origin of the human mind may want to look to honeybees — not ancestral apes — for at least some of the answers, according to a University of Colorado Boulder archaeologist. It’s not known Read More…
Coffee with new atheists: A laptop, a publisher, and an ego the size of a … and out comes a Bible!
Brendan O’Neill invites readers to avoid the latest “anti-Bibles”, asking, Why, given their obtuse and ostentatious hostility towards organised religion and spiritual hoo-ha, are the so-called New Atheists so keen to refashion the Bible? What’s with all these secularist versions of ‘the good book’, minus the original’s miracles and resurrections and instead offering us guides to Read More…
Shades of meaning: Wonder about this while recharging the cell …
In the controversies around design, How did the term “skeptic” come to mean “people who believe in multiverses, space aliens, and random creation of meaningful information?” How did the term “fundamentalist” come to mean “people who believe based only on evidence”?
Mother of all circuses comes to town – this one must have thirty-three rings
Stopped counting. Rev. Michael Dowd, in his own words a “religious naturalist” andalso “evolutionary Christian mystic naturalist” wants us to know about “Evolutionary Christianity”: FEATURING MANY OF TODAY’S MOST INSPIRING CHRISTIAN LEADERS AND ESTEEMED SCIENTISTS—INCLUDING NOBEL LAUREATES, TEMPLETON PRIZE-WINNERS, AND LUMINARIES FROM NEARLY EVERY DENOMINATION. HOST: Rev. Michael Dowd, author of Thank God for Evolution, Read More…
Space, time, and quantum teleportation of light
From Rebecca Boyle at PopSci.com, we learn, “Researchers Succeed in Quantum Teleportation of Light Waves: Like Schrödinger’s cat, teleported light is both dead and alive” (04.15.2011) In this experiment, researchers in Australia and Japan were able to transfer quantum information from one place to another without having to physically move it. It was destroyed in Read More…
Pope says humans are not blizzard of randomness. Also says he is Catholic. And that it’s Easter.
In “Pope: Humanity isn’t random product of evolution” (Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, Sat Apr 23), we learn: VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI marked the holiest night of the year for Christians by stressing that humanity isn’t a random product of evolution. Benedict emphasized the Biblical account of creation in his Easter Vigil homily Saturday, Read More…
Last call for real coffee!! “God particle” supposedly found
From Fox News LiveScience, we learn: World’s Largest Atom Smasher May Have Detected ‘God Particle’ (April 22, 2011): A rumor is floating around the physics community that the world’s largest atom smasher may have detected a long-sought subatomic particle called the Higgs boson, also known as the “God particle.” The controversial rumor is based on Read More…
New atheist Darwinist demands that Chronicle of Higher Education promote “incivility” toward religion
Jerry “No, Uncommon Descent did NOT invent him*” Coyne asks: When is The Chronicle of Higher Education going to put the kibosh on the irrelevant and incoherent tirades of Gnu-Bashers [new atheist bashers – ed.] like Michael Ruse and Jacques Berlinerblau, whose continual attacks on atheists don’t do the journal any good? But in the Read More…
Evilicious?: Monkeys r’ us prof Marc Hauser barred from Harvard lecture room
From New Scientist we learn, “Shamed Harvard scientist is barred from the classroom” (Peter Aldhous, 21 April 2011): Marc Hauser, the prominent animal cognition researcher found guilty of scientific misconduct by Harvard University last year, is to receive no rapid rehabilitation by his closest colleagues. He’s the one who made Discover’s Top Ten Retractions list Read More…
Panda’s Thumb’s Nick Matzke: Turning a debacle into a debris storm
Or a storm of worse substance … Further to Sal Cordova’s earlier post, “Matzke is a Liar”: If Matzke is what those who know him claim, perhaps Barbara Forrest could usefully thank him and ask him to cease his efforts on her behalf.
Coffee!! Expelled’s Ben Stein a … liberal?
Now, it wouldn’t surprise the Uncommon Descent news desk, but it certainly surprised Canadian blogging queen Five Feet of Fury when Yesterday he told Dennis Miller we need to “redistribute the wealth.” (FREE audio). But here, here, here, here, here, and here, anti-Expelled types have painted Stein as a conservative. Comments? (Note: Five Feet of Read More…
Rationalization, not reason drives doubts about Darwin – science writer Chris Mooney
In “The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science” (Mother Jones, April 18, 2011), Chris Mooney offers to explain “How our brains fool us on climate, creationism, and the vaccine-autism link.” For example, Consider a person who has heard about a scientific discovery that deeply challenges her belief in divine creation—a new hominid, say, that Read More…