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…
Author: News
Denyse O'Leary is the News blogger for Uncommon Descent
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…
Psychologist: Human freedom holds up to scientific scrutiny
In “Jules Evans on Neuroscience and Polytheism”, psychologist Evansoffers that we can make too much of claims that humans are ruled by unconscious motives (April 6, 2011). Such a claim forms a basis for “neurolaw” and “neuromarketing” ( also here (law and marketing as if you didn’t really exist). He notes, The ancients’ idea that Read More…
Reaction to comment made in a Nature review of a current Darwinbook?
Here: No book of this sort can cover every important topic, perspective, and challenge. But we were surprised that there was no discussion of why evolution remains controversial at a societal level. Why, for example, do many in the U.S. remain skeptical of evolution? In this sense, evolution is unique among the sciences (with the Read More…
Darwinism: Cretaceous buttercup a “doubly abominable” mystery, it seems
David Tyler reports on the beautifully preserved Cretaceous “ buttercup”: Many portrayals of habitats purporting to represent the Age of Dinosaurs have conifer trees and ferns, but very little ground cover. As palaeontologists continue their research, they are coming to recognise that the ecosystems were much more diverse. The earliest flowering plants are represented by Read More…
Great debates: William Lane Craig versus Sam Harris tomorrow night
Topic: Is the Foundation of Morality Natural or Supernatural? (Thursday, April 7 – 7:00pm – 9:00pm Eastern time) Facebook page Live webcast: www.ndtv.net One viewer commented … the atheist damage control machine is going full throttle! Craig absolutely wiped the floor with Krauss. It might be the worst debate performance ever versus Craig, adding Check Read More…
Cosmology: One of cosmic inflation theory’s creators now questions own theory
A theory that attempts to account for the fine tuning of the universe for life may be “deeply flawed,” we learn in Paul J. Steinhardt’s “The Inflation Debate.” Steinhardt is one of the theory’s creators, nevertheless asks, “Abstract: Is the theory at the heart of modern cosmology deeply flawed? Cosmic inflation is so widely accepted Read More…
Proponent of multiverses and “our universe as possible simulation” wins this year’s Templeton Prize
Proponent of the multiverse and the universe as simulation wins this year’s Templeton Prize The Prize has been awarded to Martin Rees. As Daniel Cressey tells it in Nature (6 April 2011), Controversial ‘spirituality’ award goes to a scientist for fourth year in a row. Martin Rees, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge, UK, Read More…
Biologist goes to war against language
In “The “Newspeak” of Evolutionary Biology Hopes to Banish the term “Design,” by Design”, Evolution News & Views (April 6, 2011) Casey Luskin tells us The anti-ID biologist Richard Dawkins once said, “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” Now some ID critics today Read More…
Notes on changing media: In the wake of Katie Couric’s stepdown …
Here Brent Bozell notes, On NPR, evening anchor Michele Norris mourned that “when you reach back to the era of Rather and Jennings and Brokaw, it seemed like getting an anchor job in the past was much like a lifetime appointment, much like a Supreme Court justice.” Media reporter David Folkenflik answered that “holding one Read More…
Human evolution: Did stone tools really change human hands?
In “Stone Tools Influenced Hand Evolution in Human Ancestors, Anthropologists Say,” (ScienceDaily (Mar. 8, 2011), we learn (repeated twice more in a single short piece), that New research from anthropologists at the University of Kent has confirmed Charles Darwin’s speculation that the evolution of unique features in the human hand was influenced by increased tool Read More…
Recent study: Cancer not necessarily due to long, slow process of mutation
A woman who has had a normal mammogram shortly afterward develops an aggressive tumour? In “Cancer Can Develop in Catastrophic Burst”, Nicholas Wade ( New York Times, January 10, 2011) reports The finding marks a striking exception to the current theory of how cancer develops. Cells are thought to become cancerous over many years as Read More…