News

A friend sends this gem from the literature;, it sounds totally oblivious of the information requirement for life: It is now generally accepted that the emergence of increasingly complex eukaryotic life forms was accompanied by a corresponding increase in genome complexity, entailing both an expansion in gene number and more elaborate gene regulation.(22–24) Only DNA recombination in the form of gene or segmental duplications, exon shuffling, insertions, deletions, and chromosomal rearrangements can adequately account for this massive increase in gene number and the complexity of their regulation.(22–24). – Oliver, Keith R. & Wayne K. Greene (2009) Transposable elements: powerful facilitators of evolution BioEssays 31:703–714. Kirk Durston, picking on the theme, offers a translation from the Darwinspeak: The authors are blowing Read More ›

From Washington Post: These ancient Asian primate fossils might be the missing pieces of a major evolutionary puzzle In a study published Thursday in the journal Science, Beard and his colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing report on an “incredible cache” of fossils from 10 previously unknown species uncovered in China’s Yunnan province. These fossils help illuminate a new story of our evolution: one in which our primate ancestors evolved in Asia, sailed across a narrow sea to Africa, then were pushed to extinction on their home continent because of drastic climate change. Some of the only primates that survived were the ones whose fossils were just uncovered — primitive creatures that were closer to lemurs than Read More ›

Biochemist Dr. Michael Behe speaks to the Apologetics Academy about the biochemical evidence for design. Behe is author of Darwin’s Black Box and Edge of Evolution Follow UD News at Twitter!

Closing our religion coverage for the week (a bit late again), from Biosemiosis at Discourse at BioLogos: It is well known that Biologos has objections to the concept of design in biology (aka ID). I post the following short article as a conversation piece for those who agree with that assessment, or those who question it: … What JCVI has done, and is doing, is experimentally quantifying those requirements in terms of discrete function and numbers of base pairs. And this leads me to a couple of questions for those who profess (against massive physical evidence to the contrary) that this all came into being by naught (or whatever word you’d like to use). Considering the list of functions that Read More ›

From Nicholas Kristof: WE progressives believe in diversity, and we want women, blacks, Latinos, gays and Muslims at the table — er, so long as they aren’t conservatives. Universities are the bedrock of progressive values, but the one kind of diversity that universities disregard is ideological and religious. We’re fine with people who don’t look like us, as long as they think like us. O.K., that’s a little harsh. But consider George Yancey, a sociologist who is black and evangelical. “Outside of academia I faced more problems as a black,” he told me. “But inside academia I face more problems as a Christian, and it is not even close.”More. Reality check: First, progressives are not liberals. They are totalitarians sapping Read More ›

From “Intelligent Design: a Theological and Philosophical Analysis” by Erkki Vesa Rope Kojonen the Journal of Analytic Theology Abstract: “The “God of the gaps” critique is one of the most common arguments against design arguments in biology, but is also increasingly used as a critique of other natural theological arguments. In this paper, I analyze four different critiques of God of the gaps arguments and explore the relationship between gaps arguments and similar limit arguments. I conclude that the critique of the God of the gaps is substantially weaker than is commonly assumed, and dismissing ID́s biological arguments should rather be based on criticizing the premises of these arguments.” Full text. Good luck with that. The main purpose of God Read More ›

From Jonathan Webb at BBC News: A new study reveals how crocodiles’ eyes are fine-tuned for lurking at the water surface to watch for prey. The “fovea”, a patch of tightly packed receptors that delivers sharp vision, forms a horizontal streak instead of the usual circular spot. This allows the animal to scan the shoreline without moving its head, according to Australian researchers. They also found differences in the cone cells, which sense colours, between saltwater and freshwater crocs. … This is because light conditions are different in salt and freshwater habitats, but only underwater – and the crocodiles’ eyes show corresponding tweaks. … This arrangement reflects the predator’s iconic ability to lurk with just its eyes above the water, Read More ›

Here. See Michael Behe online webinar May 7 Via Jonathan McLatchie, ID theorist Michael Behe, author of Darwin’s Black Box and Edge of Evolution is going to be presenting an interactive online webinar on May 7th (8pm GMT / 3pm Eastern / 2pm Central / 12noon Pacific) to my group, the Apologetics Academy (http://www.apologetics-academy.org). Behe will present on the biochemical evidence for design for approximately 1 hour and then field questions from the floor. YouTube to be posted later. More info here. Global clock face.

Structuralism is a reasonable approach to biology, according to which many patterns in life forms are not the result of Darwinian selection but rather underlying constraints of nature. Functionalism is best represented by Darwinism: The forms life takes are due to survival of the fittest. Contrary to what one hears from Darwinists, there are good arguments for structuralism. In terms of the debate between structuralists and functionalists, Denton is a structuralist. From Michael Denton’s Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis (2016): Although this book is primarily a critique of Darwinian incremental functionalism, as was Evolution, it is also—much more than my original book—a systematic defense of typology. Obviously, if the Darwinian enterprise fails ad the taxa-defining homologs cannot be approached Read More ›

Michael Flannery, writes, An important point to remember when we talk about ID is what David Klinghoffer mentioned in an extremely insightful ENV article titled, “The Quality of ‘Shyness’ in the Evidence for Intelligent Design.” It bears reading (or re-reading) and reflection. David Kohn has said, I think accurately, that “for Darwin special creation is the equivalent of creation by the miraculous intervention of a personal God.” Now I happen to believe in both. But is this absolutely the only option when we talk about nature and design? Darwin’s mistake was attacking the notion of God as a wand-waving Wizard, not a real God ,and I think it was a failing of William Paley to leave that impression. It made Read More ›

That post, by WJM, asks: Does a man have the right to identify himself as a woman and enter their locker rooms and bathrooms, demanding equal rights for their self-identification? Comment of the week has just got to be an excerpt from Ziggy Lorenc at 25, who writes, quoting News at 20: News — “Very few women want to use washrooms also used by men, whether they claim to be transgender or not, or whatever is the story.” It must be great to be rich enough for you and your husband to have seperate bathrooms. My husband and I must share the same one. News replies at 31 Ziggy Lorenc at 25: You must be very proud of yourself thinking Read More ›

From U Penn psych prof James Coyne: Never confuse eminence-based with evidence-based, even if something’s coming with awards from big-name universities. – Robin N. Kok Good advice. Also I don’t know about you, but I get damned angry at the APS sacrificing its integrity and damaging itself as a trusted source by promoting this crap. This is not the first time that APS has let ithe public down with promotion of bad science that exploits people in need of credible psychological advice You just can’t interpret claims as being credible because they are endorsed by the APS. More. One wonders what science eminences would end up as patios if this advice were taken to heart. See also: First Things has Read More ›

From Gary Marcus at the Edge: People get very excited every time there’s a tiny advance, but the tiny advances aren’t getting us closer. There was a Google captioning thing that got a lot of press. I think it was the front page of The Times. You could show it some pictures and it looked like it was great. You’d show it a picture of a dog, a person, and a Frisbee and it might be able to say, that’s a dog catching a Frisbee. It gives the illusion of understanding the language. But it’s very easy to break these systems. You’d show it a picture of a street sign with some stickers on it and it said, that’s a Read More ›

From Suzan Mazur’s The Paradigm Shifters: Overthrowing “the Hegemony of the Culture of Darwin”: Scientists remain divided in their assessment of whether origin of life and evolution are linked. One investigator I’ve discussed this with for The Paradigm Shifters, Eugene Koonin, an expert in viruses and microbes, comments: “So, in a sense, you cannot help thinking the origin is a boundary, so there is something distinct in the origin problem from the rest of evolution.” Koonin also thinks paradigm shift is crucial since viruses and microbes, which transfer “genetic” information nonlinearly (non-Darwinian) and are the largest part of the biomass, were left out of the Modern Synthesis. And, says Koonin further, “in nature, any multicellular organism – animal, fungus, or Read More ›

Jellyfish April 24, 2016 at informally named “Enigma Seamount” at a depth of ~3,700 meters: From April 20 to July 10, 2016, NOAA and partners will conduct the three-cruise Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas expedition on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to collect critical baseline information of unknown and poorly known areas in and around the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. See also: Sea creature, nearly 600 mya, wobbles current classifications of life Brainless jellyfish shows purpose and Cornelius Hunter: Okeanos Explorer Searches The Deep Sea In this far away land the mission has found all manner of strange life forms never before seen. Follow UD News at Twitter!