Imagine for a moment that someone claims to you that the Origin of Life was an incredibly unlikely event. So unlikely, in fact, that the fact that it happened even once in the entire universe is itself quite a feat. What position would you expect that person to be taking? Sounds like Intelligent Design proponent […]
Author: nullasalus
Blast from the Past: Eugenie Scott and the NABT
Pasted here with minimal comment (for now) is Eugenie Scott’s reply to an open letter written regarding a years-ago controversy involving the concept of evolution as proposed by the National Association of Biology Teachers. I’ll have more to say about this later, but I make this post because (other than the site I link from) […]
Confessions of a Design Heretic
Those of you who’ve followed my posts and comments will have picked up that my view of Intelligent Design is pretty complicated. On the one hand, I defend design inferences, even strong design inferences. I’m entirely comfortable with questioning Darwinism (if that view still has enough content to identify it as a clear position, anyway), […]
Intelligent Design & the Design Question
I don’t have much of a lead-in for this post, so I’ll get right to the point: I think it’s important to draw a distinction between two concepts when it comes to ID. Namely, the distinction between the Design Question, and Intelligent Design itself. When I say ‘the Design Question’, I mean more or less […]
Atheism and the Evolution Requirement
One of the major difficulties I have as someone with one foot planted in the theistic evolution camp is discussing the general concept of evolution or Darwinism. A large part of the problem is with the simple definition of the words – where one person takes Darwinism to mean “a process totally unguided and unforeseen […]
Theistic Evolutionists – How Do You See (Intelligent) Design?
Recently, I made a post regarding what I thought was an encouraging moment at Biologos, where a guest writer frankly speculated about how God could work through evolution. In the comments section, some discussion was had about just how rare or common such views are among TEs. Since I’ve already made the call for non-theists […]
Paul Davies 2007: Taking Science on Faith
I offer up this great 2007 op-ed by Paul Davies, in part because it remains very relevant and likely will remain so for a very long time. Submitted with minimal comment for now, though here is an excerpt: When I was a student, the laws of physics were regarded as completely off limits. The job […]
Agnostic & Non-Theistic ID Proponents/Sympathizers – Speak Up
Intelligent Design is often accused of being entirely driven by religious motivations. I don’t think there’s anything about ID itself that warrants this conclusion, but I do think it’s obvious that ID’s supporters by and large tend to be religious. Even I’m a religious theist (Catholic, though a poor one by most standards), and some, […]
An Encouraging Moment at Biologos
Submitted without further comment, for now, is this quote from Part 2 of a review of Jerry Coyne’s “Why Evolution Is True”. With emphasis added: Later, he claims “Darwinism tells us that, like all species, human beings arose from the working of blind, purposeless forces over eons of time” (p. 224). There are at least […]
Intelligent Design, “Naturalism” & “Materialism”
I now and then see it claimed that, among its various contributions, one key benefit of Intelligent Design is that it poses a direct challenge to naturalism, or materialism. The problem I have with this sort of talk is that one of the key planks of ID is a kind of metaphysical neutrality – the […]
ID in the Laboratory: An Evidence Puzzle.
Here’s a question about ID I’ve had for a long time, and I hope some ID proponents are able to help me sort it out. I’ll get right to the point before starting in with the commentary. When an intelligent agent demonstrates the ability to directly and purposefully modify the genes of a given creature, […]
Convergence, ID Critics, and Public Theatre
The Map of Life is a new website, funded in part by the Templeton Organization, devoted to highlighting and discussing the role of convergence in evolution. Simon Conway Morris, whose thoughts on evolution I’m actually very interested in, has a role in the site – and it promises to be a place of interest for […]
The Unspoken Terror of Scientism
A discussion of the designer versus multiverse debate, and speculations on what motivates the treatment of multiverses as science rather than philosophy.
Why Thomists Should Support Intelligent Design, Part 2
In part 1 of this series, I laid out what I see as some key differences between Thomism and ID. In this post I want to focus on why Thomists should nevertheless support ID – even while granting some or all of the most common criticisms Thomists have of ID. In order to do that, […]
Why Thomists Should Support Intelligent Design, Part 1
Part 1 of 2 of a proposal that Thomists should support Intelligent Design.