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This [quantum uncertainty] is something biologists, almost universally, have not yet come to grips with. And its consequences are enormous. It certainly means that we should wonder more than we currently do about the saying that life is made of “mere” matter….

This means that absolute materialism, a view that control and predictability and ultimate explanation are possible, breaks down in a way that is biologically significant. Read More ›

Campbell at JMU

Can you believe it? I was there that night also. I offer my competing account of the event.

Campbell argued that Darwin’s idea can’t be fully understood without understanding the idea Darwin was seeking to replace, namely (using today’s jargon) intelligent design. Thus to learn about Darwin correctly, one must learn about intelligent design.
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In addition to the excitement of the NCAA Basketball tournament, there will be lot’s of ID in March.
Paul Nelson in Jacksonville University, March 14

William Dembski at UC Berkeley March 17, 18

“ID Week” at JMU with John Angus Campbell, March 12-15 featuring debate teams from 20 colleges to debate ID:

Cornell University
Yale University (two teams)
Pepperdine University
University of Notre Dame
George Mason University
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Notable Book Reviews (by Jason Rosenhouse) shows that attempts are being made to discredit Hubert Yockey’s work, particularly his last book on the origin of life published in 2004:

reviewer Chris Adami:

many derivations in this book (all of them already present in the 1992 version) are deeply flawed either mathematically, or by the use of inappropriate biological assumptions, or both.

What is most surprising is that such a volume could pass an impartial peer review process. Cambridge University Press would do well to examine the circumstances of this and the previous book’s approval and editing process.

Adami is recommeding an investigation into Yockey’s 1992 book, Information Theory and Molecular Biology? Come on guys, why wait this long? Read More ›

I think Russia is primed and ready to get a dose of ID. 15 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, what are the attitudes about naturalistic evolution today?

Russia: Creationism Finds Support Among Young
A poll conducted by the Yuri Levada Center last September showed that only 26 percent of those surveyed supported the theory of evolution, while 49 percent of respondents said they believed man was created by God.

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In the fine tradition of quote mining (just kidding), I’d like to periodically dig up a provocative quote and observe the reaction on the net.

“
Genesis 1:26 tells us something very different. We are assured that our efforts to understand nature are valid, because our hearts and minds are fashioned in the likeness of God. Read More ›

When Bill posted Debugging the Universe, it reminded me to post that an ID sympathetic paper had been accepted in the journal of Chaos, Solitons & Fractals Volume 25, Issue 4 , August 2005, Pages 845-859: Computational Universes by Karl Svozil of Institut für Theoretische Physik, Vienna, Austria: Suspicions that the world might be some sort of a machine or algorithm existing “in the mind” of some symbolic number cruncher have lingered from antiquity. Although popular at times, the most radical forms of this idea never reached mainstream. Modern developments in physics and computer science have lent support to the thesis …. discrete computational physics certainly represents an interesting, speculative and challenging research area. Many ideas from system science, interface Read More ›

Richard Sternberg’s Testimony (courtesy of the Discovery Institute)

Perhaps there is no field of the biological sciences undergoing more rapid change than evolutionary research. Almost every day some new finding is reported that overturns— or seriously calls into question—long-standing assumptions and models. From the genome sequencing projects and studies of how genes operate to the discovery of new fossils, evolutionary biology is in a state of transition. Examples are simply too numerous to cover adequately. But here are a few. You have leaders in the field like W. Ford Doolittle presenting evidence that there is no “Tree of Life” but, instead, a complex web of gene sharing. Likewise, Carl Woese, one of the fathers of molecular phylogenetics, thinks the data support multiple, independent origins of organisms—that the notion of a Universal Common Ancestor is erroneous. Then again, evolutionary developmental biologists like Stuart Newman have performed experiments that suggest that animal body plans originated before genomes to “encode” them. I know it sounds radical, but he and other leaders in the field of “evo-devo” think that genes support development, but they don’t provide the blueprint. Read More ›

Akron Biology Faculty Members Decry Daniel Ely

Indeed, if undergraduate majors in our biology department revealed such profound misconceptions about basic evolutionary biology we would have serious misgivings about conferring their degrees in biology.

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Salvador Cordova: Do you oppose the offering of courses on Intelligent Design and/or Creationism in the Philosophy and Religion Departments of secular universities?

Eugenie Scott: No.

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Comm 4381 This special section will address the above goals by examining four controversies connected with Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species Arguments for and against Darwin’s theory Arguments for and against intelligent design (id). Can a Christian (or Jew, or Moslem, or any monotheist) be a Darwinian? Does id have a proper place in the biology classroom? The Teacher, John Angus Campbell will be visiting James Madison University as a judge in a $10,000 debate over ID

ID is not the same as Creationism, however, it would be naive to say the following article has no bearing on the future of ID. I’m personally disappointed to hear some creationist students mingling religious ideas into their scientific views, but on the whole, this report can’t be happy news for Richard Dawkins. :=) Academics fight rise of creationism at universities Most of the next generation of medical and science students could well be creationists, according to a biology teacher at a leading London sixth-form college. “The vast majority of my students now believe in creationism,” she said, “and these are thinking young people who are able and articulate and not at the dim end at all. …. Many …were Read More ›

Broward selects biology text with watered-down passages on evolution

A review by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found that on one edited page, Holt agreed to give Darwin less credit for shaping modern biology…..

Previous editions of the textbook said Darwin’s theory “is the essence of biology.”

In the Broward edition, students will read instead that Darwin’s theory “provides a consistent explanation for life’s diversity.”
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Frank Tipler co-authored a book with John Barrow entitled The Anthropic Cosmological Principle which was a peer-reviewed book published by Oxford University in 1987.

The principle thesis:

Intelligent information-processing must come into existence in the Universe, and, once it comes into existence, it will never die out.

They derive the thesis from Schrodinger’s equation

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I felt it appropriate to honor those who have stepped forward at the risk of their professions and reputations to stand up for free and open inquiry. I would like to also honor those who would wish to have their names put on the list today, but who must wait until the time is right. On behalf of all of us at UncommonDescent, to the 500, thank you! Over 500 Scientists Declare Their Doubts Over Darwin