I have posted the second video in my two part book recommendation series on the YouTube channel. In the previous video I highlighted many books that argue for intelligent design. My view is that proponents of design should face the strongest criticisms possible, and not be afraid of doing so. In line with this philosophy, Read More…
Books of interest
Humanist philosopher James Croft goes after Steve Meyer’s Return of God Hypothesis
But in an interesting, traditional way (no Cancel Culture, no weirdness, no hysterics).
Ten (or so) Pro-Intelligent Design Books You Should Read
On the Design Disquisitions YouTube channel, I’ve posted a new video where I recommend several books of interest, specifically pro-ID literature. Most of the suggestions may be familiar to you, but hopefully there are a few that you’ve not read before. I also give a brief summary of the content of each book. I don’t Read More…
Professional skeptic Michael Shermer takes on Stephen C. Meyer and his Return of God Hypothesis
In an age when the Raging Woke parasitize the world of ideas, banning everyone from Frank Turek through Richard Dawkins from public life (when not out setting fires and assaulting the non-Woke), it is worth nothing that Shermer’s 2020 book Giving the Devil His Due, is a defense of intellectual freedom.
Larry Moran’s new book sounds like a scorcher
He thinks there must be something “seriously wrong” with science if people keep looking for new functions for junk DNA. What’s “wrong,” so far as the rest of us can see, is that researchers keep finding new functions that formerly-junk DNA performs, so they keep looking. For the same reasons as fisherfolk return to the well-stocked lake.
From Bill Dembski: Automated driving and other failures of AI
Dembski: in the cossetted and sanitized environments that we have constructed for ourselves in the U.S., have no clue of what capabilities AI actually needs to achieve to truly match what humans can do. The shortfall facing AI is extreme.
String theory skeptic Peter Woit reflects on Stephen Hawking
Peter Woit on Hawking’s 2010 The Grand Design, co-written with Leonard Mlodinow: ” I wrote about this book in some detail here. Put bluntly, it was an atrocious rehash of the worst nonsense about M-theory and the string theory landscape, with an argument for atheism thrown in to get more public attention. This is the sort of thing that has done a huge amount of damage to both the public understanding of fundamental physics, and even to the field itself.”
Bill Dembski on how a new book expertly dissects doomsday scenarios
Dembski: “At the end of the discussion, however, Kurzweil’s overweening confidence in the glowing prospects for strong AI’s future were undiminished. And indeed, they remain undiminished to this day (I last saw Kurzweil at a Seattle tech conference in 2019 — age seemed to have mellowed his person but not his views).” But Larson says it’s all nonsense.
Larry Moran to write new book: Claims genome is 90% junk
If he wants to pick a fight with ENCODE, grab a seat.
How Darwinism wound its way into various schemes for improving American society
Scambray: Hofstadter softened Darwin, making his a “conservative” force, supporting the laissez-faire status quo. Others classified Darwin as a change agent, a precursor to social planning. These intermural quarrels aside, Watson demonstrates that progressivism “aimed a dagger at the heart of the Constitution.” …
Avi Loeb on why he thinks Oumuamua might be an alien signal
“Nature does not produce such things”
Why Michael Denton is an important but under-recognized figure in the ID community
Here’s an interesting assessment of non-Darwinian microbiologist Michael Denton’s work: in The Miracle of the Cell he concentrates on one example of fine-tuning after another… Biologists may have once held simplistic notions about the origin of life, back in the heady days following the iconic Miller-Urey experiment. They may have thought they were on the Read More…
An ID book for young people?
Well, it’s nice someone is thinking about that. A 400-page doorstop may be intellectually flawless but it isn’t going to reach the people who will never read it.
Mike Behe on Genetic and Biological Truth & Myth
This is in connection, of course, with his new book, A Mousetrap for Darwin: Michael J. Behe Answers His Critics which, by the way, is: Best Sellers Rank: #7,155 in Kindle Store 2 in Biochemistry Science 4 in Biochemistry (Books) 4 in Evolution (Kindle Store)It’s nice to see that, in a world largely deformed by Cancel Culture, some people still love a good debate.
Book by classical philosopher of design in nature is now available after 200 years
At Amazon: The Lectures on Natural Theology were not included in the ten-volume Edinburgh Edition of Reid’s collected works. Moreover, while two earlier editions of these lectures exist, both contain serious mistakes of transcription and annotation. For these reasons, this carefully revised edition of this important text fills an important gap in the literature.