The Scientist reported yesterday that a “Paper Used in Creationist Teaching [was] Retracted After 30 Years”.
Culture
Whatever happened to BioLogos (and “Christian evolutionism” in general)?
Maybe BioLogos is more interested in climate change now. National Center for Science Education appears to have gone the same route. A reasonable choice for both, given how Darwinism is faring.
Paul Nelson remembers Phillip Johnson: Not like he’d expected
Hot tip from a sometime talent scout: They seldom look like they should. That’s a sign of authenticity. Experience looks different from packaging.
Jonathan Wells remembers Phillip Johnson as a breath of fresh air
Wells is the author of Zombie Science, about out-of-date Darwinian rubbish whacked from one edition of a given publicly funded textbook to another, often claiming the protection of law as if it were some kind of Holy Writ that founds a religious republic.
Jeffrey Epstein certainly lies in an unquiet grave…
The trouble is, as Michael Egnor says, “consensus science” meant not denouncing Epstein. If it now means sanctioning regular witch hunts against anyone who knew the guy, we haven’t made any progress toward rational assessment. Or maybe it’s all just their form of fun.
New Scientist tries to undermine Cambrian explosion
The Ediacaran creatures are fascinating predecessors to be sure. They will likely turn out to be explosions of life, just like the Cambrian, but often not clearly related to it.
Bill Dembski remembers Phil Johnson (1940–2019)
Dembski begins by reminding us of the book, Darwin’s Nemesis (2006), which introduced Johnson as “the leading figure” in the intelligent design movement—which he was. Johnson was perhaps the first person after David Berlinski to just ask, point blank, never mind religion or whatever, why does all this tabloid-level nonsense rule biology?
An article at MSN news suggests that Darwin might have been wrong (!)
It’s just a conventional story in favor of hydrothermal vents for the origin of life. Some of us can remember back to when most such stories would begin by announcing that they had proven Darwin right. Funny how the rhetoric is changing.
Dennis Prager offers a straight-talking primer on assaults on free speech
With a cameo by ID guy Steve Meyer, author of Darwin’s Doubt.
Another take on what sex is for
Darwin’s sexual selection (seen as an alleged massive shaper of evolution) has given rise to any number of naturalist legends, including—local favourites—the Darwinbird of Pop Science and the Clever Abortion Mare.
Science journalist tells Steven Pinker, yes, we ARE living in a post-truth society
Evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker is rebuked for the view he represents in a recent essay for Skeptic, “Why We Are Not Living in a Post Truth Era”
Historian Michael Flannery: There is much more Darwin doubt now than fifty years ago
Flannery: “Most interesting of all is the last essay by a noted historian and philosopher of biology, the late Jean Gayon, “What Future for Darwinism?” Against the centennial celebration, the question itself stands out as one that certainly wasn’t to be seriously asked in Chicago [in 1959].”
“Moths’ ‘ears’ developed millions of years before bats” study is open access
Researchers: “We’ve thought for a long time that flowering plants must have contributed to the extraordinary number of moth and butterfly species we see today, but we haven’t been able to test that. This study helps us see if prior hypotheses line up, and what we find is that the plant hypothesis does, but the bat hypothesis does not.”
The science-based arguments against Copernicus and Galileo
Pop science writing typically misleads us by portraying the conflict as if the rightness of the Copernican universe were self-evident. For sure not at the time.
At the Atlantic: Textbook evolution story is said to be WRONG
Hadn’t the Darwin lobby better invade and frogmarch all these little East Coast snots back into line? They must never talk in such a way as to imply that Darwinism could be wrong about anything.