Darwinism

From theology professor Paul-Louis Metzger at Patheos: Science, Metaphysics and Metaphorical Ladders: When Science is Theology For those who think that metaphysics and theology are antiquated disciplines that have no place in our scientific age, please think again. Take one prominent contemporary example—Richard Dawkins. Like Freud, he is an anti-theology theologian in disguise. The anti-theological Dawkins presents theological or metaphysical claims. His fundamental thesis that the gene is selfish and that it governs all reality is not a hypotheses that Dawkins could readily jettison on the basis of empirical observations. Rather, it serves as a ruling construct that governs his approach to the data. This is how theology and metaphysics function. In other words, theology and metaphysics function as overarching Read More ›

He invented “meme.” It caught on. Unfortunately for clarity, but never mind. Here’s his latest effort is to gain currency for a term,: to greenwald someone:  The neologism springs from his spat with fellow new atheist Glenn Greenwald (the flying horse controversy – the sort of mess new atheists would get themselves into, and then be thwacking each other over). The discussion unfolds. The question awaits: Why is Dawkins supposed to be world’s smartest man? Be nice to Uncommon Descent at the Donations page. We are helping Richard Dawkins to retire.

Sigh. We need a map. No, listen: From Twitlonger: I’m accused by @ggreenwald of refusing to be interviewed by Muslim journalists! Here’s what actually happened. I was at a Royal Society meeting to launch the new Stephen Hawking Prize for Science Communication sponsored by @STARMUSfestival, the imaginative conference series that brings scientists together with astronauts and creative musicians. The very nice PR woman arranged press interviews for the speakers. Science communication is dear to my heart, and I agreed to be pulled out of the conference for a series of interviews, on condition that the journalists would ask me about the Hawking Prize & STARMUS, not religion. One journalist, from New Statesman, soon made it clear that he wanted to Read More ›

So Suzan Mazur, author of The Paradigm Shifters: Overthrowing “the Hegemony of the Culture of Darwin,” tells us in Huffington Post: Sir Paul Nurse has just completed his five-year term as president of the Royal Society. The Nobel laureate and molecular biologist has been succeeded by Nobel laureate Sir Venkatraman “Venki” Ramakrishnan, who is a structural biologist. But Nurse, who will continue in his role as chief of Francis Crick Institute, has not left the Royal Society without first ensuring that the world’s oldest scientific society remains relevant: a major Royal Society meeting in London has been called for November 7-9, 2016 on evolution paradigm shift with the understated working title, “New Trends in Evolutionary Biology: Philosophical and Social Science Read More ›

Bacterial resistance is the one most likely to be encountered at a cocktail party.  Philosopher and photographer Laszlo Bencze, soon to be the victim of cocktail buttonholes, offers to explain his approach: Jonathan Wells provides the best possible list of evidence for evolution in his Icons of Evolution (crib sheets) He also disposes of each of these quite handily and shows why they are not pillars of evidence at all. However, in the current world view, I would have to say that bacterial evolution is probably the most solid foundation for evolution in action. Scientists point to the fact of various bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics as clear, unassailable evidence that random mutations occur and that such mutations are sometimes helpful Read More ›

And, no surprise, she is into Darwin. MSM cartoonist Ann Telnaes has been taking some heat for honestly expressing the widespread elite view that the kids of anyone who opposes the progressive agenda (in this case Canadian-born US politician Ted Cruz) must be like monkeys. The usual disgusting round of “apologies” (snicker, snicker) have followed from the Washington Post, whose Top People may well think that the kids ought to have been portrayed as vermin instead. See what happened re lots of other pol’s kids. Having gotten used to Darwinworld over the years, I had a sneaking suspicion—and sure enough, Telnaes is fond of portraying people as monkeys,  in defense of “evolution.” She currently hopes to persuade the public that still Read More ›

The remarkable “powers” of evolution are now shown to degrade (aka “mutate”) the human genes essential to intelligence.

Remarkably, they found that some of the same genes that influence human intelligence in healthy people were also the same genes that cause impaired cognitive ability and epilepsy when mutated, networks which they called M1 and M3.

Read More ›

Recently, Evolution News & Views has been discussing the decade-old Dover case that, in my view, cleared the decks for serious discussions about Darwinism. No surprise, lots more people express doubts, now that the failing American school system is no longer  an issue. West, a director at the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture (ID Central), writes, It was during the bleak months following Dover that I made one of the biggest decisions of my professional life. Rather than cut and run, I decided to risk everything. Convinced of the critical importance of the intelligent design debate, I gave up my tenured position as a university professor to devote my full energies to Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Read More ›

Further to Is “evolution” a person? Can it “learn”? (Well, that would sure explain “apparently intelligent designs.” If evolution can “learn,” it is a consciousness of some kind.) But Darwin boffins were making the claim. Anway, philospher and photographer Laszlo Bencze comments on their phrase, in the title above: “The evolution of evolvability” is the single most striking phrase in the article that Denyse excerpts. Like wow. With a phrase like that you have just answered all conceivable doubts about Darwinism. It’s the master key which opens every dank cell in Darwin’s dungeon. It rolls off the tongue like a line from a Shakespeare sonnet. It’s got assonance. It’s a beautiful thing. Maybe some crabby old ID critics will damn Read More ›

Pos-Darwinista draws attention to this paywalled item: at Cell by evolution boffins Richard A. Watson and Eörs Szathmáry: How Can Evolution Learn? Summary: The theory of evolution links random variation and selection to incremental adaptation. In a different intellectual domain, learning theory links incremental adaptation (e.g., from positive and/or negative reinforcement) to intelligent behaviour. Specifically, learning theory explains how incremental adaptation can acquire knowledge from past experience and use it to direct future behaviours toward favourable outcomes. Until recently such cognitive learning seemed irrelevant to the ‘uninformed’ process of evolution. In our opinion, however, new results formally linking evolutionary processes to the principles of learning might provide solutions to several evolutionary puzzles – the evolution of evolvability, the evolution of Read More ›

Must be. The servers may have gone down, downloading info re his grants. Readers will recall that Matzke, a long-time commenter here on behalf of the Darwin lobby, now at Australian U, was shortly afterward accused by John West at Evolution News & Views for using NSF grant money improperly, for a political purpose (to undermine academic freedom bills). Yes, well, in other news, birds fly. Undermining researchers’ and teachers’ intellectual integrity is all the Darwin lobby has got going for itself.  Isn’t the purpose of raising public money for science to compel everyone to fund whatever nonsense or malice such people dream up? Well, Pos-Darwinista (a top Portuguese-language blog) wrote this morning with the following information: Try downloading the grants Read More ›

Enforcement of an orthodoxy engulfed by challenges, from what we know. Further to the book burner moving to Australian National U, from John West at Evolution News & Views we learn: Former National Center for Science Education activist Nick Matzke has just published an utterly inane article in Science about academic freedom bills. In the article, he constructs a “phylogenetic tree” to show that various academic freedom bills are related to one another. If the intention was to show that Discovery Institute has supported academic freedom legislation in various states, or that many of those bills have similar language, Matzke didn’t need to construct a phylogenetic tree. He simply could have followed the reporting here at Evolution News. If I Read More ›

In an article in National Catholic Reporter on academic freedom, journalist Menachem Wecker tells us, Contrary to popular belief, academic freedom isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. Instead, it guarantees that professors can only be dismissed for cause, ascertained by a hearing of their peers. Okay, but in these times, “cause” doesn’t mean very much, does it? Sure enough, So if a biology professor “goes off the deep end” and tells students there’s no such thing as evolution, or genes don’t exist, that professor will go before a committee, which could decide that behavior is unprofessional, Reichman said. But if a biologist goes in a new research direction that threatens “some of the old truisms of the field,” that professor must be Read More ›

Readers may never have heard of Pat Condell, a “godless” Irish comedian who is, shall we say, not fond of Islamic terror, but remains capitated. Well, our old friend PZ Myers apparently discovered Condell and feels he needs to “go throw up in the corner” as a result. This is the first time I (O’Leary for News) have read something Myers’ wrote in a while that wasn’t full of profanity. And it is two sentences long! We didn’t know Myers owned the brand on atheism. Most theists don’t feel they need to get personal about what every theist political opponent (or villain or crackpot) in the world chooses to do, but then most theists don’t claim to own the brand Read More ›

Matzke’s a long-time commenter here, on behalf of the Darwin lobby. His posts may now reflect a different time zone. UD News received this message from LinkedIn: Nicholas Matzke is now Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) Fellow at The Australian National University More here. On the one hand, we collect site visits, and he helps provide them. On the other hand, they better keep an eye on their library at U Down There. He may find Wrong Thoughts. See also: Nick Matzke – Book Burner? Follow UD News at Twitter!