Intelligent Design

In late October, celebrated (former) atheist Antony Flew’s long-awaited There IS a God, with Roy Varghese, appeared. It is an elegant little book, as one might expect from a British philosopher. Its sparkling clarity does more than illuminate Antony Flew’s change of mind on the subject of God. Authorship controversy? Well, yes, some argue that Flew didn’t really write the book. Fundies are holding him captive in a church basement, see? Oh, come on. If Flew had suddenly, dramatically, turned back to atheism, would the same people suggest that he was senile or that he didn’t really write the (later) retraction? Is that truly the atheists’ best shot? Then their case is worse than I had realized. As a matter Read More ›

Studying all the time? That’s alarming. Quit before your brain develops a saddle shape from the sheer weight of your learning. Take a break and have some fun.

Ronald Meester    CLICK HERE FOR THE PAPER  Department of Mathematics, VU-University Amsterdam, “William Dembski (2002) claimed that the NoFreeLunch-theorems from op- timization theory render Darwinian biological evolution impossible. I argue that the NFL-theorems should be interpreted not in the sense that the models can be used to draw any conclusion about the real biological evolution (and certainly not about any design inference), but in the sense that it allows us to interpret computer simulations of  evolutionary processes. I will argue that we learn very little, if anything at all, about biological evolution from simulations. This position is in stark contrast with certain claims in the literature.” This paper is wonderful! Will it be published? It vindicates what Prof Dembski has been saying all the time Read More ›

Or perhaps one should ask, how did butterflies start to become caterpillars? Caution: Some pretty radical theorizing here.

Also: Today at the Post-Darwinist

Alley Oop, if you lie to me one more time … Read More ›

Making Space for Time – Physicists meet to puzzle out why time flows one way. Scott Dodd. Scientific American, January 2008 p 26,27,28.   This article cites physicists invoking multiverses to explain high order in the early cosmos – and that less order would have prevented universes from surviving or evolving to support intelligent life. This sounds like evidence for Intelligent Design – and efforts to explain it away. This calls for brilliant astrophysicists and mathematicians to address this controversial evidence from an ID perspective. Note particularly: ————— “The cosmic microwave background radiation, a remnant of the big bang, shows that 380,000 years after its birth, the universe was filled with hot gas, all evenly distributed and highly ordered. Eventually Read More ›

Blame placed on discarded Mutation Paste. Details at TheBRITES.org

You’d think astronomers would be happy to sponsor the latter idea but then you must have been out of town when Guillermo Gonzalez’s story broke. Read Denyse O’Leary’s interview with Gonzalez here. Also, Gonzalez on intelligent design – both non-falsifiable and already falsified? Howzzat? Also: Defeat organized stupidity. Buy and read The Design of Life!

Bill Dembski asked me to post some excerpts from this interview that Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard and I did with American radio host Dennis Prager, on the difference between the mind and the brain (as set out in our book The Spiritual Brain, Harper One, 2007). I finally got a chance to transcribe a bit of it, so here is that bit:

DENNIS PRAGER: We always or nearly always associate scientists with skepticism if not downright hostility to the notion that there is something in us that is not physically or materially explicable. The notion that we have a soul, well, but you can’t measure a soul, you can’t see it, and it is not available through an x-ray and yet there are some scientists who say that science itself may argue for the existence of a soul and even for a higher intelligence.

And there is a book that has received remarkable reviews, just published it’s called that argues and the neuroscientist in this case is a professor at the University of Montreal, an assistant professor in the departments of radiology and psychology and he is Mario Beauregard and in Toronto is Denyse O’Leary who is an award-winning Canadian science writer and journalist. They have co-authored this book.

So, tell our many listeners in North America, what is the basic theory of your book? Read More ›

HERE IS THE LINK  A taste “INTRODUCTION When on board H.M.S. ‘Beagle’, I began patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts, which seemed to throw light on the origin of species. I have not been hasty in coming to a decision. I am well aware that scarcely a single point is discussed here on which facts cannot be adduced, often apparently leading to conclusions directly opposite to those at which I have arrived. Although much remains obscure, I can entertain no doubt that the idea which I formerly entertained, that each species has been independently created, is erroneous. I am convinced that Natural Selection has been the main, but not exclusive, means of modification.” We talk a lot Read More ›

Must greet everyone with “Merry Christmas” and wear Expelled T-Shirts. Details at TheBRITES.org.

THE DESIGN OF LIFE is being shamelessly manipulated by the Darwinists at Amazon (go here). Not only are they posting negative reviews that give no indication that the reviewers have read the book but they are also voting up their negative reviews so that these are the first to be seen by potential buyers. The following 1-star review, posted 8 hours ago, illustrates the Darwinists’ level of discourse at Amazon: By E. Duran (San Jose, CA USA) – See all my reviews I just finished reading this book without vomiting. I had to go back and read Darwin’s “Origin of Species” again to remove the bad taste out of my mouth. This is the whole review, unedited and unabridged. Even Read More ›

A thoughtful article by a perceptive engineer. A good example of priming the Origins Debate pump. —————————— Let’s open minds, textbooks to intelligent design theories Intricacies of Earth life-forms, microscopes challenge evolution ideas Gordon Rose, Letter, Indianapolis Star Dec. 15, 2007 “In our school systems today, science, with its dramatic and continual advancement in knowledge, has to be one of the most interesting as well as important subjects being taught. Strangely enough, it is here that we are teaching unchallenged, the biggest lie in education — the theory of evolution. Not that the theory shouldn’t be taught — it should, simply because it is believed to be true by so many scientists. But the latest research with modern tools such Read More ›

A friend of mine emailed me the following quotes from Mike Gene’s new book THE DESIGN MATRIX, available from Amazon.com here. “The vast majority of scientists do not view Intelligent Design as science and I happen to agree with them.” (pg. xi) “I should make it explicitly clear from the start that I did not write this book to help those seeking to change the way we teach science to our kids. I do not argue that design deserves to be known as science. At best, Intelligent Design may only be a nascent proto-science and thus does not belong in the public school curriculum. Nor does this book argue that evolution is false and deserves to be criticized in the Read More ›

In a private listserv the question was recently asked by one of the participants: Just out of curiousity, what would we consider to be the fundamentals of biology? Obviously, you can do biology without trying to shove everything into Darwinian just-so stories. Professor Dembski thought my answer worth repeating on Uncommon Descent so here it is: The salient question is what CAN’T you do in practical biology without resort to mechanistic theories of prehistoric evolution. The answer appears to be there is nothing you can’t do. Modern biology is the study of living tissue not imprints in rocks or theoretical ancient ancestors. Knowledge of The Edge of Evolution is critical in some areas. One needs to know, for instance, the Read More ›

The blog for the Design of Life textbook supplement went live this morning (I’m the lead blogger).

The first three posts: Read More ›