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Intelligent Design

Another claim for ape language that doesn’t pan out

Well, John Berman’s ABC report “Hello, How Are You Doing?: Groundbreaking Research Has Scientists Talking with Apes” certainly sounded groundbreaking. The bonobos and orangutans at the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, are said to “talk”*, using a 350 symbol keyboard on which they have been trained since infancy. One ofthem, a 26-year-old Bonobo, Kanzi, is the star: He can map a series of English words to symbols on the keyboard. But then, it all fell apart during Berman’s “interview” with the ape: Read More ›

Dissenting Viewpoints discussed in a German Journal

The latest edition of the german journal “Religion-Staat-Gesellschaft/Journal for the Study of Beliefs and Worldviews” (Jg.7 (2006), Nr.2) holds the focus on Intelligent Design & Evolution. ID-proponents and evolution-critics got a good chance to present and defend their viewpoints. Although the journal is dedicated to the study of worldviews and their roles in society there was also space to present scientific arguments and facts. The broad content includes a sociological analysis concerning the (largely negative) media coverage of ID in the german speaking area (Schmidt) and even a direct debate between ID-proponents (Lönnig/Meis) and critics (Gutmann/Warnecke). Papers Robert Schmidt, “Götter und Designer bleiben draußen” – Eine kritische Diskursanalyse der Medienberichterstattung zu Intelligent Design im deutschsprachigen Raum p135-184 Hans Peter Comes, Read More ›

Robert Marks’s Evolutionary Informatics Lab

Robert J. Marks II (see biosketch below) has just put his new Evolutionary Informatics Lab online: ecs.baylor.edu/faculty/marks/Research/EILab Here is how the lab is described on the website: Evolutionary informatics merges theories of evolution and information, thereby wedding the natural, engineering, and mathematical sciences. Evolutionary informatics studies how evolving systems incorporate, transform, and export information. Baylor University’s Evolutionary Informatics Laboratory explores the conceptual foundations, mathematical development, and empirical application of evolutionary informatics. The principal theme of the lab’s research is teasing apart the respective roles of internally generated and externally applied information in the performance of evolutionary systems. On the evolutionary informatics site are three papers jointly authored by Prof. Marks and me, with more are in the works. BIOSKETCH: Robert Read More ›

ID isn’t science, and just to make sure…

…we’ll deny tenure to anyone who wants to pursue the ideas, or develop them to the point where they can make predictions. If that sounds like a Catch-22, it is. Iowa State University Professor of Physics John Hauptman explains his No vote on Guillermo Gonzalez’s tenure decision as a simple matter: intelligent design isn’t science. Hauptman liked Gonzalez as a colleague: He is very creative, intelligent and knowledgeable, highly productive scientifically and an excellent teacher. Students in my Newspaper Physics class like to interview him. None of that counts, however, as Hauptman sees it. Rather what counts is the definition of “science.” Intelligent design, which Hauptman compares to the ancients attributing the growth of grain to the god Ceres, just Read More ›

Are there any anti-ID writings that the Panda’s Thumb won’t endorse?

Mark Chu-Carroll* goes after Behe’s new book here. Judge for yourself whether this deserves to be called a review (Chu-Carroll thinks it does). Nick Matzke endorses Chu-Carroll’s blog post against Behe here. Are there any anti-ID writings, no matter how ill-conceived or mean-spirited, that PT won’t endorse? It might be an interesting exercise to attempt a Sokal-style hoax to see what exactly PT is prepared to believe about ID. I herewith offer a prize, worth up to $200, to anyone who can pull this off and afterward reveal that it was all a hoax (the precise amount to be determined by how cleverly it is pulled off). —— *Chu-Carroll names his bog GOOD MATH, BAD MATH: FINDING THE FUN IN Read More ›

Party time at Discovery Institute DC Headquarters!

Not one, but two book parties with the authors of the latest ID books! Tuesday, June 5th from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Darwin Strikes Back by Tom Woodward Wednesday, June 13th from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Edge of Evolution by Michael Behe The parties will be held at the Discovery Institute’s Washington DC office, located at 1015 Fifteenth Street, NW Suite 900. RSVP to Logan Gage at lgage@discovery.org, (202) 558-7085.

Darwin a bold Prophet?

“I believe that if fossil birds are found very low down in the series, they will be seen to have a double or bifurcated wing. Here is a bold prophecy!” http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1452.2&viewtype=text&pageseq=226 Does any one know if his prophecy came true?

Sam Brownback on Evolution:

What I Think About Evolution

By SAM BROWNBACK
Published: May 31, 2007
Washington 

IN our sound-bite political culture, it is unrealistic to expect that every complicated issue will be addressed with the nuance or subtlety it deserves. So I suppose I should not have been surprised earlier this month when, during the first Republican presidential debate, the candidates on stage were asked to raise their hands if they did not “believe” in evolution. As one of those who raised his hand, I think it would be helpful to discuss the issue in a bit more detail and with the seriousness it demands. Read More ›

The Greening Earth

This map is the result of 8 scientists poring over satellite data for 18 months. It shows how plant growth (NPP or net primary productivity) around the world has changed in the past 20 years of global warming and CO2 buildup in the atmosphere. The result is a 6% increase when all the globe’s vegetation is tallied up and averaged. The research appeared in Science. The article I got the picture from is at NASA titled Global Garden. Why is it that we don’t hear about this in the popular press? We are inundated with conjecture based on computer models of CO2 induced warming and the supposed ill effects of it. Yet when the facts are allowed to speak we Read More ›

More Silly Psychobabble About “Resistance to Science”

In this essay, psychologists Paul Bloom and Deena Weisberg assert:

The developmental data suggest that resistance to science will arise in children when scientific claims clash with early emerging, intuitive expectations. This resistance will persist through adulthood if the scientific claims are contested within a society, and will be especially strong if there is a non-scientific alternative that is rooted in common sense and championed by people who are taken as reliable and trustworthy.

I’m not quite sure what the “developmental data” are, but I do know something about science, and I am certainly not resistant to it, which is precisely why I am an intelligent-design proponent.

Read More ›

Creationism in popular culture: NYT culture critic visits creation museum

When I first turned to read Edward Rothstein’s account in the New York Times’ Arts section of the just-opened creation museum at Petersburg, Kentucky, I gritted my teeth in advance.

I have little use for creation museums, but way, way less use for self-regarding, overaged art twerps who pretend superiority to millions of people who do real jobs for a living. So, I thought, Die. Twerp. Die. Before the cat gets you.

Well, I was overreacting, I am glad to say! Rothstein’s review is thoughtful and his reflections are of genuine use to those who want some idea of what they might see at a creation museum – and how it differs from a Church of Darwin museum: Read More ›

Columnist and lawyer Ken Connor weighs in on Gonzalez tenure case

Here’s columnist Ken Connor (Terry Schiavo lawyer) on the Gonzalez tenure denial:

It seems that many scientists and academicians who hold views contrary to Dr. Gonzalez have concluded that the best way to avoid debate about the evidence for intelligent design is to simply deny jobs to those who will not affirm their atheistic worldview. The fact that these scientists, who are supposedly open to following the evidence wherever it leads, have resorted to blatant discrimination to avoid having this conversation speaks volumes about the weakness of their position. They realize their arguments are not sufficient to defeat the intelligent design movement and they must, therefore, shut their opponents out of the conversation. All the evidence suggests that it is unjust that Dr. Gonzalez was denied tenure and that this ruling should be overturned on appeal. Nevertheless, what happened to Dr. Gonzalez is a reflection of the growing strength of the intelligent design movement, not its weakness.

My sense is that he is right about Gonzalez’ tenure denial demonstrating strength, not weakness. The one thing that the materialist CANNOT abide right now is a frank assessment of the evidence.

Connor’s byline describes him as

Ken Connor is Chairman of the Center for a Just Society in Washington, DC and a nationally recognized trial lawyer who represented Governor Jeb Bush in the Terri Schiavo case.

Other Gonzalez case news: Read More ›

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

Or something like that. This book looks WAY interesting…here’s the blurb from the University of California Press: The world is configured in ways that seem systematically hospitable to life forms, especially the human race. Is this the outcome of divine planning or simply of the laws of physics? Ancient Greeks and Romans famously disagreed on whether the cosmos was the product of intelligent design or accident. In this book, David Sedley examines this question and illuminates new historical perspectives on the pantheon of thinkers who laid the foundations of western philosophy and science. Versions of what we call the “creationist” option were widely favored by the major thinkers of classical antiquity, including Plato, whose ideas on the subject prepared the Read More ›