Intelligent Design

Lenny Flank and PZ Myers, both positive atheists, are going for each other’s jugular on Panda’s Thumb. Myers thinks Flank is harming the cause because Flank refuses to agree that theists need to be lined up and shot and Flank thinks Myers is an idiot because Myers is alienating people in numbers so great that political defeat is inevitable. Flank is right of course. At any rate, the exchange is largely between the two of them and is at 510 comments and counting as I write this. For a laugh – check it out.

Reprogramming Biology by Ray Kurzweil, July 2006 Scientific American Biology is now in the early stages of a historic transition to an information science, while also gaining the tools to reprogram the ancient information systems of life. Our electronic devices typically update their software every few months, yet the 23,000 software programs called genes inside our cells have not changed appreciably in thousands of years. As we begin to understand biology in terms of its information processes, however, we are developing realistic models and simulations of how disease and aging progress and ways to reprogram them. Read the rest at the link above. Biologists are becoming obsolete. This is why they whine so much. Mathematicians and computer engineers are trained Read More ›

Below is a letter to me by Darrel Falk, a biologist on the faculty at Point Loma Nazarene University. Darrel and I have known each other for several years, and even though our views on ID diverge, we respect each other. The letter here is in response to my recent blog entry at UD on Ken Miller and Francis Collins’s possible openness to ID at the origin of life (go here). Note that Francis Collins wrote the foreword to Darrel’s book Coming to Faith with Science: Bridging the Worlds Between Faith and Biology, a book for which I also wrote an endorsement (although I have my differences with the book, I think it is one we need to engage).

In giving me permission to post this letter, Darrel remarked, “I have always greatly admired your sincerity. I have sensed a number of times how much you really want ID to be a true scientific force and not just a political force. Most recently this was clearly (and sincerely) evident in your statements in the Phillip Johnson Festschrift [i.e., Darwin’s Nemesis]. I believe you really have a vision that Intelligent Design should be of the highest quality biology. It is with that in mind that I hope you (and those who read your blog) will take my comments in the form of constructive criticism. I hope that people within the movement don’t become defensive, but will simply ask the question, ‘Does Falk have a point worth considering?'” To this he added, “I personally hope that Intelligent Design will evolve into a force that partners with science rather than a force which opposes it. If it would do that, I believe its influence would live on in ways that extend beyond the positive things it has already done.”

Here, then, is the letter (unedited; the ellipses were there in the original). I’ve interspersed comments in backets using boldface.

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My book NO FREE LUNCH is now, five years after its publication, appearing in paperback. I was asked to write a new preface to the paperback edition. Here is an excerpt: … Ironically, the very sketchiness of mathematical details that Wolpert claims prevents one from properly assessing the book does not prevent him from offering just such an assessment. In his review, he writes: “Neo-Darwinian evolution of ecosystems does not involve a set of genomes all searching the same, fixed fitness function, the situation considered by the NFL theorems. Rather it is a co-evolutionary process. Roughly speaking, as each genome changes from one generation to the next, it modifies the surfaces that the other genomes are searching. And recent results Read More ›

In addition to the engineers, physicists, chemists, and mathematicians who dissent from Darwin, anywhere from 33% to 60% of medical doctors dissent from Darwin (see Nearly Two-Thirds of Doctors Skeptical of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, HCD Research Poll, also check out PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS WHO DISSENT FROM DARWINISM).

Pro-ID sympathies are reflected by the fact a moderately pro-ID book received an endorsement by the Dean of Harvard’s medical school, Dr. Joseph Martin.

I’ve been lax in keeping the topic here on intelligent design and away from everyone’s favorite religion (or lack thereof). I’m as guilty as anyone. To remedy this situation I’m going to be deleting any comments I see with gratuitous references to religion until further notice. I’ll make an exception for any of our authors who’ve PhDs in both theology and mathematics. 😉 Update: I’ll make one other exception. You can make gratuitous comments are about Darwinism, the Godless Religion of the Left.

Rammerstorfer, Markus (2006). Nur eine Illusion? Biologie und Design [Only an Illusion? Biology and Design]. Tectum-Verlag, Marburg / ISBN 3-8288-9117-9. This book is now available. Amazon.de displays it here: http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/3828891179/028-6300370-3230923?v=glance&n=299956 See also the author’s homepage: http://members.aon.at/evolution/Book.html.

In light of the recent discussion on this blog about Darwinism as a naturalistic mystery religion (go here), I decided to revise and update a piece I did a long time ago relating evolution and alchemy. I’ve titled it “Evolution as Alchemy” (go here for pdf, here for html). I’ve also included the text (minus two illustrations) for your convenience below: Read More ›

Check out the following links: http://www.salib.net/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1065 http://www.partaidamaisejahtera.com/diskusi/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=9

In shocking news this morning, johnnyb was fired from his job for being irrelevant. When asked about why he was fired, ABC Co. gave the following response — “We looked at the operation of the company, and, while there were many programs attributed to him, and some people claimed that the network worked because of him, we ultimately decided that philosophically, these were all johnnyb-of-the-gaps arguments. In each case, someone from management was able to conceive of a way that these systems would be functional without a johnnyb.”

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Here is an edited report on Ken Miller’s talk that he gave at Texas Tech back in March 2006 (go here) as well as a portion of a keynote address given by Francis Collins at the 2002 ASA meeting in Malibu (go here): Ken Miller’s talk was well attended — the auditorium was stacked (400+) with biology professors and their compulsory biology students (for extra credit). The talk was surprisingly fair on the subject of God, but it was terribly unfair (and disjointed) on the subject of Intelligent Design. Almost no facts were given and nearly all of his argument dealt with the Dover v. Kitzmiller trial in which he testified. As usual, Intelligent Design was conflated with creationism. The Read More ›

[From an attorney friend of mine:] Bill, here is an item you might want to “blog” about, relating to the ACLU and the obligation of public schools to keep books in their libraries that take positions some parents object to: An AP story today (6/22/06) in the Washington Times is headlined “ACLU: Miami can’t pull pro-Cuba books,” refers to books in Miami-Dade County’s 33 public schools’ libraries that depict Cuban children happy with Castro. The school board voted 6-3 last week to remove the books, “Vamos a Cuba,” from 33 schools, saying the books were inaccurate and had omissions about life under communism, and thus were inappropriate for children aged 5 to 7 who are the intended age-group for the Read More ›

Here is a story in the Guardian about the world’s science academies locking arms and digging in their heels to stem the tide of anti-evolution sentiment issuing from the unruly masses. Now if only evolution weren’t such a crock …

Scientists call for better teaching on evolution
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1802823,00.html

Rebecca Smithers
Thursday June 22, 2006

The world’s leading scientists yesterday urged schools to stop denying the facts of evolution amid controversy over the teaching of creationism.

The national science academies of 67 countries – including the UK’s Royal Society – issued a joint statement warning that scientific evidence about the origins of life was being “concealed, denied, or confused”. It urged parents as well as teachers to provide children with the facts about the origins and evolution of life on Earth. [Was the origin of life problem solved while I wasn’t looking? –WmAD] Read More ›

Panda’s Thumb is heading downhill since Kitzmiller v. DASD but we aren’t. In May we achieved a new record number of visits at 146,084 to bring our total number of visits to over 1.25 million in the last 12 months. Thanks to everyone for helping to get our message out to a growing number of people!

Michael Shermer writes in the Skeptic column of the December 2005 Scientific American There are many ways to be spiritual, and science is one, with its awe-inspiring account about who we are and where we came from. “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself,” began the late astronomer Carl Sagan in the opening scene of Cosmos, filmed just down the coast from Esalen, in referring to the stellar origins of the chemical elements of life. “We’ve begun at last to wonder about our origins, star stuff comtemplating the stars, organized collections of ten billion billion billion atoms contemplating the evolution of matter, tracing that long path Read More ›