Intelligent Design

In a most excellent article one of the modern greats of science fiction weighs in on the controversy between ID and Darwinian evolution. Read Creation and Evolution in the Schools by Orson Scott Card.

My optimism that the “Vise Strategy” would eventually supersede the notorious “Wedge Strategy” is finally finding some justification (for the Vise Strategy, go here). It appears that the Vise Strategy is now beginning to get its proper due:

It’s possible for Christians to render unto God and unto Darwin
By David Hawpe

Sunday, January 22, 2006
The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky

My guess is that the recent forum on intelligent design at Broadway Baptist Church did not satisfy William Dembski’s preference for a “vise strategy,” in which the apostates who believe in evolution are hauled before tribunals to answer.

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Single locus Complementary Sex Determination in Hymenoptera: an “unintelligent” design? Frontiers in Zoology 2006, 3:1 doi:10.1186/1742-9994-3-1 Ellen van Wilgenburg (ellenv@unimelb.edu.au) Gerard Driessen (gerard.driessen@ecology.falw.vu.nl) Leo W Beukeboom (l.w.beukeboom@rug.nl) Abstract. The haplodiploid sex determining mechanism in Hymenoptera (males are haploid, females are diploid) has played an important role in the evolution of this insect order. In Hymenoptera sex is usually determined by a single locus, heterozygotes are female and hemizygotes are male. Under inbreeding, homozygous diploid and sterile males occur which form a genetic burden for a population. We review life history and genetical traits that may overcome the disadvantages of single locus complementary sex determination (sl-CSD). Behavioural adaptations to avoid matings between relatives include active dispersal from natal patches and mating Read More ›

The Vatican Newspaper published an article distancing itself from ID and (once again) embracing Darwinian Evolution.
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Steve Reuland over on Panda’s Thumb is babbling about whether some ID strawman du jour can be falsified. Let’s examine the real issue.
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http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v439/n7073/full/nature04168.html

Chinese scientists have found an interesting sample–a cretaceous symmetrodont therian with some monotreme like postcranial features–in the Liaoning fossil beds which they have named Akidolestes cifellii. Read More ›

Monday, 1.23.06 Program: “The Case for Intelligent Design,” by William A. Dembski, 7 p.m., Lied Center, Kansas University. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek will deliver a speech titled “The Universe is a Strange Place,” 7:30 p.m., Spencer Museum of Art auditorium, Kansas University. Free, public event. http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/jan/19/lawrence_datebook/?city_local

Study: MicroRNA fine-tunes brain synapses BOSTON, Jan. 18 (UPI) — Scientists at Children’s Hospital Boston say they’ve found the first evidence that microRNAs have a role in the functioning of synapses in the brain. http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20060118-21395400-bc-us-synapses.xml The researchers believe microRNAs fine-tune cognitive function, and may be relevant to mental retardation and autism. The scientists explained that non-coding regions of the genome — those that don’t have instructions for building proteins — are now known to include important elements that regulate gene activity. Among such elements are microRNAs — tiny, recently discovered RNA molecules that suppress gene expression. Increasing evidence indicates a role for microRNAs in the developing nervous system, and the Children’s Hospital Boston researchers have demonstrated that one microRNA affects Read More ›

ADVERTISEMENT:

The Vatican Forum

is pleased to invite you to a lecture and discussion on

Intelligent Design, Evolution, and the Church

with

Mark Ryland
Vice President, The Discovery Institute

and

Fr. Rafael Pascual, LC
Director, Science and Faith Institute, Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum

Read More ›

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0601/articles/schonborn.html

Design for Living
A theoretical physicist weighs in on a hot-button topic
by Geeta Dayal

Village Voice
January 10th, 2006

Many high-profile critics in the raging debate over “intelligent design” have, understandably, been evolutionary biologists. Legendary Oxford professor Richard Dawkins regularly appears on British TV to talk up Darwin and lash out against ID between books. Harvard emeritus prof E.O. Wilson has edited a hefty new 1,700-page anthology of Darwin’s collected works, with the fighting title From So Simple a Beginning.

They’re generally not people like Leonard Susskind, a renowned physics professor at Stanford and a prime architect of string theory. His new book, his first for a general audience, has the provocative title The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design (Little, Brown). It’s not the term “cosmic landscape,” trippy as it sounds, that’s drawing the attention. Nor is it the words “string theory” – even though “string theory” is, admittedly, one of those futuristic-sounding 10-dollar terms, like “chaos theory” or “complexity theory” or “quantum gravity,” that get the layperson daydreaming of The Matrix and cybernetic implants. The words that are causing double takes – and in some cases, drawing ire – are “intelligent design,” and the word that precedes them, “illusion.” Read More ›

Let’s accept the fault line between faith and science
By Edward O. Wilson

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-01-15-faith-edit_x.htm

If the perennial culture war between science and fundamentalist Christianity about evolution seems insoluble, the reason is that it is insoluble. Read More ›

http://www.uctv.tv/library-human.asp?series=show&summary=show&seriesID=Focus_on_Origins&sort=

Our server seems to have hiccuped and lost a whole bunch of woctor’s comments. The management apologizes for this unfortunate event. 🙁

The details of the lawsuit:

http://www.au.org/site/DocServer/Final_Complaint.pdf?docID=541 Read More ›