Intelligent Design

In all things there are two different kinds of characteristics: quality and quantity. While quantity is relatively easy to define, quality is difficult to define or specify. Consider an apple. It is easy to grasp what is the difference between one apple, two apples, three apples… only an integer number changes, representing the amount of apples. Differently, it becomes hard to define in detail what an apple is, what are its essential properties and its intrinsic attributes, ─ in a single word ─ what is its quality, which distinguishes it from anything else. This is more true more the thing investigated is complex and rich of information and organization. Often a quality of a thing is related to its shape. Read More ›

Tomorrow some of us will get back to regular ID news, but it would be really hard to ignore this:: The big fat truth: More and more studies show that being overweight does not always shorten life — but some public-health researchers would rather not talk about them. Nature’s Virginia Hughes has tussled with the diet industry and lived to tell about it. Skinny: Clinical obesity is—by definition—a problem. That is why it is called “clinical.” But the fact that you or somebody or somebody’s brother-in-law might be 15 lbs. more than the insurance company charts think they should be is not necessarily a medical or health problem. Maybe the time, energy and money spent dealing with it could be Read More ›

Is the hypothesis of Young Earth Creation (YEC) relevant to ID? Most in the ID community will say, “NO”, but let me offer some reasons to think the answer could be, “YES”. The hypothesis of a young Earth or young universe comes from religious beliefs rooted in a chronology constructed by taking the genealogies in the Bible (like Luke Chapter 3, 1 Chronicles or the Table of Nations in Genesis 10). YEC is not strictly an Evangelical Christian hypothesis but is accepted by some Jewish traditions. For example, see this commentary on the Jewish calendar by physicist Gerald Schroeder: One of the most obvious perceived contradictions between Torah and science is the age of the universe. Is it billions of Read More ›

There is the common fallacy that ID was created to sneak creationism into public high schools. Actually, one could make the case that ID was created to sneak “creationism” into universities. 🙂 ID literature is more sophisticated than creation science literature, perhaps because it is (except for Of Pandas and People) usually directed more toward a university audience… Eugenie Scott Eugenie Scott defeats Ed Brayton and I feel that the essential argument has to be carried on at the higher level, at the university level, and it’s interesting you see that the people that come from the NCSE side are always trying to say this is just an issue in the high schools Phil Johnson The link below is a Read More ›

The late Carl Sagan is credited with popularizing the phrase “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. (hereinafter this will be referred to as the “EC-EE” claim) While the phrase has become the skeptic’s mantra, its original roots probably trace back to the French mathematician and astronomer Pierre –Simon LaPlace (1749-1827) who once wrote: “the weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness”. Regardless of its origins, the sentiment expressed in the quote has, over the last few years, become one of the bedrock critiques against ID. The notion seems to be along the lines that ID’s core claim is that only an unembodied supernatural intelligence can account for the specified complexity exhibited in biological systems, and Read More ›

UPDATE: Sometimes, it is needful to drive home a point, even when it is on an unpleasant matter and deals with uncivil conduct. For, unchecked incivility, willful disregard for the truth and fairness, and associated enabling behaviour are patently destructive. [For those who need help here, methinks the ghost of Pilate has somewhat to say to you, here.] In this case, slander by unjustified invidious comparison and enabling thereof on the pretence that nothing wrong has been done. A cross check at TSZ this evening has revealed a doubling down by the owner there, in response to my further corrective that the owner of that blog is denying patent reality, when she earlier posted a bland denial of unpleasant reality Read More ›

The management of TSZ leaves me little alternative but to publish a corrective publicly. I see where TSZ continues to host the following long since corrected assertion: Kairosfocus, this is outrageous.  Nobody here, to my knowledge, has suggested that you are a Nazi, and I certainly have not. This is false and should be known to be false by the poster and blog owner. It is an example of   exactly the sort of enabling behaviour that has long been a point of concern regarding the standards at TSZ. Here is my original complaint on this point, of April 2nd: ======= >>  . . . Let’s roll the tape from TSZ, screen capture A: And, B, a little lower in the Read More ›