Intelligent Design

Here’s how a debate between Behe and Dawkins would go: Behe would present this. In response, Dawkins would counter: Once upon a time there was a squirrel-like creature that jumped from a tree at a certain height; let us call it H. Then, through random mutations, the squirrel-like creature got some flaps under its arms, which broke its fall. Just follow this logic and it’s easy to see how birds and bats evolved by random mutation and natural selection from non-flying ancestors!” Dawkins won’t debate Behe because Dawkins’s version of “science” is the above, and Behe’s version of science is actually evaluating the evidence.

In “BioLogos Blog Author Helps Darwin’s Universal Acid Burn God Right Out of Religion” (Evolution News & Views, November 3, 2011), Casey Luskin notes: In Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, new atheist philosopher Daniel Dennett famously describes Darwinism as a “universal acid” that “eats through just about every traditional concept” — including religion. BioLogos has now approvingly posted an article by evolutionary psychologist Matt Rossano disclaiming the idea that “evolution” poses any threat to belief in God. The article concludes: The more we understand evolution, the less it seems like neither the bogeyman creationists fear nor the universal God-dissolving acid some atheists crave. That sure sounds nice, but is it true? In Rossano’s recent book, Supernatural Selection: How Religion Evolved, he argues that religion itself exists because it evolved Read More ›

Tonight I finally got around to watching Discovery TV’s “Did God Create the Universe” featuring Stephen Hawking, which initially aired a couple of months ago.  I expected the program to be tendentious and it was, but I hoped it would be challenging, or at least interesting.  Sadly, it was neither. Hawking begins the show with a now all-too-familiar theme of the new atheists.  Religious explanations must recede before the ever advancing triumph of science.  We see a boatload of Vikings terrified by a solar eclipse, which, they believe, is caused by the wolf god eating the sun.  The Vikings bang their spears against their shields and scream at the sky, and when the sun reappears they are greatly relieved.  The message Read More ›

Did you know that the UK has an NCSE equivalent? It’s called the BCSE (no prizes for guessing what ‘B’ stands for). You can see their website here and their blog here. The web design leaves, shall we say, a lot to be desired. The BCSE never wants to discuss, you know, actual science. The focus of their blog is principally politics, religion and education policy. In the few cases where they do attempt a rebuttal to a science article posted by myself or others, they generally respond by linking to someone else, rather than engaging the subject themselves. I usually respond to blogs offering scientific critique of my articles here or on Evolution News & Views. One of the Read More ›