Intelligent Design

Biologos have responded to the NPR program, by suggesting that it is OK to believe in a literal Adam and Eve as theology, even if science is silent on the question. http://biologos.org/blog/nprs-adam-and-eve-story

Darrel Falk and Kathryn Applegate write that “There is no scientific reason to upset that theological apple cart. Indeed as scientists, we must respect the theological diversity of Evangelicalism.” although adding “Science is an amazing tool that gives insight into our world, one which is so effective that it is allows us to become virtually certain about some things.” I would prefer though to maintain a degree of greater scientific scepticism concerning historical questions that are not directly testable, lest we turn our scientific narratives into self delusion. Read More ›

For those with open minds (genuine skeptics, not selective skeptics) check out Prager University, especially this. Like Frank Pastore I was once a devout atheist, but eventually realized that I could no longer muster up enough blind faith to believe in a completely materialistic explanation for everything. It was to a great extent that my interest in science, engineering, mathematics, and reason forced me to abandon my materialistic and therefore inherently nihilistic worldview (but there was much more, including the birth of my first daughter after a long infertility ordeal). My conversion from materialistic atheism to Christian theism — to a great extent through reason, logic, and evidence — is what really scares people like Dawkins and his ilk. The Read More ›

Listen to this rant, and then tell me that this guy is sane. His rants are perfectly analogous to those of people like Dawkins concerning challenges to Darwinian orthodoxy.

I come back to FG, because I think he is seriously trying to engage with ID, and I am very pleased to report that he is making significant progress.

In my post “Who Designed the Designer Argument Demolished in Three Easy Steps”  I demonstrated that the infinite regress argument has no real force by giving what FG called a “concrete example” of how a design inference can be valid in the complete absence of any knowledge of who the designer was or where he/she came from.

FG writes. “When applied to a single concrete example like the one you gave, your inference could be valid . . .”

Wonderful!

FG then slips when he says: “The infinite regress problem is real and does defeat ID the moment your argument is invoked to explain first life.” Read More ›

A friend at ProgettoCosmo, the Italian ID site, writes to remind us of J. P. Moreland’s dictum: “There will never be a natural explanation for consciousness from matter, period.”

Moreland is arguing from principle, that is, putting forward an argument from impossibility: “There will never be…” is not “it is unlikely…”.

But what happens when Moreland, or any ID advocate, defends similar positions by arguing from principle. When debating materialist supporters of scientism/evolutionism, they usually faces a Kafka-esque situation:

[Early 20th century Czech writer Franz Kafka wrote about hopeless impasses with irresponsible bureaucracies, thus lending his name to the increasingly frequent situation.] Read More ›

Isn’t it utterly awe-inspiring to look at the sheer vastness of the Universe we inhabit? Atheists have often argued that the immense grandeur of the cosmic arena renders mankind unlikely to have a significant role in the grand scheme of things.

But what if the preponderance of evidence told quite a different story?

Read More ›

In relentless pursuit of evidence that animals think like people, Science publishes “Do Tayras Plan for the Future?” by Helen Fields (5 August 2011):

Humans buy unripe bananas, then leave them on the kitchen counter. The tayra, a relative of the weasel native to Central and South America, appears to do much the same thing, picking unripe plantains and hiding them until they ripen, according to a new study. The authors speculate that tayras are showing a human-like capacity to plan for the future, which has previously been shown only in primates and birds.

The problem is, Read More ›