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Intelligent Design

The Nature of Nature — sticky

THE NATURE OF NATURE is now finally out and widely available. If you haven’t bought it yet, let me suggest Amazon.com, which is selling it for $17.94, which is an incredible deal for a 7″x10″ 1000-page book with, for most of us, no tax and no shipping charge (it costs over $10 to ship this monster priority mail). This is a must-have book if you are interested at all in the ID debate. To get it from Amazon.com, click here. Below is the table of contents and some introductory matter.

(Other news coverage continues below)

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Seven years in the making, at 500,000 words, with three Nobel laureate contributors, this is the most thorough examination of naturalism to date.

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Nature of NatureThe Nature of Nature: Examining the Role of Naturalism in Science

Edited by Bruce L. Gordon

and William A. Dembski

ISI Books

Intercollegiate Studies Institute

Wilmington, DE 19807

Back Cover:


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Nature of Nature: For $18 plus shipping, rid your life of bores and trolls – and, more important, learn the big story

The Nature of Nature: Examining the Role of Naturalism in ScienceA friend writes to say that Nature of Nature can be had at Amazon for just shy of $18, commenting “Given the tiny price for the huge interesting proceedings of the Baylor conference, I hope that tons of us will buy the book.”

Yes, indeed, It is indispensable for whistling bores and broomsticks out of one’s life. In Nature of Nature, both sides on the ID controversy give it their best shot. Including Nobel Prize winners.

No bores, no broomsticks, no trolls, no truthing.

Just think! For a mere $18 plus shipping, and a few hours time, you can Read More ›

But “Lucy” herself is mostly an artifact

Gil Dodgen offers below a comparison between Mozart and “Lucy”, noting “I can’t think of anything in my wildest imagination that could be more absurd or preposterous.”

Good point. My question is, how much is “Lucy”* an artifact of the imagination?

With Mozart (1756-1791), we are looking at a portrait of a young man about whom we know a good deal, in historical time – the word of contemporaries and the documentary records, as well as his corpus of work and the well-documented circumstances of his time (18th century Vienna).

The worst we can say of the portrait painter of old is that he tended to flatter. If that painting didn’t look like Mozart at all, he wouldn’t get paid.

With Lucy, we are looking at an artist’s rendering of a reconstruction of a few bones, with details about Lucy’s life that are, beyond the most obvious (eat, sleep, etc.), almost entirely a work of someone’s imagination. The more letters that person can put after their name and the greater the number of years “in the field” and shazzam!! Imagination converts to fact, via the assured results of modern science: “Shed’ve … done this.”

For now. Until someone else comes along, with the same or more attributes, makes bigger shazzam!! and behold: “Shed’ve … done that!”

And as for the rest of us: Shut up, you morons, and believe.

Then, faced with this stuff, Read More ›

Sean Carroll: Does the Universe Need God?

In his forthcoming chapter, Does the Universe Need God?, Sean Carroll (the physicist, not the geneticist) argues that while invoking god as an explanation for natural phenomena was once reasonable, now we can do much better. It is an example of the extent to which otherwise very smart people resort to special pleading to get the right answer.  Read more

Existential discomfort with evolution

We have been told for years that evolutionary biology is pure science and has no religious implications. Theistic evolutionists emphasise the concept of complementarity, pointing out that evolutionary theory seeks to explain how? questions whereas theism is concerned with why? questions. There appear to be many non-theists, including most organisations representing scientists, who say something very similar. These people have adopted the NOMA approach popularised by Stephen Jay Gould. For more on this, go here. However, you do not have to read far in the intelligent design literature (or in the creationist literature) to realise that this approach is controversial. These sources claim that all science has metaphysical presuppositions that are of a religious nature. There is a consistent message Read More ›

Neuroscience: Morality for neurons

(My latest MercatorNet column reviews an  attempt to refound morality on a  materialist basis: Commonsense notions of the mind must be abandoned in favor of a purely brain-based approach because we are our neurons: Churchland is partial to a theory that morality originates in the oxytocin-vasopressin network in mammals. One outcome is stunners like this: “The social life of humans, whether in hunter-gatherer villages, farming towns, or cities, seems to be even more complex than that of baboons or chimpanzees.” Now, why in the world would that be? We never get a clear idea how Churchland think morality works, though we do get more than a glimpse of her politics. Go here for more.

Darwinian brand marketing: it helps to be stunned

Here’s my latest Deprogram from Salvo, a magazine you should support. The stuff you are about to split a gut laughing while reading is all true: FIT FOR A ZOMBIE Evolutionary Brand Marketing for Your Survival[ … ] Hogshead is a brand marketing specialist; she helps executives persuade us to pay more for their brands. She has even formulated a theory, developed from the study of apes and neuroscience: to sell is to cast a spell, and the best strategy for casting a spell is to “fascinate” people. She has identified seven Darwinian triggers for successful sales spells. These triggers are not the fundamental reasons why we buy things, of course. We buy shoes to protect our feet, but brand Read More ›

Should we always say it twice?: Identical twins are not really identical

From “No Two of Us Are Alike — Even Identical Twins: Pinpointing Genetic Determinants of Schizophrenia”, (ScienceDaily, March 28, 2011) we learn

Singh looked at about one million markers of identical twins (and their two parents) where only one twin had schizophrenia. “The most informative feature of schizophrenia is that it sometimes runs in the family. So, for example, the risk of developing schizophrenia is much higher if your brother, sister, mother or father have the disease,” says Singh, noting in the general population about one percent have schizophrenia. “We started with the belief that monozygotic twins are genetically identical, so if one member of identical twins has schizophrenia, then the risk for the other twin should be 100 percent, if it’s all due to genes. However, studies over the years have shown that the risk of the disease in both twins is only 50 percent.” That means either the twins are genetically not identical or the familial disease involves non-genetic (random) effects. 

Singh and his team have now demonstrated that the monozygotic twins are not genetically identical.

The part I find curious is, Read More ›

Defoliating Darwinism

This is a FYI post. As I’m given to say: another day, another bad day for Darwinism. Years ago, it became apparent that with whole gene analysis (WGA), either the case for, or against Darwinism, and vice-versa, would happen. Population genetics looks at very small part of the genome, a limitation that is obviated through WGA. And, so, ‘new discoveries’ are happening. In this particular case, it has to do with angiosperms (flowering plants). What they’ve found is that new features appear early on in its phylogeny, and then, only later, is there great speciation, or diversification. This is pretty much OPPOSITE of Darwinian expectations. Darwin would presumably argue that through diversification of species, little-bit by little-bit, some new feature Read More ›

Horizontal gene transfer from bacteria to animals

Here’s the story: Horizontal gene transfer between bacteria and animals Julie C. Dunning HotoppTrends in Genetics, Volume 27, Issue 4, 157-163, 18 February 2011 Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved. 10.1016/j.tig.2011.01.005 Julie C. Dunning Hotopp Summary Horizontal gene transfer is increasingly described between bacteria and animals. Such transfers that are vertically inherited have the potential to influence the evolution of animals. One classic example is the transfer of DNA from mitochondria and chloroplasts to the nucleus after the acquisition of these organelles by eukaryotes. Even today, many of the described instances of bacteria-to-animal transfer occur as part of intimate relationships such as those of endosymbionts and their invertebrate hosts, particularly insects and nematodes, while numerous transfers are also Read More ›

Why there’s no such thing as a CSI Scanner, or: Reasonable and Unreasonable Demands Relating to Complex Specified Information

It would be very nice if there was a magic scanner that automatically gave you a readout of the total amount of complex specified information (CSI) in a system when you pointed it at that system, wouldn’t it? Of course, you’d want one that could calculate the CSI of any complex system – be it a bacterial flagellum, an ATP synthase enzyme, a Bach fugue, or the faces on Mt. Rushmore – by following some general algorithm. It would make CSI so much more scientifically rigorous, wouldn’t it? Or would it?

This essay is intended as a follow-up to the recent thread, On the calculation of CSI by Mathgrrl. It is meant to address some concerns about whether CSI is sufficiently objective to qualify as a bona fide scientific concept.

But first, some definitions. In The Design of Life: Discovering Signs of Intelligence in Biological Systems (The Foundation for Thought and Ethics, Dallas, 2008), Intelligent Design advocates William Dembski and Jonathan Wells define complex specified information (or CSI) as follows (p. 311):

Information that is both complex and specified. Synonymous with SPECIFIED COMPLEXITY.

Dembski and Wells then define specified complexity on page 320 as follows:

An event or object exhibits specified complexity provided that (1) the pattern to which it conforms is a highly improbable event (i.e. has high PROBABILISTIC COMPLEXITY) and (2) the pattern itself is easily described (i.e. has low DESCRIPTIVE COMPLEXITY).

In this post, I’m going to examine seven demands which Intelligent Design critics have made with regard to complex specified information (CSI):
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Predation by shell-breakage affecting Early Cambrian lingulids

Predation in the Early Cambrian is demonstrated by the occurrence of borings or drill holes in shelly fauna. Confirmatory evidence has been adduced from gut content analyses, although these evidences could also be attributed to scavenging. However, predation involving shell breakage or crushing has been documented previously only from the late Ordovician. This situation has changed with the published research on Lower Cambrian lingulate brachiopods. “Here we present the first report of repaired damage to linguliform brachiopod shells caused by durophagous shell-crushing, which is exquisitely recorded from exceptionally preserved specimens in the early Cambrian Wulongqing Formation (Guanshan fauna), Kunming, China. The healed fractures on specimens with preserved thin pedicles unambiguously suggest failed predation attempts. Although they cannot be linked to Read More ›

Dr. Moran, Misplaced Confidence, and Capricious Arguments

On a recent thread, ID critic Larry Moran seemed to take great joy in mischaracterizing the science of design detection as ID/Creationism. That’s no surprise, of course, but I was amused by his rather strange proclivity to swagger in with a sneer and stumble out with a gaffe. If you are going to write this: “I have no respect for hypocrites, liars, and people who don’t take the time to learn about the subject they are attacking.” You don’t want to follow with this: “Intelligent Design Creationism grew out of Scientific Creationism when its leaders decided they needed a new word to try and disguise the religious basis of their agenda.” It just isn’t good form to complain about ignorant Read More ›

Biogeography and Common Descent — And Why I Don’t Buy It

Recently on this blog, I have been exploring and examining some of the genomic arguments for common descent. As I have been documenting in recent weeks, while the case for common ancestry — on the face of it — looks mightily strong, closer inspection reveals that the arguments don’t, in fact, stand up under more rigorous scrutiny. In the vast majority of instances, the corroborative data is very carefully cherry picked from the pertinent data set, and the non-congruent evidence is discarded or ignored. In some cases, non-congruent data is rationalised — sometimes plausibly. But then one ought not to think that an ad hoc rationalisation constitutes  evidence for said position. As Casey Luskin notes,

…at the end of the day, we must call them what they are: ad hoc rationalizations designed to save a theory that has already been falsified. Because it is taken as an assumption, evolutionists effectively treat common ancestry in an unfalsifiable and unscientific fashion, where any data that contradicts the expectations of common descent is simply explained away via one of the above ad hoc rationalizations. But if we treat common descent as it ought to be treated — as a testable hypothesis — then it contradicts much data.

One popular argument for common descent is the case from the discipline of biogeography — that is, the study of the geographical and historical distribution of species in relation to one another. The argument is based largely around the observation that species are related in accordance with their geographical proximity with respect to one another. One well-known example of this is the concentration of marsupial mammals in Australia and South America. As the Internet encyclopedia, Wikipedia, explains,

The history of marsupials also provides an example of how the theories of evolution and continental drift can be combined to make predictions about what will be found in the fossil record. The earliest marsupial fossils are about 80 million years old and found in North America; by 40 million years ago fossils show that they could be found throughout South America, but there is no evidence of them in Australia, where they now predominate, until about 30 million years ago. The theory of evolution predicts that the Australian marsupials must be descended from the older ones found in the Americas. The theory of continental drift says that between 30 and 40 million years ago South America and Australia were still part of the Southern hemisphere super continent of Gondwana and that they were connected by land that is now part of Antarctica. Therefore combining the two theories scientists predicted that marsupials migrated from what is now South America across what is now Antarctica to what is now Australia between 40 and 30 million years ago. This hypothesis led paleontologists to Antarctica to look for marsupial fossils of the appropriate age. After years of searching they found, starting in 1982, fossils on Seymour Island off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula of more than a dozen marsupial species that lived 35-40 million years ago.

I must confess that I have my doubts with regards the efficacy of this argument in establishing universal common descent, or even common descent of all marsupial mammals. After all, as noted in the textbook Explore Evolution, marsupials are not even restricted to the southern continents of Australia and South America. Some marsupials live in the northern hemisphere, and there is even some paleontological evidence for the oldest marsupials inhabiting China!

But be that as it may. As with the majority of arguments favouring common descent, the argument from biogeography is loaded with carefully cherry-picked data.

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