Intelligent Design

Skeptics, ever selective in their skepticism, remain convinced that SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is a legitimate scientific program. But applying methods of design detection to biology — well that’s just plain stupid. See Robert Camp’s piece here. Design from biology fairly smacks us over the head. What about design from SETI (i.e., convincing Read More…

This is a picture of the famous geneticist JBS Haldane (no kidding). He is notoriously known for “Haldane’s Dilemma” which is a current rage in ID circles.

Genetic Entropy & the Mystery of the Genome by John Sanford (October 2005) In retrospect, I realize that I have wasted so much of my life arguing about things that don’t really matter. It is my sincere hope that this book can actually address something that really does matter. The issue of who we are, Read More…

I love animations of cellular and subcellular events. Today, I found a good website with some new animations. It’s at http://www.fivth.com/fiVthSite/web-content/NewFiles/GrahamJcom/web-content/gjPortfolioCBani.html and each of the thumbnails has an animation associated with it.

Go here: http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/~floridi/blog/index.html.

There’s an old Saturday Night Live routine with Anthony Perkins (who played Norman Bates, the crazed motel operator in Hitchcock’s PSYCHO). In it, Perkins, playing Bates, describes his new school of hotel management: Norman Bates: [ to camera ] Are you tired of slaving away in a dull, dead-end job? Fed up with meager paychecks Read More…

Darwin’s Divisions BY FR. MARTIN HILBERT Philosopher of science and Catholic priest Martin Hilbert explores the church’s role in discussing science and Darwinism using the recent comments of Popes, Cardinal Schönborn of Austria, and the head of the Vatican Observatory, Father George Coyne, S. J. The church would do a great disservice to believers and Read More…

Intelligent design leads to forsaking atheism By Jerry Bergman Why did the court rule against teaching intelligent design in the Dover, Pa., case? Judge Jones’ ruling was summed up by one commentator as follows: Critical analysis of evolutionism leads to intelligent design, which leads to the Creator requirement. The Creator requirement leads to religion, which Read More…

Pitt anthropologist thinks Darwin’s theory needs to evolve on some points Monday, May 29, 2006 By Mark Roth Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06149/694046-85.stm Darwin was wrong, and his modern-day adherents perpetuate his mistakes. That sounds like the opening salvo of an advocate for Intelligent Design or some other religiously driven critique of the theory of evolution. Read More…

On another blog, the following quotes from Intelligent Thought: Science versus the Intelligent Design Movement are listed approvingly: “Evolutionary biology certainly hasn’t explained everything that perplexes biologists, but intelligent design hasn’t yet tried to explain anything at all.” –Daniel C. Dennett, Philosopher “Not only is ID markedly inferior to Darwinism at explaining and understanding nature Read More…

[Excerpts from a lecture by Daniel Dennett in March this year:] The late Steve Gould was really right when he called Richard and me Darwinian fundamentalists. And I want to say what a Darwinian fundamentalist is. A Darwinian fundamentalist is one who recognizes that either you shun Darwinian evolution altogether, or you turn the traditional Read More…

It appears that the first usage of this term traces to the Christian philosopher Paul de Vries. He used the term orally at a conference in 1983. A few years later it appeared in print in the paper “Naturalism in the Natural Sciences,” Christian Scholar’s Review 15 (1986), 388-96. For de Vries, methodological naturalism says Read More…

Extracts from the introduction to Intelligent Thought: Science versus the Intelligent Design Movement, edited by John Brockman, Vintage Books (go here for an earlier report about this book on this blog): Religious fundamentalism is on the rise under the rubric of “intelligent design.” ID imperils American global dominance in science and presents the gravest of Read More…

FOR RELEASE MAY 25, 2006 Discovery Institute Applauds Federal U.S. Appeals Court Decision To Throw Out Judge’s Ruling Against Evolution Disclaimers on Textbooks Atlanta – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has thrown out the trial court decision ruling that evolution disclaimers on science textbooks were unconstitutional. In a unanimous decision the Read More…

The opinion has been issued (it’s been described as a “mess” — a remand for fact-finding). Go here: http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/todaysops.php.