Intelligent Design

Review Of The Eighth Chapter Of Signature In The Cell by Stephen Meyer
ISBN: 9780061894206; Imprint: Harper One

In the middle ages, Moses Maimonides debated heavily with Islamic philosophers over the Aristotlean interpretation of the universe. By looking at the stars and seeing their irregular pattern in the heavens, he concluded that only design could have generated the star arrangements he observed (1). In the process he ruled out necessity and the Epicurean ideology of chance. Centuries later Isaac Newton similarly opted for design as the best explanation for the origins of our solar system. Writing in his General Scholium for example Newton left us with no doubt over where his focus lay:

I have been studying the concept of emergence, especially from Arthur Peacocke, and Michael Polanyi recently. Peacocke was very much influenced by Polanyi, but instead has developed a monistic approach to reality within an emergentist-naturalistic-panentheistic perspective. Peacocke speaks about the process of evolution having ‘creativity’ as does the emergentist process philosopher Ian Barbour who suggested that there is some ‘design’ in the system of evolution. Polanyi believed in an irreducible hierarchy in nature, but one that has arisen through ‘ontogenetic emergence.’ This process was believed to have been driven forward by a ‘creative agent’ or director. (Polanyi (1962) Personal Knowledge, Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 393-395  (ontogeny – the development of what exists – as a child develops from an Read More ›

Abuses of Power in Science: An Interview With Darwin Skeptic David Berlinski Mathematician and novelist Berlinski, interviewed here, is always fun. His Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and its scientific pretensions is both sharp and funny. As a secular Jew, he is not arguing for religion, but rather making the point that science is not atheism’s best friend by any means: •Has anyone provided a proof of God’s inexistence? Not even close. •Has quantum cosmology explained the emergence of the universe or why it is here? Not even close. •Have the sciences explained why our universe seems to be fine-tuned to allow for the existence of life? Not even close. •Are physicists and biologists willing to believe in anything so long as Read More ›

Logos Research Associates are hosting a ‘Darwin Was Wrong’ conference and webcast 13-14 November 09. Darwin Was Wrong Speakers include, John Sandford, John Baumgardner, Jerry Bergman and Pastor Chuck Smith. For those unable to attend a live webcast will be available. Venue, Calvery Chapel of Costa Mesa

My second post on Darwinian censorship today pertains to Illustra Media’s film Darwin’s Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record. It was slated to be shown at the California Science Center, as Anika Smith of the Discovery Institute has noted:

[T]he Los Angeles Daily News reports that the California Science Center, a “ department of the State of California,” cancelled the screening of Darwin’s Dilemma after the screening became public knowledge and the Center came under intense pressure to cancel, possibly from the Smithsonian Institution, with which they are affiliated.  The Center’s IMAX Theater had been rented by a private group, the American Freedom Alliance, to hold the Los Angeles premiere of the film as part of a series of activities commemorating the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.

The Smithsonian Institution was clearly upset by publicity promoting the screening that mentioned the true fact that the Science Center is an official “ Smithsonian Affiliate.” The President of the Science Center’s Foundation is now claiming that it canceled the event “because of issues related to the contract,” issues he conveniently refuses to identify.

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Christianity Today has weighed in on the bloggingheads’ controversy involving the disappearing and reappearing discussion between John McWhorter and Michael Behe. An online clearinghouse for intellectual debate has discovered the apparent boundary for its controversial conversations: Intelligent Design. Bloggingheads.tv posted a video interview between journalist John McWhorter and Intelligent Design proponent Michael Behe in late August focused on the Lehigh University biochemistry professor’s 2007 book The Edge of Evolution. It was taken down the same day after the website received a barrage of online criticism for not asking tougher questions of Behe and for hosting him at all. The video was re-posted later, but as Dr. Behe  explains, the initial removal is indicative of a larger issue: “Reposting the interview Read More ›

Time Magazine addresses the problem that neuroscientists who think the mind is real often discuss (John Cloud, October 13, 2009):

How people react to a medication depends in large part on how they think about it.

Exactly why the placebo and nocebo responses arise is a puzzle, but a fascinating article in Wired magazine noted earlier this year that the positive placebo response to drugs has increased during clinical trials over the past few years. The article speculated that drug advertising – which exploded after 1997, when the Food and Drug Administration began allowing direct-to-consumer ads – has led us to expect more from drugs. Those expectations, in turn, have made us feel better just for popping a pill. (Placebo responses can also occur simply when you book appointments with doctors[*] or psychotherapists[**].)

No surprise, really. If your problem is,

– *Why should I pay $159.95 plus tax for a medication? Dunno. Maybe some consumer research would pay off.

But if the question is Read More ›

Although its official release date is not until November 1, THE END OF CHRISTIANITY is now in stock and being sold at Amazon.com (go here). Even though argument in this book is compatible with both intelligent design and theistic evolution, it helps bring clarity to the controversy over design and evolution. In particular, it resolves the problem of dysteleology and natural evil by introducing a conception of the Fall that is theologically sound and also compatible with modern science (i.e., with standard astrophysical and geological dating that places the earth and universe at billions of years old).

There are a number of articles on the Science and Values blog about climate change. I was at a Cardiff university conference over the summer where the question of what action to take to tackle climate change was discussed along side questions about poverty reduction. The fear was that major action to tackle climate change, with CO2 levels reduced to 80% of today’s level, will lead to a massive increase in global poverty. Even though it was recognised that there is a problem, the effect of actions to reduce CO2 levels may cause greater problems. Both James Lovelock and Mike Hulme have proposed different solutions.

James Lovelock calls for mitigation strategies

James Lovelock commented to an audience at the ‘Ways With Words’ literary festival at Dartington Hall, near Totnes in Devon that; “It’s not going to take much of a sea-surge to knock out London. We should be spending money strengthening defences there rather than vain efforts to improve renewable energy.”

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Since in my last post a commenter put on the table thermodynamics to support evolution I decided to offer my personal answer in a specific post, although UD already dealt with this issue. As known, 2nd law of thermodynamics (SLOT, also called “entropy law”) states that in a closed system the overall energy entropy ΔS never decreases spontaneously (i.e. without an external intervention). Example: in a room (considered a closed system) a hot cup of coffee on a tabletop, loosing heat, decreases in energy entropy –ΔSc (neghentropy). Around the table the environment, absorbing heat, increases energy entropy ΔSe, in such manner that the overall energy entropy of the room ΔSr doesn’t decrease. In this example SLOT can be expressed with this formula: Read More ›

O’Reilly told Dawkins”

you insist you can’t even mention it, that is fascism, sir.

Was he right? Is it constitutional/scientific to insist that only materialistic evolution can be taught?
See: O’Reilly vs. Atheist Author Richard Dawkins

O’REILLY: . . . It’s not fair to leave it out of the science class if the science class is incomplete. And you, by your own admission, say we don’t know how it all began. So if the science class is going to say evolution only, but I really don’t know how it started, that gap has got to be explored. Read More ›

The Deniable Darwin and Other Essays has just been published from the always interesting and highly engaging David Berlinski. You can find it on Amazon here. Also, Dr. Berlinski’s book The Devil’s Delusion has just been released in paperback.

 Chromosomes have yet another level of complexity and are even better designed than previously thought.   Erez Lieberman-Aiden et al 

By probing the three-dimensional architecture of whole genomes, the authors constructed spatial proximity maps of the human genome that confirm the presence of chromosome territories and the spatial proximity of small, gene-rich chromosomes. They identified an additional level of genome organization that is characterized by the spatial segregation of open and closed chromatin to form two genome-wide compartments. At the megabase scale, the chromatin conformation is consistent with a fractal globule, a knot-free, polymer conformation that enables maximally dense packing while preserving the ability to easily fold and unfold any genomic locus.

Imagine a fine hair 2 meters long. Imagine balling it up in such a way that it can fit on the head of pin — and be unraveled and knot-free, at a moment’s notice. A similar engineering feat is at work inside each cell in our body. The genome is over two meters long and must be carefully packed into the confines of a space (called the “nucleus”) several times narrower than a human hair.

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This is UD’s 4,000th post.  Congrats and a hardy well done and thank you to all of our posters!