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People’s Choice Awards: Our most read stories May 2013

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Top three in January (here), February here), March here), April (here).

Runaway favourite Andy Jones: Failure to Educate? Failure to Persuade:

Larry Moran replied to my latest post with an admission of failure. He thinks he has failed to educate, but I think rather he is confusing the word ‘persuade’ with the word ‘educate’.

He thinks I am rationalising junk DNA with a pile of ‘what-ifs’. But the fact is that most of my ‘what-ifs’ are already known to have some basis in reality. I am not denying any obvious reality. Indeed, the basic machinery of life looks like design, far more than when Paley was around. Yes, there could also be a great deal of junk. That’s why I have said a number of times that ID is not committed to the idea that there is no junk.

Yet, from my point of view, I see a whole pile of Darwinian/post-Darwinian materialists who have only partly explored the genome, working from an assumption that the genome was not designed, and thus are jumping the gun on the evidence.

It’s not clear how much evidence has to do with junk DNA claims any more, Andy. Evidence is piles of that stuff the junkers keep having to push away.

Sal Cordova: Cocktails! falsifying Darwinism via falsifying the geological “column”:

There is the forgotten book Shattering the Myths of Darwinism written by a non-creationist agnostic Richard Milton. Milton expressed his skepticism of mainstream claims of the old-age of the fossil record. His work further motivated me toward the idea that there could an empirically driven critique of the accepted ages of the fossils.

Of course there could be an empirically driven critique, Sal. It just wouldn’t be accepted, the same way the Big Bang never really was.

kairosfocus: A “simple” summing up of the basic case for scientifically inferring design (in light of the logic of scientific induction per best explanation of the unobserved past):

In answering yet another round of G’s talking points on design theory and those of us who advocate it, I have outlined a summary of design thinking and its links onward to debates on theology, that I think is worth being somewhat adapted, expanded and headlined.

With your indulgence: …

It was a discussion many found stimulating, to judge from reads and comments. The difficulty is, in the current environment, facts and arguments mean whatever supports materialism. By definition no others can exist. And the reader’s role is to accept the system and pay to support it. Glad we straightened that out.

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Comments
1. Why don’t you explain to me how Meyer’s timeline shows macro-evolution is impossible?
It doesn't. Why doesn't thorton show us unguided evolution producing new body plans with new body parts?
2. We have over 2.5 billion years of life on Earth before the Cambrian period, including over 100 million years of multicellular animals. Meyer’s explanation for that is…?
THat timeline is suspect and your position can't explain any life at all. thorton's explanation for that is what?
3. Meyer says over a 10 million years span some 530 million years ago the Magic Designer showed up and created most (not all) of basic animal body plans.
Liar
There is no mechanism offered, just POOF. It took the MD 10 million years because…?
Design is a mechanism.
4. For the next 520 million years we have a huge amount of new species appear like the great great ordovician biodiversification event. We also have at least five mass extinctions and subsequent rediversification of the remaining species. Meyer’s explanation for this is…?
Meyer's book, like you, is very limited in scope.Joe
January 4, 2014
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I see that thorton is still whining and equivocating- that's because his position has nothing. If he had the evidence he would just present it. But all he has are more equivocations and nothing that supports unguided evolution.Joe
January 4, 2014
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Why don’t you explain to me how Meyer’s timeline shows macro-evolution is impossible?
The term macro-evolution has no good definition. Theoretically any speciation process is an example of macro-evolution thus making the term of no use in a debate. If one wants to define something called "body-plan" evolution which just means the origin of new body plans, then Meyer says there is no evidence that any process known to man ever led to such a change in the history of life. Certainly no Darwinian process ever did. Meyer also examines other theories besides the various forms of Darwinian evolution (several have been proposed) and provides a solid rationale using biological reasons why none of them could work either.
We have over 2.5 billion years of life on Earth before the Cambrian period, including over 100 million years of multicellular animals. Meyer’s explanation for that is…?
All this is saying is that for 2.6 million years some forms of single celled life existed on the earth followed by a period of some very simple multi-celled life. Of this simple life, there were substantial differences between some of the organisms. There are theories out there trying to explain the origin of these different species but all are just speculation. It is just a different issue that some find interesting but is fairly low on the totem pole or relevance in the over all evolution debate. It is an essential in the origin of life debate which he covered in his Signature in the Cell.
Meyer says over a 10 million years span some 530 million years ago the Magic Designer showed up and created most (not all) of basic animal body plans. There is no mechanism offered, just POOF. It took the MD 10 million years because…?
There is no way of knowing just how long the MD (using your term) actually took so the question is specious. Meyer never said the MD took 10 million years. It could have been a very short time or maybe it happened over a long time. All we have is the sudden appearance of the various phyla in a narrow range of rock formation. There is no way of pin-pointing a specific time for the actual first appearance.
For the next 520 million years we have a huge amount of new species appear like the great great ordovician biodiversification event. We also have at least five mass extinctions and subsequent rediversification of the remaining species. Meyer’s explanation for this is…?
Meyer doesn't address this. But each of the examples raised would run into the same problem, the origin of new information. Not for every new species but for a lot of them the information problem is beyond any natural process known to science. The same reasoning applied to the Cambrian would be appropriate here except no new body plans. There are lots of even more remarkable capabilities with incredible information systems needed to make them operate that would have to arise. Again no known process that would lead to this except one. Meyer, like many here go with the known process. When others arise they will be evaluated but as of now none are even on the horizon. But who knows what may turn up.jerry
January 4, 2014
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coldcoffee- thorton can't show that macroevolution is possible via accumulations of genetic accidents. "Darwin's Doubt" extends to all of biology as darwinian processes cannot account for any of it.Joe
January 4, 2014
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Meyer's book is about the Cambrian period, and the explosion therein. Most likely that is why he did not attempt to address all these other time periods. I will try to post a couple more excerpts from his book some time soon, to enable commenters to respond conveniently, and thanks for raising interesting questions here. - NewsNews
January 4, 2014
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=>News, I apologize for hijacking your thread with comment @1 but would appreciate if you could leave it there for a few days so people can comment on the questions raised. Thanks.coldcoffee
January 4, 2014
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=> Over at TSZ thorton (who is apparently banned here) asked the following questions about Meyer.Anyone willing to answer please answer these here or at the TSZ link Thank you 1. Why don’t you explain to me how Meyer’s timeline shows macro-evolution is impossible? 2. We have over 2.5 billion years of life on Earth before the Cambrian period, including over 100 million years of multicellular animals. Meyer’s explanation for that is…? 3. Meyer says over a 10 million years span some 530 million years ago the Magic Designer showed up and created most (not all) of basic animal body plans. There is no mechanism offered, just POOF. It took the MD 10 million years because…? 4. For the next 520 million years we have a huge amount of new species appear like the great great ordovician biodiversification event. We also have at least five mass extinctions and subsequent rediversification of the remaining species. Meyer’s explanation for this is…?coldcoffee
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