Francisco Ayala’s latest book, DARWIN’S GIFT TO SCIENCE AND RELIGION, defends Darwinism against ID. For my review of that book for Science & Theology, go here.

How do we measure the scientific literacy of a society? How do we boost it? What is the value of this literacy? Who is responsible for fostering it?

These were questions posed by Seed Magazine to its readers in its second annual Science Writing Contest. Among the judges were Adam Bly, editor-in-chief and founder of Seed, Chris Mooney, Seed’s Washington correspondent, PZ Myers, Seed columnist and author of Pharyngula, as well as the editors of Seed.

The question of free inquiry within the realms of science, even that which may challenge ‘well established theories’, such as neoDarwinian evolution, has become a hot bed issue. But should it be? I and others say not, since many of the so called ‘minor’ points waiting to be resolved with NDE are actually major foundational principles of its purported evolutionary process, and are therefore subject to modification.

In Thomas Martin’s winning essay, he tends to equate ‘scientific literacy’ with free inquiry, and going a step further, paints a disturbing picture of apparent “evidence blindness”, albeit one that has been advanced by others, both in and out of the science community. Read More ›

Where does artistic expression come from? Why do almost all of us, as humans, seem to have an insatiable desire to create? Why do certain works of art endure over centuries?
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Here’s what I think of the whole mess (and I am not an American and do not live anywhere near Waco or Baylor and have nothing but trouble to expect from either side in this matter.):

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“God’s Undertaker – Has Science Buried God?” by John Lennox, has now appeared with Lion-Hudson in the UK and with Kregel in the US. The book had previously appeared in Germany (Lennox knows German very well) and had an enormous impact there. Lennox is a Reader in Mathematics and Fellow of Green College, University of Oxford. (Note the “Reader” in this case is equivalent to a U.S. full professor.) Lennox is a well known speaker throughout Europe, especially the former Eastern Bloc. Lennox will be debating Richard Dawkins in Alabama on 3rd October. For details go to www.fixed-point.org.

From “Evo-Devo of feathers and scales: building complex epithelial appendages”  http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~cmchuong/2000CurrOpinGenetandDev.pdf p5 and p6 “Archeopteryx existed ~145 million years ago and appears relatively advanced: it has different types of feathers over the body but still has teeth, claws in the wing, and a feathered tail. The flight feathers in the wing are asymmetric, suggesting that it could fly. Confuciusornis ~140 mya had both down and flight feathers. The well-developed asymmetric flight feathers and toothless beak suggests that it flew well. The fossils even indicate the establishment of sexual dimorphism in the tail feathers. Protarchaeopteryx ~120-136 mya also had bilaterally symmetric pennaceous feathers, but still lacked the asymmetric vane required for flying. Caudipteryx ~127mya had evolved different feather types over the Read More ›

Recently, a friend who thinks about (and has published on) the nature of the eukaryotic genome, said to me, “Paul, no one really knows what the genome is any more.” He went on to explain that the picture most biologists carry around in their heads, of the relationship of genes to organismal form and function — indeed, the very concept of the “gene” itself — had been seriously challenged by discoveries in comparative genomics and molecular biology within the past few years. How all this will shake out eventually, he said, is anyone’s guess. But the theory of evolution, he concluded, cannot escape the coming turbulence. For an overview of some of the discoveries my friend had in mind, see Read More ›

A block of Carrera marble and a large crane, apparently. Didn’t know about the Clorox® either. So that’s why my asparagus never tastes quite right: keep forgetting to add the chlorine. (HT: Jason)

See my short article in the Michigan Tech Lode (week of 2007-09-19): click here

While it’s routine to hear of ID proponents being persecuted–and there are many more stories than the high profile cases mentioned here on UD–sometimes we may forget that the same may happen to Darwinists. I was reading Darwiniana today and this article by MSNBC caught my eye: Read More ›

Computer programs that purport to validate the grand claims of Darwinian (i.e., chance and necessity) biological evolution are a hoot.

In early August my aerospace R&D company sent me off to Livermore, CA for a four-day course in using a finite element analysis (FEA) simulation program called LS-DYNA, originally developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It models the laws of physics and material properties with astounding fidelity. It is so powerful that it is used heavily in the automotive industry to simulate entire vehicles and how they behave during impacts.

On the first day of the course the instructor warned us that it is very easy to create “cartoons” with LS-DYNA (it not only generates all kinds of data, it produces beautiful animations). By this he meant that if your initial assumptions are not correct, or if the FEA tools are not used correctly, you can get results that look really cool but don’t comport with reality. Much of the course focused on avoiding cartoon-generating pitfalls.
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Here are the new entries to the Encyclopedia: Evolution in the light of intelligent design

Acritarchs – oldest known protists (Tyler)

The picture emerging of the Late Archaean is one that includes prokaryotes and eukaryotes, photosynthesis, an oxygenated atmosphere and lots of biological activity. This is a big contrast from the picture even 10 years ago. The significance for our thinking about origins is that the eons of time demanded by Darwinian processes are not available.

Archaea – horizontal gene transfer – review of The Archaea’s Tale (Tyler)

He presents evidence that Darwinian evolution does not go back to the beginning of life. When we compare genomes of ancient lineages of living creatures, we find evidence of numerous transfers of genetic information from one lineage to another. In early times, horizontal gene transfer, the sharing of genes between unrelated species, was prevalent. It becomes more prevalent the further back you go in time. – Freeman Dyson 

(also new Mindful Hack entries linked below) Read More ›

In my 2000 Mathematical Intelligencer article I speculated on what would happen if we constructed a gigantic computer model which starts with the initial conditions on Earth 4 billion years ago and tries to simulate the effects that the four known forces of physics (the gravitational and electromagnetic forces and the strong and weak nuclear forces) would have on every atom and every subatomic particle on our planet. If we ran such a simulation out to the present day, I asked, would it predict that the basic forces of Nature would reorganize the basic particles of Nature into libraries full of encyclopedias, science texts and novels, nuclear power plants, aircraft carriers with supersonic jets parked on deck, and computers connected Read More ›

Media attention continues to focus on the Baylor administration’s censoring of Prof. Robert Marks’s Evolutionary Informatics Lab (now on a third-party server at www.EvoInfo.org). With the coming to campus of a crew from Ben Stein for his forthcoming movie/documentary EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED, things have ramped up further. Baylor President John Lilley continues to dig in his heels, refusing to let the Evolutionary Informatics Lab back on campus. Baylor is simply playing a waiting game until the present wave of media interest dies down, after which the removal of Prof. Marks’s website from the Baylor server can quietly be forgotten. In a better world, the Baylor administration would apologize to Prof. Marks and restore his site with no more restrictions than Read More ›

RC Motorcycles Technical Discussion