Here is my review at the ID arts site of the eminent Canadian science fiction writer Rob Sawyer’s interesting approach to the intelligent design controversy in his novel Calculating God (2000), along with an interview I did with him nearly a decade ago.
Modern chemistry has allowed accelerated evolution through mutation paste. The product, patented last year by Finch Foods Inc. of Boise, Idaho, is a potato based food supplement marketed under the brand name Finch’s Mutation Paste. The effects of the mutation paste have been widespread and immediate. The Evolution News Network (ENN) at The BRITES has collected three remarkable stories about results of mutation paste use. Details are reported at TheBRITES.org.
In 1978-79 I was visiting professor in the computer science department at Purdue University, when the student newspaper (the Exponent) published a letter to the editor comparing “creationists” to “flat-earthers”. My reply, given below, was published a few days later. The reason I thought this 30-year-old letter might be of some interest to UD readers is how nicely it anticipates the current debate on whether ID is science or not (especially the last paragraph): Last year I surveyed the literature on evolution in the biology library of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and found Olan Hyndman’s “The Origin of Life and the Evolution of Living Things” (1952) in which he calls the neo-Darwinian theory of random mutation and natural selection “the Read More ›
These are excerpts from the cover story of the March 26, 2007 issue of Chemical and Engineering Times dealing with the origin of life. Read the whole article at the link provided.
Someone I correspond with sent me this. It’s a good example of how the design inference has been employed for practical matters. On the subject of stacked stones in the wilderness, here is a little story that may be interesting. In my legal practice my most prominent pro bono case was to seek the first-ever posthumous Presidential pardon, for the first-ever black graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point — Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper, class of 1877. He was court-martialled in a racially-motivated prosecution in 1881 and dismissed from the Army. (Pres. Clinton issued the pardon in 1999). After leaving the Army Lt. Flipper became a special agent for the U.S. Department of Justice, as part of a Read More ›
My daughter who works at Dell sent me this. I thought it might be appreciated by all who’ve witnessed the deluge of Mac vs. PC television adverts.
“Galileo’s conflict with the church could have probably been avoided if he had been endowed with less passion and more diplomacy; but long before that conflict, he had incurred the implacable hostility of the orthodox Aristotelians who held key positions at the Italian universities. Religion and political oppression play only an incidental part in the history of science; its erratic course and recurrent crises are caused by internal factors. One of the conspicuous handicaps is the conservatism of the scientific mind in its corporate aspect. The collective matrix of a science at a given time is determined by a kind of establishment, which includes universities, learned societies, and, more recently, the editorial offices of technical journals. Like other establishments, they Read More ›
When considering design versus no design in both cosmology and biology, one thing seems strikingly obvious: The default position is backwards.
Concerning cosmology, the fine-tuning of the universe for life would appear to be prima facie evidence for design. One can either choose to believe (at least provisionally) that this is the case, based on some evidence, or one can choose to believe in an infinitude of hypothetical alternate universes, which are in principle undetectable, based on no evidence.
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This morning the New Scientist web site posted an article entitled “Is Dark Energy an Illusion?” See here:
http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn11498-is-dark-energy-an-illusion.html
Here is the lead sentence:  “The quickening pace of our universe’s expansion may not be driven by a mysterious force called dark energy after all, but paradoxically, by the collapse of matter in small regions of space.”
This article brought to mind a wonderful debate we had in September about what it means to “know” a scientific theory is true. I used the standard model of cosmology and especially its reliance on “dark matter” and “dark energy” as a jumping off point for the discussion. See
https://uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/illusion-of-knowledge-iii/
https://uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/the-illusion-of-knowldge/
https://uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/the-illusion-of-knowledge-ii/
In my first post I noted that Professor Mike Disney is skeptical of the standard model, and he says: “The greatest obstacle to progress in science is the illusion of knowledge, the illusion that we know what’s going on when we really don’t.”
Here at Uncommon Descent, a longish combox discussion started recently – which spread here after I reposted some of my own comments at the Post-Darwinist – on whether the intelligent design guys would gain or lose credibility if they kicked out the young earth creationists (YECs, the folk who believe that the Bible teaches that the earth was created in 144 hours and therefore it must be true).
My own view is that it is politically astonishingly naive to think that the intelligent design-friendly scientists who accept universal common descent would gain anything by starting a big fight with: Read More ›
Richard Dawkins and Francis Collins are at it again, however not face to face this time, but as guests on alternate days on NPR’s ‘Fresh Air’ with Terry Gross. She asks pertinent questions but as always, remains objective, taking no position on either side. In Wednesday’s interview, Dawkins takes a moment reading from page 15 of his book, to clear up any question of Einstein having theistic views, but rather, as he himself embraces, having merely a breathtaking admiration and respect for the Cosmos, but from purely naturalistic origins. Dawkins paints a picture of mankind’s progress, with science and culture at the forefront, providing a humanistic view of what we have achieved, and stating that it is “demeaning, to retreat Read More ›
Here’s an article on evolving hardware developed by Norwegian scientists. Favorite quote: “Every creature in nature is a product of evolution, and did I mention that creationism is just bull? What the team has done is add evolution to hardware (Norwegian), all hardware that you and I have used so far is made the creationism way, it’s made and can not be changed at runtime through evolution. All changes to existing hardware have to be made through software.” There’s not much detail in this article, but let me venture a guess: when the details come out, we’ll find that intelligent design (which includes evolutionary optimization) outshines unintelligent evolution at every turn. Read More ›
[Event announcement] One hundred years ago on March 9, Indiana passed the world’s first forced sterilization law. Two years later, Washington State enacted a similar measure. Both laws were part of a crusade to breed better humans known as “eugenics.” Promoted by evolutionary biologists in the name of Darwinian natural selection, eugenics led to the sterilization of tens of thousands of Americans against their will, many of whom would not be considered mentally handicapped today. Why did America’s leading scientists and scientific organizations embrace eugenics for so long? Was eugenics a logical application of Darwin’s theory, or a terrible misuse of it? What are the lessons we can learn from eugenics for today’s controversies over science and public policy? In Read More ›
Here’s what’s appearing on Starbucks coffee cups that’s relevant to our concerns: The Way I See It #224 Darwinism’s impact on traditional social values has not been as benign as its advocates would like us to believe. Despite the efforts of its modern defenders to distance themselves from its baleful social consequences, Darwinism’s connection with eugenics, abortion and racism is a matter of historical record. And the record is not pretty. — Jonathan Wells, Biologist and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design. The Way I See It # 220 Evolution as described by Charles Darwin is a scientific theory, abundantly reconfirmed, explaining physical phenomena by physical causes. Intelligent Design is a faith-based initiative in rhetorical Read More ›
Veering From Evolution Fired teacher explains his presentationBy Christopher Stollar / The BulletinPublished: March 25. 2007 5:00AM PST On Wednesday, March 14, eight days into a new job teaching biology at Sisters High School, Kris Helphinstine showed a class of freshman and sophomore students pictures of naked corpses, a Nazi swastika and Charles Darwin in a PowerPoint presentation. “What do these pictures have in common?” the 27-year-old part-time teacher asked the 30 students. They listened as Helphinstine gave a roughly hourlong presentation, explaining how the Third Reich perverted evolution and eugenics to slaughter Jews and Gypsies in death camps to protect the “superior race.” Read the rest of the article at the link above. Watch the KTVZ NewsChannel 21 interview Read More ›