Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

New university in Texas, aiming to restore scholarly debate, surviving so far

From a university trying out intellectual freedom: "The disarming power of culture was palpable. Students who had learned to hold their tongues in college classrooms poured forth their souls once the cork of wariness was unstopped. " Read More ›

Robert J. Marks: 4. How Almost All Numbers Can Encode the Library of Congress

Re math: Almost every number between zero and one, randomly chosen by coin flipping, will at some point contain the binary encoding of the Library of Congress. That’s why infinity is a concept in math but not in the real world. Note: You should ask, how do we come to have concepts that are not part of the real world? Read More ›

At Eurekalert: Connectivity of language areas unique in the human brain

"Neuroscientists have gained new insight into how our brain evolved into a language-ready brain. Compared to chimpanzee brains, the pattern of connections of language areas in our brain has expanded more than previously thought. " Read More ›

At Mind Matters News: 2. Infinity illustrates that the universe has a beginning

The absurdities that an infinite past time would create, while not a definitive mathematical proof, are solid evidence that our universe had a beginning. Read More ›

At Panda’s Thumb: Worry that the U.S. Supreme Court will rule for creationism

For some, tormenting themselves with this stuff probably seems to make more sense than confronting the fact that Darwinism (which is generally what they mean by “evolution”) isn’t as widely believed as it used to be within biology. Never mind what a judge thinks should be taught to kids in school. Read More ›

Are We Free?

There is a constant struggle in every man’s heart between what he does and what he knows he should do.  Freud and the Apostle Paul wrote about this conflict in the following famous passages: Thus the ego, driven by the id, confined by the super-ego, repulsed by reality, struggles to master its economic task of bringing about harmony among the forces and influences working in and upon it; and we can understand how it is that so often we cannot suppress a cry: ‘Life is not easy!’ If the ego is obliged to admit its weakness, it breaks out in anxiety – realistic anxiety regarding the external world, moral anxiety regarding the super-ego and neurotic anxiety regarding the strength of Read More ›

At Mind Matters News: Can we eliminate the idea of function from the study of life?

The term “function” in life forms is linked historically with the idea that life forms show evidence of design. Therefore, philosopher Emmanuel Ratti and molecular biologist Pierre-Luc Germain argue, biologists shouldn’t use it ... The problem with their position is not that it is opposed to intelligent design theory but that it is in conflict with the self-evident nature of life forms. Read More ›

Remember when the lab-leak theory of COVID-19 was “just a conspiracy theory”?

Matt Ridley: We don’t say this virus definitely jumped out of a laboratory, but we do say that if there is one city in the world where a laboratory leak of a novel SARS-like virus from bats would be most likely to happen, it would be Wuhan. Read More ›

At Mind Matters News: Why free will is philosophically and scientifically sound

Takehome: Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor points out that, though free will may be unpopular with atheist thinkers like biologist Darwinian evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne, science doesn’t refute it. Read More ›

At Socrates in the City: Eric Metaxas and Stephen Meyer Tackle Science and God

Meyer is author of "The Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries that Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe." Eric Metaxas is a radio talk show host and author of Is Atheism Dead? Read More ›

At Mind Matters News: The Software of the Gaps: An excerpt from Non-Computable You

Robert J. Marks reminds us of the tale of the boy who dug through a pile of manure because he was sure that … underneath all that poop, there MUST surely be a pony! Read More ›

At Mind Matters News: The human brain has neural networks not found in lab mice

In a just-published study that he led, the researchers examined human tissue removed by neurosurgeons during operations. Studying it, they discover neuron networks (connectomes) unknown in mouse brains... The interesting part is that this network exists mainly in order to silence other neurons... Read More ›