[ HT: KRock] The aim of this essay is to set the record straight on behalf of Norm Geisler in the landmark creation-evolution case Mclean vs. Arkansas as well exploring a few connections of ID/creation/evolution with Extra Terrestrials (ETs) and certain religious ideas. Ironically, the Uncommon Descent weblog owes much of its existence to an advocate of Extra Terrestrial (ET) origins of life on Earth, namely DaveScot Springer who built up the UD blog for several years before getting separated from it. I have promoted the work of another ET-ID fan, Dr. Andras Pellionisz. And last but not least, UD’s very own Rob Sheldon offered his hypothesis that comets throughout the universe participated in a massive coherent computation that created Read More ›

[This is a light-hearted precursor to a more serious essay I’m writing about ID/Creationism and Extra-Terrestrials. Other than being a pre-cursor to that essay it has no ID content.] Denyse reported earlier on the former Canadian Defence Minister Paul Hellyer. Wiki has this to say about him: Hellyer is reported to have said other things: According to most, almost every report, is that the ETs are more spiritual than we are. And so, we really have to emulate them; not only in technology but in spirituality.” He then specifically references global warming and “changing the banking system” and follows up with: “the major religions who have been fighting each other and killing each other for millennia are gonna have to Read More ›

While informing his friendly Berkeley audience that the world must not have been designed because of all its evil and dysteleology (there are earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis and lightning strikes, and for every beautiful waterfall there is a deadly newt hiding under a rock), the Director of the Hayden Planetarium also reminds his fellow evolutionists that they are the “truth-seekers.” [7:10 in thisvideo] Tyson is an entertaining speaker but this was not meant to be funny. The lesson here is that evolutionists are so confident and convincing not because they are good liars, but because they actually believe their lies.  Read more

Biologists around the world are in shock following the discovery of a revolutionary third way of producing pluripotent cells, which can grow into any type of mature organ. The new research is the brainchild of a 30-year-old Japanese woman who triumphed over academic adversity, according to a report in the Yomiuri Shimbun (which also publishes the Japan News): Haruko Obokata of the Kobe-based Riken Center for Developmental Biology came up with the idea for her research six years ago. She later developed a surprisingly simple method to create stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP) cells, which can develop into various cells. Her paper was initially rejected by the British journal Nature, which was not convinced of her findings, but thanks to Read More ›