Including: A new, more student-friendly proof for the derivative of sin(x)
Tag: Darwinism
Writing Science Fiction Helps Students Understand Science Better
A recent study published in Issues in Teaching Earth Science suggests that having student write a science fiction story incorporating a concept helps them understand the concept better. Students in an introductory college geology course engaged in one of two exercises to learn more about the concept of cross cutting relationships, a major principle in Read More…
What Does It Mean To Be Human? Don’t Ask A Darwinist
“What does it mean to be human?” is one of the fundamental questions we all ask. Every once in a while something happens to remind us that those influenced by Darwinism usually only answer the question with “not much”. As a case in point, just today it’s being reported that the father of a son Read More…
Interview with Berlinski on “Human Nature”
In a couple of prior posts, here and here, we mentioned David Berlinksi’s new book Human Nature. Here’s a podcast of Berlinksi being interviewed by Jonathan Witt, regarding the book. On this episode of ID the Future, philosopher, mathematician, and Discovery Institute Senior Fellow David Berlinski answers questions from Jonathan Witt about Berlinski’s celebrated Read More…
New Book by David Berlinski Challenges the Darwinian View of Progress
Evolution News has announced the publication of a new book by David Berlinski entitled Human Nature. In Human Nature, Berlinski takes aim at the standard narrative of history in our secular culture, the fatuous Whig view that sees human life and human nature on an upward-inclining plane, evolving toward ever greater, even god-like enlightenment. In Read More…
Matzke is Back on the Flagellum Horse
In October 2006, Nick Matzke, a name not unfamiliar to denizens of UD, and Mark Pallen co-authored a review article for Nature Review of Microbiology regarding the status of research into the evolutionary origins of the bacterial flagellum. Matzke and Pallen felt the need to write such an article because since the publication of Michael Read More…
My Tribute to Phillip Johnson
Many of us here were greatly influenced by Phillip Johnson’s books, articles, and lectures. Indeed, if not for Johnson, this blog might never have come to be. Like so many, I was saddened to learn of his death on November 2nd. While several of Johnson’s fellow academics and colleagues have written some wonderful tributes to Read More…
But who says today’s philosophers must make sense?
A friend can’t make sense of this, from philosopher Keith Frankish in Aeon: Consciousness is a life-transforming illusion So, again, what is consciousness for? In his 2011 book Soul Dust, Humphrey proposes a novel idea. He argues that consciousness enriches life. It doesn’t add information; it adds interests and goals. Qualia are wonderful, magical things, Read More…
Try thinking harder about supporting National Public Radio
From NPR: Don’t Believe In Evolution? Try Thinking Harder … The theory of evolution by natural selection is among the best established in science, yet also among the most controversial for subsets of the American public. It’s appalling that this pysch prof can get away with misinforming the public about the fact that evolution by Read More…
You: a trillion tiny random machines
In “How You Consist of Trillions of Tiny Machines,” a review of two books, Australian palaeontologist Tim Flannery encapsulates the problem facing origin of life studies. Assessing Paul Falkowski’s Life’s Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable, he notes, Today, driven by ongoing technological innovations, the exploration of the “nanoverse,” as the realm of the minuscule Read More…
Darwinian ethics
In this article in the Daily Telegraph (UK), we see some typical philosophical and cultural applications of Darwinism: People are unfaithful to their marriages Therefore, it is natural Therefore, it is right i.e. What is, is what is right. Since we are no more than nature, all that we do is thus natural – and Read More…
Was Norway shooter a Social Darwinian terrorist?
Breivik instead hails Charles Darwin, whose evolutionary theories stand in contrast to the claims of the Bible, and affirms: “As for the Church and science, it is essential that science takes an undisputed precedence over biblical teachings.
[Note: Also, the Finnish school shooter and the Columbine shooters attributed their actions to Darwinism. Barry Arrington here was the lawyer for the Columbine victims and …
Predisposed to believe
Science Daily reports “A three-year international research project, directed by two academics at the University of Oxford, finds that humans have natural tendencies to believe in gods and an afterlife.” As my friend added, “This research was quite costly – they could have saved money by reading the Bible!” Link here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110714103828.htm I wonder how Read More…
A blow-by-blow response to Dr. Denis Alexander
In the last year and a bit I’ve done a lot of work in trying to understand and then critique the approach of Dr. Denis Alexander of the Faraday Institute in Cambridge (UK). I know that many readers of UD are familiar with Alexander’s big-selling work, “Creation or Evolution – Do We Have To Choose?”. Read More…
Cambrian Explosion Caught on Film
Illustra’s new film “Darwin’s Dilemma” delivers a knockout punch to Darwinism on Sept. 15. Darwin has tried to dodge the Cambrian explosion for 150 years; how can he survive this?