Month: October 2010
Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig: Under Neo-Darwinism, the Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Must Have a Rational Design
In his book Why Evolution is True, evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne claims that “Imperfect design is the mark of evolution; in fact it’s precisely what we expect from evolution.” (p. 81) He makes this prediction because “[n]ew parts don’t evolve from old ones, and we have to work well with the parts that have already evolved. Because of this, we should expect compromises: some features that work pretty well, but some not as well as they might, or some features–like the kiwi wing–that don’t work at all, but are evolutionary leftovers.” (p. 81) Thus according to Coyne, evolution predicts that some features will work well, some will work not-so-well, and some will work not at all. This is not exactly Read More ›
How Smithsonian Institution Pressured the California Science Center
In my previous post in this series about the California Science Center (CSC), we saw that the CSC might not have rented its facilities to a pro-intelligent design (ID) group like the American Freedom Alliance (AFA) had they known about “the nature of the groups involved.” At the same time that the CSC learned that a pro-ID group had booked its facilities, on the other side of the country, head staff at the Smithsonian Institution were outraged that one of their affiliates was allowing a pro-ID event. The Smithsonian’s Chief Spokesperson, Linda St. Thomas, was so upset about CSC’s rental to a pro-ID group that she asked the Smithsonian’s Director of Affiliates, Harold Closter, to send a “cease and desist” Read More ›
Reading Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro’s book, Never Let Me Go, is now a film. The book is an excellent narrative that forces the reader to ask “What does it mean to be human?”
Are God and Darwin Compatible?
Can you be an orthodox Darwinist and an orthodox theist? The plain answer is “no,” according to God and Evolution, an important new book coming out this fall. The book provides a thorough examination of the conflict between belief in God and Darwin’s theory of unguided evolution. In the century and a half since Charles Darwin first proposed his theory, Christians, Jews, and other religious believers have grappled with how to make sense of it. Most have understood that Darwin’s theory and materialistic theories of the origin of life have profound theological implications, but their responses have varied dramatically. Some have rejected evolutionary ideas outright; others, often called “theistic evolutionists,” have sought to reconcile materialist theories including Darwinism with their Read More ›
Darwin-Doubting Scientist Donald Johnson Publishes Book on “Programming of Life”
Dual-Ph.D. wielding, Darwin-doubting scientist Donald E. Johnson has published another a book on life’s computer-like programming. Titled Programming of Life, the dust jacket reads: Each cell of an organism has millions of interacting computers reading and processing digital information, using digital programs and digital codes to communicate and translate information. Life is an intersection of physical science and information science. Both domains are critical for any life to exist, and earth must be investigated using that domain’s principles. Yet most scientists have been attempting to use physical science to explain life’s information domain, a practice which has no scientific justification.