Category: Culture
A Mind, Even if It’s Just a Couple of Pounds of Meat, Is a Terrible Thing to Waste
The world is awash with charities. Most are quite worthwhile. For pennies a day, you can send a child in an impoverished country to school, and kindle a lifetime of learning. But there remain many unmet needs.What about people living in ideological poverty? We’ve all heard the stories. Materialist philosophers of the mind who deny that the mind exists. Full professors of evolutionary biology who misunderstand demonstrations of the existence of God that are routinely mastered by teenagers in Introductory Philosophy courses. Atheist authors of letters to Christian nations who excoriate religion and ignore the unparalleled atrocities of atheism. Unrepentant Trotskyites who scold Christians for adherence to a messianic ideology. Some of our fellow men live in intellectual squalor.
Darwin’s Dilemma, New Intelligent Design Film, Due Out Sept. 15
Darwin’s Dilemma is the third film in the intelligent design trilogy from Illustra Media, and arguably the best in the series (though Unlocking the Mystery of Life and The Privileged Planet were both excellent in their own right).From the full announcement here: One of the most spectacular events in the history of life, the Cambrian explosion, is brought to life through stunning animation in the new documentary Darwin’s Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Explosion released by Illustra Media September 15, 2009. This major documentary, the third in Illustra’s internationally-acclaimed intelligent design series, probes one of the great mysteries of science, the Cambrian explosion, when in a moment of geological time complex animals first appeared on earth fully formed, without Read More ›
Jerry Coyne and Aquinas’ First Way
Jerry Coyne and Jim Manzi have been mixing it up lately over the religious implications of evolution. Coyne asserts, quite rudely at times, that evolution disproves the existence of God. Manzi disagrees, and asserts that theism is compatible with evolutionary science. I’ve had a blog discussion or two with Manzi, and he’s a thoughtful courteous interlocutor. He doesn’t believe that intelligent design is a legitimate scientific inference (so he’s not perfect), but he is logically rigorous and very well informed on scientific matters as well as on the broader philosophical issues. He believes that evolution, understood as an algorithmic process by which populations of organisms change over time, is compatible with belief in God. He asserts that evolutionary science does Read More ›
“Bloggingheads” Faces the Guillotine
How many intellectuals and media conveyers will defend free speech and the importance of an unfettered debate of ideas? Fewer and fewer. We are witnessing in America a kind of academic French Revolution, where leading opinion is fratricidal, enraged, fanatical — and then overthrown to make room for a newer fanaticism.
Signature in the Cell on C-SPAN’s BookTV This Weekend
If you weren’t able to join us for the official Signature in the Cell book release party at the Seattle Art Museum, you can still watch author Stephen Meyer’s presentation this weekend on C-SPAN2’s BookTV: Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent DesignAbout the ProgramStephen Meyer argues that our DNA provides evidence of an intelligent designer and helps explain how life began. He spoke at the Seattle Art Museum during an event hosted by the Discovery Institute.Future Airings* Saturday, September 5th at 7pm (ET)* Sunday, September 6th at 7am (ET)* Monday, September 7th at 12pm (ET)* Tuesday, September 8th at 12am (ET)