For Good or Evil: The Contradictory Legacy of James D. Watson

Africa, animals, atheists, cellular operations, Christie’s, codes, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, digital code, DNA, double helix, Evolution, faith, Francis Crick, genes, genetic isolation, genetics, history, Human Zoos, humans beings, information, intelligence, Intelligent Design, intelligent designer, James D. Watson, John West, language, Maurice Wilkins, nihilism, Nobel Prize, Plato's Revenge, Race, Racism, religion, Richard Dawkins, Richard Sternberg, sequence hypothesis, Signature in the Cell, Stephen Meyer, The Information Enigma, theism
Let’s hope that whoever writes the future history of science will, like the bidder for that Nobel medal, be merciful to him. Source
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Are “Mind” and “Brain” the Same Thing?

Angus Menuge, animals, Artificial Intelligence, bacon, Benjamin Libet, brain, C. elegans, ChatGPT, computer, Denyse O'Leary, determinism, Dogs, free will, free won't, human exceptionalism, Humanize, large language models, machines, Medicine, Michael Egnor, mind, Minding the Brain, neural mechanisms, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, philosophy, Podcast, The Immortal Mind, totalitarianism, Wesley J. Smith
Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor passionately argues that denying free will undermines moral responsibility and paves the way for totalitarian ideologies. Source
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PETA Sues NIH for Violating Its “First Amendment Right” to Talk to Monkeys

animal experiments, animals, chimpanzees, Culture & Ethics, Edward Taub, elephants, First Amendment, human suffering, illnesses, Ingrid Newkirk, journalists, National Institutes of Health, News Media, Nonhuman Rights Project, persons, PETA, Silver Spring Monkey Case, Society for Neuroscience, writ of habeas corpus
There is not one modern medical treatment or intervention that does not involve animal research at some point in the process. Source
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Clinical Psychologist Supports Human Exceptionalism

A New Unified Theory of Psychology, animals, Aristotle, behavior, Culture & Ethics, Dogs, emotions, evolutionary biologists, Feelings, Gregg Henriques, human exceptionalism, humans, Marc Bekoff, Michael Egnor, moral choice, Neuroscience & Mind, prejudice, psychology, Psychology Today, Racism, reason, secular humanists, sensations, sexism, speciesism, The Immortal Mind, Thomas Aquinas, Wesley J. Smith
Gregg Henriques, a secular humanist, has developed an approach that accepts human exceptionalism without denying that animals have mental abilities. Source
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The End of the Machine Metaphor? 

"survival of the fittest", animals, bears, biology, Books, Casey Luskin, celibacy, chihuahua, DNA, Evolution, evolutionary psychology, Fiction, Foresight (book), foxes, genes, How Life Works, Intelligent Design, machines, Marcos Eberlin, Meaning, Oskar Schindler, otters, Philip Ball, purpose, relationships, religion, reproduction, Science and Faith in Dialogue, self-sacrifice, survival, work, writing
Rather than purpose deriving from a purposeless process like natural selection, natural selection can only occur when life itself is the result of purpose. Source
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Fossil Friday: An Ediacaran Animal with a Question Mark

A. Yu Ivantsov, animals, dickinsoniids, Ediacaran biota, Epibaion, Evolution, Evolution & Development, flatworms, Fossil Friday (series), IFLScience, jello, microbial mats, multicellular animal, muscles, nervous system, Nilpena Ediacara National Park, outback, paleontology, placozoan, Precambrian, protists, Quaestio simpsonorum, Roomba, sandstone, South Australia, trace fossils, Tribrachidium
To claim that such undefinable blobs in sandstone represent fossils of the oldest motile animals is massively overselling the evidence to say the least. Source
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We Can’t Let “Experts” Decide the Morality of Making “Humanized Animals”

animals, bioethicists, brains, Culture & Ethics, doctors, experts, human life, humanized animals, humans, International Society for Stem Cell Research, Journal of Medical Ethics, lawyers, Medicine, mental capacities, neural function, organoids, personalized animals, personhood theory, philosophers, pig, rats, Research, Sergiu Paşca, speciesism, unborn humans
Bioethics is a utilitarianish social-political movement whose primary advocates are usually philosophers, lawyers, and/or doctors. Source
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In Our World, Multiple Levels of Intelligent Design

animals, atheists, beehive, biochemistry, bird’s nest, Canceled Science, Christianity, classroom, clouds, dumb luck, eric hedin, Faith & Science, faith and science, functionality, George MacDonald, Grand Canyon, human race, Intelligent Design, laws of nature, leaves, Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, rain, Robert Falconer, spiders's web, Taj Mahal
We find higher genres of design that cannot be explained by appealing to the actions of natural forces and laws of nature. Source
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