In Debate on Intelligent Design, Critic Cites Dragon Legend to Justify Evolution’s Failures

bacterial flagellum, debates, dinosaur bones, Dragon, English, Evolution, Fundacja En Arche, Holocaust, Intelligent Design, Kraków, Malgorzata Moczydlowska-Vidal, Michael Behe, Michael Ruse, micropaleontology, philosophers, Poland, Polish, pseudoscience, Richard Sternberg, scientists, Silesia, Smok wawelski, Sweden, Uppsala University, virgins, Vladimir Putin, Wawel Castle, Wawel Dragon
It is, as Professor Behe acknowledges, a charming tale, but not very relevant as far as the details of the scientific debate go. Source
Read More

Postcard from São Paulo: Intelligent Design Sung to a New Tune in Brazil

Adauto Lourenço, Ann Gauger, atheists, Brazil, Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Brazilian Society for Intelligent Design, Brazilian Society of Intelligent Design, debates, Doubts About Darwin, Douglas Axe, Enézio de Almeida Filho, English, epigenetics, Evolution, fine-tuning, Fomos Planejados, Heleno Hauer, ID Bird, Intelligent Design, Jonathan Wells, Juan Manuel Torres, Kelson Mota, Luiz Felipe Pondé, Mackenzie Presbyterian University, Marcos Eberlin, Michael Behe, molecular machines, Philip Johnson, Portuguese, Ricardo Marques, São Paulo, Spanish, Stephen Meyer, teoria do design inteligente, Tom Woodward, William Dembski
The theme of the conference was familiar to us, but I’d like to think that we’ve heard it sung to a new tune in more ways than one.  Source
Read More

Blind Ambition — Revisiting Searle’s Chinese Room

analytic philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, Chinese, Chinese characters, Chinese Room, Clearasil, computers, English, intelligence, Intelligent Design, intentionality, Irish Sweepstakes, John Searle, judo, MacArthur Fellowship, Neuroscience & Mind, observer, Pepsi, psychology, Roger Schank, script, Sophia Loren, The Cognitive Computer, Yale University
For the most part, computer scientists have tended to ignore Searle’s argument and the point of view that it represents. Source
Read More

Can Artificial Intelligence Be Creative?

Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, chatbot, computer science, computers, Creativity, English, Eugene Goostman, George Gordon, Go (game), Intelligent Design, Lord Byron, machines, Neuroscience & Mind, Non-Computable You, programmers, Selmer Bringsjord, software, swarms, The Carpenters, The Imitation Game, trickery, Turing test, Ukrainians
Lady Ada Lovelace (1815–1852), daughter of the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, was the first computer programmer. Source
Read More

A Darwin Day Exhibit Backfires

academic freedom, biology, English, Evolution, free speech, Germany, Günter Bechly, ID The Future, Intelligent Design, Lehigh University, memory hole, Podcast, Ray Bohlin, Revolutionary: Michael Behe and the Mystery of Molecular Machines, State Museum of Natural History, Stuttgart, Uncategorized, Wikipedia
Hear the story of how leading German paleo-entomologist and Darwinist Günter Bechly became convinced of intelligent design. Source
Read More

Meyer, Isaac: Is Information in DNA “Abstract”?

abstraction, American Scientific Affiliation, Brian Miller, Christianity, DNA, English, Evolution, Francis Crick, information, Intelligent Design, nucleotide bases, origin of life, Randy Isaac, Stephen Meyer, The Mystery of Life’s Origin, Walter Bradley
The American Scientific Affiliation is an association of Christian scientists who are not on the whole supportive of scientific arguments for intelligent design. Source
Read More

“Do You Believe in Evolution?” A Short Answer

automobiles, bats, BIO-Complexity, cars, classes, convergence, Darwinian theory, Darwinism, dependency graph, dolphins, Dutch, echolocation, English, Evolution, genes, George Gaylord Simpson, Harvard University, Intelligent Design, orders, phyla, Polish, science fiction, software, Spanish, Technology, Tree of Life, Why Evolution Is Different, Winston Ewert
You don't have time to give a 30-minute answer outlining the different meanings of the word "evolution" and the evidence pro and con for each. Source
Read More

The Main Argument of The Abolition of Man

Alec King, Aristotle, British schools, C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Culture & Ethics, debunking, England, English, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gaius, Hinduism, literature, Martin Ketley, Men without Chests, pedagogy, philosophy, Plato, propaganda, Saint Augustine, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, sublime, Tao, That Hideous Strength, The Abolition of Man, The Conditioners, The Control of Language, The Green Book, Thomas Traherne, thumos, Titius, upper forms, values, Wheaton College
Lewis foresees a class of men called “the Conditioners.” The Conditioners have “seen through” all attempts to ground behaviour in any ultimate truth. Source
Read More

Mistakes Our Critics Make: Protein Rarity

amino acid sequences, antibodies, chemical activities, Dan Tawfik, DNA, Douglas Axe, English, HisA enzyme, Intelligent Design, Journal of Molecular Biology, Niagara Falls, proteins, RNA, sentences, wheelbarrow, β-lactamase enzyme
In previous articles, I demonstrated how substantial quantities of biological information cannot emerge through any natural process (see here and here), and I described how such information points to intelligent design. Now, I am addressing the mistakes typically made by critics who challenge these claims (see here, here, here, and here). See my post yesterday, here, on misapplying information theory.  A second category of errors relates to arguments against the conclusion that the information content of many proteins is vastly greater than what any undirected process could generate. Most of the critiques are aimed at the research of Douglas Axe that estimated the rarity of amino acid sequences corresponding to a section of a functional β-lactamase enzyme. Many of the attacks result from the skeptics’ failure to properly understand Axe’s…
Read More