06Jan 2020 by Post

Astrophysicist Asks: Did God Create the Universe?

Aristotle, astrophysicist, atheists, Big Bang, cosmic inflation, Darwinian evolution, Ethan Siegel, Evidence, Faith & Science, First Mover, Five Ways, general relativity, Heresy, information, logic, microwave radiation, natural theology, non-overlapping magisteria, Ontological Argument, Physics, Earth & Space, quantum mechanics, reason, red shift, special relativity, Stephen Jay Gould, theists, theory of potency, Thomas Aquinas, universe
Ethan Siegel is an astrophysicist who writes a lot for the public. I like his stuff; he explains interesting complex topics well. But his recent essay “Ask Ethan: Did God Create the Universe?” misses the mark in a sadly common way. He not only botches logic and the metaphysics. He botches science.  Seigel answers a reader’s question about the existence of God. The reader asks: I am very interested in space and with who made us and what made us… what do you have to say about people who say that “God” made us? Seigel is interested in this question too, and he replies (I summarize his argument — read his whole essay for details): You can ask a question whose answer is not only knowable, but already known. You…
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04Jan 2020 by Post

The Problem of Evil

Al Serrato, Apologetics, Christian Apologetics, Skeptics, the problem of evil, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Al Serrato One of the most common challenges to the Christian worldview is the problem of evil. We see evil all around us; we need to do little more than pick up a newspaper or watch the nightly news to have our sensibilities assaulted with countless acts of senseless violence and suffering. Many are man-made and some a product of an indifferent Mother Nature; whatever the source, at times, it feels as if the world is awash in wickedness. How, the challenger entreats, can your good and loving God create such things? Why did he imbue man with such capacity for wickedness? The Christian responds that God did not create evil. No, they claim, evil is the product of man’s twisted free will. How well does this claim hold…
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04Jan 2020 by Post

The Elephant in the Room isn’t Trump

AFR, Apologetics, app, cross examined, cross examined official podcast, CrossExamined, crossexamined podcast, Frank Turek, google play, iTunes, Podcast, podcasting, Radio, Radio Show, Spotify, stitcher, Trump, Weekly Podcast
Podcast: Play in new window A couple of listeners wrote emails to express their disagreement with some of what Frank said in the show “Why Did Evangelicals Vote for Trump?” In this show Frank responds by investigating Jesus’s rebuke of the Pharisees (the politicians of Israel) in Matthew 23:23 and then by asking three questions: What is the purpose of government? What is your primary reason for choosing a president? Who, of the available candidates, will best fulfill that purpose? As you’ll hear the elephant in the room isn’t Trump and his personality. The primary reason we choose a president has to do with a policy, not personality (although personality is still important). Frank responds to other objections from the emails, and also answers this question from a parent: How…
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04Jan 2020 by Post

Forty Parameters of the Designed Body

equilibrium, Goldilocks principle, Howard Glicksman, human body, ID The Future, Intelligent Design, Leonardo da Vinci, Life Sciences, Podcast, Steve Laufmann, Tod Butterfield, Vitruvian Man
On a classic episode of ID the Future, host Tod Butterfield interviews Steve Laufmann about Dr. Howard Glicksman’s 81-part Evolution News series, “The Designed Body.” Mr. Laufmann is a consultant in the field of enterprise architecture, dealing with the design of very large, very complex, composite information systems that are orchestrated to perform specified tasks in demanding environments. Hey, that sounds like the human body! Listen in as Laufmann reflects on the body’s fight against equilibrium, the Goldilocks principle, and more! Download the podcast or listen to it here. Image: Vitruvian Man, by Leonardo da Vinci [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. The post Forty Parameters of the Designed Body appeared first on Evolution News.
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03Jan 2020 by Post

Himmelfarb and Her Haters

10 Books That Screwed Up the World, Adrian Desmond, Alfred Russel Wallace, Andrew Dickson White, Bea Kristol, Benjamin Wiker, Borneo, Bridgewater Treatises, Charles Darwin, Charles Gillispie, Charles Kingsley, City University of New York, Cornell University, Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution, Darwinists, Darwin’s Sacred Cause, Dyak headhunters, Edward T. Oakes, Encounter (journal), Ernst Mayr, Eugenics Record Office, Evolution, Francis Galton, George Will, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Harry Bruinius, history, Jacques Barzun, James D. Watson, James Moore, Jeffrey Shallit, Jewish Women, John William Draper, Julian Huxley, Leo Strauss, Mein Kampf, P.Z. Myers, Panda's Thumb, Uaupés River Valley, Victorian England
Editor’s note: Historian and Darwin skeptic Gertrude Himmelfarb died on Monday, December 30, 2019. While mourning the passing of this great scholar, we are pleased to republish Professor Flannery’s 2009 essay, below. See also Flannery’s tribute, ‘Farewell to Gertrude Himmelfarb, Brutally Honest Historian of the “Darwinian Revolution.’” “If you have no enemies, it is a sign fortune has forgot you.” — Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732  Noted physician Thomas Fuller was an expert on “eruptive fevers,” and so it seems fitting to open this essay with his wry but telling observation on enemies in public life, for perhaps no contemporary historian has spawned more “eruptive fever” over an analysis of the reigning secular creation myth demigod, Charles Darwin, than has the present subject of this essay. If Fuller is any judge,…
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02Jan 2020 by Post

What is the Bible all About?

AFR, Apologetics, app, Bible, cross examined, cross examined official podcast, CrossExamined, crossexamined podcast, Frank Turek, google play, iTunes, Podcast, podcasting, Radio, Radio Show, Spotify, stitcher, Weekly Podcast
Podcast: Play in new window What is the Bible all about?  Sometimes we get too close to it and can’t see the big picture. Join Frank as he takes you on a grand overview of the Bible using the acronym CRIME:  Creation, Rebellion, Intervention, Mission, Eternity.  This will help you see how the Bible fits together to tell one overarching story of the Savior, who comes to save the very creatures who rebelled against him.  So, while the Bible starts with a CRIME, it ends with redemption in Eternity for those who want it.  That’s why we all have an important mission right now. To get visual and more in-depth teaching on this topic and many others, get the complete 17 part series on DVD called Jesus, You and the…
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02Jan 2020 by Post

Care for Appetizers? Electric Proteins, Spidey Sense, and More

anatomy, appetizers, Arizona State University, Barry Scott, Biomimetics, centipedes, cilia, electricity, electron transport, gene repression, genes, genomes, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Joubert syndrome, Junk DNA, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Massey University, materials science, metabolism, Michael Behe, miRNA, orb webs, photosynthesis, physiology, Siam News, sliders, spiders, Stuart Lindsey, swimming, Tohoku University, University of North Carolina, University of Otago, X-ray crystallography, Zheng-Yi Chen
Welcome to the second day of the New Year! Like tasty sliders, these short news stories should get the juices flowing for big developments in 2020. Electric Proteins Dr. Stuart Lindsey at Arizona State University is an expert in single-molecule dynamics in biomolecules. Older methods of observing protein structure, such as X-ray crystallography, only gave single snapshots of the highly dynamic world, he says, where proteins rapidly change conformations and interact in complex ways. Electron transport has been well known in the cases of photosynthesis and metabolism. But a few years ago, his team was astonished to find that a run-of-the-mill protein conducted electricity. The protein was acting like a wire! Further observations revealed that all proteins conduct electricity — even the ones that had “weren’t designed to do this”—…
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01Jan 2020 by Post

#1 of Our Top Stories of 2019: Informed by Discovery Authors, Yale’s David Gelernter Rejects Darwinism

Ben Shapiro, Charles Darwin, Darwin's Doubt, David Berlinski, David Gelernter, Debating Darwin's Doubt, Discovery Institute Press, Douglas Axe, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Marcos Eberlin, Michael Behe, National Academy of Sciences, Paul Nelson, Richard Lenski, Stephen Meyer, The Claremont Review of Books, The Deniable Darwin, Thomas Nagel, Tom Wolfe, Yale University
Editor’s note: The staff of Evolution News wish you a Happy New Year! We are counting down our top ten stories of 2019. If you haven’t done so yet, please take a moment now to contribute to our work in bringing you news and analysis about evolution, intelligent design, and more every day of the year. There is no other voice, no other source of information, like ours. Thank you for your friendship and your support! The following article was originally published here on October 21, 2019. This is important. Yale University computer scientist David Gelernter is a polymath, a brilliant writer, artist, and thinker. Famed both for his specific scientific expertise, and for his cultural, political, and historical reflections, he’s also now a confessed Darwin skeptic. More than a…
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31Dec 2019 by Post

#2 of Our Top Stories of 2019: BIO-Complexity Paper Shows We Could Have Come from Two

1000 Genomes Project, Ann Gauger, BIO-Complexity, Darwin, genetics, human evolution, Human Origins, Ola Hössjer, population genetics
Editor’s note: The staff of Evolution News wish you a Happy New Year! We are counting down our top ten stories of 2019. If you haven’t done so yet, please take a moment now to contribute to our work in bringing you news and analysis about evolution, intelligent design, and more every day of the year. There is no other voice, no other source of information, like ours. Thank you for your friendship and your support! The following article was originally published here on October 21, 2019. Editor’s note: We are delighted to announce a new paper by Swedish mathematician Ola Hössjer and Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Ann Gauger in the journal BIO-Complexity. The new research describes scientific work demonstrating that it is possible for the human species to have…
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30Dec 2019 by Post

#3 of Our Top Stories of 2019: PragerU Video on Evolution = Stephen Meyer at Yankee Stadium x 20

andom mutations, bacteria, biological diversity, Christianity, Darwin's Doubt, Darwinism, Evolution, Judaism, Ludwig van Beethoven, natural selection, PragerUr, Signature in the Cell, Stephen Meyer, theistic evolution, Yankee Stadium
Editor’s note: The staff of Evolution News wish you a Happy New Year! We are counting down our top ten stories of 2019. If you haven’t done so yet, please take a moment now to contribute to our work in bringing you news and analysis about evolution, intelligent design, and more every day of the year. There is no other voice, no other source of information, like ours. Thank you for your friendship and your support! The following article was originally published here on October 24, 2019. Picture this: philosopher of science Stephen Meyer discussing reasons for skepticism about evolution with enough new friends to fill Yankee Stadium. Now multiply that by 20. As the delighted staff over at PragerU point out, in just the few days since it was…
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