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01Dec 2019 by Post

Michael Egnor on Scientific Consensus and Apocalypse Now

civilizational ruin, consensus, Emily Kurlinski, Evolution, ID The Future, materialism, Michael Egnor, overpopulation, scientific experts, starvation, Thomas Malthus
On a new episode of ID the Future, host Emily Kurlinski talks with Michael Egnor, professor of neurosurgery at Stony Brook University, about the dire warnings, stretching back at least to Thomas Malthus near the turn of the 19th century, that overpopulation would lead to starvation and civilizational ruin. Download the podcast of listen to it here. Egnor discusses this and other scientific claims once widely embraced by scientific experts and later shown to be off base. The lesson, he says, is that when someone tells you to believe something simply because it’s “the scientific consensus,” reserve judgment. Consensus, says Egnor, is “a political concept, not a scientific one.” And when much of the scientific community is held captive by a dogmatic adherence to materialism, any claimed consensus is all the…
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30Nov 2019 by Post

Q&A with Michael Behe: What’s Wrong with Theistic Evolution?

DiscoveryU, Evangelical Christians, Evolution, faith, Faith & Science, Francis Collins, Intelligent Design, Michael Behe, science, The Language of God, theistic evolution
We now reluctantly conclude the past week’s series of Q&A sessions with biochemist Michael Behe, highlighting his 41-part video course for DiscoveryU, “Michael Behe Investigates Evolution and Intelligent Design.” Here’s another challenge he often gets: Why doesn’t Professor Behe go along with famed Evangelical Christian scientist Francis Collins, and others, in opting for theistic evolution? Dr. Behe observes that in reading Dr. Collins’s book, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, he found it notable that Collins “does not even try to address the problems for evolution that I and other intelligent design proponents have brought up.” So that is one reason. Behe, like Collins, is a scientist not a theologian. The science of ID, and the scientific problems with Darwinian evolution, are the focus of his video…
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29Nov 2019 by Post

Fact and Fiction: Ohio Bill Stirs Needless Alarm

Christians, Columbus Dispatch, Discovery Institute, Education, Evolution, First Amendment, free speech, homework, House Bill 164, Jews, legislation, Ohio, Ohio House of Representatives, pedagogy, religious expression, Science Education Policy, strengths and weaknesses, Timothy Ginter, U.S. Constitution, Washington Post, WKRC
Lately, media sources have sported provocative headlines about a bill in Ohio. The Washington Post asks: “Does the bill just passed by the Ohio House allow students to be wrong in science class without penalty if they cite religious reasons?” Meanwhile the Columbus Dispatch worries: “Science Deniers Get Boost from Proposed Ohio House Bill.” The actual legislation, I’m afraid, is much less dramatic.  This proposed law largely echoes the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment on free speech (including on religious matters). Here’s the part that has received the most media attention: Sec. 3320.03. No school district board of education, governing authority of a community school established under Chapter 3314. of the Revised Code, governing body of a STEM school established under Chapter 3326. of the Revised Code, or board of trustees…
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28Nov 2019 by Post

Q&A with Michael Behe: New Examples of Irreducible Complexity

bacterial flagellum, biochemistry, biology, DiscoveryU, Evolution, icons of ID, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Michael Behe, video course
“What have you done for me lately?” So jokes biochemist Michael Behe, paraphrasing a question he often gets. In other words, Professor Behe, we know about the iconic bacterial flagellum. But are there other, newer examples of irreducible complexity? Yes, there are. In a Q&A session to highlight his 41-part DiscoveryU video course on ID, “Michael Behe Investigates Evolution and Intelligent Design,” Dr. Behe explains that in fact research in biology brings to light previously unknown irreducibly complex wonders — the most sophisticated showing “design building upon design,” as he puts it — by the month or even the week. His details a few. Find more information about the video course here! The post Q&A with Michael Behe: New Examples of Irreducible Complexity appeared first on Evolution News.
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27Nov 2019 by Post

What a Non-Christian Taught Me about the Gospel

Apologetics, Christianity, Conversion, Dr. David Oldham, FreeThinking Ministries, Gospel, Non-Christian, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
A number of years ago, a young woman came to our church for counseling and talked to me. She poured out her story of disappointment with her husband’s unfaithfulness, his unwillingness to change, and the mess her life had become, not only because of him but also because of her own unwise choices. She felt she was in a hole and wanted to know how to get out and begin afresh. While she was sharing and I looked into her searching eyes, I was asking myself and God how he and the healing he alone could bring might fit into her life. I knew she needed Jesus and the forgiveness and hope he would give, but I struggled with how to tell her she needed him. How did “accepting Jesus…
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27Nov 2019 by Post

Design in the First Animals

animals, aragonite, Cambrian Explosion, Cambrian News, cilia, Cladonema, Cnidaria, cognitive capacity, comb jellies, crabs, crustaceans, Ctenophora, ctenophores, Current Biology, Darwin's Black Box, Edward Pope, Evolution, fossil record, honeycomb, hydrodynamic coupling, Intelligent Design, jellyfish, lobsters, Michael Behe, mollusks, nacre, Porifera, Precambrian, Robert Hovden, Sarah P. Leys, sea gooseberries, shrimp, Swansea University, tablets, The Edge of Evolution, Tohoku University, University of Michigan, University of Tsukuba
It didn’t take long for animals to master physics and engineering. The first animal body plans were performing feats that fascinate — and baffle — research scientists. Ctenophores: Flashing Paddles Also called sea gooseberries and comb jellies, ctenophores (pronounced TEN-o-fours) are small centimeter-sized marine organisms with rows of cilia, called comb rows or ctenes, which function as paddles for swimming. Though gelatinous and transparent, comb jellies are unrelated to jellyfish (phylum Cnidaria); they have been classified into their own phylum, Ctenophora, characterized by eight of these comb rows. Scientists debate whether ctenophores are the earliest animals that appeared in the Cambrian explosion, as opposed to sponges (phylum Porifera). If so, they arrived with multiple tissues, a nervous system, and a digestive system. That’s a lot to account for without any…
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26Nov 2019 by Post

Human Origins: Not a Simple Question

Adam and Eve, allele frequency spectrum, Andrew Jones, Atheism, BIO-Complexity, chimps, Copenhagen, Darwinism, Discovery Institute Press, DNA, entomologists, Francisco Ayala, genetics, HLA-DRB1, hominins, Human Origins, insects, Jay Richards, linkage disequilibrium, Neo-Darwinism, Ola Hössjer, onychophorans, Science and Human Origins, theism
Photo source: Pixabay via Pexels.com. I have come to a conclusion. Perhaps if I had thought about it more carefully at first I would not be surprised. But it has only recently occurred to me that a great deal of the disturbance about evolution — yes, no, theistic, atheistic, guided, unguided, young earth, old earth, Darwinist , near-neutralist, whatever! is about human origins. Where did WE come from? Are we descended from primates or not? And what did God have to do with it? Nobody except specialist scientists would care if a little tree frog was descended from a lobe-finned fish, or was instead specially created with his special poison glands, unless it also had implications with regard to our origin. Not many would care except evolutionary biologists and entomologists…
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25Nov 2019 by Post

Did Paul really change his tactics after Athens and begin to take a dim view of apologetics?

Acts, Apologetics, Christianity, Erik Manning, Greeks, IsJesusAlive, Jesus, Paul, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Erik Manning Some Christians have argued that apologetics is a waste of time. We aren’t supposed to be arguing with unbelievers; we’re just called to preach the simple gospel. If we’re faithful to do that, the Holy Spirit will supernaturally come to our aid — either in supernatural conviction, or performing signs and wonders through us that no one can gainsay. To support this view, these well-meaning believers will point to Paul’s so-called ‘failure’ in Athens. Paul debated with the thinkers of Mars Hill, using natural theology and quoting their own philosophers in order to persuade them of the truth of the gospel. Paul’s results were modest. Acts 17:32-34 reads: “Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you…
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25Nov 2019 by Post

¿Por qué no soy Fideísta? Parte III

Apologética, Cristianismo, Español, Fe Razonable, Fideismo, Teología, Xavier Gonzalez
Por Xavier González Parte I: Definición e historia del Fideísmo. Parte II: La historia de cristianos con una fe razonable. Promotores de la Fe Razonable Como vimos anteriormente los primeros cristianos no fueron fideísta, y eso va en total contradicción con los fideístas y ciertos ateos que aseguran que la fe es ciega e irracional, y que existe una contradicción entre la fe y la razón, pero ¿dirían lo mismo aquellos cristianos que tienen alguna especialización académica? ¿Aquellos que procuraron en saber adónde se fundamenta su fe, pensaron lo mismo, así como lo hicieron los apologistas del segundo siglo? ¿O tuvieron (y tienen) buenas razones para pensar que realmente la fe cristiana es una fe razonable? Citaremos ciertas afirmaciones de diferentes académicos que van en esta línea de pensamiento:  La…
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24Nov 2019 by Post

Fast Track: Speeding Ben Shapiro and David Berlinski to You NOW

Ben Shapiro, Ben Shapiro Show, David Berlinski, Discovery Institute, drug trials, essentialism, Evolution, evolutionary science, Fast Track, Germans, human beings, Human Nature (book), interview, Jews, Nazis, philosophy, prescription medicines, science, social consequences, Sunday Special, USFDA
Wow, this is an amazing, hour-long conversation between Ben Shapiro and our Discovery Institute colleague David Berlinski. It’s today’s Sunday Special on the Ben Shapiro Show and you can watch it here on YouTube: Berlinski is wise and hilarious, and Shapiro a very fitting interlocutor. David’s new book, which forms the spine of the interview, is Human Nature, out now. I’ll have more to say on their interaction later. But in the spirit of the Fast Track program of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, hastening needed prescription medicine ahead of otherwise routine burdensome drug trial requirements, here are David and Ben right NOW, covering the philosophical and political attack on essentialism, why evolution is fundamentally at odds with a fixed nature to human beings (or dogs, or anything else…
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