07Feb 2020 by Post

Reader Seeks Intelligent Design in a Nutshell

animals, biological novelty, cosmic fine-tuning, Discovery Institute, DNA, Evolution, Evolution News, homology, Human Origins, humans, Intelligent Design, Long Story Short, molecular machines, natural selection, origin of life, origin of the universe, PragerU, Stephen Meyer, The Information Enigma, Videos
A reader writes to ask: I have always had a few nagging doubts about natural selection. I have watched a few videos and downloaded some books by key ID people but I have still not found **a brief summary** of the main evidence against natural selection and for ID. Most of the videos are WAY too long and meander all over the place. You really need to sharpen things up so we can see all the KEY points gathered in one place for everyone to access. “Meander all over the place”? Well, I hope not. And from my own experience I disagree. However, I appreciate the request for a really concise presentation of the evidence for ID and the evidence against the sufficiency of natural selection for explaining all biological…
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15Jan 2020 by Post

Save Animals, Not Sick People, from Death?

animal shelters, animals, California, cats, Culture & Ethics, doctor, Dogs, euthanasia, Gavin Newsom, governor, health care, Koret Shelter Medicine Program, lethal prescription, Medicine, patients, press conference, Sacramento Bee, UC Davis
Misplaced priorities are California’s specialty. Here’s an example: Governor Gavin Newsom wants to end euthanasia in animal shelters. From the Sacramento Bee story: Gov. Gavin Newsom wants California to stop euthanizing animals, and he’s ready to put taxpayer money toward the cause. “We want to be a no-kill state,” Newsom said during a press conference where he presented his 2020-21 budget. Specifically, Newsom’s budget calls for a $50 million one-time general fund allocation to the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program to develop a grant program for animal shelters, with a goal of helping local communities “achieve the state’s policy goal that no adoptable or treatable dog or cat should be euthanized,” according to the budget summary. Ironically, as the governor works to save animals from death, California has not…
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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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16Nov 2019 by Post

Bioethics Coming to Elementary and High Schools?

abortion, animals, assisted suicide, bioethics, Culture & Ethics, dead donor rule, elementary school, end of life, euthanasia, futile care, high school, ideology, Jacob M. Appel, Leon Kass, Medicine, morality, organ harvesting, philosophy, prenatal screening, President’s Council on Bioethics, puberty, religion, Scientific American, sex education, students, textbooks
Bioethicist Jacob M. Appel wants the bioethics movement to educate your children about the policy and personal conundrums that involve medical care and health public policy. He claims that “most of us give little thought” to issues that may arise, such as end-of-life care and prenatal screening. Then, when an issue does come up, people are unprepared to make wise and informed decisions. From, “The Silent Crisis of Bioethics Illiteracy,” published in Scientific American: Change will only occur when bioethics is broadly incorporated into school curricula [at an early age] and when our nation’s thought leaders begin to place emphasis on the importance of reflecting meaningfully in advance upon these issues… Often merely recognizing such issues in advance is winning the greater part of the battle. Just as we teach…
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