25Dec 2019 by Post

#8 of Our Top Stories of 2019: Remembering Phillip E. Johnson (1940-2019)

ancient Greeks, Boalt Hall School of Law, Casey Luskin, censorship, Center for Science & Culture, Christians, creationism, Darwin on Trial, Darwin's Nemesis, Darwinism, Discovery Institute, Evolution, Genesis, Intelligent Design, Intelligent Design 101, John Mark Reynolds, Kansas State Board of Education, materialism, naturalism, objective education, Phillip E. Johnson, scholars, Science (journal), scientists, Sunday School, Supreme Court, The Wedge of Truth, UC Berkeley
Editor’s note: The staff of Evolution News wish you a Merry Christmas and 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 November 3, 2019. Author’s note: With great regret, we recognize the passing of Phillip Johnson, a key guiding spirit of the intelligent design movement. He died peacefully overnight this weekend, at age 79, at his home in Berkeley, California. I am publishing below…
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14Dec 2019 by Post

Jeffrey Epstein and the Silence of the Scientists

child prostitution, Culture & Ethics, Darwinism, Emily Kurlinski, ID The Future, Intelligent Design, Jeffrey Epstein, Michael Egnor, Money, scientists, silence, thought police
On a new episode of ID the Future, neurosurgery professor Michael Egnor discusses the code of silence that kept numerous scientists tied to consensus and silent on Jeffrey Epstein when they should have spoken out. Download the episode or listen to it here. Talking with host Emily Kurlinski, Egnor says that even when it was already widely known that Epstein was involved in child prostitution, his funding was still widely sought and received by scientific institutions, and he entertained scientists who willingly accepted his money. Anyone who’d spoken up, says Egnor, would likely have lost his career. There is a striking parallel. Egnor offers examples of scientists who were open to intelligent design but either kept silent to protect their career or who stepped forward and suffered the consequences at…
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09Dec 2019 by Post

David Berlinski on Europe, Entropy, Agnosticism

agnosticism, biological origins, Darwinism, David Berlinski, demographic winter, entropy, Europe, Evolution, Faith & Science, Human Nature (book), ID The Future, Jews, Muslim, nation state, nationalism, patriotism, Peter Robinson, Physics, Earth & Space, Podcast, s atheism, science, Second Law of Thermodynamics, theism, Uncommon Knowledge
A new episode of ID the Future features the third and final part of a conversation between Uncommon Knowledge host Peter Robinson and Darwin skeptic David Berlinski, author of the newly released book Human Nature. They discuss the fate of Europe, then turn again to science, and the challenge the second law of thermodynamics poses for Darwinism and, by implication, to any theory of biological origins restricted to purely mindless processes. Berlinski suggests that this poses a considerable challenge, tempting Robinson to ask Berlinski whether he still consider himself an agnostic. Download the podcast or listen to it here. The post David Berlinski on Europe, Entropy, Agnosticism appeared first on Evolution News.
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04Dec 2019 by Post

No Harm, No Foul — What If Darwinism Were Excised from Biology?

Adam C. Soloff, Amir Marcovitz, appendectomy, bacteria, bats, behavior, cephalectomy, Daphne Major island, Darwin Devolves, Darwin's Finches, Darwinism, Darwinspeak, dolphins, echolocation, Evolution, Galápagos Islands, Hippocratic Oath, homeostasis, Illustra Media, Immune System, introgressive hybridization, Jerry Coyne, Marcos Eberlin, Michael Behe, Michael T. Lotze, Peter and Rosemary Grant, pharynx, Philip Skell, phylogeny, PNAS, primum non nocere, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Richard Dawkins, sound generation, tonsillectomy, turtles, whales
Some biologists might shudder at the thought of eliminating Darwinism from their scientific work. A “Darwin-ectomy” sounds more painful than a tonsillectomy or appendectomy. To hard-core evolutionists, it might sound like a cephalectomy (removal of the head)! If Darwinism is as essential to biology as Richard Dawkins or Jerry Coyne argues, then removing evolutionary words and concepts should make research incomprehensible.  If, on the other hand, Darwinism is more of a “narrative gloss” applied to the conclusions after the scientific work is done, as the late Philip Skell observed, then biology would survive the operation just fine. It might even be healthier, slimmed down after disposing of unnecessary philosophical baggage. Here are some recent scientific papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) to use as test…
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03Dec 2019 by Post

Berlinski, Robinson on the “Almost Unfathomable Complexity” of Living Systems, and More

conservatives, Darwinism, David Berlinski, deferred success, Evolution, evolutionary theory, female, Human Nature (book), ID The Future, male, natural selection, Peter Robinson, Podcast, Razib Khan, The Deniable Darwin, Uncommon Knowledge
A new episode of ID the Future features the first part of an interview between Uncommon Knowledge host Peter Robinson and Discovery Institute Senior Fellow David Berlinski, author of The Deniable Darwin and the newly released Human Nature. Berlinski begins by noting that living systems possess “a degree of complexity that is almost unfathomable” and explains how this poses an acute problem for Darwinism. Download the episode or listen to it here. The two discuss discontinuities in the fossil record as well as Berlinski’s insistence that “any theory of natural selection must plainly meet what I have called a rule against deferred success.” Berlinski also rebuts Razib Khan’s claim that in rejecting modern evolutionary theory, conservatives sacrifice “the most powerful rejoinder” to the claim “that male and female are merely…
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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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15Nov 2019 by Post

Phillip Johnson: A Fond Farewell

ACLU, Arkansas, Barry Lynn, Darwinism, David Berlinski, Eugenie Scott, Evolution, Faith & Science, Festschrift, Firing Line, Florida State University, Intelligent Design, Kenneth Miller, Michael Behe, Michael Kinsley, Michael Ruse, Phillip E. Johnson, philosophy of biology, Richard Dawkins, The Problem of War, William F. Buckley Jr.
Editor’s note: Phillip E. Johnson, Berkeley law professor and author of Darwin on Trial and other books, died on November 2. Evolution News is sharing remembrances from staff, friends, and Fellows of Discovery Institute. Philosopher of biology Michael Ruse, cherished by ID proponents as a longtime friendly antagonist, is the author of The Problem of War: Darwinism, Christianity, and their Battle to Understand Human Conflict and other books. Professor Ruse directs the Program in History and Philosophy of Science at Florida State University. I have just learned of the death of Phillip Johnson. We were very much on different sides of the IDT [intelligent design theory] debate, but I think I can truly say that our intellectual (and faith) disagreements made no difference to our personal respect and (dare I say) affection. Phil was born…
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