03Feb 2020 by Post

Coming on Darwin Day, a New Video Series — Secrets of the Cell with Michael Behe

Cal Covert, Center for Science & Culture, Charles Darwin, Darwin's Black Box, Discovery Institute, Eric Metaxas, Evolution, Facebook, Intelligent Design, John West, Lehigh University, Michael Behe, Nota Bene, Secrets of the Cell with Michael Behe, Silver Ridge Productions, Socrates in the City, video series, Virginia
To reach ever-wider audiences of the skeptical and the unconvinced, whether in academia or the general culture, is the central mission of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture. What better occasion for that could there be than Darwin Day, February 12? The birthday of the great man is an occasion each year for atheists and materialists to promote once again the theory of purposeless, unguided evolution. The cell is what biochemist Michael Behe has called a “black box,” its spectacularly complex, superbly designed contents unknown to Darwin himself. When the box was opened by modern science, it was the turning-point moment for the articulation of intelligent design theory. A revolution followed, fundamentally challenging how scientists discuss the history of life.  Revolutionary Behe With that in mind, this coming Darwin…
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31Jan 2020 by Post

A Forest, Not a Tree? Nelson Asks Why Universal Common Descent Needn’t “Pay” for Failures

biologists, Brian Miller, Evolution, evolutionists, failed predictions, forest, ID The Future, Intelligent Design, Michael Behe, Michael Denton, naturalism, orchard, Paul Nelson, Podcast, scientific theories, Teilhard de Chardin, theistic evolution, Tree of Life, universal common descent, universal genetic code
Philosopher of biology Paul Nelson recalls the expectation, a scientific standard when he was an undergrad, that all living things would turn out to share a universal genetic code. How could they not if, as Darwin argued, there is only a single, universal tree of life? On a classic ID the Future podcast with host Brian Miller, Dr. Nelson discusses the implications of this failed prediction. Download the podcast or listen to it here. The question is a weighty one since it has emerged that there is no universally shared code, but, instead, many variants. When evolutionists realized this, they performed a sidestep, supposing that since the prediction flopped, it must be the case that the code can itself evolve. But this deft move allows universal common ancestry a luxury…
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28Jan 2020 by Post

The Long View: Michael Behe Pays Tribute to Phillip Johnson

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On a new episode of ID the Future we continue a series of messages from a November 2019 symposium in Berkeley, California, presented in honor of the late Phillip Johnson, who played a crucial role in the flowering of the intelligent design movement. Download the podcast or listen to it here. On today’s episode Lehigh University biology professor Michael Behe, author of Darwin’s Black Box, The Edge of Evolution, and Darwin Devolves, tells about his earliest memories of Phillip Johnson and speaks about the long history of science: how ancient science pointed to purposeful design in life, and how current science is coming full circle. Considering this long view, the conclusion of design is as strong as or stronger than it has ever been. Photo: Phillip and Kathie Johnson at…
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24Jan 2020 by Post

Science Says: Evolution Explains the Appeal of Baby Yoda

Alison Gopnik, anthropology, baby, Baby Yoda, cheeks, elephants, Evolution, giant squid, Human Origins, Intelligent Design, Internet, Judith Burkart, newspaper, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, plumpness, puppies, Sarah Hrdy, storytelling, television, The Mandalorian, Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal’s weekend edition has many more opinion and “think” pieces and other soft news than the weekday version. In the mix, they almost never fail to include an article praising evolution. This is so consistent that I wonder if it’s a deliberate editorial policy. Sure enough: in last Saturday’s paper, Alison Gopnik exclaims, “Humans Evolved to Love Baby Yoda.” Well, evolution explains everything, so why wouldn’t it explain why TV viewers are going gaga for the munchkin-like character in The Mandalorian series. Primed as you are by years of having read similar articles by science writers, no doubt you are getting ready for an exercise in evolutionary storytelling. There will be a clever reference to pop culture, a citation of an article from a science journal and…
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23Jan 2020 by Post

“We Are Not of Our Own Devising” — Wells, Nelson Pay Tribute to Phil Johnson

berkeley, biology, California, Charles Darwin, common descent, Evolution, ID The Future, John Mark Reynolds, Jonathan Wells, Pajaro Dunes, Paul Nelson, Phillip E. Johnson
A new episode of ID the Future comes from a Berkeley, California, symposium honoring the recently deceased Phillip Johnson. Download the podcast or listen to it here. Biologist Jonathan Wells recalls how he met Johnson and the huge influence the latter had on Wells’s own research and writing. Then philosopher of biology Paul Nelson reminisces on Johnson’s keen intellect, his eye for hidden assumptions, his awareness that “we are not of our own devising,” and on the mountain range of new knowledge opening up to us in biology, one that scientists knew little about even thirty years ago and that Nelson says points strongly away from Darwin’s idea of common descent. Photo: John Mark Reynolds, Phil Johnson, and Paul Nelson, Pajaro Dunes, California, June 1998, by Suzanne Nelson. The post…
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21Jan 2020 by Post

Science as a Jealous God — Free Weekend Conference in Seattle for College Students

Artificial Intelligence, Baylor University, Brian Miller, C.S. Lewis, Center for Science & Culture, Charles Darwin, coercion, colleges, conference, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Culture & Ethics, Darwinism, Discovery Institute, earth, ethics, Evolution, humankind, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, intimidation, jealous god, John West, National Review, natural world, science, scientism, Seattle, seminar, society, students, travel stipend, universities, values, Walter Bradley Center, Wesley J. Smith
Science, rather than opening minds and setting us free from drudgery, is increasingly a tool of coercion and intimidation. If you’re a college student, consider joining us at Discovery Institute on March 6-7 for a free weekend seminar, “Science, Scientism, and Society.” Scientism is a word that designates the impulse to turn science into a jealous god — not a method for exploring the natural world and responsibly harnessing its resources, but the exclusive source of knowledge about all things, including values and ethics.  More information and a simple online application are here. January 30 is the deadline to apply for this important, enlightening, and fun event, organized by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) and held in Discovery Institute’s offices in Seattle. ISI will provide a travel stipend for students…
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20Jan 2020 by Post

Westminster Conference on Science and Faith, April 3-4 in Philadelphia: Design and the Designer

biology, Burke Museum, Center for Science & Culture, Chemistry, cosmology, Dallas, Daniel Reeves, Early Church, East Coast, Evolution, Faith & Science, foresight, Intelligent Design, John West, Marcos Eberlin, Melissa Cain Travis, orphan genes, Paul Nelson, Philadelphia, Stephen Meyer, Westminster Conference on Science and Faith
Here in Seattle, the University of Washington recently opened a spectacular and expensive ($106 million) new building for its natural history museum, the Burke Museum. A friend visited there yesterday — I have not yet had a chance to do so — and sent along photos. We were both struck by how the exhibits lay it on thick with regard to evolution as an unguided process. Large signs seem aggressive in advertising the curators’ position: “EVOLUTION ISN’T PLANNED,” declares one display. Another insists that life is “SHAPED BY NATURE,” and, by implication, by nothing else. The culture invests great energy and wealth to bombard us with messages like these. That’s the case even as, at deeper and deeper levels, science reveals evidence of a plan, foresight, a deliberately shaping force working…
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18Jan 2020 by Post

ID Inquiry: Robert J. Marks on Information and Intelligent Design

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On a classic episode of ID the Future, hear an installment in our ID Inquiry series, in which ID scientists and scholars answer your questions about intelligent design and evolution. Download the podcast or listen to it here. Robert J. Marks discusses information and how it relates to intelligent design. Dr. Marks is the director of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural & Artificial Intelligence and co-author of Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics. Got a question for an ID scientist? Contact us here. Photo: Robert J. Marks at the launch of the Walter Bradley Center, by Nathan Jacobson. The post ID Inquiry: Robert J. Marks on Information and Intelligent Design appeared first on Evolution News.
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17Jan 2020 by Post

BioLogos and the Search for Truth

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BioLogos Foundation’s president, Deborah Haarsma, issued a statement recently that merits comment. BioLogos is the organization known for seeking to draw Evangelical Christians to the theory of unguided Darwinian evolution. Now Haarsma has announced on the group’s behalf an institutional desire to clean house. Truth Matters In “Truth-Seeking in Science,” she wishes to leave no uncertainty about one thing: BioLogos wants to find out the truth and communicate it to others. Dr. Haarsma writes, “We are committed to seeking out the truths in both of these revelations [Scripture and nature],” “I want to flesh out what truth-seeking looks like in science,” “how we are implementing truth-seeking,” “Part of truth-seeking…is a healthy willingness to change your viewpoint,” “A scientist doesn’t discover truth all on her own,” “we are living out our…
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17Jan 2020 by Post

Did Cloudinids Have the Guts to Be Worms?

Acuticocloudina, bilaterian animals, bilaterian worms, Cambrian Explosion, Cambrian News, Cambrian Small Shelly Fauna, Chengjiang biota, China, Cloudina, cloudinids, cloudinomorphs, cnidarian, Conotubus, Costatubus, Darwinian evolution, Dickinsonia, digestive tract, Ediacaran biota, Ediacaran Period, Ediacaran Small Shelly Fauna, Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary, Evolution, Feiyanella, Germany, GUT, James D. Schiffbauer, Multiconotubus, Nature Communications, Nevada, polyp, Rajatubulus, Saarina, sessile filter feeder, Sinotubulites, skeleton, University of Missouri, Wood Canyon Formation
In my Evolution News article “Why Dickinsonia Was Most Probably Not an Ediacaran Animal” (Bechly 2019), I promised last year to follow up on other alleged Ediacaran animals. Now is a good moment to come back to this, because a new study has just been published in the journal Nature Communications by Schiffbauer et al. (2020), who identify a problematic Ediacaran shelly fossil as a bilateral animal most likely related to annelid worms. The crucial evidence is the alleged preservation of a digestive tract, which would also represent the oldest fossil record for this organ system (Stann 2020). The new fossil is considered to be a close relative of the genus Cloudina, which is a globally distributed Ediacaran index fossil first described by Germs (1972). It represents one of the…
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