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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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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20Nov 2019 by Post

Another “Earth-Like” Planet Found? Or More Fake Science News?

Discovery Institute, fake news, Guillermo Gonzalez, habitability, habitable zone, ID The Future, Jay Richards, journalism, K2-18b, liquid water, News Media, Physics, Earth & Space, Podcast, press release, Privileged Planet, rain, red dwarf, science, science writers
“Of course some science writers really jumped on this, and excitedly thought, ‘Oh! Liquid water, within the habitable zone’” — and here he gasps — “‘therefore, LIFE!’” So says astronomer and Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Guillermo Gonzalez about recent media reports of yet another alien “Earth-like” planet, this one romantically named K2-18b, orbiting a red dwarf star 124 light years from us. Sample headline, “It’s got water and the right temperature: Planet found that could support life.” Rain may bespatter the surface (if it has a solid surface, which seems doubtful) of K2-18b. “That’s all you need!” exclaims Jay Richards, who co-authored Privileged Planet with Gonzalez. The two have fun with the science news on a new episode of ID the Future. Despite the hype, Dr. Gonzalez concludes, “This is definitely not…
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