12Feb 2020 by Post

Say Happy Birthday to Charles Darwin

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Today, February 12, is Charles Darwin’s birthday. For the past two decades, secularists and atheists have celebrated “Darwin Day” almost like a religious holiday. Tonight, for example, the American Humanist Association will hold an event where they promise you can “Discover how Darwin’s apostles… launched a campaign for truth.” I’m not kidding — they really do refer to “Darwin’s apostles”! Meanwhile, the official Facebook page for Darwin Day posts statements like this: “Using scientific logic, we can be as sure of God’s nonexistence as we are of the nonexistence of the aether, phlogiston or werewolves!” The Cult of Darwin While some continue to worship in the cult of Darwin, here is some good news in time for Darwin’s birthday: The number of prominent scientists around the world who are leaving Darwin behind…
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11Feb 2020 by Post

Michael Behe on the Design Idea That Won’t Go Away (and Shouldn’t)

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On a new episode of ID the Future, Jonathan Witt catches up with Darwin’s Black Box author and biochemist Michael Behe at the 2020 Dallas Conference on Science & Faith, where the two discuss an idea that many wish would just go away, but hasn’t. Download the podcast or listen to it here. Charles Darwin himself told us how his evolutionary theory could be overturned: identify a biological system that couldn’t possibly have evolved by “numerous success successive slight modifications.” It’s to Darwin’s credit that he put his theory in “empirical harm’s way,” to quote philosopher Del Ratzsch. But as Witt and Behe note, Darwin also cleverly placed the burden of proof on his opponents, an arguably dubious maneuver given that his proposed evolutionary mechanism has never once been observed…
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08Feb 2020 by Post

Michael Denton: Remarkable Coincidences in Photosynthesis

coincidences, Energy, genetics, ID The Future, improbability, Intelligent Design, Life Sciences, light, Michael Denton, oxygen, photosynthesis, Podcast, water
On a classic episode of ID the Future, listen in on a a few minutes from a lecture given by medical geneticist and CSC Senior Fellow Michael Denton. Download the podcast or listen to it here. We’ve all heard of the importance of photosynthesis as an oxygen-creating process. In this segment, Denton explains the “remarkable set of coincidences” that makes the creation of oxygen through photosynthesis possible. From the specific energy of visible light to the unique properties of water, this degree of improbability screams DESIGN. Photo source: “Why Our Sun and Atmosphere Appear Intelligently Designed,” via Discovery Institute. The post Michael Denton: Remarkable Coincidences in Photosynthesis appeared first on Evolution News.
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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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06Feb 2020 by Post

Looking Forward to Darwin Day? Check Out the Trailer for Behe’s Secrets of the Cell

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For Darwin Day, February 12, we are a launching a new five-part series with biochemist Michael Behe, Secrets of the Cell. You can see the splendid trailer now: It was Dr. Behe’s insight that the view of evolution as driven by unguided, purposeless processes alone can’t survive an up-close encounter with the “black box,” unknown to Charles Darwin, the cell. Celebrate Darwin’s birthday by coming here, to Evolution News, next Wednesday and sharing the secrets of life, in a beautiful and accessible new series, widely with your friends and family. The post Looking Forward to Darwin Day? Check Out the Trailer for Behe’s <i>Secrets of the Cell</i> appeared first on Evolution News.
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05Feb 2020 by Post

Join Us: Conference on Engineering in Living Systems, April 23-25, in Southern California

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Engineers, unlike evolutionary biologists, understand at a deep level how things work, why they work, and when they fail, why they don’t work. So the intelligent design movement has long welcomed engineering insights as a corrective to assurances from evolutionists that they’ve got everything about the mystery of biological origins all figured out. With this in mind, it’s satisfying to invite you to the 2020 Conference on Engineering in Living Systems, April 23 to 25, at Biola University.  See You in Southern California Our esteemed Evolution News contributor Steve Laufmann is the organizer and he welcomes you to join him on the Biola campus in La Mirada, CA. From the event description page, here are some subjects to be covered: Intersection of Biology and Engineering — the impacts of engineering thinking…
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03Feb 2020 by Post

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

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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

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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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30Jan 2020 by Post

Introducing Walter Bradley: Friend, Hero, and Coauthor of The Mystery of Life’s Origin

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Editor’s note: The following is adapted from remarks by Robert J. Marks at the 2020 Dallas Conference on Science & Faith. At the event, Stephen Meyer commented that The Mystery of Life’s Origin, by Walter Bradley and his colleagues, new released in an expanded form by Discovery Institute Press, inspired the current generation of leaders in the intelligent design community. Dr. Meyer said it was his hope there were those in the audience who would be similarly moved in the next generation. Dr. Marks concurred. Greetings! I am Robert J. Marks and I am the Director of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural & Artificial Intelligence. I am also a Distinguished Professor at Baylor University. The Bradley Center is the new kid on the block at Discovery Institute. We are…
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29Jan 2020 by Post

Information as Matter’s “Fifth State” — A Physicist’s Contortion

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Materialism drives its adherents into twists of logic, in line with remarks that Robert J. Marks made over the past weekend at the Dallas Conference on Science & Faith. Marks was introducing one of the authors of the newly expanded 1984 intelligent design “Ur-text,” The Mystery Life’s Origin. As Evolution News summarized, “His comments included the observation that as a theist, Dr. Marks is grateful to have all possible scientific explanations of the natural world, including intelligent design, available to him whereas atheists and materialists have that option arbitrarily foreclosed to them.” Whether on the origin of life, of biological information, or of the cosmos itself, how far these contortionists have been compelled to go is indicated in a fascinating post by Denyse O’Leary at Mind Matters. Dark matter is the unknown…
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