Gould’s God-Talk: Is the Panda’s Thumb Incompatible with ID?

Charles Darwin, creationism, devolution, Earth’s Catastrophic Past, Evolution, Faith & Science, harmony, Intelligent Design, John Calvin, Louis Agassiz, Natural Theology (book), panda, Panda's Thumb, Peter Van Inwagen, proportion, Religions (journal), St. Paul, Stephen Jay Gould, suboptimality, symmetry, theology, thumb, William Dembski, William Paley, Young Earth Creationists
Stephen Jay Gould was renowned as a paleontologist, not as a theologian. Yet perhaps his most iconic argument is theological in nature.  Source
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Is the Panda’s Thumb Suboptimal?

adaptationism, carnivores, common ancestry, computed topography, dexterity, digits, economy, efficiency, Evolution, evolutionists, George Schaller, Intelligent Design, leaves, live observation, magnetic resonance imaging, mammals, Panda's Thumb, pseudo-thumb, Religions (journal), shoots, Stephen Jay Gould, suboptimality, The Giant Pandas of Wolong
The basic argument is that “[o]dd arrangements and funny solutions” point to evolution whereas “ideal design” points to a “sensible God.” Source
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My Dinner with Steven and Louise Weinberg

Atheism, atheists, attorney, Austin, Baylor University, Christianity, Faith & Science, faith and science, Intelligent Design, Jesus, Law, law professor, Louise Weinberg, naturalism, Nobel Prize, Phillip E. Johnson, physicists, physics, Physics, Earth & Space, scripture, Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, The Nature of Nature, theism, theists, University of Texas, Waco
Weinberg was holding court, going on about how much he knew about the origin of the universe and how atheism was the only intellectually viable option. Source
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Dawkins, Dennett, and the Taste for Iconoclasm

aquatic ape, Boston, Commentary, copyright, Daniel Dennett, Darwinists, David Berlinski, Elaine Morgan, Evolution, evolutionary anthropologists, iconoclasts, Intelligent Design, ISI Books, letters, Michael Behe, MIT, Phillip Johnson, Richard Dawkins, smooth skin, The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis, Tufts University, Uncommon Dissent
I’ve had two memorable encounters with Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett, one with Dennett alone, the other with both together. Source
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“Creation Myths” Misquotes and Misrepresents Junk DNA Video

American Scientist, biochemistry, biologists, biology, Creation Myths, Dan Graur, Dan Stern Cardinale, DNA, ENCODE, Evolution, Ewan Birney, functionality, genetics, genome, human genome, Intelligent Design, John Stamatoyannopoulos, Junk DNA, junk RNA, Laurence Moran, Long Story Short, Nature (journal), repetitive DNA, Richard Dawkins, Rutgers University, species, transcriptional noise, transposable elements, YouTubers
Our video backs up what it says with clear quotes and references. We’ve provided more documentation here. Source
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New Long Story Video Tackles “A Battle of Predictions: Junk DNA”

BioEssays, biologists, biology, Carmen Sapienza, Columbia University, DNA, ENCODE, Evolution, evolutionary biologists, Forrest Mims, Francis Crick, Genome Biology and Evolution, genomes, Intelligent Design, John Bodnar, John Mattick, Jonathan Wells, Journal of Human Evolution, Junk DNA, Laurence Moran, Living with Darwin, Long Story Short, Nature (journal), Nature Methods, Oxford University Press, paradigm shift, Philip Kitcher, predictions, Richard Dawkins, Scientific American, Taylor & Francis, The Greatest Show on Earth, University of Toronto, W. Ford Doolittle, What’s in Your Genome, William Dembski
Something happened in 2012 that changed the entire debate in favor of the ID-based prediction that DNA would be largely functional. Source
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Astrobiologists Offer an “Information-Based View of the Biosphere”

astrobiologists, atmosphere, biosphere, complex specified information, DNA processors, evolutionists, Gaia, humans, information, information processing, Intelligent Design, life, Life Sciences, nucleotide operations, ocean surface, plate tectonics, PLOS Biology, processing speed, prokaryotes, supercomputers, Titan supercomputer, United Kingdom Centre for Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh, Universe Today, University of Edinburgh, volcanoes, water, yottabases, yottaNOPS
Even if their estimates need to be revised by a terabase or two someday, they have made it clear that our biosphere is awash in information. Source
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Is Evolution’s “Third Way” Natural? (And Are We Allowed to Reference It?) 

Andreas Wagner, Carl Hemple, creationism, Denis Noble, equivocation, Evolution, evolutionary biologists, Hemple’s Dilemma, Intelligent Design, James Shapiro, natural, naturalism, neo-Darwinian synthesis, philosophers, Plato, Platonic forms, Raju Pookottil, reality, supernatural, The Arrival of the Fittest, The Third Way, University of Zurich
As the body of evidence against the Darwinian model has grown ever larger, many scientists have started peeling off to look for other options. Source
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