Complex Specified Information in the Lowly Sponge

architecture, arthropods, astronauts, Cambrian animals, Cambrian Explosion, Cambrian News, Cambrian strata, cementer cells, collagen, Current Biology, DNA, epithelial tissue, European Union, Intelligent Design, Mars, science, self-organization, spicules, sponges, temperature, termite mounds, termites, transport cells, vertebrates
Sponges are outliers in biology’s big bang, the Cambrian explosion. Their embryos appear in Precambrian strata, leading some to consider them primitive. Source
Read More

In Critiquing Dembski, Jason Rosenhouse Prioritizes Imagination over Reality

Ann Gauger, Arthur Hunt, bacterial flagella, biological structures, circular reasoning, Conservation of Information, design detection, Douglas Axe, Evolution, Günter Bechly, information, Intelligent Design, James Madison University, mathematics, mind, molecular machines, natural selection, Ola Hössjer, Panda's Thumb, probability space, Robert J. Marks, rotary motors, royal flush, specified complexity, The Failures of Mathematical Anti-Evolutionism, William Dembski, Winston Ewert
Jason Rosenhouse, a mathematician who teachers at James Madison University, is the author of the recent book The Failures of Mathematical Anti-Evolutionism. The purpose of the book is to discredit the mathematical and algorithmic arguments presented by ID proponents against the plausibility of undirected evolution crafting complex novelties. Rosenhouse focuses much of his critique on William Dembski’s design-detection formalism based on specified complexity. Dembski responded in detail to Rosenhouse’s arguments, highlighting Rosenhouse’s confusion over Dembski’s theoretical framework and its application to biological systems (here,here). Rosenhouse in turn responded to Dembski’s critique. His counter-response, published at Panda’s Thumb, reveals that his opposition to Dembski is not based on any flaws in the substance of Dembski’s work but instead on Rosenhouse’s unassailable faith in the limitless Read More › Source
Read More

High Energy: Long Story Short Addresses “Energy Harnessing” and Life’s Origin

abiogenesis, ADP, ATP, ATP synthase, batteries, biopolymers, chemiosmotic coupling, drivetrain, Energy, energy harnessing, Evolution, gasoline, homeostasis, hydrothermal vents, Intelligent Design, lightning, Long Story Short, membranes, natural selection, origin of life, plants, promissory note, proton gradients, protons, regulators, RNA, self-replication, solar panels, sun, sunlight, transformers, volcanoes
Everyone knows that maintaining life requires energy, but most do not appreciate the intricate steps required to harness it. Source
Read More

How Octopuses Got So Smart? “Junk DNA”

biology, birds, brain, California octopus, clams, common octopus, genome, intelligence, Intelligent Design, invertebrates, jumping genes, Junk DNA, Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements, mammals, marine invertebrates, Neuroscience & Mind, octopuses, oysters, transposons, unguided evolution
Jumping genes used to be dismissed as junk DNA which in turn was held to be slam-dunk evidence for unguided evolutionary processes. Source
Read More

This Cambrian Explosion “Explanation” Qualifies as Propaganda

arthropods, brain, Cambrian Explosion, Cambrian News, China, crap theory, Current Biology, Debating Darwin's Doubt, Derek E. G. Briggs, Ediacaran Period, evo-devo, Evolution, fecal material, fossil record, Intelligent Design, Izvestia, Kimberella, morphology, nervous system, newspapers, oxygen level, Palaeophragmodictya, phyla, Pravda, stem taxa, Stephen Meyer, USSR
It’s interesting to see what Derek E. G. Briggs is willing to admit about the Cambrian explosion. Source
Read More

Count the Stars: Webb Space Telescope and the God Hypothesis

Abraham, atheists, Big Bang, Brian Keating, cosmology, Dennis Prager Show, Faith & Science, heavens, Intelligent Design, James Webb Space Telescope, NASA, Physics, Earth & Space, Return of the God Hypothesis, space, stars, Stephen Meyer, UC San Diego
I was listening to the Dennis Prager Show and found to my delight that his guest was our friend Brian Keating, the distinguished UC San Diego cosmologist. Source
Read More

If Nanomotors Are Designed, Why Not Biomotors?

Alexander Graham Bell, ATP molecules, ATP synthase, biological motors, Cees Dekker, chloroplast membrane, Delft University of Technology, DNA, Evolution, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Intelligent Design, Jingang Li, K-Pop, Koreans, Life Sciences, mitochondrial membrane, nanoturbine, Nature Foods, New Scientist, photosynthesis, Samuel Morse, UC Riverside, University of Texas
Physical chemists are justifiably proud of their tiny motors that do little more than spin. How can they say that much more complex motors in life evolved? Source
Read More

Brain Size Doesn’t Determine Intelligence

Ars Technica, birds, brain size, brains, chimpanzees, genetic engineering, Homo sapiens, human brain, humans, information processing, Intelligent Design, jetliner, John Timmer, lemurs, London School of Economics, Michael Denton, Michel Hofman, monkeys, Neuroscience & Mind, octopus, oxygen, Peter Cochrane, primates, psychology, superintelligence, synaptic connections, The Miracle of Man
Brains are not simple, so many “just common sense” theories have fallen by the wayside. Source
Read More

The Gollum Effect in Science, from Tycho Brahe to Today

academia, Andrew McDiarmid, astronomers, autopsy, banquet, Darwinian theory, Evolution, evolutionists, Gollum, history, history of science, Intelligent Design, Johannes Kepler, Michael Keas, Physics, Earth & Space, science, Times Higher Education, Tycho Brahe, Unbelievable?
Brahe, a 16th-century Danish astronomer, sat on his astronomical research for years, rather than sharing it with Johannes Kepler, his assistant. Source
Read More