French Authors Say Science Points to God; Scientists Listen

Atheism, Atheists Finding God, Ben Spencer, Big Bang, Christof Koch, cosmic microwave background radiation, cosmology, Daniel Dennett, Edward Feser, English, Ex-Skeptic (podcast), Faith & Science, France, Galen Strawson, genome, God the Science the Evidence, Intelligent Design, James Shapiro, Jana Harmon, materialists, Michel-Yves Bolloré, Nobel Prize, Olivier Bonnassies, origin of the universe, panpsychism, physics, quantum mechanics, relativity, Robert Wilson, Roman Catholics, United States, universe
Computer engineer Michel-Yves Bolloré, a lifelong Catholic, and Olivier Bonnassies, who came late to faith, argue that the universe must have had a creator. Source
Read More

From Materialist Biologists, a Profound Capitulation

"survival of the fittest", biology, cell's, Chance & Necessity, CRISPRs, Daniel Witt, Evolution “On Purpose”, Faith & Science, final causality, foxes, hares, integrons, Intelligent Design, internal regulatory control networks, James Shapiro, Jaques Monod, life, materialism, materialist paradigm, miracles, Modern Synthesis, molecules, mutations, neo-Darwinian evolution, organisms, organs, Peter Corning, Philosophy of Science, purpose, retroposons, science of purpose, teleology, teleonomy, telos, Thomism, transposons
I have warned that one of the few remaining avenues that naturalism can take to rescue its paradigm is to appropriate “purpose” within a materialist framework. Source
Read More

Dawkins and Picard Win This Year’s Trotter Prize

affective computing, American Humanist Association, C.S. Lewis, Charlie Townes, clash, Culture & Ethics, Daniel Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea, debates, Denis Noble, Denyse O'Leary, Faith & Science, Francis Collins, Francis Crick, Ide P. Trotter Sr., Intelligent Design, James Shapiro, Mendelian genetics, Micah Green, Michael Egnor, Miracles (book), MIT, Old Testament, qualia, Richard Dawkins, Roger Penrose, Rosalind Picard, Rudder Theatre, Santa Fe, Simon Conway Morris, Stephen Jay Gould, Steven Pinker, Steven Weinberg, Stuart Kauffman, Texas A&M University, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Blind Watchmaker, The End of Christianity, The Third Way of Evolution, Trotter Prize, Tufts University, violence, Zeitgeist
A reflection on the 2025 Trotter Prize Lecture delivered by Oxford's Richard Dawkins and MIT's Rosalind Picard. Source
Read More

Is Vitalism Making a Comeback? 

"God of the gaps", Andrea Roli, argument from ignorance, biology, blacks, élan vital, Ernst Mayr, Evolution, Evolution “On Purpose”, Huffington Post, Intelligent Design, Irish immigrants, Jacques Monod, James Barham, James Shapiro, Kardashian family, Peter Corning, Racism, Samir Okasha, Stuart A. Kauffman, University of Chicago, vital force, vitalism
For proponents of ID, there is a natural temptation to respond to this sort of explanation with derision. I suspect this reaction may be short-sighted. Source
Read More

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
Read More

James Tour Focused on Science, Dave Farina on Character Assassination: So, Who Wins?

Alexander Vilenkin, atheists, Avi Loeb, biology, character assassination, Charles Lineweaver, Chemistry, Christoph Adami, Darwin-skeptics, Dave Farina, David Berlinski, Denis Noble, Discovery Institute, enzymes, Evolution, genetic fallacy, Ian Tattersall, Inference (journal), James Shapiro, James Tour, Jean-Pierre Luminet, Jeremy England, Lawrence Krauss, Lee Cronin, Life Sciences, Martin Rees, Noam Chomsky, polymers, polynucleotides, polypeptides, Professor Dave, Professor Dave Explains, proteins, Richard Dawkins, RNA, specified information, The Workhorse of the Cell
Professor Dave’s attacks undercut his credibility as a spokesman for his own view. If he had the truth on his side, there’s no reason he would behave this way. Source
Read More

Assessing Denis Noble’s (Non-ID) Critique of Darwinism

biology, Clarence Williams, Denis Noble, developmental genetics, DNA, embryo, Evolution, evolutionary biology, Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, fruit fly, Gerd Müller, horse, horse fly, Intelligent Design, James Shapiro, Jerry Coyne, Jonathan Wells, Neo-Darwinism, Oxford 50, Raju Pookottil, Royal Society, science, Susan Mazur, Third Way of Evolution, Why Evolution Is True, Zombie Science
No matter what we do to the DNA of a fruit fly embryo, there are only three possible outcomes: a normal fruit fly, a defective fruit fly, or a dead fruit fly. Source
Read More

What Is It Like to Be a Bee?

Alun Anderson, Antonio Damasio, BBC, bees, Catherine Wilson, consciousness, dancers, Dogs, dopamine, insect rights, intelligence, James Shapiro, Lars Chittka, materialism, Neuroscience & Mind, New Scientist, panpsychism, Princeton University Press, science, sensation, The Mind of a Bee, The Scientist, University of Chicago, USC, waggle dance
What, exactly, does “consciousness” or “feel and think” mean when applied to a bee? This usage is no remote outpost. Source
Read More

Evolution With and Without Multiple Simultaneous Changes

Arthur Hunt, bacteria, BIO-Complexity, biological adaptations, chloroquine resistance, Darwinian gradualism, Darwinian processes, Darwinism, Douglas Axe, enzymes, Evolution, Evolution: A View from the 21st Century, Guide to Reading Jason Rosenhouse (series), hypercube, Intelligent Design, James Shapiro, Jason Rosenhouse, Kenneth Miller, Leo Kadanoff, Michael Behe, Nature (journal), Origin of Species, Plasmodium, Plasmodium falciparum, probabilities, The Edge of Evolution, The Failures of Mathematical Anti-Evolutionism, The Third Way, University of Chicago
Darwinism is committed to evolution happening gradually, one step at a time, by single mutational changes. Source
Read More

University of Chicago Biochemist: All Living Cells Are Cognitive

archaea, bacteria, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, biology, cell's, cognition, Daniel Dennett, intelligence, Intelligent Design, James Shapiro, Life Sciences, Neuroscience & Mind, Oxford English Dictionary, protoplasm, quorum sensing, University of Chicago
James Shapiro’s recent paper points out, with examples, that bacteria meet the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of “cognitive.” Source
Read More