In the Year of the Declaration’s 250th, Condemning Slavery in the Name of a “Vibe”?

americans, Bible, creator, creed, Declaration of Independence, Discovery Institute, endowed by our creator, Founders, generations, happiness, human beings, Intelligent Design, iterations, John West, liberty, life, natural theology, political science, rights, slavery, social evolution, United States, vibe
How urgent this book’s message is was brought home to me over the weekend in a conversation with a bright young man. Source
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The Matters that Matter: What I Learned from My Brother’s Death

accolades, Artificial Intelligence, atoms, biological origins, career, chemical reactions, cognitive simulation, community, Computational Sciences, computer science, cosmos, cremation, death, design detection, Faith & Science, faith and science, Intelligent Design, Love, machine learning, materialist paradigm, mathematics, motorcycle, natural theology, nature, peers, Resurrection, tears, unguided processes, universe, YouTube videos
I’ve built my professional career on twin pillars. The first is cognitive simulation, that is, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Source
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Destroyer or Nurturer? Darwin’s Divinized Conception of Nature

Alan of, Alfred Russel Wallace, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Bernard Silvestris, Charles Darwin, Charlotte Brontë, cosmology, Darwinism, Edward Pusey, Evolution, Faith & Science, Geoffrey Chaucer, George Levine, historical sciences, Jane Eyre, Jean de Meun, Lamarckism, maternal figure, Mother Nature, Natura, Natura creatrix, natural preservation, natural selection, natural theology, Ovid, Physis, Queens of the Wild, Robert J. Richards, Romance of the Rose, Ronald Hutton, teleology, world spirit
The powers of natural selection transcend human intelligence to such a degree that Darwin came close to imputing to it the capacity for intelligent design. Source
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Teleology: Anticipation and Necessity

anticipation, August Weismann, Bible, building blocks, Chance and Necessity, chipmunks, cognition, Design Inference, DNA, electromagnetism, Evolution, Faith & Science, Ferrari, final causality, flowering plants, Ford Mustang, Francis Crick, grizzly bear, immanent power, Intelligent Design, Isaac Newton, James Hutchison Stirling, Jaques Monod, natural selection, natural theology, necessity, nectar, perch, pollinators, representational directedness, rodent, Technology, telos, Thomas Aquinas, Thomism, tuna, Wiliam Dembski, wolf
Imagine a primordial grizzly bear on the northern edge of the forest adjacent to the Arctic. His soma senses the differences of the new environment. Source
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The Return of Natural Theology

Brian Miller, Charles Darwin, chemicals, Energy, entropy, evolutionary theory, Faith & Science, God's Grandeur, ID The Future, Intelligent Design, materialism, materialists, multiverse, natural processes, natural theology, order, origin of life, Pat Flynn, philosophers, Philosophy for the People, Podcast, reason
Influenced by a long line of materialist thinkers, Charles Darwin proposed the mechanism of natural selection as a substitute for God. Source
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How Darwin and Wallace Split over the Human Mind

Alfred Russel Wallace, Animal Liberation, Anthony Flew, Anthony O’Hear, biology, consciousness, cosmogonism, Darwin, David Bentley Hart, David Hume, deism, Donald Hoffman, Erasmus Darwin, Europeans, Evolution, Francis Crick, How Darwin and Wallace Split over the Human Mind, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Lawrence Krauss, Lucretius, materialism, Michael Ruse, mind, natural selection, natural theology, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, Peter Singer, Racism, rationalism, Richard Dawkins, Richard Rorty, Richard Spilsbury, Stephen Hawking, Ternate letter, The Origin of Species, Thomas Huxley, Tom Wolfe
Marvelously free of racist prejudice, Wallace noted in his fieldwork in far-flung locations that primitive tribes were intellectually the equals of Europeans. Source
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Charles Darwin’s “Intelligent Design”

Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Bridgewater Treatises, British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, British Quarterly Review, Charles Darwin, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Life Sciences, London Review, M. J. Berkeley, natural history, natural selection, natural theology, orchids, Origin of Species, R. Vaughn, Richard Dawkins, Saturday Review
"To those whose delight it is to dwell upon the manifold instances of intelligent design which everywhere surround us, this book will be a rich storehouse." Source
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Galápagos Pilgrim: Paul Nelson on Biological Deign and History

Amblyrhynchus cristatus, Andrew McDiarmid, animals, Charles Darwin, cormorant, Discovery Institute, Evolution, flightless cormorant, Galápagos Islands, history, humans, Intelligent Design, marine iguanas, natural theology, philosophy of biology, pilgrimage, Podcast, Santiago Island, tameness, William Paley
Discovery Institute philosopher of biology Paul Nelson got back from his pilgrimage to the Galápagos Islands with some important lessons to share. He spoke with ID the Future host Andrew McDiarmid last week about his experiences. See, “Pilgrimage: On a Visit to Galápagos Islands, Paul Nelson Concedes, ‘Darwin Was Right!’”  Of course he was being “deliberately provocative” there, as he notes in a new podcast with McDiarmid. Download the episode or listen to it here. Andrew and Paul expand on the point that Darwin contributed a deeper understanding of history than design proponent William Paley possessed. In his own version of natural theology, Paley gave little sense that living creatures have histories, or that those histories make much of a difference. This was a shortcoming. But, like Charles Darwin before…
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Astrophysicist Asks: Did God Create the Universe?

Aristotle, astrophysicist, atheists, Big Bang, cosmic inflation, Darwinian evolution, Ethan Siegel, Evidence, Faith & Science, First Mover, Five Ways, general relativity, Heresy, information, logic, microwave radiation, natural theology, non-overlapping magisteria, Ontological Argument, Physics, Earth & Space, quantum mechanics, reason, red shift, special relativity, Stephen Jay Gould, theists, theory of potency, Thomas Aquinas, universe
Ethan Siegel is an astrophysicist who writes a lot for the public. I like his stuff; he explains interesting complex topics well. But his recent essay “Ask Ethan: Did God Create the Universe?” misses the mark in a sadly common way. He not only botches logic and the metaphysics. He botches science.  Seigel answers a reader’s question about the existence of God. The reader asks: I am very interested in space and with who made us and what made us… what do you have to say about people who say that “God” made us? Seigel is interested in this question too, and he replies (I summarize his argument — read his whole essay for details): You can ask a question whose answer is not only knowable, but already known. You…
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