A Theoretical Biologist’s Mission Impossible: Banish Teleology While Retaining Meaning

academic politics, Chemistry, consciousness, Darwinian evolution, DNA, Evolution, genes, genetic code, information, Intelligent Design, Marcello Barbieri, materialism, Meaning, natural selection, paradigm, physics, private truth, public truth, teleology, University of Ferrara
The nonsense will cease eventually. But eventually is a long way off, if Barbieri’s dilemma is any guide. Source
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On the Irreducible Complexity of Sperm Cells

acrosin, acrosome, acrosome phase, bacterial flagellum, biology, calcium ions, cap phase, capacitation, cervix, Daniela Nicastro, DNA, dyneins, egg cell, ejaculation, Evolution, fertilization, fertilized egg, flagellum, foresight, Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, Golgi phase, haploid genome, Harvard University, human reproduction, hyaluronidase, infant, Intelligent Design, intent, intercourse, Irreducible Complexity, Jianfeng Lin, middle piece, mitochondria, ovum, reproduction, reproductive tract, seminal fluid, sperm cells, sperm flagellum, teleology, uterine tubes, uterus, zygote
Human reproduction is perhaps the quintessential example of teleology in biology. Source
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Engineering Principles Explain Biological Systems Better than Evolutionary Theory

antiquity, Apostle Paul, Aristotle, atomism, biology, Charles Darwin, Copernican Revolution, Engineering, Evolution, Francisco Ayala, genetics, Hippocrates, Intelligent Design, Lucretius, materialism, Modern Synthesis, natural processes, Neo-Darwinism, philosophy, Plato, population genetics, Romans, Science and Faith in Dialogue, teleology
Hippocrates proposed in the late 5th or early 4th century BC a model for heredity and adaptation that Charles Darwin described as nearly identical to his own. Source
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Dangerous Skating: Kauffman, Jaeger, and Roli on the Need for a New Teleology

agency, Andrea Roli, biology, computer science, economy, ecosystems, Engineering, Evolution, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, innovation, Intelligent Design, Johannes Jaeger, mechanistic science, naturalism, ontology, Philosophy of Science, scholars, scientific knowledge, Siberia, skating, social sciences, Stuart A. Kauffman, teleological behavior, teleology
Openly breaking with naturalism can get one dispatched to the gulag of intelligent design. For most scholars, that is a one-way trip to academic Siberia. Source
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In His New Book, Denton Shows How Science Leads the Charge to Theism

astrophysicists, Atheism, bioengineering, biology, brain, Charles Darwin, Copernican Revolution, cosmology, cytology, demiurge, Democritus, Denis Diderot, earth, Erasmus Darwin, Faith & Science, fine-tuning, human eye, humankind, Judeo-Christian tradition, life, natural selection, nature, Paul Davies, philosophes, Physics, Earth & Space, physiology, Plato, purpose, teleology, The Miracle of Man, theism, William Paley
In his new book, Michael Denton is particularly strong on what he terms “the post-Copernican delusion of mankind’s cosmic irrelevance.” Source
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Why Systems Biologists Now Assume Life Is Optimally Designed

"poor design", bioinformatics, biological structures, biologists, biosphere, Dan Graur, ENCODE, engineers, Eva Balsa-Canto, Evolution, fitness landscape, human body, Human Errors, human genome, Intelligent Design, Julio R. Banga, Junk DNA, knee, Living with Darwin, Nathan Lents, Nikolaos Tsiantis, optimality, pelvis, Philip Kitcher, scientific materialism, teleology, whales, Wikipedia
Purported examples of poor design usually represent opinions resulting from armchair critics’ limited understanding of the technical literature. Source
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When Darwinism Reigns, “The Pyramid Is the Point”

alpha male, animals, beauty, biology, brutality, charm, condors, Culture & Ethics, CuriosityStream, Darwinian evolution, Darwinism, Discovery Institute, Evolution, gorillas, hierarchy, Intelligent Design, John Zmirak, personal interactions, pyramid, sea lionesses, teleology, The Stream, YouTube videos
The Darwinian view encourages a way of interacting with others where the aim is to “humiliate [one’s] lesser brethren, just to remind them who’s boss.” Source
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