14May 2025 by Post

Eavesdropping in the Platonic Academy 

algorithms, Andreas Wagner, Aristotle, biology, C.H. Waddington, Casey Luskin, creationists, demiurge, Denis Noble, DNA, Erwin Schrödinger, Evolution, evolutionary biology, Günter Bechly, Hans Driesch, Harvard University, Intelligent Design, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lars Löfgren, Michael Levin, microbes, Philosophy of Science, Plato, Plato's Revenge, Platonism, René Descartes, René Thom, Richard Sternberg, Robert Rosen, sequoia trees, Summer Seminar on Intelligent Design, theoretical biology, Tufts University, University of Zurich, vitalism
I can relate to the paleontologist Günter Bechly, who, after hearing Sternberg lay out his thesis, lay awake unable to sleep as he considered the implications. Source
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21May 2024 by Post

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
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29Mar 2023 by Post

Engineering Brings Life and Vice Versa

Africa, bacteria, Biomimetics, birds, Conference on Engineering in Living Systems, Darwin Comes to Africa, Darwinists, drone, Evolution, evolutionary pressure, human exceptionalism, human history, Intelligent Design, irreducibly complex systems, lawyers, Mark Rober, Michael Behe, NASA, Olufemi Oluniyi, owls, personification, pupfish, Rwanda, science, shopping, Social Darwinism, vitalism, Zipline
An uplifting video about a life-saving invention encapsulates several running themes about intelligent design, with only one brief flaw. Source
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24Feb 2022 by Post

Origin of Life Is Not Reducible to Physics

Anthropic Principle, biology, can opener, entropy, Eugene V. Koonin, Evolution, genes, handwaving, Intelligent Design, learning, natural selection, Neural Networks, origin of life, physics, second law of learning, Second Law of Thermodynamics, Theodosius Dobzhansky, thermodynamics, Thomas Malthus, universe, vitalism, Vitaly Vanchurin
This continues an evaluation of a proposal that treats natural selection as a law of physics that is applicable to the entire universe. Source
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23Feb 2022 by Post

Evolution Is Not Like Physics

Animal Algorithms, asymmetric information flow, biology, Boyle’s Law, Casey Luskin, Darwin's Doubt, E = mc2, Eigen catastrophe, Elliott Sober, Eric Cassell, Ernst Mayr, Erwin Schrödinger, Eugene V. Koonin, Evolution, Granville Sewell, gravitation, Isaac Newton, Kirk Durston, National Academy of Sciences, National Institute for Biotechnology Information, naturalism, neo-Darwinian theory, No Free Lunch, physics, Physics, Earth & Space, PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, punctuated equilibria, Richard Weikart, RNA, Signature in the Cell, Stephen Meyer, thermodynamics, vitalism, Vitaly Vanchurin, William Dembski, Yuri I. Wolf
A new theory of evolution extends Darwinian processes, making them into physical laws based on “learning theory.” Source
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20Oct 2020 by Post

Epiphany — Denton on Nature’s Fitness for Life

astrobiology, carbon, carbon chemistry, carbon-based life, Friedrich Wöhler, intelligent agency, Intelligent Design, Life Sciences, Michael Denton, organic chemistry, silicon-based life, teleology, The Miracle of the Cell, The Wonder of Water, vitalism
Biologists once wondered about a “life force,” but Michael Denton sees intelligence in the design of carbon, its unique properties, and its relation to water. Source
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16Oct 2020 by Post

A Darwinist Recognizes (Some of) the Stakes in the Intelligent Design Debate

Alex Rosenberg, Areo, Atheism, Darwinism, divine image, equality, eugenics, Evolution, evolution debate, Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, human dignity, Human Zoos, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Intelligent Design, Jamie Milton Freestone, John West, Michael Behe, neo-Nazis, neo-Nazism, nihilism, non-overlapping magisteria, pseudoscientific racism, Racism, religion, Return of the God Hypothesis, Richard Dawkins, scientific racism, skin color, Stephen Jay Gould, Stephen Meyer, University of Queensland, vitalism
I would be curious to hear how Darwinists like Dr. Freestone reconcile their evolutionism not just with religion but with their commitment to human equality. Source
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01Apr 2020 by Post

Another Cosmos Episode, Another Sermon from Pastor Tyson

Al Ghazali, bees, Charles Darwin, China, consciousness, cosmos, Cosmos: Possible Worlds, Darwinism, empirical science, extraterrestrial intelligence, FAST telescope, Fox Broadcasting Company, Francis of Assisi, Maimonides, National Geographic Channel, natural selection, naturalistic philosophy, Physics, Earth & Space, religion, Smithsonian Magazine, The Hidden Life of Trees, The Secret Life of Plants, vitalism
Several themes weave their way through the current season of Cosmos, “Possible Worlds.”  The careful viewer will detect at least one in each episode. They include the ideas that a modern intellectual awakening took place when science (defined as applied naturalistic philosophy) triumphed over religion and superstition; that human exceptionalism is an ancient prejudice we must abandon; and that you can find meaning in a universe without a god. Episode 7, which aired last night on Fox and National Geographic, presents the viewer with a heavy dose of the second idea. The episode begins with Neil deGrasse Tyson walking on the perimeter of the recently completed 500-meter single dish radio telescope, FAST, in China. The episode is about the first contact with another intelligence, which many hope will be made with…
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