Neutrophils are the most common type of white blood cell in your body. They are also the first to show up at a site of infection. Watch the video and you'll see why.
Biology
Emergent Properties, Abstraction, and Reductionism
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Nature of Science, Philosophy
Editor : macht
published: lundi 29 janvier 2007 0:07:37
I wrote a post a couple years ago on the topics in the title and I thought I'd repost it here in light of all the discussion on the topic.
In my last post , I talked about how the nature of science is to make abstractions. That is, when scientists try to make general theories about something they strip the phenomenon of all its "unnecessary" qualities and properties and only look at the relevant ones. For example, if I want to come up with a general theory of projectile motion, I don't have much need for information about what my projectile is made of or how much it costs or what color it is. Very often, I won't even care what shape my projectile is (I'll just assume it to be a point-mass). All I'll be concerned about is the initial velocity of the projectile, it's mass, the force of gravity at my experiment location, its initial angle of motion, and the height it falls. In all likelihood, I'll make a further abstraction of the motion into vertical and horizontal components of motion and look at those separately. And I haven't even begun to mention things like the legal properties of the projectile (maybe it's a hollow-point bullet and not legal in some places) or the biological properties of the projectile (maybe it's a human cannonball).
Evolution Philosophy Biology Science Legal Laws
RNA Interference
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Biology, RNA
Editor : MikeGene
published: lundi 29 janvier 2007 6:32:49
I talked briefly about these little RNAs here and here . Now comes the animation that outlines the basic events associated such RNA.
Biology
Classic Darwinian Texts — (soon to be, if not already) On the Ash Heap of History
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Philosophy, Intelligent Design, Darwinism
Editor : GilDodgen
published: lundi 29 janvier 2007 5:00:33
I just pulled out my 1972 edition of Jacques Monod’s “classic” work, Chance and Necessity , subtitled A Philosophy for a Universe without Causality .
From the back cover:
The outstanding French biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize, here explains to the layman his revolutionary approach to genetics and its far-reaching ethical and philosophical implications.
Evolution Philosophy Intelligent Design Darwinism Legal
“there is a strangeness in the air”, a quasi ID-friendly essay in Dennett and Hofstadter’s 1981 book on intelligence
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Intelligent Design
Editor : scordova
published: lundi 29 janvier 2007 8:09:59
In 1981 Dennett and Hofstadter edited a compilation of essays entitled The Mind’s I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self & Soul . The book is a compilation of essays by Dawkins, Morowitz, Searle, Alan Turing, and several other big names on the nature of mind and intelligence. Since ID implies a mind of some sort, it is appropriate to ponder what a mind really is, and this is a surprisingly good book on the topic.
Dennett’s co-author, Hofstadter, makes an interesting remark about the ultimate mind:
Philosophy Biology Intelligent Design Science Legal Laws
Learning Math the New Way
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : School
Editor : MikeGene
published: samedi 27 janvier 2007 15:55:50
I encourage you to watch the video below. While it is 15 minutes long, it is worth watching, as you'll see how the educational elites are teaching multiplication and division to school children.
Education
Possible Pathways for the evolution of intracellular transport.
Darwinism Can’t Explain the Evolution of Music? Memes to the Rescue!
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Intelligent Design
Editor : GilDodgen
published: dimanche 28 janvier 2007 0:46:05
On another forum I wrote:
It seems to me that the arts, and music in particular, present a real problem for Darwinism. How would such an ability come about in a step-by-tiny-step fashion and what would be the survival value of the transitional intermediates, or even the end product? (Never mind what mutations would be required to rewire the central nervous system for musical ability, and the probability of those mutations occurring.) Of course, for Darwinists, Darwinism must explain everything, so they will invent stories about how ancient jungle drummers got the girls, just like rock stars get the groupies. But everyone enjoys music with absolutely no evidence that it offers any survival or reproductive advantage. It just seems to be programmed into us at a very fundamental level.
It turns out that my comment about jungle drums and rock stars was prophetic.
Evolution Intelligent Design Darwinism Science Legal Culture
J. Scott Turner in the Chronicle of Higher Education — ID is asking the right questions!
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Evolution, Intelligent Design, Darwinism
Editor : William Dembski
published: dimanche 28 janvier 2007 5:55:32
The ‘POINT OF VIEW’ article on p. B20 of the 19Jan07 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education is entitled, “Why Can’t We Discuss Intelligent Design?” The author is J. Scott Turner, Associate Professor of Biology at SUNY’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry. The by-line states, “His latest book, The Tinkerer’s Accomplice: How Design Emerges From Life Itself , was published by Harvard University Press this month.” (Go here for the Amazon.com listing.)
Turner’s thesis is that academics should stop trying to silence those who broach the subject of intelligent design, but rather be willing to discuss what Turner feels is “a wrongheaded idea.” His reasoning is straightforward: calling intelligent design “the latest eruption of a longstanding strain of anti-Darwinist thought,” he warns his colleagues: “In our readiness to proscribe intelligent design, we Darwinists are telling the world not only that we are unwilling to ask such questions ourselves, but that we don’t want others to ask them either. No wonder the war on Darwin won’t go away.”
Like many secular thinkers who make a show of being broad-minded and willing to “give the devil his due,” Turner tips his hat in our direction: “Here is where I have to give the proponents of intelligent design their (limited) due. Their intellectual pedigree might be suspect, their thinking might be wrong, but at least they are asking an interesting question: What is the meaning of design of the living world?”
Education Evolution Biology Intelligent Design Darwinism Science Legal Scott
Friday quote: Theology in a scientific journal
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Science, Intelligent Design, Friday Quote, The Critics, Religion
Editor : Krauze
published: vendredi 26 janvier 2007 18:02:05
Remember Richard Sternberg , the editor who got in hot water for allowing a paper arguing for intelligent design to be published in a scientific journal, where intelligent design was "out of place"? Fortunately, other editors enjoy looser reigns. In the article "Intelligent design and biological complexity" in the journal Gene , molecular biologist at Stanford University Emile Zuckerkandl writes not only about intelligent design (he thinks it's an "intellectual virus") but even about the attributes of God:
Time implies change. Without change, there probably is no time. Time and change as unavoidable conditions of existence would have had to impose themselves upon that "higher intelligence" that is being peddled to the public. If the higher intelligence had to conform to time, then why not to the other dimensions of nature? It looks as though beyond the ascendancy of nature any other power may be superfluous - and inherently limited. Since life in particular could under no conditions be created instantaneously - biology makes this abundantly clear, because certain required simultaneities can only result from a history - no God can be almighty .
A few questions: How does speculations about intelligent design and theology fit in with the description of Gene as dealing with "structural, functional, and evolutionary aspects of genes, chromatin, chromosomes and genomes"? Will Gene be opening a forthcoming issue to a reply from theologians, defending the almightiness of God? Will Mike finally find a publisher for his ground-breaking research ?
Evolution Biology Intelligent Design Religion Science
Putting GFP to Good Use
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : The Rabbit
Editor : MikeGene
published: samedi 27 janvier 2007 4:12:16
Mix a little design, green fluorescent protein and presto!
See here for a great page.
Enhanced Complexity in Eukarya
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Biology
Editor : MikeGene
published: samedi 27 janvier 2007 7:48:03
It is well known that eukaryotic cells are more complex than prokaryotic cells. For example, while the typical eukaryotic cell is 10-100 micrometers in diameter, contains numerous membranous organelles, has a cytoskeleton, and reproduces through mitosis, the typical bacterial cell is only 0.2-2.0 micrometers in diameter, lacking organelles and cytoskeleton, while reproducing through binary fission.
Yet the theme of enhanced complexity repeats itself at increasingly smaller scales like a fractal image.
More
Biology
“Public access equals government censorship”
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Intelligent Design, Science, Culture
Editor : William Dembski
published: vendredi 26 janvier 2007 15:03:29
The big publishers of scientific journals are, not surprisingly, concerned about how open access to information on the internet is cutting into their profits. Apparently they are now hiring PR people to try to keep their market share, and the PR people are counseling that the very concept of open access needs to be undermined. With regard to our issues, who do you think stands to benefit more from such an anti-open-access campaign, the Darwinists whose propaganda engines are entrenched in the big publishing houses, or the ID proponents who are systematically excluded? Here is an indicator of where things appear to be going (I would like to see some independent confirmation):
… [A] strategy for the publishers provides some insight into the approach they are considering taking. The consultant advised them to focus on simple messages, such as “Public access equals government censorship”. He hinted that the publishers should attempt to equate traditional publishing models with peer review, and “paint a picture of what the world would look like without peer-reviewed articles”.
[…] In an enthusiastic e-mail sent to colleagues after the meeting, Susan Spilka, Wiley’s director of corporate communications, said Dezenhall explained that publishers had acted too defensively on the free-information issue and worried too much about making precise statements. Dezenhall noted that if the other side is on the defensive, it doesn’t matter if they can discredit your statements, she added: “Media messaging is not the same as intellectual debate”.
Evolution Intelligent Design Science Legal Culture
Eric Pianka, meet John Reid
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Education, Darwinism, Science
Editor : William Dembski
published: vendredi 26 janvier 2007 19:21:17
Australian ID critic Robyn Williams recently interviewed Melbourne neuroscientist John Reid, who is also a self-proclaimed expert in overpopulation and how to deal with it. Eric Pianka was the talk of this blog last year for recommending Ebola as the instrument of choice for reducing the world’s population by 90 percent (use UD’s search feature on his name). It seems that Eric and John need to pool their talents. In case you haven’t met, Eric, meet John; John, meet Eric. There, I’ve done my good deed for the day.
For a taste of where John Reid is going, consider:
[H]umanity has been all too compliant with the Biblical injunction to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The precepts of the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam represent the quintessential perversion of the human mind. They must be abandoned and the notion of the sanctity of human life must be subjugated to the greater sanctity of all life on Earth.
Education Evolution Darwinism Religion Science Legal Culture
Why intelligent design is not a tool for Christian evangelism
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Intelligent Design
Editor : O'Leary
published: samedi 27 janvier 2007 3:31:05
Just recently, I had occasion to write to a Christian university student who is sympathetic to the idea that the universe shows evidence of intelligent design, but afraid to defend that view for fear of ruining his academic career. So he wants to do Christian evangelism instead, on the theory that evangelism will help in the long run.
Maybe it will. But not if the evangelized people decide to live in a two-tier universe, one of which is materialist and the other is - well, whatever the materialists allow them to indulge themselves in.
I do not claim that God guided my words or that I received any special message from heaven when I replied, more or less as follows, with explanatory comments interspersed:
Intelligent Design Legal
Thinking About Thought and Belief
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Philosophy of Mind, Irreducible Complexity, Brain
Editor : Joy
published: jeudi 25 janvier 2007 18:37:46
In the now very long thread Mystery of Consciousness Mesk introduces some alternative descriptions of irreducibly complex properties we associate with mind and consciousness. This allows me to go ahead and post a new blog for the continuation of discussion on that topic, along with a more in-depth examination of concepts that seem intelligently designed to cause terminal confusion in those silly enough to think about thinking and beliefs about such things.
Mesk said:
Philosophy Intelligent Design Science
Same Arguments, Different Movements
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : The Critics, Post-Wedge World, The New Atheists
Editor : MikeGene
published: vendredi 26 janvier 2007 4:40:55
Here’s Michael Shermer writing in Science Magazine :
The data have spoken. The God Delusion is a runaway bestseller, a market testimony to the hunger many people—far more, I now think, than polls reveal—have for someone in a position of prestige and power to speak for them in such an eloquent voice. Dawkins's latest book deserves multiple readings, not just as an important work of science , but as a great work of literature. (emphasis added)
The God Delusion is “an important work of science?” Isn’t it odd how a popular anti-religious book, which reports no new experiments or data, and was not peer-reviewed, has become an Important Work of Science?
Evolution Religion Science
Clash of the Type A-Type C Titans?
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : The Critics
Editor : MikeGene
published: vendredi 26 janvier 2007 10:06:12
Over at the #1 Science Blog, PZ Myers is willing to debate Ken Miller
We won't be on the same segment, sorry…there could be some vigorous argument if we were, and poor Karl might not be able to get in a word edgewise. It is an interesting combination, though: the extremely helpful and well-regarded speaker and biologist who is also an apologist for religion, and the pirate evilutionist with a knife between his teeth who brooks no compromise in his war against religion. We'll have to see what Karl does with the possibilities.
And the host is willing to do this:
Evolution Religion Science
Solexa: A development which may lead to measuring claims of ID proponents
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Intelligent Design
Editor : scordova
published: jeudi 25 janvier 2007 20:19:32
Some of the claims by ID proponents have not been adequately explored because of the cost issues involved in doing large-scale whole-genome sequencing of numerous individuals. Not even Warren Buffet has the trillions of dollars needed to accomplish such a massive amount of gene sequencing. At least not today, but maybe in the future…
The human genome project took 3 billion dollars and 13 years to complete. By comparison, Solexa might be able to do a comparable job for a few thousand dollars per person (ideally even less) and in a much shorter time frame. (See the UD sidebar on Solexa Genomics .) Solexa might be viewed as an unwitting research partner of the ID movement.
Evolution Biology Intelligent Design Legal
Why “You Evolved, Darnit!” Is Bad Ed. Policy
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Education, Intelligent Design, Darwinism, Constitution
Editor : LeeBowman
published: vendredi 26 janvier 2007 3:12:10
Do you believe in ‘individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace’? These are some of the CATO Institute’s principles, and if you agree, then you may well agree with Andrew J. Coulson’s latest pronouncement regarding mandated school policies, not the least of which is prohibiting the mere mention of alternate scientific theories of origins, and not allowing the theory of Darwinian evolution to be questioned in the least.
CATO is a libertarian think tank that promotes individual freedoms, and favors limited government. At least to the degree that federal judges have been allowed to dictate curriculum, I agree with his critique. In a philosophical policy statement, CATO cites the Tenth Amendment, which says that the ‘people’ (or individual states) have that authority, and not the government. Coupled with a proper interpretation of the First Amendment, there just may be a basis for a legal challenge (Dover, et al)
Given that a majority of US citizens at least question Darwinian evolution, it’s really simply a matter of exercising democracy, or is that a thing of the past?! Andrew’s essay:
Education Evolution Intelligent Design Darwinism Legal Constitution Creationism
When Arrogance and Stupidity Collide
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Evolution, Intelligent Design, Darwinism
Editor : William Dembski
published: vendredi 26 janvier 2007 3:51:27
Rubbish like this should steel us to work doubly hard to put these people out of business.
Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism & Intelligent Design
Evolution Intelligent Design Darwinism Science Legal Creationism William Dembski
Colorblind or Psychotic? You be the judge…
“Irreducible Complicity: Disappointing Darwin” by Roddy Bullock
Sorry About Comments Messed With…
Evolving explanations from PEER
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Creationism
Editor : Krauze
published: mercredi 24 janvier 2007 19:10:29
The activist group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) has gotten in hot water over a press release accusing the Bush administration of forcing park rangers to suppress the true age of the Grand Canyon. The story turned out to be a fabrication , and PEER has now issued a non-apology , claiming that "the press release was being misinterpreted". Yeah, I guess a few people took your claim that "Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees" and jumped to the conclusion… you know, that this was actually happening.
It's funny following PEER's evolving explanations:
Although the information was not included in the release, that sentence [quoted above] was based on the fact that since 2004 (until this recent controversy erupted) we heard from reporters that the superintendent's office at GCNP had answered media questions about the age of the canyon with either a "no comment" or by referring the reporter to Headquarters.
Creationism
Detecting the Designer Among Flergellar Componentry
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Repost
Editor : MikeGene
published: jeudi 25 janvier 2007 10:41:37
A major short-coming of Intelligent Design Theory has been its reluctance to identify the designer. This study addresses this problem and firmly establishes the reality of Intelligent Design.
Most design theorists are uncomfortable talking about the designer. Wedgocentric analysis has demonstrated this reluctance to be part of a sinister plot to foist a theocracy on an unsuspecting, scientifically-illiterate, Bush-electing public. If intelligent design is to be recognized for the science that it is, it must eschew this deception and show the scientific community the designer.
Intelligent Design Science
Darwinian Evolution is Being Overhyped as the Cornerstone of the Biological Sciences
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : /
Editor : mrsuave
published: mercredi 24 janvier 2007 19:20:16
On this episode of ID The Future the CSC's Robert Crowther explores the growing number of claims that Darwinian evolution is the foundation of biology, the backbone of science, and the source for many new biodiscoveries. Are the assertions true? Is evolution the cornerstone of the biological sciences? Let's find out.
Click here to listen.
Evolution Biology Science
Intracellular Transport systems
Programmable Matter: One Step Closer
The Social Amoeba Genome: More Evidence of Front Loading
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Intelligent Design
Editor : DaveScot
published: mercredi 24 janvier 2007 18:15:08
On a listserve which shall remain nameless a botanist yesterday was casting about for a good representative of a colonial protozoan. Having read up on the model organism Dictyostelium discoideum (common name “social amoeba”) a couple years ago and blogging on it then I immediately suggested it and described why it is a model for protozoan to metazoan evolution and also described its interesting display of altruism:
“a good colonial protozoan”
Evolution Biology Intelligent Design Science Legal
Dissenting from Darwin
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Evolution, Darwinism
Editor : William Dembski
published: mercredi 24 janvier 2007 22:07:09
Increasinginly I find that those with doctorates in the natural and engineering sciences are asking, “What can I do to help in the fight against Darwinism?” For some this will involve research bearing directly on Darwinian theory. But there is also another way to help. Many in the media and the public still do not know that there is scientific dissent from Darwinism. They have no idea that MANY scientists are skeptical of neo-Darwinian theory.
So one way you can help is to put your head on the chopping block and voice your skepticism of Darwinism (if you do, trust me, Darwin’s dogmatic defenders will try to chop off your head). This is why Discovery Institute created their statement “A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism.” It states: “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged .”
The original list of 100 scientists has now grown to nearly 700. To learn more about the list and if you are eligible to help overturning Darwinism and publically voice your skepticism, see www.dissentfromdarwin.org . You can also view a PDF copy of the current list at this site.
Evolution Darwinism Science Legal
McGrath vs. Dennett on the future of atheism
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Religion, Science
Editor : William Dembski
published: mercredi 24 janvier 2007 22:22:30
This year’s Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum pits Alister McGrath against Daniel Dennett (last year’s pitted me against Michael Ruse):
The Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum in Faith and Culture is a pilot program of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. The Forum is designed to provide a venue in which a respected evangelical scholar and a respected non-evangelical scholar dialogue on critical issues in philosophy, science, religion, and/or culture from their differing perspectives.
This year’s forum will feature Alister McGrath of Oxford University and Daniel Dennett of Tufts University in dialogue on the future of atheism.
Philosophy Religion Science Legal Culture
Biology’s Next Revolution
More Pro-Science Fear-Mongering
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Science, Threatiness
Editor : MikeGene
published: mercredi 24 janvier 2007 0:17:52
Richard Dawkins' official web site hosts another testimony to threatiness from the Huffington Post’s RJ Eskow . Since the article is filled with the typical bit of propagandistic fear-mongering, it’s a good fit for Dawkins’ site.
A country that doesn't believe in evolution doesn't respect rational thought or the scientific process. It can't produce the scientists and leaders it needs to face the problems of the 21st Century. This is even a national security problem, since a nation that won't face and study reality can't defend itself. It situation should be of concern to every American.
Frightened yet? No? Then how about this one?
Evolution Science
Richard Dawkins To Be Taught in Religion Class in UK
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Education, Intelligent Design, Darwinism
Editor : DaveScot
published: mardi 23 janvier 2007 16:14:39
Intelligent design to feature in school RE lessons
Alexandra Smith
Education Evolution Intelligent Design Darwinism Religion Science Legal Creationism
Another Form of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Intelligent Design, Darwinism
Editor : GilDodgen
published: mercredi 24 janvier 2007 5:18:11
In the Haldane thread , DaveScot responded to a comment I made with this:
On Haldane’s Dilemma, I’ve determined the evolutionist argument goes like this: Orthodox evolution theory is a fact, not a theory. Therefore Haldane’s Dilemma must be wrong.
I propose a corollary to DaveScot’s proposition:
Evolution Intelligent Design Darwinism Legal DaveScot
Stuart Kauffman critiquing Darwinism
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Evolution, Darwinism
Editor : William Dembski
published: mercredi 24 janvier 2007 6:15:58
I was reviewing recently Stuart Kauffman’s critique of the Darwinian selection mechanism and thought I would share the upshot of it here, especially in light of the recent discussion at UD concerning Haldane’s Dilemma:
If selection could, in principle, accomplish “anything,” then all the order in organisms might reflect selection alone. But, in fact, there are limits to selection. Such limits begin to demand a shift in our thinking in the biological sciences and beyond. We have already encountered a first powerful limitation on selection. Darwin’s view of the gradual accumulations of useful variations, we saw, required gradualism. Mutations must cause slight alterations in phenotypes, But we have now seen two alternative model “worlds” in which such gradualism fails. The first concerns maximally compressed programs. Because these are random, almost certainly any change randomizes the performance of the program. Finding one of the few useful minimal programs requires searching the entire spacerequiring unthinkably long times compared with the history of the universe even for modestly large programs … But the matter is even worse on such random landscapes. If an adapting population evolves by mutation and selection alone, it will remain frozen in an infinitesimal region of the total space, trapped forever in whatever region it started in. It will be unable to search long distances across space for higher peaks. Yet if the population dares try recombination, it will be harmed on average, not helped. There is a second limitation on selection. It is not only on random landscapes that evolution fails. Even on smooth landscapes, in the heartland of gradualism, just where Darwin’s assumptions hold, selection can again fail and fail utterly. Selection runs headlong into an “error catastrophe” where all accumulated useful traits melt away…. Thus there appears to be a limit on the complexity of a genome that can be assembled by mutation and selection!
Stuart Kaffman, At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 183-184.
Evolution Darwinism Science Legal Laws
[Off Topic] Senator Jim Webb: Clueless
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Off Topic
Editor : DaveScot
published: mercredi 24 janvier 2007 9:23:27
As I was watching the Democratic response to President Bush’s State Of The Union speech tonight Senator Jim Webb played the United States Marine card three times (for himself, his brother, and his son all Marines). I take it personally when someone does that.
The first thing Webb does is claims to know better than the president and all the president’s advisors how to effectively fight terrorism because, well, Jim was a Marine in Vietnam. Well Jim, I was a Marine at the end of the Vietnam war. I didn’t go, it was mostly over by then, but one thing I noticed was that all the non-commissioned officers senior to me were real combat veterans. They knew how to survive guerilla warfare in an Asian backwater. Me and my generation of Marines, all we did was play at wargames 4 weeks a year in the Mojave desert. No one was trying to kill us, no foreign language was spoken by the natives, no guerillas in civilian clothes running around, none of that. After 30 years of that kind of experience our military was virtually without anyone in any rank who’d had actual combat experience. Here’s the deal Jim. In order to have an effective force in fighting guerilla and urban wars in Arab countries we need actual combat veterans seasoned in that type of warfare leading the unseasoned troops. Use your head, Jim. Now we have an effective force led by NCOs who know how to survive urban and guerilla wars in Arab countries. And Bush managed to build that force without losing 58,000 American lives as were sacrificed in Vietnam but rather limited the losses to 3,000. Use your head for something other than a place to put your hat, Jim. We needed a veteran ground combat force for the Middle Eastern theater. Now we have one. Now what happened to Russia in Afghanistan won’t happen to us.
Legal Off Topic
The mystery of consciousness
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Intelligent Design, Science
Editor : LeeBowman
published: mercredi 24 janvier 2007 13:38:20
The 1/29/07 issue of Time Magazine is captioned “Mind & Body Special Issue” , and starts out with a discussion of the brain’s geography, an endeavor well studied and categorized by now, but which is far overshadowed by the mystery of ‘consciousness’, often tagged as the ‘host within the neural machine’. Steven Pinker writes the centerpiece article, “The mystery of consciousness”, and indeed, consciousness is the centerpiece of the mystery regarding life itself.
and in the areas where that activity would normally occur. She displayed no outward cognizance, however, raising new questions concerning the Terry Schiavo case.
Evolution Intelligent Design Science Legal
The "Anti-Science" Scientists
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Science, The Critics, Religion
Editor : MikeGene
published: mardi 23 janvier 2007 11:50:44
A quote from Dr. Myers :
Of course everyone compartmentalizes…but that doesn't mean we should simply ignore or excuse those compartments that blatantly contradict observable reality. I'd say that a scientist who believes in elves or perpetual motion machines or the magic properties of energized water is just as anti-science as the one who tries to reconcile the absurdities of Christianity or Wicca or Asatru or Islam with science — but the Christianity problem is more of an epidemic than free energy scams. (emphasis added).
So now we understand why Dr. Myers attacks Ken Miller and Francis Collins: theists who attempt to reconcile their religious faith with science are "anti-science." Perhaps the "pro-science" crowd will soon be coming out a bumper sticker that reads, Real scientists don't believe in God .
Religion Science
Do We Live on a Privilged Planet?
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : /
Editor : mrsuave
published: mardi 23 janvier 2007 1:57:17
On this episode of ID The Future we have a short clip about the The Privileged Planet
Click here to listen.
Indian of the Gaps
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Intelligent Design
Editor : BarryA
published: mardi 23 janvier 2007 6:05:45
My grandfather hunted arrowheads, and he found them, hundreds of them. I was awed by his collection, and one of my most prized possessions is a frame containing 48 of his best specimens that I inherited from him. Nearly two decades after his death that frame is still hanging on the wall in the room where I am typing this post.
Sometimes when I was a kid I went arrowhead hunting with him, but I was not much good at it. Many times I brought a promising specimen to papa for inspection, only to have him cast it aside and say, “Just a rock boy; shah, shah, shah.” To this day I don’t know exactly what “shah” means, but from context I gathered he was not being complimentary of my efforts.
But now I’m not so sure my grandfather was playing it straight with me. You see, my arrowhead hunting adventures came to mind today when I was reading Michael Liccione’s review of John Haught’s new book Is Nature Enough? Truth and Meaning in the Age of Science in this month’s First Things . Liccione writes that agency cannot “show up within the layers of scientific explanation,” for to do so would invoke the “rightly dreaded” God of the gaps.
Evolution Philosophy Intelligent Design Science Legal
Wikipedia Suppresses Info On Haldane’s Dilemma
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Intelligent Design
Editor : DaveScot
published: mardi 23 janvier 2007 13:17:18
Wikipedia suppresses Haldane’s Dilemma by Walter J. Remine
The key figure — a limit of 1,667 beneficial mutations to explain human evolution — was brushed aside (by falsely blaming it on creationists, instead of acknowledging that it arises solely from evolutionary theory, evolutionary genetics, and J.B.S. Haldane). This key figure was repeatedly expunged from the article, leaving readers with no idea about the severity of Haldane’s Dilemma. Evolutionists suppressed this key figure. They also suppressed their history — the fact that they never revealed any such figure to the general public.
Evolution Intelligent Design Legal
A very controversial paper!
“Poetry in the Genetic Code”— does this mean that Natural Selection is now a poet?
Making and Secreting Proteins
America's Deep, Dark Secret
Link to: original blogpost - comments
Categories : Bioethics
Editor : MikeGene
published: dimanche 21 janvier 2007 23:24:13
The Fernald School is the oldest institution of its kind in the country. At its peak, some 2,500 people were confined here, most of them children. All of them were called feeble-minded, whether they were or not.
The people who ran Fernald back in the bad, old days are no longer alive, but many of the victims still are — victims like Fred Boyce, who was locked up there for 11 years. He came back to Fernald with Correspondent Bob Simon.
”We thought for a long time that we belonged there, that we were not part of the species. We thought we were some kind of, you know, people that wasn't supposed to be born,” says Boyce.
When Does SETI Throw in the Towel?
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Categories : Intelligent Design
Editor : MikeGene
published: dimanche 21 janvier 2007 15:02:16
In other words, a lot of SETI scientists will answer the question that began this article by saying “not in my lifetime, nor in that of my children or grandchildren.”
Somewhat more disquieting is the possibility that our approach is wrong.
- Here
Intelligent Design
Letterbombs to science firms from animal rights terrorists
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Categories : Richard Dawkins, Animal Rights Extremism
Editor : Krauze
published: samedi 20 janvier 2007 22:02:44
From the Oxford Mail :
Two letterbombs have been delivered to science firms in Oxfordshire today. A woman was hurt when a package exploded as she opened the post at Orchid Cellmark, in Blacklands Way, at Abingdon Business Park, at 9.15am. And at 1.45pm police were called to another firm in Culham where another suspicious package was found. … Both packages are being linked to animal rights protesters.
The article also mentions Oxford University, where the construction of an animal testing laboratory has prompted a number of attacks from animal rights terrorists. I'm sure Richard Dawkins, Oxford's resident professor for the public understanding of science, would love to defend his colleagues and educate the public on the necessity of animal testing. Too bad he's busy with his campaign of painting religious parents as child abusers .
Science
The Über-Explanation
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Categories : Intelligent Design
Editor : MikeGene
published: dimanche 21 janvier 2007 2:54:45
I’d like to pull out something from a previous blog in order to focus on this issue alone:
Human beings are intrinsically mythical. I am not using the term ‘myth’ to imply that humans gravitate toward false or supernatural explanations. I use the term much as social scientists use it, where a ‘myth’ is some narrative humans use to assign meaning to our lives. We assign such meaning by looking for ways to give our lives Context. Religion is, of course, the primary vehicle for the expression of this unique human characteristic. But even those who are not religious nevertheless think in mythical terms. And I submit the displeasure that many ID proponents and critics experience when contemplating a natural designer is largely psychological. That is, as Homo mythicans , we are not pleased with an attempt to explain the origin of life on this planet unless that explanation can also be neatly fitted into an Über-Explanation, an explanation that seeks to Explain it All. Unless our little explanations can be viewed as promissory notes working ultimately toward an Über-Explanation, we prefer to look elsewhere.
Two questions:
Intelligent Design Religion
Bats fly uniquely.
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Categories : Intelligent Design
Editor : idnet.com.au
published: samedi 20 janvier 2007 22:28:53
In case any one accidentally comes to the (?obvious) conclusion that the finding of yet more evidently brilliant design customary clear homage to the creator of all life, NDE
Science Daily “Kenneth Breuer and Sharon Swartz are determined to understand the detailed aerodynamics of bat flight – and ultimately the evolutionary path that created it
Evolution Biology Intelligent Design Science Legal
Ph.D.s in Obfuscation — Or, Simple Truths Denied
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Categories : Intelligent Design
Editor : GilDodgen
published: dimanche 21 janvier 2007 6:03:39
In another forum, Denyse wrote:
Bear with a simple lay hack here a moment: Why must we know a designer’s intentions in order to detect design?
If the fire marshall’s office suspects arson, do the investigators worry much about WHY?
Intelligent Design Legal
Evolutionary psychology: This is a … discipline?
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Categories : Intelligent Design
Editor : O'Leary
published: dimanche 21 janvier 2007 0:37:06
I have been meaning for some time to set down my reasons for thinking that evolutionary psychology is only questionably a discipline. At least seven reasons occur to me (actually more, but these seven are top of mind):
1. There is no actual “subject” for the research. The subject of evolutionary psychology is a hypothetical construct: “early humans,” whose genes are thought to survive in modern humans and govern our behaviour. But these early humans have not existed for at least a hundred thousand years, so their behaviour can never be directly tested. It reminds me of the problem with the biology of extraterrestrial life forms - a discipline without a subject, as Simpson noted .
2. It is pure conjecture that given common types of behaviour are somehow inherited from early humans. In most cases, a simpler, more obvious explanation is readily available. For example, an evolutionary psychologist might argue that a woman doesn’t want her man to cheat because he might produce children with another woman and thus prevent her from passing on her selfish genes. But such an explanation defies Occam’s Razor (the simplest explanation is best). Obviously, she does not want her man to cheat because she does not want attention directed at another woman that could be going to her . Whether she is - or ever will be - infanticipating is irrelevant to her and - for that matter - irrelevant to her genes. She would feel the same way if she were 17 or 70. It is hard to imagine a state of human or proto-human life in which things could have been any different.
Evolution Biology Intelligent Design Darwinism Religion Legal Culture
Designing "Defective" Babies
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Categories : Bioethics, Eugenics
Editor : Joy
published: samedi 20 janvier 2007 18:02:05
AP and CNN are reporting today that the "New Eugenics" is already being deployed, per those Designer Babies that 'New Eugenicists' tell us will inevitably become the wave of the future. You know, those Barbie-girls and Ken-boys that activists for human rights are concerned will exacerbate prejudices and discrimination against less-than perfect human beings…
Creating made-to-order babies with genetic defects would seem to be an ethical minefield, but to some parents with disabilities — say, deafness or dwarfism — it just means making babies like them.
And a recent survey of U.S. clinics that offer embryo screening suggests it's already happening.
The End Justifies the Means
Recent events in the intelligent design controversy - 7
Evolutionary psychology solves the Problem of Beauty (Goodness and Truth are next)
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Categories : Evolution, Darwinism
Editor : William Dembski
published: samedi 20 janvier 2007 20:51:37
It’s amazing what passes for science these days (as well as what doesn’t):
The first evidence that beauty is infectious is published today by scientists who have shown that when women see a rival smiling at a man, he becomes more attractive as a result. . . .
Why has nature designed women to be so in thrall to the opinion of others? Selecting a mate and raising children is what life is all about, according to the cold eyed view of evolutionary biologists.
Evolution Darwinism Science Legal
