Discovery Institute's Blog, page 129

Examining Another Evolutionary Icon: Wolf-Ekkehard L��nnig on the Long-Necked Giraffe

On an episode of ID the Future, Casey Luskin talks with geneticist Dr. Wolf-Ekkehard Lnnig about his book The Evolution of the Long-Necked Giraffe.

For years, Darwinists have presented the giraffe as a textbook case of adaptive morphological change in response to environmental conditions. Lnnig discusses the problems with the idea that millions of years of mutations could create the many differences between a short-necked and a long-necked giraffe.

Image credit: Hans Hillewaert via Wikime...

An Honest Assessment of Why Darwinism Is Popular

High school and college biology texts almost uniformly present Darwinian evolution as a theory that is now as well established as any other theory in science, and almost uniformly refuse to acknowledge that any serious scientists have doubts that the struggle for survival could produce human brains and human consciousness.

James Madison University mathematician Jason Rosenhouse has written a post criticizing a post, "Mathematicians Are Trained to Value Simplicity," that I at Uncommon...

Even Sponges Are Complex Enough to Inspire Architects

Sponges are outliers in biology's big bang, the Cambrian explosion. Their embryos appear in Precambrian strata, leading some to consider them primitive. That's an illusion. New studies of how they construct their skeletons with silica "spicules" have revealed design principles remarkable enough to inspire biomimicry.

The punch line first -- here's how a news item from Cell Press concludes:

"This work not only sheds new light on skeleton formation of animals, but also might inspire interdisc...

Hominid Hype and Homo naledi: A Unique "Species" of Unclear Evolutionary Importance

The media is once again abuzz over the discovery of a new hominin fossil. The fossil is named Homo naledi, represented by hundreds of bones found in a cave near Johannesburg, South Africa. Biologic Institute biologist Ann Gauger has already commented on the find here and here.

It has long been recognized that we are missing fossils documenting the supposed transition from the apelike genus Australopithecus to the humanlike Homo. Despite what you may be hearing in the media, Homo naledi does...

Europe Bans Animal -- Not Human -- Cloning

I am always amazed at how there is a great anger in Europe against technologies like plant GMOs, but far less outrage over the prospect of human genetic modification, in the early stages of implimentation. From The Indpendent story:

The genetic manipulation of human IVF embryos is set to start in Britain for the first time following a licence application by scientists who want to understand why some women suffer repeated miscarriages.

If the research licence is granted by the Government's fe...

The Human Body Continues to Give Evolutionary Biologists High Blood Pressure

Editor's note : Physicians have a special place among the thinkers who have elaborated the argument for intelligent design. Perhaps that's because, more than evolutionary biologists, they are familiar with the challenges of maintaining a functioning complex system, the human body. With that in mind, Evolution News & Views is delighted to present this series, "The Designed Body." Dr. Glicksman practices palliative medicine for a hospice organization.

Let's review what this series of articles h...

On Science and Faith, Wit and Wisdom from Rodgers and Hammerstein

My wife and I have been making an effort to introduce our kids to some of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals that I grew up with (my parents were religious about taking me to local community theater productions when I was a kid). We just watched the 1956 film version of the The King and I, and it is fantastic -- funny, touching, great characters, beautiful music, beautiful in every way. Unexpectedly to me, since it's been decades since I last saw it, science and faith is a theme.

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Ideas (About Bioethics) Have Consequences

When it comes to the healthcare system, we have a distinct and worsening problem of trust. People have noticed the increasing utilitarian bent in bioethics that values the lives of some patients over those of others, pushes medical rationing based on invidious discriminatory categories, and debases the intrinsic dignity of human life. This results in unwanted consequences. Here is a case in point.

The organ transplantation community is continually on the lookout for ways to increase the orga...

Exploring Puzzles of Whale and Dolphin Origins, Paul Nelson Takes It on the Road

Starting in Bloomington, Minnesota, next Monday, and then moving on to the Austin, Texas area and later, Los Angeles, Discovery Institute Fellow Paul Nelson will present a series of lectures for a general audience about the enthralling puzzles of whale and dolphin origins. Dr. Nelson's theme: "Moby Dick Versus Darwin."

These lectures will feature clips from the new Illustra Media film, Living Waters: Intelligent Design in the Oceans of the Earth, and will focus on the unsolved evolutionary p...

On H. naledi, Separating Fact from Interpretation

The subject of human origins is a sensitive one, stirring up strong emotions on all sides. Most people come at the question with a pre-formed point of view about our ancestry and when they want the date of the appearance of the first human to be.

But that doesn't mean they are free to superimpose their preferred point of view on the data, or view it only through lenses of their own prescription. That's not the way science is supposed to be done.

Why am I, an advocate of intelligent design, a...