Discovery Institute's Blog, page 218

Intelligent Design's Secret Weapon: The World

Along with the absurd stereotype that support for ID is limited to right-wing fundamentalist Christians -- tell that to Stephen King, as I noted the other day -- there's also the Darwinist agitprop point that advocates of the theory are rare outside the United States. Hardly! An unacknowledged strength of the ID movement is its international character.

Stephen Meyer was asked recently in an interview with World magazine:

[I]s intelligent design gaining any acceptance at the university level?...

Consciousness from the Bottom Up? Try Explaining Qualia

W. Alex Escobar wrote an article for The Conversation that tells you everything you need to know in the title: "Breaking down experiences into millions of parts may help explain consciousness." The rest is details about neurons and qualia (our perceptions of the looks, feels, tastes, etc., of nature around us). The important thing is that his model is a bottom-up approach.

This idea of bits of visual awareness is a bottom-up approach to explain consciousness. It is based on the general archi...

The Cowardly God Complex of Transhumanism

Ah, those paradoxical transhumanists: They disdain human exceptionalism -- and then assure us that our ingenuity will enable humans to live forever with the powers of a superhero.

And talk about hubris and delusions of grandeur. Maybe that's why Psychology Todaypublished Zoltan Istvan's "Three Laws of Transhumanism."

Why, Wesley, what are the TLofT? I am glad you asked:

1) A transhumanist must safeguard one's own existence above all else.

Really?Over one's own children? If it means pushing peop...

Regional Premieres of Privileged Species with Michael Denton Continue on Friday, October 10, in Charlotte, NC

Are humans the accidental products of a blind and uncaring universe? Or are they the beneficiaries of a cosmic order that was planned beforehand to help them flourish? Find out as the Southern regional premiere of the new documentary Privileged Species with Center for Science & Culture Senior Fellow Dr. Michael Denton comes to Charlotte, North Carolina, on October 10 at the National Conference on Christian Apologetics.

Wait, there's more! Join Discovery Institute Fellows Dr. Michael Behe, Dr....

New Precambrian Fossils Are Not Cambrian Ancestors

From the headlines you might think that with the discovery of some new Chinese embryo fossils, the enigma of the Cambrian explosion has been solved. The announcement from Virginia Tech trumpets, "New evidence of ancient multicellular life sets evolutionary timeline back 60 million years."

A Virginia Tech geobiologist with collaborators from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have found evidence in the fossil record that complex multicellularity appeared in living things about 600 million years...

Evolve This: Getting Language from Darwin's "Horrid Doubt"

In a letter to William Graham in 1881, Charles Darwin -- a year before he died -- expressed a grave misgiving about his theory:

But then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man's mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey's mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?

Conviction: it's a word implying semantics. The dictionary defines conviction...

At U. of Washington, Evangelizing Atheist David Barash Illustrates How the Scientific "Consensus" on Darwinism Is Maintained

Paul and Wesley have already commented on evolutionary biologist David Barash at the University of Washington and his piece in the New York Times summarizing the regular talk ("The Talk") he gives to his students about how evolution disproves religion. Well, not absolutely disproves it but very close.

This is very helpful since I've asked before how it is that a scientist gets to evangelize for atheism at one public university while another at a different public university, Ball State physici...

Talking Back to Goliath: Some Advice for Students in the Evolutionary Biology Classroom

A student in David Barash's animal-behavior class at the University of Washington might feel a bit like David facing Goliath -- even though Goliath, in this case, happens to be named David. Goliath occupies the podium at the front of the class, holds the professorship, and has the authority of the scientific community (apparently, anyway) on his side.

And, like the biblical Goliath, he is confidently outspoken when he delivers what Barash in this past Sunday's NY Times called "The Talk." Wes...

Darwinist Denies Human Exceptionalism in the New York Times

The New York Times is consistently anti-human exceptionalism,never missing an opportunity to publish articles that seek to reduce humans to just another animal in the forest.

Over the weekend, the Sunday Review section featured University of Washington evolutionary biologist David P. Barash (pictured at right), bragging that he works to destroy faith in his classes ("The Talk"), insisting to his studentsthat science and religion are incompatible.

That kind of ideological indoctrination is par f...

Last Day: Get William Dembski's Being as Communion at Its Pre-Order Discount Price; Offer Ends at Midnight Tuesday

If you're like me, with a tendency to overindulgence in book-buying matched with a need to live within your family's budget, you'll be familiar with the arts of getting the best price on a book that you want. You know the drill: comparing prices on Amazon for a used or new copy, crosschecking at eBay, facing the heart-sinking dread that you may have to be satisfied with putting your name on a waiting list to check it out of the public library, etc.

Well, when it comes to William Dembski's new...