Discovery Institute's Blog, page 26

ID Scientist at Royal Society: "No Deep Discordance" Between Neo-Darwinism, Extended Synthesis

It's 9 am in London and the third and final day of the Royal Society meeting on "New Trends in Evolutionary Biology" opens now. For my money the most dramatic outbursts so far, including the keeper "Not God -- we're excluding God," were recorded by Paul Nelson yesterday.

Meanwhile, the group of scientists on hand who are sympathetic to intelligent design are excluded other than as spectators. As for the tension between neo-Darwinists and the "extended synthesis" crowd, still another ID-frie...

Specter of Intelligent Design Emerges at the Royal Society Meeting

The ID bomb, ticking throughout the first day and a half, finally went off in the afternoon session today of the Royal Society's "New Trends in Evolutionary Biology" meeting. But it was something of an accidental explosion, because the speaker -- Andy Gardner of the University of St. Andrews -- was not advocating for intelligent design, but rather, for its replacement as a cause by natural selection (NS). Nonetheless: BANG. Doug Axe has already noted Gardner's slide, above.

Dr. Gardner opene...

Day 2 at the Royal Society: A "Knee-Jerk" Jab at Intelligent Design, Applause for "Marginalized Ideas"

Douglas Axe of Biologic Institute is tweeting. Regarding a presentation by Andy Gardner, University of St. Andrews, on "Anthropomorphism in evolutionary biology," Dr. Axe reproduces Dr. Gardner's slide (above) that compares "Darwinism" and "Intelligent Design" and depicts a cheetah in pursuit of prey.

According to the slide if you blow it up, Darwinism's "process" is "natural selection," while its "purpose" is "maximize fitness." ID's "process," says Gardner, is "God did it" while its purpo...

More Reports from Confidential Informants at the Royal Society

I continue to receive reports from inside the Royal Society building where the potentially explosive "New Trends in Evolutionary Biology" conference is ongoing. My apologies for vagueness about the identities of our informants. This precaution is due to requests for anonymity as well as what we know, unfortunately all too well, about the threat of career retaliation for those who speak their minds. When it comes to evolution, enlightened opinion can't tolerate multiple viewpoints unless they...

Elephant in the Room: Douglas Axe Reports from the Royal Society

With a palpable tension, as two scientist friends pointed out here yesterday, Day 2 of the Royal Society meeting, "New Trends in Evolutionary Biology," is getting underway now, at 9 am in London. Apart from our confidential informants in the audience, protein chemist Douglas Axe is present and openly reporting the proceedings via Twitter.

Dr. Axe is, as you know, the author of Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed. His observations so far:

After Day 1, Royal S...

No Evolution Controversy? At Royal Society Meeting, a Warning Against Cheers and Boos

As our international friends may be aware, the U.S. holds a somewhat contentious presidential election today. Seeking relief from controversy, one American biologist we know flew to London for the Royal Society's "New Trends in Evolutionary Biology" meeting. What could be more soporific?

Well actually, while less raucous than the 2016 election, the meeting so far is not without its dramatic elements. Our biologist friend writes of yesterday's session:

Some opposing views were aired in the mo...

Tense Atmosphere at Royal Society "New Trends in Evolutionary Biology" Meeting: A Report on Day 1

A meeting at London's Royal Society is not just any old scientific conference. The Royal Society is among the most venerable in the world, presided over by Isaac Newton for the 25 years before he died. His death mask is on display to remind visitors of this history.

Thus a RS conference on "New Trends in Evolutionary Biology" is of special note. Paul Nelson expects "fireworks" before it's done. The meeting got going today and will conclude on Wednesday. No advocate of intelligent design will...

Listen: Fireworks at the Royal Society?

Before leaving for the Royal Society meeting in London (today through Wednesday), philosopher of biology Paul Nelson spoke with Discovery Institute's Andrew McDiarmid for ID the Future about what he expects -- namely, "fireworks."

Download the episode by clicking here:

The abstracts of presentations on "New Trends in Evolutionary Biology" sound bland enough, but some big issues are in the background -- particularly the "fundamental randomness" driving mutation and variation, as neo-Darwin...

In BIO-Complexity, a New Model for Human Ancestry

In 2012 at a scientific conference I met a Swedish population geneticist named Ola Hssjer. He and I sat down in the lobby of the hotel where we were staying to discuss what kind of population genetics model might be possible to test whether humanity could have come from a single first pair of humans. The motivation for doing so was the repeated challenge from other population geneticists claiming that we humans had to come from a population of thousands, not just two. He and I both knew the...

Behe -- The Makings of a Revolutionary

It's a pleasing coincidence that in the new documentary Revolutionary we look back to the origins of Michael Behe's insights on irreducible complexity, published twenty years ago in Darwin's Black Box, just as we look forward to the results of the potentially historic Royal Society meeting in London, underway at this moment.

No one scheduled to speak there is an advocate of intelligent design, but the scientific critique of Darwinism that Dr. Behe was crucial in launching has that meeting, a...