Discovery Institute's Blog, page 38

Does Cancer Build Anything New? A Response to Josh Swamidass

As Evolution News has noted, Professor S. Joshua Swamidass raises some interesting points at the BioLogos Open Forum page ("Cancer and Evolutionary Theory"). He recently published a paper in Nature Genetics on a new computational means to identify "driver" mutations involved in the progression of cancer. In commenting on his own paper he makes the argument that cancer evolves, which "does not in itself prove evolution is true" but "casts serious doubt on the [intelligent design] arguments fr...

Minor Euthanized in Belgium, and It's Legal

A Belgian MD filled a syringe with heart-stopping poison, and injected the fluid into the arm of a dying minor who requested it. And it was all legal.

A Belgian newspaper says the patient was Dutch. Another report says the ill minor was 17. I am not sure why a Dutch teenager was euthanized in Belgium, since he could have been legally euthanized at home from age 12 and up.

BioEdge editor Michael Cook wrote a sober editorial about the ethics-shattering event:

Ultimately this is a triumph for o...

Computer Scientist Joshua Swamidass Argues: Cancer "Casts Serious Doubt" on Intelligent Design

Joshua Swamidass is an assistant professor at Washington University's medical school, an MD and computer science PhD. He's associated with the theistic evolution advocacy group BioLogos, and at the organization's Open Forum page, Dr. Swamidass offers an argument against intelligent design from the existence of cancer.

Noting a new article he co-wrote in Nature Genetics ("Unsupervised detection of cancer driver mutations with parsimony-guided learning"), he says he wishes to point out the "u...

Language Is a Rock Against Which Evolutionary Theory Wrecks Itself

As I've noted already, Tom Wolfe has a new book, The Kingdom of Speech, and it's superb. Wolfe's theme is that human language is unique and is not shared in any way with other animals. He argues forcefully that evolutionary stories about the origin of human language are not credible.

In the first chapter of his book, Wolfe describes an article in journal Frontiers of Psychology from 2014, co-authored by leading linguist Noam Chomsky.

Wolfe:

"The most fundamental questions about the origins...

Excerpt: The Soul of the Matter, Chapter 5

Editor's note: We have been delighted to offer three excerpts from Bruce Buff's new novel, The Soul of the Matter, with the permission of Simon & Schuster/Howard Books. See David Klinghoffer's review here. Find Chapter 3 here and Chapter 4 here.

A series of sharp tones jolted Stephen. The processing of the first set of information was complete. A more detailed image of a human body was displayed on the monitor.

Collecting himself, Stephen sat back down, entered a series of commands, and kick...

Excerpt: The Soul of the Matter, Chapter 4

Editor's note: We are delighted to offer three excerpts from Bruce Buff's new novel, The Soul of the Matter, with the permission of Simon & Schuster/Howard Books. See David Klinghoffer's review here. Find Chapter 3 here.

To work off frustration, Alex decided to walk down the ten flights of stairs to the service entrance instead of taking the elevator.

He had to find out what they were decoding. It didn't help that he doubted the source of their work and, by extension, Stephen. The encryption...

In Conclusion: An Overview of the Body's Amazing, Irreducibly Complex Systems

Editor's note: We are very grateful to Dr. Glicksman for contributing a wonderful series, "The Designed Body," over the past year and a half. Physicians, as noted here from the start, 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. Dr. Glicksman practices palliative medicine for a hospice...

Science, Scientism, and the "Intellectual Yet Idiot"

A friend on Facebook points out a wonderful and insightful tirade by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, of Black Swan fame, denouncing what Taleb calls the Intellectual Yet Idiot class. In general, we disapprove of name-calling around here. But there's something to this.

Who are the "IYI"? They are "policymaking 'clerks' and journalists-insiders, that class of paternalistic semi-intellectual experts." A key identifying marker of the IYI is an eager credulousness when presented with prestige scientific o...

Science, Scientisim, and the "Intellectual Yet Idiot"

A friend on Facebook points out a wonderful and insightful tirade by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, of Black Swan fame, denouncing what Taleb calls the Intellectual Yet Idiot class. In general, we disapprove of name-calling around here. But there's something to this.

Who are the "IYI"? They are "policymaking 'clerks' and journalists-insiders, that class of paternalistic semi-intellectual experts." A key identifying marker of the IYI is an eager credulousness when presented with prestige scientific o...

Excerpt: The Soul of the Matter, Chapter 3

Editor's note: Beginning today and continuing over the weekend, we are delighted to offer three excerpts from Bruce Buff's new novel, The Soul of the Matter, with the permission of Simon & Schuster/Howard Books. See David Klinghoffer's review here.

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Stephen Bishop would soon have the power to reshape the world -- for good. The universe's greatest secrets were within his reach. The conflict between science and religion would be over. Fact and reason would finally repla...