Discovery Institute's Blog, page 40

The Dire Threat of "Neoskepticism"

They never stop pushing: Global warming hysteria, the meme that we face a looming man-made, life-ending climate apocalypse, cannot be debated. It is a fact.

Well, now that we are mostly "convinced" and "denial" is down to a "mere whisper," Hallie Golden writing in The Week claims that there is a new worry about which hysterics should wring their hands. It's "neoskepticism." From "The worrisome rise of neoskepticism":

Neoskeptics aren't deniers. They recognize the prevalence and cause of clim...

Birds, Insects, and What They Share

Biologists are improving photographic techniques to study the intricacies of flight. Let's look at what two research labs have been observing about birds and insects. They share amazing similarities in their flight strategies, despite the vast phylogenetic distance between them. This will give us an opportunity to ask what kind of cause could account for these similarities.

"You don't just partly fly," Paul Nelson quips in Flight: the Genius of Birds. "Because flight requires not just having...

Logic and Metaphysics Don't Have an Expiration Date

Jerry Coyne and I have been debating (on the Internet) several issues as of late. These debates tend to center on philosophical issues -- the merits of materialism, the existence of free will, the existence of God, and the like. Coyne's basic understanding of philosophy and theology, let alone the actual positions he takes, leave a lot to be desired, in my view.

Coyne's response to criticisms of his philosophical and theological navet is to complain about "sophisticated theology," in which h...

Central Command: The Brain's Role in Maintaining Balance

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 is delighted to offer this series, "The Designed Body." For the complete series, see here. Dr. Glicksman practices palliative medicine for a hospice organization.

The brain is a ver...

Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria May Be a Health Nightmare, but Not an Evolutionary One

Jerry Coyne's blog, Why Evolution Is True, has this headline today:

"The creationist's nightmare: evolution in action"

Of course by "creationists" he means anyone who doubts the creative power of unguided evolutionary processes. What's the subject of our nightmare? An experiment, reported in Science, and accompanying videos demonstrating the rapid development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. That is an old standby in the evolutionist's arsenal.

Coyne:

Over at the Atlantic, Ed Yong shows and...

Animal Rights Means No Dogs or Cats

Animal rights, properly understood, is not about treating animals more humanely. That is animal welfare. No, the goal of animal rights is to end all animal domestication, including depriving us of our beloved dogs, cats, and other pets.

Most AR activists, like PETA's zealots, don't state the pet part boldly. That would interfere with fund raising and their public image among dog and cat lovers. It would make it more difficult to convince sexy female movie stars to take off their clothes for...

Intelligent Design and the Computer Analogy

Imagine if computer science allowed researchers to consider the physical components of computers but not the "ideas" that drive them, imparted by their designers. Douglas Axe, author of Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed, poses that instructive question in a brief video conversation.

Most of evolutionary biology is limited by just such a stricture: consider the physical aspect of living creatures without probing the ideas -- the purposeful, immaterial desig...

William Dembski on the "Science vs. Science" Debate, the "Two Strands" in ID Research, and More

Sean McDowell has published an excellent interview with the always-provocative William Dembski ("How Is the Intelligent Design Movement Doing?"). Some of his formulations are very helpful and illuminating. Dr. Dembski, mathematician and philosopher, has said before and repeats here that he considers his own contribution to the field of intelligent design to be complete with the publication of his book Being as Communion. But obviously this ID luminary is not done offering keen commentary on...

Applause if You Want to Die, Silence if You Want to Live

A disabled 14-year-old girl named Jerika Bolen is being celebrated in the news. Why? Because she wants to stop medical treatment to die. From the USA Today story:

Yet more than 1,000 people showed up for the party, with police and firefighters providing a motorcade. She received cards and gifts from around the world and shout-outs from a number of celebrities.

Think about this: If Jerika had chosen to carry on, nobody outside her family and community would know about her struggles. But as so...

Darwinism and the Sexual Revolution

In late August the New York Times, the Times of London, and many other media venues were abuzz with yet another "scientific" study claiming that Darwinian processes have given us genetic proclivities toward sexual immorality. The New York Times headline read, "Scientists Say Women Are 'Genetically Programmed to Have Affairs' -- It's Like 'Mate Insurance.'"

This is not a radically new theme, as evolutionary psychologists have been promoting the general idea for years that human sexual immora...