Tag: Evolution | Page 8 | ID the Future

Knowledge and science books artistic graphic collage - Generative AI illustration

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post

Author
ID the Future

Date
July 24, 2023

Tagged
, biology, Biology Textbooks, Darwinism, Evolution, Evolutionary Biology, Fossil Record, genetics, high school, high school biology, Icons of Evolution, molecular biology, Students, textbook errors, Textbooks, whale evolution}

Is Evolution Taught Fairly in Textbooks? A High School Senior Investigates

_{ID the Future

July 24, 2023

Uncategorized}

Has the accuracy of teaching on evolutionary theory improved in standard biology textbooks in recent years? On this ID The Future, host Daniel Reeves, Director of Education & Outreach at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, speaks with a recent high school graduate named Natalie about her senior year research project. Natalie has had an interest in evolution and intelligent design for years, and she's noticed that textbooks don't always cover important or controversial topics fairly. So when she discovered her school was trialing a new biology textbook, she decided to evaluate the proposed textbook's approach to accuracy and fairness in light of the available scientific evidence. Focusing on the fossil record and genetics, Natalie organized quotations from the textbook into three categories - misrepresented, underdeveloped, or well-aligned - based on how well they conveyed the available evidence. From whale evolution to genetic differences among organisms, Natalie found that more often than not, the textbook was misleading to students in the way it presented or omitted important scientific ideas. "High school students are in such a pivotal time in their life because they're forming their worldview," says Natalie. "And evolution is a theory on the origin of life...that's huge to answering those questions." Natalie encourages her fellow students, and anyone interested in origins, to question and dive deep as they evaluate competing ideas. As biologist and Center for Science and Culture Senior Fellow Jonathan Wells puts it at the start of his latest book, Zombie Science, this book is "dedicated to the students who will need to discern the truth for themselves." Here's one young scholar who is doing just that. AN IMPORTANT NOTE In the interview, Natalie shares her personal view that intelligent design should be included in public school science classrooms. However, as a matter of public policy, Discovery Institute opposes any effort to require the teaching of intelligent design by school districts or state boards of education. Attempts to require teaching about intelligent design only politicize the theory and will hinder fair and open discussion of the merits of the theory among scholars and within the scientific community. Furthermore, most teachers at the present time do not know enough about intelligent design to teach about it accurately and objectively. Instead of recommending teaching about intelligent design in public K-12 schools, Discovery Institute seeks to increase the coverage of evolution in curriculum. It believes that evolution should be fully and completely presented to students, and they should learn more about evolutionary theory, including its unresolved issues. In other words, evolution should be taught as a scientific theory that is open to critical scrutiny, not as a sacred dogma that can’t be questioned. Read more of our recommendations for science curriculum here: https://www.discovery.org/a/3164/ Read More ›

A close up of a chemical petri dish with organic bacteria on a desk in a scientific lab is used to evaluate a material sample. prepared glass plate containing a bright liquid for biochemical developme

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post

Author
James Tour

Date
July 19, 2023

Tagged
, abiogenesis, chemistry, Darwinism, Dave Farina, Evolution, Intelligent Design, James Tour, origin of life, origins, Professor Dave, Rice University, RNA World hypothesis, Science, Steve Benner, synthetic organic chemistry}

James Tour and Stephen Meyer Bring Clarity to Origin of Life Debate

_{James Tour

July 19, 2023

Uncategorized}

On this ID The Future, we kick off a series of conversations between Dr. Stephen Meyer and Dr. James Tour on the many challenges faced by origin of life researchers. Dr. Tour, a world-leading synthetic organic chemist at Rice University, has recently been engaged in a series of back-and-forth responses to attacks on his work from YouTube science communicator Dave Farina. This has given Tour a new opportunity to critique experts in the field of abiogenesis and allows an interested public to evaluate both sides of the argument. Philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer hosts these engaging conversations. Meyer is author of the 2009 book Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, which explores theories attempting to explain the origin of the first life. So Meyer is the perfect candidate to unpack Tour's expertise and draw out key insights. In Part 1, Meyer and Tour critique the work of origin of life researcher Steve Benner. Along the way, they discuss the basic definition of life, the RNA world hypothesis, the problem with hands-on chemistry, and why the challenges facing origin of life research increase every year as our understanding of the cell grows. "What is being simulated is the need for intelligent agency to move simple chemicals in a life-friendly direction," says Meyer, and researchers "seem utterly blind to the role of their own hand, their own mind, in achieving the results that they get, such as they are." This is Part 1 of a four-part series of conversations. Watch the video versions of these at Dr. Meyer's YouTube channel: @DrStephenMeyer Learn more about Dr. Tour's work via his YouTube channel: @DrJamesTour Read More ›

3d render of dna structure, abstract background

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Author
Casey Luskin

Date
July 17, 2023

Tagged
, Creationism, Darwinism, Evolution, evolutionary theory, human evolution, human origins, Junk DNA, old earth, Religion, Theology, young earth}

A Guide to Understanding Contemporary Models of Human Origins

_{Casey Luskin

July 17, 2023

Uncategorized}

Are there ways to reconcile the latest scientific evidence with traditional theological views? On this ID The Future, host Emily Reeves talks to geologist and Center for Science & Culture Associate Director Casey Luskin about his recent paper in the mainstream journal Religions. In "Comparing Contemporary Evangelical Models Regarding Human Origins," Luskin compares eight different models of human origins. Four of the models present an evolutionary mechanism, while the other four models propose non-evolutionary approaches. Luskin explains how each of the models interface with the scientific evidence and with key theological views. "The hope is not necessarily to tell you which model you should adopt," says Luskin, "but to help you understand the models and to get a better feel for them." In doing the research on this issue, Luskin learned that you don't have to jettison traditional beliefs about Adam and Eve in light of the findings of science. He notes that there's a rich diversity of models to explore with an open mind and a willingness to learn. But the landscape of options can get confusing, notes Reeves, so a good first step is understanding all the models. In this interview and in his new paper, Luskin gives us a concise and organized guide to do just that. Luskin's Religions paper is open-access and free to read here: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/6/748 Read More ›

creatures of the Cambrian period, underwater scene with Anomalocaris, Opabinia, Hallucigenia, Pirania and Dinomischus (3d science illustration)

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Author
Casey Luskin

Date
July 10, 2023

Tagged
, Avalon explosion, bounded adaptation, Cambrian Explosion, Darwinian Evolution, Darwinism, Design, design inference, engineering, engineering principles, Evolution, fossil, fossil data, fossil discontinuities, fossil evidence, Fossil Record, fossil record explosions, Fossils, gradual evolution, gradualism, Intelligent Design, Natural Selection, Punctuated Equilibrium}

Why Intelligent Design Best Explains the Fossil Record Data

_{Casey Luskin

July 10, 2023

Uncategorized}

The fossil record reveals sudden explosions of new life forms followed by long periods of stasis. Is this evidence to be expected from a gradual Darwinian model? On this episode of ID The Future, host Eric Anderson talks with Casey Luskin on location at this year’s Conference on Engineering and Living Systems (CELS). Luskin discusses three different models of the fossil record - the gradual descent model, the punctuated equilibrium model, and the explosion model. He explains why gradual Darwinian models are built on a lack of data and cannot adequately explain the patterns revealed in the record. He also shows that the sudden appearance of complex organisms and long periods of non-change are exactly what we would expect to find from a design perspective. "These organisms...are designed to change within limits," says Luskin, "and that's why we see stasis." Indeed, the fossil record is consistent with the engineering-based theory of bounded adaptation, the idea that organisms are deeply designed, purposeful, and capable of adapting within their operating parameters. It's an intriguing new way to look at the history of life on earth. Says Luskin, "The only way you're going to be able to generate all the information needed to yield an organism that's alive and functional all at once is through an intelligent cause." Don't miss this intriguing conversation! Casey Luskin holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Johannesburg, where he specialized in paleomagnetism and the early plate tectonic history of South Africa. He serves as Associate Director of Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. Want to dive deeper into the fascinating explosions of plant and animal life in the geologic record? Luskin recommends reading a chapter by Stephen C. Meyer and Gunter Bechly (Chapter 10) on the topic, in Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique. Available here: https://www.discovery.org/b/theistic-evolution/ Read More ›

3d rendered medically accurate illustration of a sprinter

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Author
Howard Glicksman

Date
July 5, 2023

Tagged
, abiogenesis, amoebas, bad design, bad-design arguments, body plan, cancer, cancer research, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, cardiovascular system, cellular life cycle, choking, coherence, complex interdependencies, constrained optimization, Darwinian Evolution, degradation, design evaluation, design optimization, dysteleology, engineering trade-offs, Evolution, fertilization, Howard Glicksman, human exceptionalism, Intelligent Design, irreducible complexity, life from life, Louis Pasteur, pharynx, physiological fine tuning, respiratory system, sexual reproduction, sodium pumps, spontaneous generation, Steve Laufmann, systems biology, theory of biological design, throat, whales, windpipe, Your Designed Body, zygote}

Engineering, not Evolution, Explains the Body

_{Howard Glicksman

July 5, 2023

Uncategorized}

The groundbreaking recent book Your Designed Body is the focus of today’s ID the Future. Here in Part 2 of a two-part conversation with host Wesley J. Smith, the two authors, systems engineer Steve Laufmann and physician Howard Glicksman, delve deeper into the exquisite, multi-layered fine tuning of the human body. They point to essential systems within systems within systems—irreducible complexity cubed, if you will. They also respond to the charge that aspects of the human body are poorly designed and, therefore, are supposedly better explained by the blind process of Darwinian evolution. Laufmann identifies five common errors that Darwinists make when pushing this bad-design argument. All of the errors involve an ignorance of key engineering principles, he says, one of them being a failure to consider the principle of constrained optimization. This episode is reposted at ID the Future by permission of Wesley J. Smith and the Humanize podcast. Read More ›

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Author
Steve Laufmann

Date
July 3, 2023

Tagged
, biology, Charles Darwin, Darwin, Darwinism, engineer, engineering, engineering principles, Evolution, human body, Humanize podcast, Intelligent Design, Natural Selection, origin of life, physician, random mutation, random mutations, reverse engineering}

The Human Body As a Marvel of Engineering

_{Steve Laufmann

July 3, 2023

Uncategorized}

Is your body engineered? Or did it evolve through impersonal, random processes over millions of years through natural selection? On this ID The Future, host Wesley J. Smith interviews engineer Steve Laufmann and physician Howard Glicksman about their recent book Your Designed Body. In their book, Laufmann and Glicksman evaluate the causal factors of Darwinism - heritability, random mutation, natural selection, and time - and find that they are both inadequate and incapable of producing the interconnected systems of the human body. "The systems that are required to make the human body work," says Laufmann, "are exactly the kinds of things that engineers design and build." Instead, they explain the body through the lens of engineering, showing that design is the most adequate mechanism currently available to explain how the origin of our amazing human bodies. Says Glicksman: "The more we understand how life actually works, the more the neo-Darwinian narrative becomes impossible." This is Part 1 of a two-part interview, originally airing on the Humanize podcast, a production of Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism. Read More ›

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Author
Eric H. Anderson

Date
June 26, 2023

Tagged
, adaptation, biology, CELS conference, Charles Darwin, Darwinian Evolution, Darwinism, engineered systems, engineering, engineering principles, Evolution, finch beaks, fitness landscape, function, living systems, macroevolution, Microevolution, mutations, Natural Selection, peppered moths, random mutations}

Is Adaptation Actually a Fight to Stay the Same?

_{Eric H. Anderson

June 26, 2023

Uncategorized}

On this ID The Future, host Casey Luskin talks with Eric Anderson on location at this year's Conference on Engineering and Living Systems (CELS). The two discuss an intriguing new engineering-based model of bounded adaptation that could dramatically change how we view small-scale evolutionary changes within populations of organisms. In presenting his argument for natural selection, Charles Darwin pointed to small changes like finch beak size and peppered moth color as visible evidence of an unguided evolutionary process at work. Many have adopted this perspective, quick to grant the Darwinian mechanism credit for micro, if not macro, evolution. But Anderson and other attendees of the CELS conference are starting to promote a different view. "We need to stop saying organisms are partly designed," says Anderson. "We need to view them as deeply designed and purposeful, active and engaged in their environments, and capable of adapting within their operating parameters." Tune in to get a fascinating glimpse of this novel approach to biology. Read More ›

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Author
David Berlinski

Date
June 21, 2023

Tagged
, Alan Turing, Albert Einstein, Alonzo Church, biological life, Bohr model, Charles Darwin, ChatGPT, computable, computing age, Darwinism, David Berlinski, Dirac equation, Evolution, general relativity, Giuseppe Peano, incompleteness theorems, Kurt Gödel, mathematical logic, mathematics, Michael Ruse, Natural Selection, non-computable, philosophy of biology, physics, Platonic objects, Princeton University, Principia Mathematica, quantum field theory, quantum mechanics, recursive functions, Science After Babel, scientific reductionism, special relativity, survival of the fittest, teleology, theory of everything, Tower of Babel, Turing machine, Turing Test, Von Neumann machine, William Dembski}

David Berlinski on the Immaterial, Alan Turing, and the Mystery of Life Itself

_{David Berlinski

June 21, 2023

Uncategorized}

The new book Science After Babel is again in the spotlight here at ID the Future, with its author, philosopher and mathematician David Berlinski, and host Andrew McDiarmid teasing various elements of the work. The pair discuss the puzzling relationship between purely immaterial mathematical concepts (the only kind) and the material world; World War II codebreaker and computing pioneer Alan Turing, depicted in the 2014 film The Imitation Game; and the sense that the field of physics, once seemingly on the cusp of a theory of everything, finds itself at an impasse. Then, too, Berlinski writes, there is the mystery of life itself. If scientists thought that its origin and nature would soon yield to scientific reductionism, they have been disappointed. Life’s “fantastic and controlled complexity, its brilliant inventiveness and diversity, its sheer difference from anything else in this or any other world” remains before us, suggesting, as Berlinski puts it, “a kind of intelligence evident nowhere else.” Get your copy of the book at www.scienceafterbabel.com. Read More ›

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Author
Jonathan Wells

Date
June 12, 2023

Tagged
, biology, California, Charles Darwin, Darwinism, DiscoveryU, Evolution, Evolutionary Biology, evolutionary gradualism, evolutionary theory, Materialism, methodological naturalism, molecular biology, Natural Selection, online course, Philosophy, Princeton, Science, scientific revolution, Theology}

Jonathan Wells Evaluates Darwinian Evolution in New Online Course

_{Jonathan Wells

June 12, 2023

Uncategorized}

How strong is the evidence for Darwinian evolution? What are the limits of the Darwinian mechanism? How should concepts like evolution and science best be defined? On this episode of ID The Future, we bring to you the first three video lectures from a new online course by molecular and cell biologist Jonathan Wells. In the first brief lecture, Wells explains his own evolution; the evolution of his thinking about evolution, that is. You'll glean some interesting details about Wells's career here. In the second lecture, Wells defines the word evolution by reminding us of its various meanings and uses. He also describes how Darwin's theory of natural selection became the framework that bolstered a materialistic metaphysic that endures today. You'll learn that Darwin's proposal relied less on evidence-based science and more on theological and philosophical arguments. In the third lecture, Wells defines science, and explains what happens when the definition of science is confined to naturalistic explanations only. Every so often, says Wells, enough data accumulates to present a challenge to the prevailing scientific framework. It happened in Newton's day. It happened in Darwin's day. And it may happen again soon, if the mounting evidence supportive of intelligent design is any indication. Learn more about Wells's online course at discoveryu.org. Over 40 short video lectures, Wells explains the major concepts of both chemical and biological evolution, and he critically assesses the evidence for evolution offered by genetics, developmental biology, fossils, and more. Wells deals with some of the most popular “icons” of evolution found in standard textbooks, including Darwin’s finches, whales, antibiotic resistance, peppered moths, “junk” DNA, and more. Read More ›

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Author
David Berlinski

Date
June 7, 2023

Tagged
, algorithms, Bruegel’s Tower of Babel, calculus, Charles Darwin, ChatGPT, Chinese Revolution, Dan Tawfik, Darwinism, David Berlinski, DNA, Erwin Schrödinger, Evolution, Francis Crick, French zoological tradition, genetic code, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, Marcel Schützenberger, Markov process, mathematics, methodological naturalism, Mikhael Gromov, Murray Eden, Neo-Darwinism, optimizing process, Oswald Avery, Peter Medawar, philosophy of biology, philosophy of science, Pierre Grasse, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, protein chemistry, protein space, Richard Dawkins, Science After Babel, teleology, The Selfish Gene, Tower of Babel, What is Life?, WISTAR Symposium, World War II}

David Berlinski on His New Book, Science After Babel

_{David Berlinski

June 7, 2023

Uncategorized}

On today’s ID the Future, host Andrew McDiarmid rings up Science After Babel author David Berlinski in Paris to discuss the philosopher’s latest book. Berlinski is at his cultivated best as the two discuss everything from the biblical Tower of Babel as a metaphor for modern materialistic science, to his friendship with the brilliant and colorful French intellectual Marcel Schützenberger, a world-class mathematician who was self-taught and, as we learn here, came within a hair’s breadth of being swept up in the Chinese Revolution. Berlinski also reflects on the seminal 1966 WISTAR symposium, which laid out some mathematical challenges to Darwinism, challenges that Berlinski says remain unanswered to this day. At the same time, Berlinski gives the devil — here Read More ›