Tag: Natural Selection

An old man shakes hands with an opponent in a game of chess, he lost and acknowledges it.

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Author
Michael Flannery

Date
October 21, 2020

Categorized
Evolution

Tagged
Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin, Darwinism, Evolution, fine tuning, human exceptionalism, methodological materialism, methodological naturalism, Natural Selection, Natural Theology, Privileged Planet, science and religion, teleology, Theism, Theory of Evolution, Tom Wolfe, World of Life}

Alfred Russel Wallace and His Friendly Battle with Darwin

_{Michael Flannery

October 21, 2020

Evolution}

On this ID the Future, science historian Michael Flannery continues discussing his newly updated Intelligent Evolution: How Alfred Russel Wallace’s World of Life Challenged Darwin. Wallace was co-founder with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution by random variation and natural selection, but unlike Darwin he saw teleology or purpose as essential to life’s history, and a teleological view as essential to the life sciences. According to Flannery, Wallace’s views on the nature of the cell, the special attributes of humans, the irreducible nature of life, and the fine tuning of the universe hold up well today. He and Darwin disagreed on much of this, yet they maintained mutual respect. In this, Flannery says, the two are a great model Read More ›

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Author
Andrew McDiarmid

Date
June 29, 2020

Categorized
Evolution, Intelligent Design, Science

Tagged
__edited, Change Over Time, common descent, ENCODE project, gradualism, historical science, irreducible complexity, Junk DNA, macroevolution, Microevolution, Natural Selection, non-coding DNA, Nutshell}

Robert Waltzer on Evolutionary Theory’s Room for Humility

_{Andrew McDiarmid

June 29, 2020

Evolution, Intelligent Design, Science}

On this episode of ID the Future, biologist and professor Robert Waltzer talks with host Andrew McDiarmid about Waltzer’s chapter in the new Discovery Institute Press volume Evolution and Intelligent Design in a Nutshell. Waltzer’s chapter covers some key terms in the evolution/ID conversation that are often misunderstood or misused. These include the word “evolution” itself, “change over time,” “common descent,” and “natural selection.” He offers quick definitions and explains some of the confusion surrounding them. Waltzer also describes an encouraging success story of his about fostering open dialogue and exploration of the evidence for design in nature.

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Author
Daniel Reeves

Date
June 1, 2020

Categorized
Science

Tagged
__edited, Alfred Russell Wallace, cells, Charles Darwin, common descent, Darwinism, DNA, explanatory deficits, Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, Gerd Müller, Günter Bechly, Homology, Intelligent Design, irreducible complexity, Isaac Newton, macroevolution, Microevolution, modern synthesis, molecular machinery, nanomachines, Natural Selection, Neo-Darwinism, protoplasm, Robert Boyle, Royal Society of London, speciation, survival of the fittest, teleology}

Of Natural Selection, Explanatory Deficits, and Bunnies Dark and Light

_{Daniel Reeves

June 1, 2020

Science}

On this episode of ID the Future we hear the first part of Discovery Institute Education Outreach Associate Daniel Reeves’ talk at the 2020 Dallas Science and Faith Conference. Reeves outlines the meaning of natural selection, and traces its history, starting from Darwin’s early understanding, in the days when cells were viewed as just blobs of protoplasm. Reeves carries the story from there through the neo-Darwinian modern synthesis and into the extended evolutionary synthesis, culminating in a 2016 meeting of the Royal Society on the theory’s continuing — and still unresolved — explanatory deficits.

Virus protection. Vaccine search. Antibodies and viral infection. Immune defense of the body. Attack on antigens 3D illustration

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Author
Michael Egnor

Date
May 13, 2020

Categorized
Science

Tagged
__edited, Aristotle, chance, Charles Darwin, coronavirus, COVID-19, Darwinism, design inference, Evolution, intelligent agency, Intelligent Design, mutations, Natural Selection, P.Z. Myers, pandemic, Proteins, random mutations, randomness, RNA, specified complexity, virus}

Covid-19, Random Mutations, and Aristotle’s Matrix of Design

_{Michael Egnor

May 13, 2020

Science}

On this episode of ID the Future, Andrew McDiarmid speaks with neurosurgeon Michael Egnor about Egnor’s recent Evolution News article, The Coronavirus Demonstrates How Evolution Presupposes Intelligent Design. Egnor notes that the coronavirus and other viruses are not, strictly speaking, considered living things, even if they depend on living hosts for their continued existence. Egnor also discusses the role of random mutations in viruses and draws upon Aristotle to argue that these and other random events only occur, and have their meaning, against a backdrop of purpose and design — in this case, the designed systems — the bodies — that viruses invade.

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Author
Michael Behe

Date
March 30, 2020

Tagged
__edited, arthritis, Chloroquine, cinchona tree, coordinated mutations, coronavirus, COVID-19, Edge of Evolution, evolutionary theory, hydroxychloroquine, lysosome, malaria, Natural Selection, pandemic, quinine, zika virus}

Michael Behe on COVID-19, Chloroquine, Malaria and the Edge of Evolution

_{Michael Behe

March 30, 2020}

On this episode of ID the Future, biochemist Michael Behe and host Andrew McDiarmid discuss the anti-malarial drug chloroquine, now being investigated as a treatment for COVID-19, and how it may work on the cellular level against the coronavirus. The same drug was featured in Behe’s 2007 book The Edge of Evolution, as part of his demonstration that evolution has strict limits: It can do adaptive work for organisms with single mutations, but if just two coordinated mutations are required at once, evolution’s random processes have great difficulty even with natural selection helping them along. In cases where population sizes are enormous, as with malaria, it can eventually overcome the need for two simultaneous and coordinated mutations, but only just Read More ›

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Author
Paul Nelson

Date
February 17, 2020

Tagged
__edited, biology, Charles Darwin, cormorants, Darwinism, Evolution, Evolutionary Biology, flightless cormorants, Galapagos Islands, Intelligent Design, macroevolution, marine iguanas, Microevolution, natural history, Natural Selection, Natural Theology, tameness, The Natural Limits to Biological Change, The Origin of the Species, Voyage of the Beagle, William Paley}

Paul Nelson Visits the Galapagos Islands, Pt. 2

_{Paul Nelson

February 17, 2020}

On this episode of ID the Future, philosopher of biology Paul Nelson continues his discussion with host Andrew McDiarmid about Nelson’s recent visit to the Galapagos Islands, made famous by Charles Darwin. Nelson explains how Darwin was right — partly. Darwin urged biologists to consider the history of a plant or animal, an idea that was much neglected in the work of his predecessors. As Darwin’s experience on the Galapagos showed, and as Nelson’s experience there echoed, history must be part of our explanation for how species and populations have become the way they are today. At the same time, there are demonstrated limits to evolutionary change, Nelson argues, and so natural history alone cannot be the entire explanation for Read More ›

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Author
Michael Flannery

Date
December 18, 2019

Tagged
__edited, Alfred Russell Wallace, August Comte, Christianity, Don Magens Mello, natural history, Natural Selection, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, reductionism, Scientism, Summa Theologica, teleology, Thomas Aquinas}

Nature’s Prophet Author Michael Flannery Reviews the Reviewers

_{Michael Flannery

December 18, 2019}

On this episode of ID the Future, Michael Flannery speaks again with host Mike Keas about his book Nature’s Prophet: Alfred Russel Wallace, and His Evolution from Natural Selection to Natural Theology. Wallace was the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution by natural selection along with Charles Darwin, but in 1869 he broke with Darwin, disagreeing with him on the origin of special human attributes like art, music, and abstract thought.

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Author
David Berlinski

Date
December 2, 2019

Tagged
__edited, cell biology, Charles Darwin, Darwinism, Evolution, gender, male and female, modern evolutionary theory, Natural Selection, nominalism, Razib Khan, sexuality, speciation, Species, universals}

Peter Robinson Interviews David Berlinski, Pt. 1

_{David Berlinski

December 2, 2019}

This episode of ID the Future features Part 1 of an interview between Uncommon Knowledge host Peter Robinson and Discovery Institute senior fellow David Berlinski, author of The Deniable Darwin and the newly released Human Nature. Berlinski begins by noting that living systems possess “a degree of complexity that is almost unfathomable” and explains how this poses an acute problem for Darwinism. The two also discuss discontinuities in the fossil record as well as Berlinski’s insistence that “any theory of natural selection must plainly meet what I have called a rule against deferred success.” Berlinski also rebuts Razib Khan’s claim that in rejecting modern evolutionary theory, conservatives sacrifice “the most powerful rejoinder” to the claim “that male and female are merely categories of the mind.” Quite the opposite, Berlinski insists.

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Author
Richard Weikart

Date
September 23, 2019

Tagged
__edited, abolitionism, Africa, agnosticism, Alt Right, Atheism, Charles Darwin, Christianity, dehumanization, imago dei, James Watson, Judeo-Christian tradition, Konrad Lorenz, Michael Ruse, Natural Selection, Peter Singer, scientific racism, slavery, Tierra del Fuego, Voyage of the Beagle, white nationalism}

Weikart on Racism, Darwinism and Christianity

_{Richard Weikart

September 23, 2019}

On this episode of ID the Future, Cal State history professor Richard Weikart, author of The Death of Humanity and the Case for Life, talks racism past and present, in both Christian and “scientific” secular history.

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Author
Richard Weikart

Date
September 18, 2019

Tagged
__edited, Adrian Desmond, belief in progress, Charles Darwin, Christian doctrine, Descent of Man, Ernst Haeckel, Ethics, James Moore, just war theory, Mike Hawkins, militarism, Morality, Natural Selection, racial extermination, racial reconciliation, Robert Richards, scientific racism, Scopes Trial, selectionism, slavery, Social Darwinism, Stephen J. Gould, war}

Richard Weikart on Michael Ruse’s “Compromise” with Christianity

_{Richard Weikart

September 18, 2019}

On this episode of ID the Future, From Darwin to Hitler author and historian Richard Weikart returns to his conversation with Mike Keas about a recent book on Darwinism, Christianity, and war by Michael Ruse. Ruse aims at a surprising conclusion in this book.