Science and Culture Today | Page 1192 | Discovering Design in Nature

A new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences claims to explain the origin of an antifreeze protein in an Antarctic fish. Though touted by Darwinian activists (note: I’m talking about Richard B. Hoppe, NOT the authors of the paper), this paper presents little more than a just-so story that shows no interest in testing the plausibility of the complex mutational account it gives. The Darwinian blogosphere is excited about a new study which purports to explain the evolutionary origins of an antifreeze gene in an Antarctic fish, the Antarctic eelpout. Actually, this isn’t an entirely new story — claims of explaining the genetic evolution of antifreeze proteins have been made for years. Last year I reported another Read More ›

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) just dumped a lot of fuel on the fire of David Coppedge’s discrimination lawsuit by firing him on Monday. Coppedge’s lawsuit against JPL alleges discrimination because he was prevented from talking about intelligent design (ID). This could potentially expose JPL to a claim of wrongful termination and increase the merits of Coppedge’s claim that JPL retaliated against him. According to Coppedge’s attorney William Becker, JPL claims the firing resulted from downsizing in the face of budget issues, but Coppedge is the most senior member of the team that oversees the computers on NASA and JPL’s Cassini Mission to Saturn. Coppedge doesn’t seem at all like the first person who would normally be forced to leave Read More ›

Evolutionary theory’s co-founder ultimately rejected Darwinism on scientific grounds in favor of an understanding similar to modern intelligent design (ID).

Alfred Russel Wallace Issues Fighting Words to Materialists in 1910: “Nothing in evolution can account for the soul [or mind] of man. The difference between man and the other animals is unbridgeable.” Steven Pinker to the Rescue?

We’ve discussed how articles critiquing intelligent design (ID) in the latest issue of Synthese could not rebut the theory without blatantly misrepresenting what ID says. There are a couple of papers in the issue, however, that discuss scientific matters. In fact, I’d like to start on a positive note and say that the one article in this issue which I found to be highly civil in tone and thoughtful was Bruce Weber’s. He provides a thorough and educational history of arguments involving design and teleology, and he attempts to distinguish between “design” and “teleology” as follows: Although both teleology and design are explanans of the explananda of natural phenomena that exhibit organized, functional complexity, they can be distinguished in the Read More ›

Alfred Russel Wallace is getting his due with Michael Flannery’s new book, Alfred Russel Wallace: A Rediscovered Life.

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In a sparkling, concise and controversial new biography of the co-discoverer of evolutionary theory, historian Michael A. Flannery tells a largely unknown story that has been embarrassing Darwinians in the know for almost a century and a half.