Science and Culture Today | Discovering Design in Nature

^{Type
post

Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
September 26, 2025

Categories
Arts
Bioethics
Tagged
, activism, assisted dying, assisted suicide, children, coercion, disability rights, England, equality, facilitation, gender ideology, Harry Potter, House of Commons, J. K. Rowling, liberals, Neil Murray, physicians, popular culture, prevention, private spaces, suicidal people, Wales, women}

J. K. Rowling Comes Out Against Legalized Assisted Suicide

_{Wesley J. Smith
September 26, 2025

Arts, Bioethics

2}

Two of the core tenets of liberalism are (supposed to be) protecting vulnerable people from exploitation and promoting equality among all people. Read More ›

Making mistakes and wrong answer concept. Hand wiping math formula off blackboard in classroom at school. Student or teacher correcting incorrect calculation on chalkboard.

^{Type
post

Date
September 26, 2025

Categories
Ethics
Mathematics
Tagged
, ethics, fraud, funding, German Mathematical Society, mathematicians, mathematics, metrics, misconduct, rankings, sciences, Tibi Puiu, ZME Science}

Now It’s Science Fraud in…Mathematics?

_{Science and Culture
September 26, 2025

Ethics, Mathematics

3}

Most lay people would not think that mathematics is a particularly safe place to do fraud. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Casey Luskin

Date
September 26, 2025

Categories
Human Origins and Anthropology
Paleontology
Tagged
, animal butchery, Annals of New York Academy of Sciences, Australopithecines, Australopithecus, computer vision, fossil record, holotype, hominids, Homo (genus), Homo erectus, Homo habilis, human origins, humans, hunting, IFL Science, leopards, meat eating, morphological traits, Olduvai Gorge, predator–prey relationship, Rice University, stone-tool making, taphonomy}

Not a “Turning Point”: Study Finds Homo habilis Was Hunted as Prey

_{Casey Luskin
September 26, 2025

Human Origins and Anthropology, Paleontology

8}

The proposals of this study are very consistent with what we have long argued here. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
September 25, 2025

Categories
Bioethics
Faith & Science
Human Exceptionalism
Tagged
, advocacy, Cherokee, dams, earth goddess, environmental public policies, flowing, Great Lakes, Harvard Climate Action Week, Harvard Kennedy School, human harm, indigenous knowledge, intelligentsia, nature rights, neo-pagan mysticism, Pachamama, rivers, water}

Nature Right Pushes Neo-Pagan Mysticism at Highest Academic Levels

_{Wesley J. Smith
September 25, 2025

Bioethics, Faith & Science, Human Exceptionalism

3}

Most recently, the Harvard Kennedy School hosted a symposium on “nature rights” undergirded by “indigenous knowledge.” Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
David Coppedge

Date
September 25, 2025

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, beards, birds, brassiere, cows, Deborah Kellerman, DNA switch, EMBO Reports, evolution, Evolving Minds Project, fingernails, fish, flies, health, horned lizard, Ig Nobel Prizes, Igs, Improbable Research, jaws, jellyfish, just-so stories, Lasker Prize, leopard, lizards, mammals, Nature (journal), pangolin, paw pads, protocells, pufferfish, Regina Nuzzo, seahorse, storytelling, super-alcohol, supernova, Titan, turtle, Vladimir Leksa, vole}

What’s More Deserving of Ig Nobel Prizes than Evolutionary Just-So Stories?

_{David Coppedge
September 25, 2025

Evolution, Intelligent Design

9}

The committee passed up some research that would have raised eyebrows and given the crowd some hearty laughs. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
September 25, 2025

Categories
Arts
Evolution
Tagged
, alchemy, ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Aristotle, Ben Jonson, Charles Bradlaugh, Christopher Marlowe, Cicero, David Berman, Doctor Faustus, Enlightenment, Epicurus, evolution, Galen, George Eliot, George Henry Lewes, H. J. Shephard, history, HMS Beagle, intellectual history, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Journal of Researches, literature, Lucretianism, Lucretius, Matthew Arnold, Misia Landau, Origin of Species, Peter Bement, philosophy, Plato, Renaissance, seafaring, The Alchemist, Tom Wolfe}

Darwin, Faust, and the Alchemist: Unexpected Roots of a Scientific Idea

_{Neil Thomas
September 25, 2025

Arts, Evolution

19}

Today we would of course brand both Faust and the Alchemist fantasists or “mad scientists” of the first order. Was Darwin prone to such wishful thinking? Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Andrew McDiarmid

Date
September 24, 2025

Categories
Cosmology
Physics
Tagged
, Aaron Zimmer, Brian Miller, carpenter, cause, efficient causes, Elie Feder, fine-tuning, ID the Future, mind, natural phenomena, physics, Physics to God, podcast, purpose, table, teleological causes, teleology, universe}

How Modern Physics Reveals Purpose in the Universe

_{Andrew McDiarmid
September 24, 2025

Cosmology, Physics

2}

Scientists agree that our universe is finely tuned for the existence of life. But is the fine-tuning a happy accident or the result of foresight? Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Andrew McDiarmid

Date
September 23, 2025

Categories
Cosmology
Physics
Tagged
, Aaron Zimmer, Brian Miller, constants, Elie Feder, ID the Future, intelligent cause, mathematics, numbers, philosophy, physics, Physics to God, podcast, psychology, rabbinical training, rational arguments, Richard Feynman}

Physics to God: Rational Arguments for Design in the Universe

_{Andrew McDiarmid
September 23, 2025

Cosmology, Physics

3}

Do you recognize the number 1/137.035999206? It might seem arbitrary, but if the fine structure constant were any higher or lower, you might not exist! Read More ›

Magic imaginary world full with color and happiness. Generative ai.

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O’Leary

Date
September 22, 2025

Categories
Epistemology
Evolution
Scientific Reasoning
Tagged
, Carole Hooven, Clarence Darrow, Colin Wright, common descent, Darwinists, Edward Larson, evidence, evolutionary biology, folk beliefs, fundamentalism, gravity, human origins, Jerry Coyne, logic, New York Times, Parting Shot, private truth, public truth, reason, Richard Dawkins, Scopes Monkey Trial, subjectivism, Summer for the Gods, Tennessee, The Story of Testosterone, University of Chicago, William Jennings Bryan}

In Science, the Rising Power of Private Truth

_{Denyse O’Leary
September 22, 2025

Epistemology, Evolution, Scientific Reasoning

4}

Many people experience a vast liberation when they are freed from the constraints of logic, reason, and evidence. Read More ›

Hands of an elderly man resting on a walking cane

^{Type
post

Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
September 21, 2025

Categories
Bioethics
Medicine
Tagged
, advance directive, Alzheimer’s disease, antibiotics, burden, dementia, dementia patients, doula, hospice, killing, nursing, palliative care, patients, suffering, suicide, Thaddeus Mason Pope}

Will We Care For or Kill Dementia Patients?

_{Wesley J. Smith
September 21, 2025

Bioethics, Medicine

2}

I understand that people are terrified of dementia. Believe me, I get it. My mother died of Alzheimer’s. Read More ›