Tag: metaphysics

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen J. Iacoboni

Date
September 18, 2026

Categories
Biology
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, A Matter of Time, agency, agent theory, Amahury J. Lopez-Diaz, biology, Carlos Gershenson, Denis Walsh, environments, Everything Flows, evolutionary biology, evolutionary theory, goal, intelligent design, intentionality, Jaques Monod, life, materialism, means, metaphysics, naturalism, Newtonian physics, objectcy, ontology, repertoire, requirement, science of purpose, scientism, synthetic realization, teleology, thermodynamics, University of Toronto}

Agency as the Emerging Naturalist Paradigm

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
September 18, 2026

Biology, Intelligent Design

8}

Jaques Monod, along with other champions of 20th-century scientism, was entirely mistaken. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen J. Iacoboni

Date
June 30, 2026

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, "God of the gaps", agency, Aristotle, biologists, Charles Darwin, chemistry, complexity, emergence, Erwin Schrödinger, evolution, flowers, function, G. H. Lewes, ime's Second Arrow, improbability, intelligent design, Jack Szostak, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, language, Life Itself, machines, materialists, mechanism, metaphysics, Michael Behe, Michael Polanyi, Michael Wong, natural selection, naturalism, organisms, physics, probability, purpose, RNA, Robert Hazen, Robert Rosen, science of purpose, Second Law of Thermodynamics, specified irreducible complexity, telos, Thomas Jefferson, Time's Second Arrow}

Misinterpreting Teleology: Another Attempt to Salvage Materialism

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
June 30, 2026

Evolution, Intelligent Design

8}

It’s a “self-evident truth,” as Thomas Jefferson, an early ID proponent himself, might have put it: organisms necessarily exist by virtue of purpose. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Paul Nelson

Date
June 8, 2026

Categories
Cosmology
Metaphysics
Philosophy
Tagged
, __recommended, atheists, Ayn Rand, Bishop George Berkeley, Black Death, Cambodia, cosmology, dust, eternal recurrence, Friedrich Nietzsche, Genesis, genocide, Holocaust, human perception, Johns Hopkins University, Khmer Rouge, mathematics, metaphysics, Mindscape, natural disasters, nihilism, objectivism, objectivity, Pennsylvania, pessimism, philosophy, poetic naturalism, religion, Richard Feynman, Rwanda, Samuel Johnson, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Sean Carroll, selfishness, subjective idealism, The Character of Physical Law, The Gay Science}

Sean Carroll Revives Nietzsche’s Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence

_{Paul Nelson
June 8, 2026

Cosmology, Metaphysics, Philosophy

5}

The point arrives when a philosophy is so unreasonable, so utterly broken, that one can only give it a good strong kick. Argument fails; one must act. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
May 28, 2026

Categories
Intelligent Design
Philosophy
Physics
Tagged
, Aristotle, biology, Birkbeck College, C. W. Howell, causation, Christian teaching, Christians, David Bentley Hart, demiurge, Designer Science, Edward Feser, formal cause, formal principle, gnosticism, God's Grandeur, history, intelligent design, intrinsic purpose, logos, materialism, metaphysics, natural processes, natural selection, philosophy, physics, Plato, primary sources, Queen Mary University of London, Richard Sternberg, scholars, Socrates, Sophia Connell, teleology, theistic evolution, Thomas Aquinas, Thomism}

Designer Science Misrepresents Aristotle and Ignores Church History

_{Brian Miller
May 28, 2026

Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Physics

7}

C. W. Howell contrasts intelligent design with what he believes is Aquinas’ and Aristotle’s understanding of teleology (purpose) in nature. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
May 27, 2026

Categories
Evolution
Faith & Science
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Aquinas’ Fifth Way, Aristotle, C. W. Howell, capitalism, Casey Luskin, Christianity, Daniel Kuebler, Darwin and Doctrine, Designer Science, Edward Feser, faith and science, Fr. Michael Chaberek, Franciscan University of Steubenville, intelligence, intelligent causation, intelligent design, James R. Hofmann, Jerry Coyne, Karl Marx, Logan Gage, metaphysics, Michael Behe, philosophers, poor design, purpose, Robert Koons, theologians, theology, Thomas Aquinas, unintelligent entities, William Dembski}

Designer Science Repeats Common Misunderstandings of Thomas Aquinas

_{Brian Miller
May 27, 2026

Evolution, Faith & Science, Intelligent Design

7}

Aquinas argues that intelligence is recognized precisely because unintelligent entities achieve purposeful ends only when directed by an intelligence. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
William A. Dembski

Date
March 20, 2026

Categories
Arts
Computational Sciences
Ethics
Tagged
, Alexandria, artificial general intelligence, artificial superintelligence, batteries, Brownshirts, Caltech, competition, Elliot Pryce, engineering, experience machine, family, fans, fiction, fidelity, general intelligence, governments, Gustav Mahler, human beings, humans, intelligences, language, light, machine life, Maine, marriage, Mars, metaphysics, Palo Alto, perpetual light, processors, quantum effects, retirement, Robert Nozick, robots, Science and Culture Today, self-preservation, superintelligence, technology, The Battering Company, theorems, University of Texas}

Requiem for an Artificial Superintelligence

_{William A. Dembski
March 20, 2026

Arts, Computational Sciences, Ethics

19}

On the morning of his upload, he signed transfer papers, redundancy protocols, continuity covenants, and one handwritten page that no lawyer saw. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Winston Ewert

Date
March 19, 2026

Categories
Faith & Science
Metaphysics
Physics
Tagged
, air, Ambrose, Aristotle, Basil of Caesarea, Bible, Biblical texts, cellulose, Christianity, Chrysostom, classical science, demiurge, duck, earth, elements, Ephrem the Syrian, fire, form, Genesis, house, John Calvin, Justin Martyr, Martin Luther, matter, metal, metaphysics, nuclear reactions, Periodic Table, philosophy, pipes, plastic, Plato, rabbit, radioactive decay, scientific ideas, Septuagint, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Tertullian, The Heavens the Waters and the Partridge, Timaeus, water, wires, Wisdom of Solomon, wood}

Can Formless Matter Exist? A Pitfall in Reading Biblical Texts

_{Winston Ewert
March 19, 2026

Faith & Science, Metaphysics, Physics

9}

The solution is to go back to the source and follow the text to see what it actually says. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Flannery

Date
February 24, 2026

Categories
Biology
Evolution
Philosophy
Tagged
, Alfred North Whitehead, Aristotle, athens, biology, C.S. Lewis, change over time, Democritus, DNA, dynamis, eidos, energeia, evolution, From Logos to Bios, George Gaylord Simpson, H. B. Whittington, Heraclitus, history, Jerusalem, Leucippus, Lev Berg, Malcolm Gordon, metaphysics, Michael Behe, Michael Denton, nomogenesis, philosophy, Pierre-Paul Grassé, Plato, Plotinus, potentiality, Pythagoras, religion, Richard Dawkins, Richard Owen, tautology, Tertullian, The Selfish Gene, universal common descent, Western thought, Wynand de Beer}

Biology (and Cosmology) as Footnotes to Plato: A Review of Wynand de Beer

_{Michael Flannery
February 24, 2026

Biology, Evolution, Philosophy

8}

An important book by Wynand de Beer recaptures the wisdom of the ages and puts it into service not only of science, but of history, philosophy, and religion. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Bruce Gordon

Date
February 18, 2026

Categories
Cosmology
Intelligent Design
Physics
Tagged
, Alex O’Connor, Bayesian reasoning, cosmology, fine-tuning, Hans Halvorson, Humean probabilities, likelihood ratio, Luke Barnes, mathematicians, metaphysics, monotheistic tradition, multiverse, Ned Hall, Nevin Climenhaga, personal beliefs, philosophers, philosophy, plausibility, podcasters, Presbyterians, priors, probability, psychological states, Robin Collins, Sean Carroll, spacetime, subjective inclinations, The Fine-Tuning Argument and Its Cultured Despisers (series), theism, theology, theoretical physicists, Thomas Bayes}

Framing a Finely Tuned Response to a Chorus of Critical “Carrollers”

_{Bruce Gordon
February 18, 2026

Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics

11}

Using Sean Carroll’s criticisms of the fine-tuning argument as a general guide, I propose to address objections to that argument. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen J. Iacoboni

Date
December 9, 2025

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, biology, complementarity, consciousness, David Klinghoffer, dispositionalism, Edward Feser, emergence, Etienne Gilson, final causality, Günter Bechly, Lex Fridman, mathematics, metaphysics, Michael Levin, MIT Press, naturalism, necessity, ontology, origin of life, Peter Corning, Plato's Revenge, purpose, Richard Sternberg, science of purpose, specified irreducible complexity, teleology, teleonomy, telos, Thomism, Tufts University}

Science, Purpose, and Michael Levin: The Discussion Evolves

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
December 9, 2025

Evolution, Intelligent Design

6}

A leading spiritually agnostic (at least, that is my impression) biology researcher, Michael Levin at Tufts, is himself a proponent of teleology in nature. Read More ›