Tag: Panda’s Thumb

^{Type
post

Author
Andrew McDiarmid

Date
May 9, 2025

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Zoology
Tagged
, bamboo, Darwinian theory, dexterity, digits, engineering, giant pandas, GUT, ID the Future, intelligent design, mammals, manipulation systems, microbiome, optimal panda principle, Panda's Thumb, podcast, Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig, wrist bone}

More Than a Thumb: Integrated Design in the Giant Panda

_{Andrew McDiarmid
May 9, 2025

Evolution, Intelligent Design, Zoology

3}

Is the famous “panda’s thumb” evidence of unguided evolutionary processes, or is it a masterpiece of engineering. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Andrew McDiarmid

Date
May 8, 2025

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, bamboo, clumsy, engineering, evolutionary biologists, geneticists, giant pandas, ID the Future, mammals, mechanical systems, paleontologists, Panda's Thumb, podcast, radial sesamoid, Stephen Jay Gould, Stuart Burgess, suboptimal, Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig, wrist bone}

Evolved or Engineered? A Geneticist Evaluates the Panda’s Thumb

_{Andrew McDiarmid
May 8, 2025

Evolution, Intelligent Design

2}

Giant pandas have an elongated wrist bone, the radial sesamoid, that allows them to handle and eat bamboo with great dexterity. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig

Date
July 21, 2024

Categories
Biology
Engineering
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Ailuropoda, bears, biologists, Chinese scientists, deletions, diploidal genome, evolution, genera, geneticists, insertions, intelligent design, mutations, neo-Darwinian theory, Panda's Thumb, phenotype, researchers, species, stasis, Ursidae}

More on the Panda’s Thumb: Imperfection or Masterpiece?

_{Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig
July 21, 2024

Biology, Engineering, Evolution, Intelligent Design

4}

I would like to express my appreciation as a geneticist and biologist for the work on the molecular investigations and many other topics in the panda’s biology. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig

Date
June 27, 2024

Categories
Engineering
Evolution
Genetics
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, "poor design", Ailuropoda, bears, evolution, François Jacob, gradualism, intelligent design, Max Planck Institute, Nathan Lents, natural selection, neo-Darwinian theory, Nobel Prize, Panda's Thumb, primates, Stephen Dilley, Stuart Burgess, Ursidae}

New Paper on the Panda’s Thumb: “Striking Imperfection or Masterpiece of Engineering?”

_{Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig
June 27, 2024

Engineering, Evolution, Genetics, Intelligent Design

4}

"If the panda’s thumb is an embodiment of bad design, where are the evolutionists’ proposals indicating how they could have done better?" Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Andrew McDiarmid

Date
April 21, 2024

Categories
Engineering
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Casey Luskin, dexterity, efficiency, evolution, evolutionary processes, evolutionists, ID the Future, intelligent design, NOMA, non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA), Panda's Thumb, philosophers, podcast, precision, religion, science, Stephen Dilley, Stephen Jay Gould, suboptimality, theology, trade-offs}

The Panda’s Thumb: An Extraordinary Instance of Design?

_{Andrew McDiarmid
April 21, 2024

Engineering, Evolution, Intelligent Design

2}

Optimizing a structure can sometimes come at the cost of certain design constraints. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen Dilley

Date
April 15, 2024

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Reproductive Science
Tagged
, "survival of the fittest", agnostics, atheism, Charles Darwin, evolution, Evolution News, fitness, human evolution, ID the Future, intelligent design, mind, mindless processes, natural selection, Panda's Thumb, pandas, planning, Stephen Jay Gould, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, theology, Young Earth Creationism}

Gould’s Panda Argument Is a Problem for Atheistic and Agnostic Views

_{Stephen Dilley
April 15, 2024

Evolution, Intelligent Design, Reproductive Science

7}

Contrary to conventional wisdom, then, Stephen Jay Gould’s panda argument does not provide evidence against intelligent design. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen Dilley

Date
April 10, 2024

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, biogeography, complementarity, Douglas Futuyma, dysteleology, embryology, evolution, Evolution News, faith and science, Francis Collins, Francisco Ayala, George Williams, God-talk, intelligent design, Jerry Coyne, Kenneth Miller, marsupials, methodological naturalism, Niles Eldredge, NOMA, paleontology, Panda's Thumb, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, suboptimality, textbooks, theistic evolution, Theodosius Dobzhansky, theology}

Does the Panda Argument Hurt the Case for Evolution?

_{Stephen Dilley
April 10, 2024

Evolution, Intelligent Design

8}

Gould cannot have it both ways: either theology-laden arguments are legitimate within scientific discourse or not. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen Dilley

Date
April 8, 2024

Categories
Biology
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Alvin Plantinga, creation, creationism, death, designer, evolution, humans, Incarnation, intelligent design, natural evil, pain, Panda's Thumb, peer-reviewed literature, Peter Van Inwagen, predation, redemption, resurrection, sickness, special creation, Stephen Jay Gould, suboptimality, theology, waste, William A. Dembski}

Does a Suboptimal Panda’s Thumb Fit Better with Evolution than with Intelligent Design?

_{Stephen Dilley
April 8, 2024

Biology, Evolution, Intelligent Design

11}

Just how much does evolution expect suboptimal structures? And just how much does intelligent design expect optimal ones? Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen Dilley

Date
April 5, 2024

Categories
Evolution
Faith & Science
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Charles Darwin, creationism, devolution, evolution, harmony, intelligent design, Louis Agassiz, Natural Theology (book), Panda's Thumb, Peter Van Inwagen, proportion, Religions (journal), St. Paul, Stephen Jay Gould, suboptimality, symmetry, theology, thumb, William A. Dembski, William Paley, Young Earth Creationists}

Gould’s God-Talk: Is the Panda’s Thumb Incompatible with ID?

_{Stephen Dilley
April 5, 2024

Evolution, Faith & Science, Intelligent Design

12}

Stephen Jay Gould was renowned as a paleontologist, not as a theologian. Yet perhaps his most iconic argument is theological in nature. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen Dilley

Date
April 4, 2024

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, carnivores, common ancestry, dexterity, digits, economy, efficiency, evolution, evolutionists, intelligent design, leaves, mammals, Panda's Thumb, Religions (journal), Stephen Jay Gould, suboptimality}

Is the Panda’s Thumb Suboptimal?

_{Stephen Dilley
April 4, 2024

Evolution, Intelligent Design

8}

The basic argument is that “[o]dd arrangements and funny solutions” point to evolution whereas “ideal design” points to a “sensible God.” Read More ›