Science and Culture Today Discovering Design in Nature
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teleonomy

Galápagos finch
Photo: Galápagos finch, by kuhnmi, via Flickr.

Third Way Evolution and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis

Things were peachy until the late 20th/early 21st century, when some biologists began to acknowledge that neo-Darwinism had a glaring explanatory deficit. Read More ›
Cyclamen-coum
Photo: Cyclamen coum, by Famberhorst, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Science, Purpose, and Michael Levin: The Discussion Evolves

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 ›
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Image: Fox and hares, Japanese fine prints, pre-1915, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

From Materialist Biologists, a Profound Capitulation

I have warned that one of the few remaining avenues that naturalism can take to rescue its paradigm is to appropriate “purpose” within a materialist framework. Read More ›
Trinity007
Photo credit: Ed Siasoco (aka SC Fiasco), CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Peter Corning and the Taint of Vitalism

As the insightful work of Corning and others has shown, the vitalist/mechanist debate in biology is nowhere near over. If anything, it’s just getting started. Read More ›
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glowing-DNA-strand
Image Credit: BazziBa - Adobe Stock

Physicist Brian Miller: The Non-Algorithmic Nature of Life

Immaterial? As in not material? It’s a daring proposition, to be sure, and one that has the power to change everything we understand about life. Read More ›
Plato_s Revenge landscape no text
Image source: Discovery Institute Press.

Plato’s Revenge: Mathematical Biologist Richard Sternberg Foresaw Major Developments in Biology

A new book traces the ideas of Dr. Sternberg, who offers rigorous scientific evidence that the true control center of life lies outside DNA. Read More ›
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Photo credit: Johannes Plenio on Unsplash.

Will Evolution’s New Synthesis Be Hard or Soft Magic? 

Let's try holding some new scientific theories to the standards of the fantasy genre. Read More ›
Mountain_gorilla_(Gorilla_beringei_beringei)_female_2
Photo credit: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

An Evolutionary Theorist Plays with Words; Let’s See How Far It Gets Him

Francis Heylighen’s “ontology of relational agency” starts with an interesting observation. Read More ›
tipping point
Photo credit: russellstreet, via Flickr.

Oxford Physiologist Denis Noble: Dissent from Neo-Darwinism Has Passed a “Tipping Point”

We were wondering when the (often very dramatic) claims made recently in arcane academic texts would begin making more of a splash in the popular media. Read More ›
DNA
Image credit: lisichik, via Pixabay.

Another Call for a “New Synthesis”

I recently wrote a post critical of biologist Peter Corning’s “synergism hypothesis.” Afterwards Dr. Corning got in touch. Read More ›

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