Why is history not science? Science is simply ‘what we know’. Or extended, it is ‘the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories against the evidence obtained’. Hard sciences require repeat verifications. They are not perfect as they have indirect observation, […]
“Everything changed in the past 40 years, when an explosion of evolutionary studies proved that evolution can and does occur rapidly — even from one generation to the next. Evolutionary biologists were thrilled, but the findings reinforced the same paradox: If evolution can happen so fast, then why do most species on Earth continue to […]
Other universes besides ours would solve a number of problems of the atheistic belief system. These include: Our universe is fine-tuned for life, and more importantly for mankind; Entropy is ever increasing suggesting unacceptable initial conditions; Quantum physics disproves determinism; The unity of the universe supporting the One Creator hypothesis. The purpose of the multiverse […]
Annotated […] excerpts : We now know that Darwin’s ‘gradualist’ view of evolution, exclusively driven by natural selection, is no longer compatible with contemporary science. Species do not emerge from an accumulation of random genetic changes. This has been confirmed by 21st-century genome sequencing, but the idea that natural selection inadequately explains evolutionary change goes […]
The facts A 2008 study popularized by Michael Blastland in his book, ‘The Hidden Half’, shows that genetically identical crayfish (clones) from the same batch and grown in a tightly controlled identical environment vary wildly in size, lifespan, behavior, appearance, growth rate, molting, reproduction, etc. The microenvironment In this case, the microenvironment is that which […]
Darwin defined “evolution as “descent with modification”. But modification of what? The messy mix of DNA in sexual reproduction is not modification of anything. Two become three in sexual reproduction while one becomes two in mitosis and budding. No parent is being modified. Either way, descent by definition is the creation of new entities. Modification […]
When Napoleon’s army invaded Egypt in 1798, a large number of animal mummies were brought back to France. These represented many species, including cats, jackals, dogs, crocodiles, snakes, sacred ibis, and other birds, as well as human mummies. George Cuvier analyzed the samples and concluded that no detectable anatomical changes had occurred over the time […]
Sexual selection tries to explain sexual dimorphism and more. According to the theory, certain conspicuous physical traits, such as pronounced coloration, increased size, or striking adornments have “evolved” through sexual selection. The selecting sex often displays similar but subdued ornaments, indicating a sort of sexual selection leak from the selected to the selecting if the […]
Darwin’s call to challengers is absurd. In The Origin of Species (1859), he wrote, “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case.” This is NOT how science […]
Drift in biology is “evolution by randomness”. The ‘drift’ idea was championed by Motoo Kimura as “The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution”. Kimura was motivated by JBS Haldane’s dilemma: too much polymorphism exists for “natural selection” to be able to pick and chose “beneficial” genes due to gene colocation in the genome and to the […]
Second Law of Thermodynamics shows that a spontaneous process cannot also revert spontaneously. This is because spontaneous processes always increase the system’s entropy. A uniform gas in a chamber will accumulate in a corner only with external intervention and spontaneous chemical reactions can only revert if external work energy is applied. Current models of entropy […]
Paley’s teleological argument is: just as the function and complexity of a watch implies a watch-maker, so likewise the function and complexity of the universe implies the existence of a universe-maker. Paley also addressed a number of possible counterarguments Objection: We don’t know who the watchmaker is. Paley: Just because we don’t know who the […]
‘Divergence of character’ (character displacement or sympatric speciation) postulates: “during the incessant struggle of all species to increase in numbers, the more diversified these descendants become, the better will be their chance of succeeding in the battle of life. Thus the small differences distinguishing varieties of the same species, will steadily tend to increase till […]
Hume’s often cited argument against miracles is, in brief, that these should be rejected because they contravene the laws of nature that have been verified over and over again. The argument continues with the claims that the human mind is unstable and no miracle has in fact had enough witnesses of sufficient honesty, intelligence, and […]
“Problem of evil” is supposed to disprove God because, a) A God that is all powerful would be able to prevent evil. b) A God that is all knowing would know that evil happens. c) A God that is all loving wouldn’t want evil to happen and would take needed action to stop it. d) […]
Affirming the Consequent is a logical fallacy that takes a known true statement [if P then Q] and invalidly concluding its converse [if Q then P]: If Bill Gates owns Fort Knox, then Bill Gates is rich. Bill Gates is rich. Therefore, Bill Gates owns Fort Knox. False! If an animal is a dog, then […]
A recent study identifies phenotypic plasticity as the ability of tadpoles to change how they look and act, and how their tissues function, in response to their environment. If the pond also contains fairy shrimp, some tadpoles turn into aggressive carnivores and sometimes, the carnivorous tadpole stage becomes entrenched – without the need for a […]
Very nice. Congratulations! But where is the “directed evolution” oxymoron in this story? The process used is simple organism breeding as done by mankind for thousands of years, in this case sped up by advanced technologies. “Random mutations” are not entirely random as the mutations desired had to converge towards a clear, specified target. Random […]
Not often does one get to say “interesting book, but very wrong”. What makes this one so special is the marriage of interesting experimental findings with very bad philosophy built on top of those observations. The book makes a case for life being a collection of autonomous machines that “evolved” in the Darwinist style. Some […]
Your CV shows some great skills that could benefit mankind. Presumably you also want to have a positive impact in this world and eventually be remembered for something good you did. If so, it is very puzzling why you would start and run a blog like peacefulscience.org that takes time and effort detracting from your […]
Despite lack of observational basis, Darwin proposed Universal Common Descent (UCD) saying: “Therefore I should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed“. He also said elsewhere (referring to UCD): “…the littlest creature (or […]
Design is order imposed on parts of a system. The system is designed even if the order created is minimal (e.g. smearing paint on cave walls) and even if it contains random subsystems. ‘Design’ is inferred only for those parts of the system that reveal the order imposed by the designer. For cave art, we […]
– A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique Edited By: J.P. Moreland, Stephen C. Meyer, Wayne Grudem. By: Various Contributors Theistic Evolution relies on the assumption that Darwin was right. Without that, there is no Theistic Evolution. Conversely, Theistic Evolution could not be invalidated by any philosophical or theological analysis if Darwin were right. In […]
“Nested hierarchies” or “cladistic analysis” or “consilience of independent phylogenies” is often offered as support for Darwinist evolution. This is the idea that the “tree of life” classification of organisms is somehow objective despite being a creation of very zealous “evolution” advocates. The three basic assumptions of cladistics models are: a) Any group of organisms […]
Materialism “regards matter and its motions as constituting the universe, and all phenomena, including those of mind, as due to material agencies, while matter is: “the physical substance in general, as distinct from mind and spirit; (in physics) that which occupies space and possesses rest mass, especially as distinct from energy”. Materialism extended by physicalism […]
Here are the five [presumably main] questions from Lents’ book. These are typical Darwinist “gotcha” questions for Intelligent Design proponents and are therefore worth addressing: Why are we designed with nonfunctional pseudogenes? Why do our nasal sinuses drain upward? Why are humans so bad at absorbing vitamins and minerals? Why do humans have muscles and […]
‘Information’, ‘data’ and ‘media’ are distinct concepts. Media is the mechanical support for data and can be any material including DNA and RNA in biology. Data is the symbols that carry information and are stored and transmitted on the media. ACGT nucleotides forming strands of DNA are biologic data. Information is an entity that answers […]
“Biologic species” does not have a satisfactory definition. Most often “species” is defined as “the largest group of organisms in which two individuals can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction”. The fertility “barrier” is however arbitrary, inadequate for closely related species, and irrelevant to the vast group of asexually reproducing organisms. Since organisms do […]
What separates humans from other organisms, and by how much? Dexterity (opposable thumb), Lifespan, Sociability, Speech, Bipedalism, Hairlessness, Body Size, and Diet, all separate humans from others, but none is more important and more off the chart than our Intelligence. And from these gifts, humans developed even more abilities; some natural like thick fur on […]
“Modern synthesis” never was anything other than Darwinism hitchhiking the real science of Genetics out of its well deserved obscurity. But Mendel’s genetics demolished Darwin’s “gradualism” and is the anti-Darwin and true, testable science unlike Darwinism. Therefore, the shotgun marriage between Mendel and Darwin known as “Modern Synthesis” never made any sense. Blending inheritance in […]
The author of this short and compelling book is a legal scholar that brings a much needed scientific rigor to the debate, while not appealing to authority or the law in support of his case unlike the Darwinists that do both whereas, ironically, also opportunistically seek the support of the Galileo affair. Regarding “natural selection”, […]
Call it automaton, golem, automatic pilot, robot or artificial intelligence (AI), the idea that the inert can turn into the living is not new. And if God can make this happen, why can’t the human? While everything is possible in fiction of course, even some of the actual human creations have been advanced enough for […]
Look how some people (also materialists) are willingly risking getting a black eye, which is exactly what they got now. Kudos to them for trying! Of course all current models of the universe resemble a wind-up toy which forces physicists into all kind of unreasonable theories and when one fails they have to come up […]
H. B. D. Kettlewell in his ‘Darwin’s Missing Evidence’ was right to think that the fossil record cannot possibly be evidence for evolution – after all, fossils do not come with proof of link to other existing or fossilized organisms. For one to see a link, one must presuppose a link, rendering the whole argument […]
Ed Young recently reopened the case of jumping genes in mammals. This article is a retake on an older piece originally published in 2013 in a different paper. Jumping genes or transposons are DNA sequences that can change position within a genome, sometimes creating or reversing mutations and altering the cell’s genetic identity and genome […]
This is an explosive book, full of important ideas that only few are aware of. I don’t even remember how I came across the book, the author and, most importantly, his ideas in 2017, or twenty-five years after its first edition. This is a testament to the efficiency of the monstrous Darwinist propaganda machine that […]
Natural Selection described as “the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype” or alternatively as “survival of the best adapted”. It is also supposed to be a “blind, mindless, and purposeless environmental process” that hypothetically turns random genetic mutations into superior new features enhancing descendants’ survivability. Accumulation of these features supposedly […]
For a long time, and way before the discovery of its structure, DNA has been considered “essence of life”, the molecule that defines every organism including humans and that links ancestors with descendants over generations. Associations between DNA and heredity as well as between DNA and various hereditary traits have only enforced this view. Genetic […]
Some (including the ID crowd) accept microevolution defined as observable adaptations in populations, while rejecting macroevolution defined as the never observed and very much doubtful Darwinist “common descent”. The problem is that micro and macro are just generic qualifiers that come in pairs, while evolution – the word retained – is in fact the concept […]
Darwin’s “warm little pond” was first mentioned in 1871, years after his “On the Origin of Species” where he said: “probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed”. To this, “…by the Creator” was added in later editions. […]
Not quite news, but new enough to some of us, Jack Szostak from Harvard Medical School is “trying to build a synthetic cellular system that undergoes Darwinian evolution” to shut up once and for all the creationists and Intelligent Design proponents out there. Well, Good Luck with that! Szostak is of course driven by his […]
Nylonase is a popular evolutionary icon as nylon is a recent human invention and a nylon-eating bacteria strand was discovered in 1975. But beyond inquiries into the “evolutionary mechanism” powering this strand, the question is: does this story even make sense? Recent research shows that common mealworms can safely biodegrade various types of plastic. Most […]
Let’s analyze a typical reference to Evolution in a scientifically oriented article. This random passage from Wikipedia refers to Diatoms: Heterokont chloroplasts appear to derive from those of red algae, rather than directly from prokaryotes as occurred in plants. This suggests they had a more recent origin than many other algae. However, fossil evidence is […]
Evidence for Evolution (Common Descent) has so far been indirect: (a) similarities between living organisms, (b) similarities between the living and the fossils, and (c) extrapolations of observed biological changes across a few generations. But the (a) and (b) data is often misjudged (clearly designed human creations such as transportation implements also fit the patterns), […]
What should be the default view on Free Will? We talk about Free Will because we feel it in us and in the actions of all other. Even those attempting to disprove Free Will prove instead its existence by trying to persuade us, when lack of Free Will would make this effort futile. We can […]
Gradualism is the cornerstone of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution because without it, he could not justify the idea that one organism changes into another. ‘Gradualism’ equals ‘Continuity’ but also presupposes a significant change, not just variations around a static mean (regression to the mean) . In math, a function is gradual if continuous. A continuous […]
Geo-centrism was the standard model of the Universe until the 16th century when Helio-centrism took over. More recently, we are told the Sun itself rotates around the center of the Galaxy and in fact the whole Universe expands like the surface of a balloon which means every single point in the Universe becomes its center […]
Coyne’s book is a surprisingly honest and significant effort to support his viewpoint with good arguments. He still fails, but kudos for the effort and for not fighting straw men. Here are Coyne’s main arguments and the objections he will need to address: Coyne complains that Evolution is just like Newton’s Laws and should not […]
In this new book supporting Intelligent Design, Douglas Axe is asking the eternal question: “to what or to whom do we owe our existence?”, and then he goes on disputing the materialist hypothesis. Too bad his arguments are not the strongest, his explanations are convoluted and unclear, and the chosen supporting examples are uninspired. Still, […]
Does Life violate Entropy (gradual decline into disorder)? “No”, say the supporters of Darwinism, “non-equilibrium open systems weakly driven by external energy sources can see localized drops in entropy”. We’re told that “Snowflakes, sand dunes and turbulent vortices all … are strikingly patterned structures that emerge in many-particle systems driven by some dissipative process.” Of […]
Several sources reported on the recent “New trends in evolutionary biology” meeting at The Royal Society. We learn that the 50 years old “Modern Synthesis” needs to be “Extended”. As shown elsewhere, epigenetics argues for a sort of Lamarckism, but in the end both Darwin and Lamarck proposed only “just so” stories, rather that useful […]
“Shaking up the Tree of Life” – http://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6314/817 Reproductive isolation was, until recently, part of the classic definition of a species. But this definition never worked, first because various species like Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens can mate and birth fertile descendants, and second because this definition left out all nonsexual reproducing organisms. What is not […]
The Accidental Universe is a short (136 pages) collection of essays mostly on cosmology (what else?). All of these ideas have been discussed elsewhere, but they are still open. More or less convincing hypotheses have been offered before and some of them are described in this book with a personal touch of the author: “The […]
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Current progress in epigenetics makes some reconsider Lamarckism, the pre-Darwinian view that organisms can pass on characteristics acquired during lifetime to their offspring (also known as heritability of acquired characteristics or soft inheritance). In this narrow definition, then epigenetics can indeed be interpreted as proof of Lamarckism, just as certain biologic adaptations are interpreted as […]
A long book (459 pages) better listened at double speed while enjoying another parallel activity than read. Because of its length, the book lacks coherence, although it contains several important ideas worth debating. Main ideas (in no particular order) include: “Enlightenment (good) versus Parochial (bad)” – but these are not necessarily opposite, and the words […]
Life is everywhere around us, so abiogenesis should be a breeze. The environment is great for life, and we have access to all the [material] building blocks, including simple atoms, simple and complex molecules, full body parts, and “almost alive” (the recently dead) full bodies. We’re endowed with the human brain, the most advanced entity […]
Too often it’s assumed that thing “arise”. As in: “The universe arose in the Big Bang” “Galaxies and planetary systems arose from cosmic dust” “Life arises from non life” “Species arise from other species” “Human intelligence arises from animals” “Consciousness arises” “AI machines will arise” It’s better to say “we have no idea” than assume […]
A brief book that is not so much about Speech as it is about toppling false prophets. We learn a great deal about the sordid intrigue that made Darwin the historic personality he is while keeping the lowly “fly catcher” Wallace in semi-obscurity. One hundred fifty years later, a somewhat parallel story develops between Noam […]
The experiment (and video) shows bacterium Escherichia Coli adapting to increasingly higher doses of antibiotics on a dish divided into sections saturated with various doses of medication. Mutations to the antibiotic medium resulted in initial growth slowdown. New territory growth was lead by the strains that were sufficiently strong and close to the antibiotic frontier, […]
Rupert Sheldrake’s goal is to dispute ten current scientific dogmas (“the scientific creed”). Dogma: Life is essentially mechanical. Dispute: The mechanical explanation of life is akin to trying to understand a computer by grinding it up and analyzing its component elements. All mechanistic supporters smuggle purpose in their model through concept such as “selfish gene”, […]
The questions asked are pertinent, and the effort put into this endeavor is commendable. The approach – asking groups of three “ordinary people” to do certain experiments – is simple, as one would expect from a basic popular science show. At the end of each experiment, the participants “discover” the answer, or more precisely are […]
JCV-syn3.0 is a new, 473 genes, organism developed by genetic manipulations as part of the Minimal Genome Project. JCV-syn3.0 is less complex than the 525 genes Mycoplasma genitalium – the least complex natural organism known. Contrary to some inflated claims to “synthetic life” and “created life”, the team has not created life out of non-living […]
No! AlphaGo is just a tool designed by humans. Like a vehicle or an industrial machine, it beats the bare-handed human at a certain task. AlphaGo is just an extension of its designers’ intelligence. Could humans ever hope to beat AlphaGo in a rematch? No doubt. Given enough resources, a competing human team will be […]
Here is the Econtalk interview with Matt Ridley. For a book based entirely on Evolution, Ridley never gets around to discuss the concept. He also never clarifies Creation (in his understanding), that he thinks is incompatible with Evolution (in his understanding). Ridley is wrong on many topics and, in this book, In fact, Evolution has […]
You toss a coin and it always comes up Heads. Does that mean the coin is loaded? What does any other sequence of Heads and Tails tell us? When can we be certain that an outcome is random? In fact, we can never tell from the results whether an outcome is random or not […]
The Trolley Problem is a false dilemma once framed correctly. Most people take a mistaken utilitarian view when facing the first part of this test, while a majority takes a correct decision when the problem is re-framed in a follow up scenario. Description: You are the driver of a runaway tram which you can only […]
The Reproducibility Project – an effort to reproduce the findings of 100 articles in three top psychology journals has been recently in the news due to its important findings. The study led by Dr. Brian Nosek of the University of Virginia and the Center for Open Science found that out of 100 experimental and correlational […]
Fixing the Education problem in the US is easy: Put children first, not the teacher union. The goal should be knowledge for the children, not welfare for teachers and not employment for the support personnel. Open the system by letting former professionals teach – teaching needs not be a career, but a skill that any […]
The poor and poverty in general are important topics of many Religions, including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Sharing one’s wealth with the poor is strongly recommended. Socialism promotes common ownership of goods, with the stated purpose of eliminating poverty. On the surface, these are very similar teachings, so how compatible are Socialism and the main […]
Once again, water was confirmed on Mars generating a significant level of excitement especially in conjunction with the newly released movie “The Martian”. The reason for the excitement is the possibility of life: either Mars may one day become a human outpost or, even more sensational, the discovery of native Mars life forms. This second […]
We all have Beliefs, whether we admit or not, whether we are part of any established Religion, whether we call our Beliefs Philosophy, the Cult of Science, or anything else. Our experiences are unique, so we often disagree with each other, even when we are part of the same Belief System. Of course none of […]
Evolution is defined as (a) “Changes in gene frequencies in populations” or (b) “The process through which the characteristics of organisms change over successive generations, by means of genetic variation and natural selection” or (c) “Evolution is Common Descent”. However, (a) is too broad as every newborn changes the gene frequency in a population, (b) […]
Like all religions, atheism has a strong Belief System, transcending the Observable, about the origin and organization of the universe – the primary matters concerning any Religion. It is not the first, the last, or the only Religion that rejects God. The main difference between atheists and agnostics is that agnostics have an incomplete (“don’t […]
Archimedes said “Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth”. Does Human Knowledge have “a place to stand on”? We have our senses and we have our intelligence. We are handy and have developed all sorts of helping tools. We have mathematics (including logic and statistics), scientific laws, laws […]
Science = Observation + Assumptions, Facts Selection, Extrapolations, Interpretations… Assumptions, Facts Selection, Extrapolations, Interpretations… = Sum of Axiomatic Beliefs Sum of Axiomatic Beliefs = Religion …therefore, Science = Observation + Religion How do we know anything? There are three accepted methods to acquire primary knowledge: Philosophical based on Reason, Scientific, based on Observation plus […]
Knowledge and Intelligence The human knowledge frontier grows every day as new discoveries are captured in our various databases. A common image often shown is the ever increasing (exponential) body of human knowledge. The curve is neat and suggests a forever accelerating growth of our knowledge. However, those not keen to the distinction between knowledge […]