Yet another of the fossil record's many explosions

 Fossil Friday: The Avalon Explosion and the Power of Maybe

Gunter Bechly

This Fossil Friday features the 569-556-million-year-old frond-like fossil Charnia from Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire (UK), an example of the abrupt appearance of the so-called Ediacaran biota in the latest Precambrian. During this event, which has been called the Avalon Explosion (see Bechly 2024) and preceded the famous Cambrian Explosion, we find in three distinct assemblages the emergence of strange organisms that looked like aliens from a remote planet. They were very much unlike any of the organisms that roamed our planet after the Cambrian Explosion and certainly did not represent the ancestors of the Cambrian bilaterian animal phyla. The Ediacaran organisms generally exhibited a quilted body like an air mattress, a glide symmetry, a fractal growth pattern, and lacked any visible organs for feeding or locomotion or any internal structure. A genuine enigma for biologists and paleontologists.

A New Study

In a brand new study by Bowyer et al. (2024), three distinguished scientists from the University of Edinburgh analyzed the geological evidence for sea level changes (mainly changes in sedimentary rock volume as proxy), and compared them with the reconstructed biodiversity in terms of genus richness during different phases of the Ediacaran period, correlated according to a global age framework of high-precision radiometric datings. They found that “each successive rise of metazoan morphogroups that define the Avalon, White Sea, and Cambrian assemblages appears to coincide with global shallow marine oxygenation events at δ13Ccarb maxima, which precede major sea level transgressions” and concluded that “while the record of biodiversity is biased, early metazoan radiations and oxygenation events are linked to major sea level cycles.”

Well, that is certainly interesting, even though one should never forget that correlation does not imply causation. Therefore, the authors are to the point when they open their abstract with the admission that “the drivers of Ediacaran-Cambrian metazoan radiations remain unclear.” The press release for the study was much less prudent, with the pompous title “Sea level changes shaped early life on Earth, fossils show” (University of Edinburgh 2024). It quotes one of the authors with this statement: “Knowing what drives biodiversity is a fundamental piece of knowledge in the puzzle of life. I feel very privileged to have built upon decades of interdisciplinary global research, and contributed to a better understanding of the role that sea level plays in early animal evolution.” Did they?

Maybe, Possibly, It Might Be

Have you noticed the little qualifier “appears” in the first quote above? Here is something to think about: This supposedly very scientific article contains not fewer than 64 (!) times the words “may” or “might”, 20 times the word “possible,” 11 times the word “potential(ly),” 8 times the word “likely,” and 7 times the word “appears.” So, we are left with the take home message that this study maybe could possibly appear to potentially show that there might be some likely connection between sea level changes and biodiversity changes. However, even if this should indeed be the case, how did those sea level changes magically produce the new genetic information for the emergence of organisms with new body plans? Crickets — the article does not even mention the words “genetics’ or “genes” a single time.

Instead the authors simply suggest that “major transgressions would therefore both increase habitable shallow marine shelf area and also drive long-term increases in environmental oxygen levels, which culminated in the appearance of the Avalon, White Sea, and Cambrian assemblages.” As I have often said, these are at best describing necessary conditions for the appearance of new organisms but certainly not sufficient conditions. There is zero causal explanation for the astonishing culmination in the appearance of the totally new types of organisms that characterize these assemblages. The new study was published in the prestigious journal Science Advances, but did it really advance our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the sudden origin of the Ediacaran biota? The answer must be a resounding no, not even a single bit. While evolutionary biology has no explanation even according to the authors themselves, intelligent design theory does uniquely provide a causally adequate explanation and therefore should be preferred over the blind acceptance of Darwinian magic as an imposed default explanation.

References

Bechly G 2024. Fossil Friday: Discontinuities in the Fossil Record — A Problem for Neo-Darwinism. Evolution News May 10, 2024. https://evolutionnews.org/2024/05/fossil-friday-discontinuities-in-the-fossil-record-a-problem-for-neo-darwinism/

Bowyer FT, Wood RA & Yilales M 2024. Sea level controls on Ediacaran-Cambrian animal radiations. Science Advances 10(31): eado6462, 1–21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ado6462

University of Edinburgh 2024. Sea level changes shaped early life on Earth, fossils show. The University of Edinburgh News August 1, 2024. https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2024/sea-level-changes-shaped-early-life-on-earth-fossi

Simeon Bar Kokhba : a brief history

 

Differently abled indeed!

 

The great attractor: a brief history.

 

Pseudoscience is on the march?

 

Agreeing to redraw the map?

 

The '24 nobel prize for physics was not won by physicists?

 

And still more on JEHOVAH'S Primeval tech vs. Darwin

 Kinesins: Nanoscale Molecular Motors, Each Built for a Purpose

Jared Cochrane

Editor’s note: We are delighted to welcome biologist Dr. Jared Cochran as a new contributor.

Motors of any kind are a testament to intelligent design. While pondering motors, I went downstairs and asked my eight-year-old son, “What is the difference between a screwdriver and a power drill?” He promptly replied, “A screwdriver is something you turn with your hand. A drill is something you pull the trigger on and a motor turns it.” Isn’t that fascinating? Even at a young age, he is able to recognize similarities and differences in structure and function. He knew right away that both tools needed to move in order to function, and he correctly identified the difference in how the movement of each tool is achieved. Wow, it’s incredible how motors are engineered to accomplish specific tasks!

Consider the multitude of motors we encounter daily. From the simple motor that wiggles our fancy automatic toothbrush back-and-forth, to the complex motor that powers our vehicle as we commute to work. How about the motor that turns the carousel in our microwave, or the powerful electric motor that rotates an impeller at high speed to generate low pressure inside our vacuum cleaner. Linear actuators move our electric car seat forward, backward, up, and down. What about those sliding automatic doors at the grocery store (yes, my eight year old still pretends he is Luke Skywalker every time). These motors work in different ways because they have been designed for specific purposes…to get different types of work done. It is relatively easy for us to see these motors in action and appreciate their intricate design.

Biological Motors

What about the motors inside our cells that we can’t see with our eyes? Molecular motors are enzymes that use chemical energy to generate mechanical force and movement within cells. There are many different types of molecular motors, including cytoskeletal motors, rotary motors, nucleic acid motors, protein synthesis machinery, and dynamic biopolymers. These motors perform a wide range of tasks within cells: transport, cellular respiration, cell motility, nucleic acid manipulation, and cell division. These molecular motors are tiny (just a few nanometers long), and sophisticated experimental methodologies are required to be able to get a glimpse of their intricate design. A deep understanding of their chemistry, structure, and physics is crucial for comprehending the intricacies of these molecular motors and for unraveling diseases associated with their malfunction. 

The Workhorse of the Cell

Inside our cells, we have long, string-like polymers (called microtubules) that function as roadways for molecular motors to walk on

Extensive research has focused on characterizing the structure and function of a group of proteins called kinesins (pronounced KY-knee-sons). Kinesins convert the chemical energy of ATP hydrolysis into directed mechanical movement along microtubules. Typically, kinesins are built with 1) a set of motor domains responsible for harnessing the energy from ATP and generating force, 2) a central stalk domain that holds the motor domains together, and 3) a tail domain with specialized functions for binding different cargo

Walkers, Hoppers, and More

What is amazing about kinesins is they all get their energy from the same place (ATP hydrolysis), but they seem to use it differently for different tasks inside the cell. Some kinesins are power walkers (like the one in the video above) — taking hundreds of steps along the microtubule before falling off. Others are hoppers — only taking a few steps before letting go of the track. Some kinesins walk forward, some walk backward, and some walk in both directions (trust me…this observation is still quite puzzling from a biophysical perspective). Other kinesins don’t walk at all, but somehow use their ATP energy to trigger the microtubule track to fall apart underneath them. 

We have only skimmed the surface over the past four decades since the first kinesin motor was discovered in 1985. Are these differences in function a result of random haphazardness — stochastic tweaking of gene sequences to give infinitesimally small perturbations of amino acids within the motor to eventually (over billions and billions of years) produce a smorgasbord of elegant machines like the kinesin family? Many in the scientific community have faith in this hopeless Darwinian theory. Thankfully, there are a number of scientists who view the nanoscale world with wonder and are open to the idea that molecular machines reflect purpose and design. They see molecular motors as intelligently designed for a reason. These machines must function properly for cells to divide, for essential cargo to be delivered, for biochemical energy to be converted from chemical gradients into stored energy for metabolism, for the propulsion of a cell in a given direction to avoid danger. Studying their chemistry, structure, and physics is our joy and privilege. We have much to learn.

More on JEHOVAH'S Primeval tech vs. Darwinism

 

Atheism's ministry of truth in action?

 

A titan on the march?

 

The search for a place like home takes us to the jovian moon europa

Europa Clipper: The Moon Mission Making Waves

Guillermo Gonzales

NASA is “following the water.” It is gearing up for a mission to one of Jupiter’s Galilean moons. The Europa Clipper spacecraft is set to launch on Thursday, October 10, and arrive at Jupiter in April 2030. During its 3.5-year mission, Clipper will perform up to 44 close flybys of Europa, getting as close as 16 miles from its icy surface. The spacecraft will study the moon’s chemistry, geology, and the characteristics of its hidden ocean. Astrobiologists hope this mission will help answer a couple of big questions in astrobiology: Could Europa’s ocean be habitable, and could it harbor life? Certainly, the recipe for life is more than “just add water,” but how much more?

Frozen Dreams: Europa’s Once-Hot Prospects for Life

For years, Europa has been seen as one of the most promising places to look for life beyond Earth. Its global ocean, containing twice as much water as all of Earth’s oceans combined, seems to some like it could be a perfect home for some form of extraterrestrial life. 

Henry Dawson, from Washington University in St. Louis, isn’t so sure. He has been studying whether Europa’s seafloor could support the kind of geological activity that might make life possible. His team’s findings, presented at a recent meeting of the 55th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, suggest that Europa’s ocean floor might be disappointingly inactive.1

On Earth, areas where tectonic plates meet on the seafloor can create hydrothermal vents. These vents spew out mineral-rich hot water that supports small communities of organisms. Astrobiologists have wondered if similar processes might occur on Europa, providing energy and nutrients for potential life forms

Rock Bottom: The Stagnant Reality of Europa’s Seafloor

Dawson’s team found that the forces acting on Europa’s seafloor are probably too weak to cause significant geological activity. The tidal forces from Jupiter that squeeze and stretch Europa aren’t strong enough to crack the seafloor rocks or cause fault lines to slip. This means there might not be any hydrothermal vents or other processes that could provide the chemical ingredients and energy needed for life.

The researchers also calculated that Europa’s “brittle layer” of rock could be anywhere from 30 to 180 kilometers thick — potentially much thicker than similar layers on Earth or even the Moon. This thick, strong layer of rock would make it even harder for any volcanic or tectonic activity to occur on the ocean floor.

Another problem is the lack of essential elements. While Europa’s ocean contains water, carbon, and possibly some phosphorus, it’s likely missing many other elements that life on Earth needs, like iron, calcium, and various metals. The ocean might be more like a stagnant pool than the dynamic, nutrient-rich environment scientists had hoped for.

This adds to the list of reasons to be skeptical about the prospects for life in Europa’s ocean that Jay Richards and I give in Chapter 5 of The Privileged Planet. Other challenges to Europan life we list include the ocean’s salt content, its variable volume over its history, and the pressure at its base.

Icy Moons: A Solar System-Wide Deep Freeze?

But Europa isn’t the only icy moon that’s caught the attention of astrobiologists. Saturn’s moon Enceladus has also been an object of interest (see, “Enceladus as a Habitability Test,” by David Coppedge). Like Europa, Enceladus has a subsurface ocean, but it also has something Europa doesn’t: active geysers shooting water into space. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft flew through these geysers and detected organic molecules, which got some people excited about the possibility of life there.

However, Dawson’s team also looked at Enceladus and other icy moons , including Titan (also covered by David Coppedge). They found that the tidal forces on these moons are probably not strong enough to cause significant geological activity either. This suggests that the challenges for life might be similar across many of the icy moons in our Solar System.

So why do we keep searching for life in these seemingly inhospitable places? It’s because many astrobiologists believe life only requires liquid water and a few other common compounds. Just let these chemical ingredients percolate long enough and out pops life.

Still, every time we study these distant worlds, we learn something new about planetary processes. This knowledge not only helps us understand other planets and moons but also gives us new insights into our own planet Earth. This research reminds us of how special and rare the conditions for life on Earth really are. It highlights the delicate balance of factors that allow life on our planet, from plate tectonics to our protective magnetic field.

In addition to NASA’s Europa Clipper, the European Space Agency is also planning a mission to Jupiter’s moons. The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) was launched in April 2023 and is expected to reach Jupiter in 2031. It will study not only Europa but also Ganymede and Callisto, two other large moons of Jupiter that might have subsurface oceans.

These missions will use a variety of instruments to peer beneath the icy surfaces of these moons. They’ll measure the strength of the moons’ magnetic fields (which can tell us about the oceans beneath the ice), analyze the composition of their surfaces, and even sample particles ejected from Europa’s suspected plumes of water vapor.

References

Byrne, P. K., H. G. Dawson, C. Klimczak, P. V. Regensburger, S. D. Vance, M. Melwani Daswani, D. J. Hemingway et al. “Likely little to no geological activity on the Europan seafloor.” LPI Contributions 3040 (2024): 2780.

Defining big re: the universe

 

For apiring titans.

 

The king of titans puts down another insurrection.

 

Yet more on JEHOVAH'S Technological genius.

 

Being a law abiding citizen is harder than you think?

 

A cheating crisis in chess?

 

The king of titans pronounces judgement on would be usurper.

 

Romans Ch.2 NWTSB

 2.1 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are,+ if you judge; for when you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.+ 2 Now we know that God’s judgment is in harmony with truth, against those who practice such things.

3 But do you suppose, O man, that while you judge those who practice such things and yet you do them, you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you despise the riches of his kindness+ and forbearance+ and patience,+ because you do not know that God in his kindness is trying to lead you to repentance?+ 5 But according to your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revealing of God’s righteous judgment.+ 6 And he will pay back to each one according to his works:+ 7 everlasting life to those who are seeking glory and honor and incorruptibleness+ by endurance in work that is good; 8 however, for those who are contentious and who disobey the truth but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and anger.+ 9 There will be tribulation and distress on every person who works what is harmful, on the Jew first and also on the Greek; 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who works what is good, for the Jew first+ and also for the Greek.+ 11 For there is no partiality with God.+

12 For all those who sinned without law will also perish without law;+ but all those who sinned under law will be judged by law.+ 13 For the hearers of law are not the ones righteous before God, but the doers of law will be declared righteous.+ 14 For when people of the nations, who do not have law,+ do by nature the things of the law, these people, although not having law, are a law to themselves. 15 They are the very ones who demonstrate the matter of the law to be written in their hearts, while their own thoughts they are being accused or even excused. 16 This will take place in the day when God through Christ Jesus judges the secret things of mankind,+ according to the good news I declare.

17 If, now, you are a Jew in name+ and rely on law and take pride in God, 18 and you know his will and approve of things that are excellent* because you are instructed out of the Law,+ 19 and you are convinced that you are a guide of the blind, a light for those in darkness, 20 a corrector of the unreasonable ones, a teacher of young children, and having the framework of the knowledge and of the truth in the Law— 21 do you, however, the one teaching someone else, not teach yourself?+ You, the one preaching, “Do not steal,”+ do you steal? 22 You, the one saying, “Do not commit adultery,”+ do you commit adultery? You, the one abhorring idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who take pride in law, do you dishonor God by your transgressing of the Law? 24 For “the name of God is being blasphemed among the nations because of you,” just as it is written.+

25 Circumcision+ is, in fact, of benefit only if you practice law;+ but if you are a transgressor of law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 If, therefore, an uncircumcised person+ keeps the righteous requirements of the Law, his uncircumcision will be counted as circumcision, will it not?+ 27 And the physically uncircumcised person will, by carrying out the Law, judge you who are a transgressor of law despite having its written code and circumcision. 28 For he is not a Jew who is one on the outside,+ nor is circumcision something on the outside, on the flesh.+ 29 But he is a Jew who is one on the inside,+ and his circumcision is that of the heart+ by spirit and not by a written code.+ That person’s praise comes from God, not from people.+

Be thankful for your shoulders' flawless design.

 Is the Human Shoulder Badly Designed?

Jonathan Wells

Editor’s note: We are saddened by the passing of our friend and colleague, the iconoclastic biologist Jonathan Wells. As a tribute, we are presenting some highlights from his work.

A few months ago, I fell and dislocated my left shoulder. My upper arm bone was put back in its socket the same day, but then I spent months in physical therapy to regain full function. In the process, I have learned a lot about an amazing joint that I previously took for granted.

The drawing below shows only part of the human shoulder’s anatomy. Not shown is the large deltoid muscle, which overlies the shoulder joint and connects the upper arm bone (humerus) to the collarbone (clavicle) and the shoulder blade (scapula). Also not shown is the trapezius muscle across the back, which connects the left and right scapulas. Both the deltoid and the trapezius play important roles in stabilizing the joint. 

Image source: National Institute Of Arthritis And Musculoskeletal And Skin Diseases (NIAMS); SVG version by Angelito7, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Anatomy of the Shoulder Joint

In the drawing, yellow indicates bone, red indicates muscle, blue indicates tendon, and purple indicates bursa (a fluid-filled cushion). The dashed black lines indicate the hidden ball-and-socket joint between the humerus and the scapula. Unlike the hip joint, in which the ball is deeper in the socket, the shoulder joint is more open. This means the shoulder joint is less stable than the hip joint, but it is also much more flexible. In fact, it is the most flexible joint in the human body. 

The biceps muscle at the lower left gets its name from the fact that it has two heads. One attaches, through a tendon and a small bursa, near the top of the humerus. The other head attaches to the coracoid process, an extension of the scapula. The lower end of the biceps muscle is attached to the forearm. Although it is primarily involved in moving the forearm, its divided head helps to stabilize the shoulder joint.

Both the flexibility and stability of the shoulder joint are due primarily to the muscles of the “rotator cuff,” listed on the left side of the drawing. All four of the listed muscles stretch across the scapula and attach to the top of the humerus. For a 10-minute tutorial on the rotator cuff, see here. For a longer (20-minute) tutorial on the movements, bones, and muscles of the shoulder, see here.

The more I have learned about the shoulder joint, the more I have been impressed by its specified complexity, which points to intelligent design. Imagine my surprise when I came across a six-and-a-half-minute video claiming that the human shoulder is a “design disaster.” The video was made by Cheddar News, which describes itself as “the only news network focused on the next generation of innovators and decision-makers[.] Cheddar News is where forward thinkers go to learn about the people, ideas and innovations that are driving change and creating what’s next.”

 am confident that a rigorous argument can be made for the intelligent design of the human shoulder. But that is not what I present here. In what follows, I examine the claims against design that are made in the Cheddar News video.

Proof that the Human Shoulder Is a Design Disaster?

The video’s producer is Natalia Ryzak, who has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. At the beginning, Ryzak explains that “human shoulder blades tilt down and outwards, whereas chimps tilt up. Small variations like this are the reason humans have awful shoulders. And chimps, with whom we share nearly 99% of our DNA, don’t.” For that, Ryzak continues, “we can thank evolution — or more specifically, how we are outpacing it.”

But the tilt difference does not explain why the human shoulder is “awful.” If we spent most of our time swinging from tree branches, it might; but we don’t. And the claimed 99% similarity between human and chimp DNA has no bearing on the issue.

Ryzak goes on (from 0:47 to 0:59) to say:

Side effects of a human shoulder may include dislocation, separation, rotator cuff tears, bursitis, tendonitis, tendonosis, impingement syndrome, instability, arthritis, adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder), and fracture.

But these are not “side effects,” any more than getting a flat tire is a “side effect” of making an automobile. Or having a roof torn off by a tornado is a “side effect” of building a house. And these problems are not unique to humans: Chimps can also suffer from arthritis and fractures, among other things.

Enter Nathan Lents, professor of biology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. In 2015, Lents argued on his blog that the human eye is badly designed, primarily because “the vertebrate retina is wired in backwards.” Like Richard Dawkins and others before him, Lents based his claim on the fact that the light-sensing cells face away from the incoming light. But evidence published from the 1960s onward — and reported in standard textbooks — shows that this arrangement is far better than the one Lents favors.

Back to the video on “Why the Human Shoulder is a Design Disaster.” Lents says (at 1:30) that the shoulder is “more of a floating joint than any other joint in the body.” Ryzak explains that the outer layer of muscles (consisting of the deltoid and trapezius) is stronger than the inner layer (the rotator cuff). Then Lents continues (from 1:59), “Having such an overlapping meshwork of muscles, what you’re inviting is pinching, and tearing, as the orientation can shift.” Lents compares the shoulder joint to the hip joint, in which “the relationship of the hip to the leg is fairly fixed in place.”

So far, the video has summarized the structure of the shoulder and its difference from the hip. The shoulder is more flexible than the hip. Good thing, too, or we wouldn’t be able to perform many of the actions we do. Just watch an acrobat performing on the parallel bars. Or a baseball player pitching a fastball. Or an athlete swimming the butterfly.

But journalist Ryzak confidently concludes ex cathedra (starting at 2:19) that “we’ve proven to you just how cr*ppy our shoulders are.” How so? Ryzak doesn’t say. Instead she simply suggests going “back into the evolution part.”

Does Evolution Explain It All?

According to Lents (starting at 2:28), “In our quadrupedal ancestors, in our deep past, really we had four legs, they weren’t really arms, to speak of. When you think of a dog and a cat, they don’t have arms, they have legs. But they still have a shoulder joint, as we can think of it.”

Then Ryzak says, “Our shoulders evolved for a life in the trees, swinging and hanging out. Then we left the trees behind and began to stand upright. This freed our arms up for other purposes, like hunting and gathering.” So from four-legged animals that walked and ran on the ground, we get animals that spend some of their time on the ground but mostly swing from branches to branches in the trees. Then those animals “evolved” into animals that stood upright and used their arms for other purposes. This is the standard Darwinian narrative. But how, exactly, did four-legged animals on the ground evolve into two-armed animals that swung on tree branches, which then evolved into two-armed animals that stood upright on the ground? The video offers no explanation; only an imaginative story.

Lents continues (starting at 2:54), “We are partially adapted for throwing, which is… no other animal in our group of animals throws anything.” This is not true: Chimps can throw, though not as far or as accurately as humans. Indeed, they are infamous for flinging feces at visitors to zoos.

But that’s a minor detail. Lents goes on to say, “So we believe that throwing was a very strong evolutionary pressure as we began to hunt — throwing spears, thrusting as well, so thrusting and throwing are very specific kinds of motion. And that required that floating nature to our shoulder.” But “evolutionary pressure” just means that throwing favored the survival of early humans. It does not account for the origin of the human shoulder. As Darwinian biologists wrote in 1996, adaptations “concern the survival of the fittest, not the arrival of the fittest.”

So the claim that “we left the trees behind and began to stand upright” does not explain the remarkable anatomy of the human shoulder. After all, chimps leave the trees on a regular basis (though they don’t stand upright). Yet their shoulder anatomy has not changed.

The Problem and Its Solution

According to Lents (at 3:57), “Part of the problem in present-day humans is not so much a bad shoulder design but a mismatch between what our shoulder is designed to do and how we use it on a daily basis.” Of course, Lents doesn’t think the shoulder was intelligently designed. As a Darwinist, he believes that the shoulder evolved through accidental variations and survival of the fittest. And in our immediate ancestors, the shoulder was adapted (“designed”) to swing through trees.

Most of our modern activities are very different. Ryzak adds (starting at 4:16), 

It might surprise you, but simply sitting at your desk is a major contributor to shoulder problems. When we hunch forward for days, hours, months, years on end, we end up causing unnecessary pulls and strains on our rotator cuff muscles. That can lead to injuries

Lents explains (starting at 5:20) that you can minimize shoulder problems by “changing the way you eat, changing the ways you use your body.” And, Ryzak adds (from 5:34 to 5:52), “pay attention to basic posture.” So after all the talk about bad design and evolutionary mismatch, the solution to our “design disaster” is for us to pay attention to diet, exercise, and posture. 

I think I could have figured that out without all the anti-design rhetoric and Darwinian storytelling. Oh, and I would add: Be careful not to fall in such a way as to dislocate your shoulder.

Our AI overlords are one step closer to world domination?

 

The Russian church has gone off the rails II

 

Physics is on its deathbed?

 

On extinguishing metal fires: learning the hard way edition.

 

Thermite : a brief history.

 

The Russian church has gone off the rails?

 

And yet even more lost technology?

 

Rediscovering more lost technology?

 

Hubris on steroids?

 

The sky is falling in china?

 

Homology implies Darwinism?

 

Natural selection is not very selective?

 

Finetuned for life? II

 

Finetuned for life?

 

No JEHOVAH No Justice

 Psalm ch.97:1,2ASV"1JEHOVAH reigneth; let the earth rejoice; Let the multitude of isles be glad.

2Clouds and darkness are round about him: Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne."

Only an invincible, incorruptible,infallible,immortal, almighty judge can bring us justice in the true sense of the word.

Psalm ch.146:3ASV"Put not your trust in princes, Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help."

But make no mistake if we are to receive JEHOVAH'S Help it's going to be on his terms

Jeremiah ch.8:9ASV"The wise men are put to shame, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of JEHOVAH; and what manner of wisdom is in them?

The immortal(?) Tardigrade.

 

Still a theory in crisis? II

 Theory in Crisis? Dissatisfaction and the Proliferation of New Articulations

Jonathan Wells

Editor’s note: We are saddened by the passing of our friend and colleague, the iconoclastic biologist Jonathan Wells. As a tribute, we are presenting some highlights from his work. The following is the third part in a series, “Is Darwinism a Theory in Crisis?” It is adapted from the book, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Look here for the series so far.

A scientific revolution is fueled in part by growing dissatisfaction among adherents of the old paradigm. This leads to new versions of the theoretical underpinnings of the paradigm. In his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn wrote:

The proliferation of competing articulations, the willingness to try anything, the expression of explicit discontent, the recourse to philosophy and to debate over fundamentals, all these are symptoms of a transition from normal to extraordinary research.1

Serious Problems with Darwin’s Theory

A growing number of biologists now acknowledge that there are serious problems with modern evolutionary theory. In 2007, biologist and philosopher Massimo Pigliucci published a paper asking whether we need “an extended evolutionary synthesis” that goes beyond neo-Darwinism.2 The following year, Pigliucci and 15 other biologists (none of them intelligent design advocates) gathered at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research just north of Vienna to discuss the question. Science journalist Suzan Mazur called this group “the Altenberg 16.”3 In 2010, the group published a collection of their essays. The authors challenged the Darwinian idea that organisms could evolve solely by the gradual accumulation of small variations preserved by natural selection, and the neo-Darwinian idea that DNA is “the sole agent of variation and unit of inheritance.”4

“A View from the 21st Century”

In 2011, biologist James Shapiro (who was not one of Altenberg 16 and is not an intelligent design advocate) published a book titled Evolution: A View from the 21st Century. Shapiro expounded on a concept he called natural genetic engineering and provided evidence that cells can reorganize their genomes in purposeful ways. According to Shapiro, many scientists reacted to the phrase “natural genetic engineering” in the same way they react to intelligent design because it seems “to violate the principles of naturalism that exclude any role for a guiding intelligence outside of nature.” But Shapiro argued that.

the concept of cell-guided natural genetic engineering is well within the boundaries of twenty-first century biological science. Despite widespread philosophical prejudices, cells are now reasonably seen to operate teleologically: Their goals are survival, growth, and reproduction.5

In 2015, Nature published an exchange of views between scientists who believed that evolutionary theory needs “a rethink” and scientists who believed it is fine as it is. Those who believed that the theory needs rethinking suggested that those defending it might be “haunted by the specter of intelligent design” and thus want “to show a united front to those hostile to science.” Nevertheless, the former concluded that recent findings in several fields require a “conceptual change in evolutionary biology.”6 These same scientists also published an article in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London,in which they proposed “an alternative conceptual framework,” an “extended evolutionary synthesis” that retains the fundamentals of evolutionary theory “but differs in its emphasis on the role of constructive processes in development and evolution.”7

An Unusual Meeting in London

In 2016, an international group of biologists organized a public meeting to discuss an extended evolutionary synthesis at the Royal Society in London. Biologist Gerd Müller opened the meeting by pointing out that current evolutionary theory fails to explain (among other things) the origin of new anatomical structures (that is, macroevolution). Most of the other speakers agreed that the current theory is inadequate, though two speakers defended it. None of the speakers considered intelligent design an option. One speaker even caricatured intelligent design as “God did it,” and at one point another participant blurted out, “Not God — we’re excluding God.”8

The advocates of an extended evolutionary synthesis proposed various mechanisms that they argued were ignored or downplayed in current theory, but none of the proposed mechanisms moved beyond microevolution (minor changes within existing species). By the end of the meeting, it was clear that none of the speakers had met the challenge posed by Müller on the first day.9

A 2018 article in Evolutionary Biology reviewed some of the still-competing articulations of evolutionary theory. The article concluded by wondering whether the continuing “conceptual rifts and explanatory tensions” will be overcome.10 As long as they continue, however, they suggest that a scientific revolution is in progress.

Notes

Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed., 91.

Massimo Pigliucci, “Do we need an extended evolutionary synthesis?,” Evolution 61 (2007), 2743-2749.

Suzan Mazur, The Altenberg 16: An Exposé of the Evolution Industry (Wellington, New Zealand: Scoop Media, 2009).

Massimo Pigliucci and Gerd B. Müller, Evolution: The Extended Synthesis (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010).

James A. Shapiro, Evolution: A View from the 21st Century (Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press Science, 2011), 134-137.

Kevin Laland, Tobias Uller, Marc Feldman, Kim Sterelny, Gerd B. Müller, Armin Moczek, Eva Jablonka, John Odling-Smee, Gregory A. Wray, Hopi E. Hoekstra, Douglas J. Futuyma, Richard E. Lenski, Trudy F.C. Mackay, Dolph Schluter, and Joan E. Strassmann, “Does evolutionary theory need a rethink?” Nature 514 (2014), 161-164.

Kevin N. Laland, Tobias Uller, Marcus W. Feldman, Kim Sterelny, Gerd B. Müller, Armin Moczek, Eva Jablonka, and John Odling-Smee, “The extended evolutionary synthesis: its structure, assumptions and predictions,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 282 (2015), 20151019.

Paul A. Nelson, “Specter of intelligent design emerges at the Royal Society meeting,” Evolution News & Views (November 8, 2016), https://evolutionnews.org/2016/11/specter_of_inte/ (accessed August 22, 2020).

Paul A. Nelson and David Klinghoffer, “Scientists confirm: Darwinism is broken,” CNS News (December 13, 2016). https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/david-klinghoffer/scientists-confirm-darwinism-broken (accessed August 22, 2020).

Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda and Francisco Vergara-Silva, “Hierarchy Theory of Evolution and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: Some Epistemic Bridges, Some Conceptual Rifts,” Evolutionary Biology 45 (2018), 127-139.

Jonathan Wells doing a bit of bomb throwing.

 

Still a theory in crisis?

 Theory in Crisis? Redefining Science

Jonathan wells

Editor’s note: We are saddened by the passing of our friend and colleague, the iconoclastic biologist Jonathan Wells. As a tribute, we are presenting some highlights from his work. The following is the second part in a series, “Is Darwinism a Theory in Crisis?” It is adapted from the book, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Look here for the series so far.

In his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn noted that scientific revolutions are often marked by disputes over the “standard that distinguishes a real scientific solution from a mere metaphysical speculation.” Newton’s theory of gravity was resisted because “gravity, interpreted as an innate attraction between every pair of particles of matter, was an occult quality” like the medieval “tendency to fall.” Critics of Newtonianism claimed that it was not science and “its reliance upon innate forces would return science to the Dark Ages.”1

Centuries later, some scientists claimed that the big bang was not science. In 1938, German physicist Carl F. von Weizsäcker gave a lecture in which he referred to the relatively new idea that our universe had originated in a big bang. Renowned physical chemist Walther Nernst, who was in the audience, became very angry. Weizsäcker later wrote: 

He said, the view that there might be an age of the universe was not science. At first I did not understand him. He explained that the infinite duration of time was a basic element of all scientific thought, and to deny this would mean to betray the very foundations of science. I was quite surprised by this idea and I ventured the objection that it was scientific to form hypotheses according to the hints given by experience, and that the idea of an age of the universe was such a hypothesis. He retorted that we could not form a scientific hypothesis which contradicted the very foundations of science.

Weizsäcker concluded that Nernst’s reaction revealed “a deeply irrational” conviction that “the world had taken the place of God, and it was blasphemy to deny it God’s attributes.”2

Is Intelligent Design Science?

Similarly, intelligent design has been criticized for not being science. In 2004, American Society for Cell Biology president Harvey Lodish wrote that intelligent design is “not science” because “the ideas that form the basis” of it “have never been tested by any scientific peer-scrutiny or peer-review.”3 In 2005, the American Astronomical Society declared, “Intelligent Design fails to meet the basic definition of a scientific idea: its proponents do not present testable hypotheses and do not provide evidence for their views.”4 And the Biophysical Society adopted a policy stating, “What distinguishes scientific theories” from intelligent design “is the scientific method, which is driven by observations and deductions.” Since intelligent design is “not based on the scientific method,” it is “not in the realm of science.”5

The claims about evidence and peer review in the statements quoted above are false. Nevertheless, the statements illustrate that critics of intelligent design, like the critics of Newtonianism and the big bang, claim that the new paradigm does not qualify as science.

Some pro-Darwin writers have argued that intelligent design is even anti-science. In 2006, philosopher Niall Shanks wrote that “a culture war is currently being waged in the United States by religious extremists who hope to turn the clock of science back to medieval times.” The “chief weapon in this war is…intelligent design theory.”6 In 2008, biologist and textbook writer Kenneth Miller claimed that “to the ID movement the rationalism of the Age of Enlightenment, which gave rise to science as we know it, is the true enemy.” If intelligent design prevails, he wrote, “the modern age will be brought to an end.” For Miller, what is at stake “is nothing less than America’s scientific soul.”6

A Different Definition of Science

It’s true that intelligent design operates with a definition of science that differs from the definition used by pro-Darwin scientists. For the latter, science is the enterprise of seeking natural explanations for everything. Only material objects and the forces among them are real; entities such as a nonhuman mind (which would have to be the source of any intelligent design in nature) are unreal. In Darwinian science, any evidence that seems to suggest intelligent design is ignored or ruled out. In 1999, a biologist wrote in Nature that “even if all the data point to an intelligent designer, such an hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic.”7 But in an intelligent design paradigm, science seeks to follow the evidence wherever it leads. According to Kuhn, disputes such as this over the nature of science are common in scientific revolutions.

Notes

Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed., 103-105, 163.

Carl F. von Weizsäcker, The Relevance of Science (New York: Harper & Row, 1964), 151-153.

Letter from Harvey F. Lodish to Ohio Governor Bob Taft (February 24, 2004). https://www.newswise.com/articles/ascb-president-says-creationism-does-not-belong-in-ohios-classrooms (accessed August 22, 2020).

Statement on the Teaching of Evolution, American Astronomical Society (September 20, 2005). https://aas.org/press/aas-supports-teaching-evolution (accessed August 22, 2020).

Statement on Teaching Alternatives to Evolution, Biophysical Society (November 2005). https://www.biophysics.org/policy-advocacy/stay-informed/policy-issues/evolution-1 (accessed August 22, 2020).

Niall Shanks, God, the Devil, and Darwin (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), xi–xii.

Kenneth R. Miller, Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul (New York: Viking Press, 2008), 16, 190-191.

Scott Todd, “A view from Kansas on that evolution debate,” Nature 401 (1999), 423.

The throne of JEHOVAH'S Son demystified II

   

Another consideration is that later Church copyists would often change the wording of a scripture if it seemed to contradict a teaching of the Roman Church.[1] Therefore, if the wording of an ancient manuscript seems to contradict a later teaching of the Roman Church, it is more likely to have the original wording than another ancient manuscript which (at the same verse) seems to agree with that Church teaching.

Using these criteria, the UBS Committee unanimously agreed with all the wording of Heb. 1:8 except for one word. They agreed that the original writing of Heb. 1:8 should read literally (in the NT Greek): “toward but the son the throne of you the god into the age of the age and the staff of the straightness staff of the kingdom [‘of him’ or ‘of you’].”

It was the very last word of Heb. 1:8 that caused a “considerable degree of doubt” among those textual scholars. This very last word was either the NT Greek word sou (translated into English as “of you” or “your”) or autou (translated “of him” or “his”).

Why is it so important? Because these trinitarian scholars agreed that if autou (“his”) were used here by the author of Hebrews 1:8, then the verse “must be” translated “God is thy throne” and not “thy throne, O God”!! If, however, sou (“your”) was the original wording, then it could be translated either way. Obviously, then, a trinitarian would strongly prefer the reading of sou. [See end note 4]

In discussing this problem the UBS Committee noted that all the very oldest and best manuscripts (p46 - circa 200 A.D.; 'Aleph' - 4th century; and B - 4th century) all agree that the original wording was “his (autou) kingdom.” 

They also noted that later manuscripts which read “your (sou) kingdom” are now in agreement with the corresponding passage in the Greek OT Septuagint! (Remember that the UBS Committee recognizes, as do most Bible scholars, that the NT manuscript that differs slightly from the Septuagint is more likely to be correct than another one which perfectly agrees because copyists strongly tended to deliberately “correct” Septuagint quotes they found in the NT .) 

Furthermore, since autou is not repeated near the word in question in this NT manuscript quote of Ps. 45:6, 7, but sou is repeated, before and after, it would have been easy for a copyist to have inadvertently miscopied sou here. Autou, then, is more likely to have been original than sou for more than one reason.

It is also important to realize that all the oldest manuscripts (which were probably written before the full trinity doctrine was officially declared by the Roman Church in 381 A. D. and certainly written well before it was popularly accepted through the efforts of such men as Augustine in the early 5th century) use the word autou which will not properly allow for the trinitarian-preferred interpretation. Whereas many of the later manuscripts now use the word sou which will allow for the trinitarian-preferred interpretation of Heb. 1:8.

Isn’t it significant that the very earliest manuscript to use the trinitarian-preferred sou is Manuscript A from the 5th century which is shortly after the trinity doctrine was fully and officially declared at the Council of Constantinople in 381 A. D. and during the highly successful efforts of Augustine and others to defend and popularize this newly established “truth” of the Roman Church? (Remember the correlation between new church doctrines and changes in later manuscripts.) - See the HIST study paper. 

So even though there is overwhelming evidence that “his” (autou) was in the original manuscript of Hebrews 1:8 (even the trinitarian scholars who developed the Westcott and Hort text and the Nestle text use autou at Heb. 1:8), the UBS Committee finally agreed to choose “your” (sou) and label that choice as “having considerable degree of doubt,” anyway! 

Why did they bend their own rules of evidence? Because (1) they said there were so many later manuscripts that used sou, and (2) they admitted that they didn’t like what that verse actually said if autou had really been used in the original!

Oh, they did soften the arbitrariness of their choice slightly by labeling it as “having considerable degree of doubt,” but if any honest impartial scholar will examine their own comments on the evidence, he must agree that the UBS Committee’s choice is purely an emotional one and the evidence rules otherwise (as other trinitarian texts noted above admit).

Sou not only has “considerable degree of doubt,” it is nearly impossible. The UBS Committee’s own comments on the evidence make autou virtually certain as the original word, and, therefore, in the committee’s own word’s, Hebrews 1:8 “must be” translated “God is thy throne” and not “thy throne, O God.” - (study pp. 662-663 in A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, United Bible Societies, 1971.) 

It might be worthwhile to see that that same UBS textual committee said (p. 522) when discussing Romans 9:5: 

“In fact, on the basis of the general tenor of his theology it was tantamount to impossible that Paul would have expressed Christ’s greatness by calling him God blessed for ever.” And, “Nowhere else in his genuine epistles does Paul ever designate [‘the Christ’] as theos [‘God’ or ‘god’].”

So, for those of us who believe that Paul wrote the Bible book of Hebrews, the UBS committee provides yet another reason why Heb. 1:8 must be translated “God is your throne” not “your throne, O God.” (But don’t forget that some scholars don’t consider Paul to be the author of Hebrews even though they may still consider Hebrews to be inspired scripture.) 

Some trinitarians have objected that “it does not make sense [or even, ‘it’s ridiculous’] to call God a ‘throne.’”[2] However, to any serious Bible student, it is entirely reasonable and appropriate. Calling God “the throne of Jesus” is an excellent figurative way to show that God approves and upholds Christ’s kingly reign (as in Westcott’s comment previously quoted).

Is God ever called “unlikely” things in a figurative sense that are as equally “ridiculous” as calling him “a throne”? Every Bible student of any experience knows that He is, repeatedly!

Many times he is called someone’s “Rock” (e.g., Ps. 78:35). 

He is called a “fortress” (e.g., Ps. 91:2). 

He is called a “lamp” in 2 Samuel 22:29. 

He is called a “crown” (“in that day will Jehovah of hosts become a crown of glory, unto the 

residue of his people” - Is. 28:5, ASV). 

Jehovah is called “our dwelling place” - Ps. 90:1, KJV. 

And “Jehovah is my ... song” - Ps. 118:14. 

Also notice Ps. 60:7, 8 “Ephraim is my helmet, Judah my scepter, Moab is my washbasin”, NIV. And in Is. 22:23 we find Eliakim, whom Jehovah said he would call and commit authority to (Is. 22:20, 21), called a “throne” (“and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house,” RSV). 

Not only is it made very clear by many trinitarian translators [3] and text writers [4] themselves that Heb. 1:8 may be honestly translated “God is your throne,” but all real evidence shows that it should be so translated!

So we find once more that Jesus cannot possibly be God. Just as we saw in the case of the Israelite king in Ps. 45:6, 7, if God is his throne (the one supporting him - giving him power and authority), then he cannot be that God!

............................................................................

NOTES

1. An example of this is the omission of the words “nor the son” in the majority of manuscripts at Matt. 24:36. However, the two oldest and best manuscripts, Aleph and B (as well as Manuscript A of the 5th century), do have “nor the son” after the word “heaven” (as it is in Mark 13:32). Bible scholars have come to the conclusion that the words were first omitted by a copyist sometime shortly after the development of the trinity doctrine by the Roman Church in the 4th century (see the HIST study) because it seemed to contradict the trinity doctrine: Jesus as equal to the Father. - See A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, p. 62, United Bible Societies, 1971. Also see The Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Alexandrinus, published by the trustees of the British Museum (quoted in the Feb. 1, 1984 WT, p. 7) or see the Manuscripts at . http://www.codex-sinaiticus.net/en/ and http://www.csntm.org/Manuscript/View/GA_02 and http://www.csntm.org/Manuscript/View/GA_03 

2. Bowman, in his Why You Should Believe in the Trinity, after explaining that Heb. 1:1-6 describes the Son as in essence God, says:

It should come as no surprise, then, that in verse 8 God the Father says “of the Son, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever...’” (translating literally). 

To circumvent this plain statement, the NWT renders verse 8 as “God is your throne forever and ever....” On merely grammatical considerations, this translation is possible, and some biblical scholars have favored this rendering. According to such a reading, the point of the statement is then that God is the source of Jesus’ authority. 

However, this seems to be an unusual, if not completely odd, way of making that point. In Scripture a “throne” is not the source of one’s authority, but the position or place from which one rules. Thus, heaven is called “the throne of God” (Matt. 5:34). Surely God does not derive his authority from heaven, or from anyone or anything! But, even assuming that “God is your throne” would be understood as having that meaning, in context this makes no sense. The writer of Hebrews is quoting Psalm 45:6 and applying it to the Son to show that the Son is far greater than any of the angels. However, if all this verse means is that the Son’s authority derives from God, this in no way makes him unique or greater than the angels, since this could be said of any of God’s obedient angels. - pp. 106-107, Baker Book House, 1991 ed. 

To take things in the order Bowman states them, 

(A) his “literal” translation of Heb. 1:8 is certainly not literal. As we saw at the beginning of this paper, the actual NT Greek literally says “the throne of you the god into the age of the age.” The understood verb “is” may be inserted anywhere in the sentence, but it is not literally in the original manuscript, and to insist that it must be inserted and interpreted as Bowman has done is simply (literally) untrue! In fact it seems much more probable, whether one inserts it before or after “the god,” to mean: ‘the throne of you IS the God into the age of the age.’ (Although it is less likely, it is possible that ho theos could be considered a vocative [‘O God’] - but see trinitarian Dr. Westcott’s quote above). But, at any rate, Bowman is not being truthful when he says he is “translating literally” as ‘your throne, O God, is forever and ever...’! 

Posted by Elijah Daniels 

It's design through and through?

 In Our World, Multiple Levels of Intelligent Design

Eric Hedin

A few weeks ago, when the start of the fall semester brought to me a classroom full of new students for their first college physics course, I took a few minutes to get to know them by asking them a question. Since I currently teach at a Christian university, I asked the students to write out an example or two of how they see God’s hand in nature.

Reading responses to an open-ended question like this provides a valuable glimpse into what students are thinking and where they are in their understanding of science and faith. It was good for me to be reminded that nature offers poignant testimony to a designer, for those who have eyes to see.

Most students saw “God’s hand in nature” in a general way through order, beauty, and interconnectedness. Examples included seeing a sunrise or sunset and the feelings of peace that come when viewing these. The beauty of plants and flowers that thrive in nature. Autumn leaves changing colors, the first snowfall and other seasonal changes. The awesome beauty of mountains and the Grand Canyon. Animals and birds and the purposes they serve. The ocean and all the life it sustains. Clouds and how they bring the rain. The moon and stars at night. And the intricacy of the human body.

An Admission

I’ll have to admit that when I first read through these responses, the thought came to me that appealing to aesthetics or the calming effect of the ocean waves, the regularity of the seasons, or the awesomeness of a starry night sky as evidence would be quickly discounted by most atheists. And yet I realize that all these examples speak most deeply to my own heart not only of the existence of a designer but of his character. 

Lest we become too focused on scientific evidence, to the seeking heart, a deeper question seeks for an answer. The 19th-century Scottish storyteller and theologian George MacDonald framed it this way in his novel Robert Falconer:

The Most Fundamental Level

Evidence from nature is at the heart of the intelligent design argument. As we examine the natural world, multiple levels of design become apparent. At the most fundamental of these we encounter designs that can be fully explained by the universal laws of nature. We’re all familiar with examples, such as exquisite six-sided snowflakes, rainbows across a misty valley, the rosy hues of a sunrise or sunset, or the rhythmic waves of the ocean washing over a sandy beach. Each of these examples of natural design can be fully explained by reference to the forces and laws of nature discovered.

Does explanation by natural cause negate intelligent design? Only if the existence of these prior causes can also be explained naturally. As it is, however, and despite the best efforts of many scientists to explain otherwise, the laws of nature that bring about beautiful instances of natural design have no other scientific explanation than that they just are the way they are. Postulating a designer for the particular suite of orchestrated natural laws that govern our universe has seemed to many scientists a more reasonable conclusion than simply ascribing everything to “dumb luck.”

Designs of Life

Within our world, we also find higher genres of design that cannot be explained by appealing to the actions of natural forces and laws of nature. In every case, these higher levels of design originate from or within living creatures. I address the evidential power of some of these designs in my book, Canceled Science:

Animals, even insects, can create designs that extend beyond the kinds of design produced by the forces of nature alone. Animal designs typically have the added hallmark of functionality — for example, a beehive, or a bird’s nest, or a spider’s web. However, these designs seem to be pre-programmed or instinctive, and do not originate from the individual creativity of the animal.

A creature’s instinctive ability to create a structure of functional design prompts us to investigate how this ability could have been brought about. Three questions regarding instinctive designs need consideration:  

How did the information required to instantiate the design arise in the first place?

How did the information for the design become coded within the biochemistry of the organism?

How did an effectual, multi-generational information storage, retrieval, and implementation system come to exist within the living creature’s being?

These are profound questions that need more than a bobble-head nod to evolution to answer them. Complex, functional systems do not arise without intelligent guidance and direction. 

A Naturalistic Point of View

The mystery of explaining design from a naturalistic point of view reaches an even higher level when we consider human designs that exponentially exceed anything else in nature. I wrote in Canceled Science:

Humans, in contrast, can and do create beautiful designs with a seemingly inexhaustible fund of creativity. Humans can endow their designs with functionality or whimsy, can express the complex emotions of the artist, or the mood and outlook of a people or culture at a particular time and place — the zeitgeist. 

The fields of painting, sculpture, music, literature, architecture, and engineering all offer proofs in abundance of the human capacity and drive to produce masterful designs. Such work involves matter and a mastery of material forces, but it is more than this. Leonardo da Vinci said, “The painter has it first in his mind, and then in his hands.”1 Human-level designs far exceed anything the laws of physics and chemistry alone could produce. Nowhere do we find such laws producing, from scratch, anything approaching the Taj Mahal, or a racing yacht, or the Space Shuttle, or da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

The Highest Level

Within the physical universe, the highest level of design we encounter manifests in the functional biochemistry of a living creature, perhaps attaining its pinnacle in the human body. Even a single-celled organism exhibits masterful biochemical design properties that challenge the human ability to comprehend, let alone mimic with our most sophisticated technology. Asking for the origin of such exquisitely complex biological designs — designs that surpass the combined intelligence of the entire human race — surely points us to a designer far beyond nature.

And where we directly witness the creation of a form that is fundamentally new, information rich, and of great depth, there is always behind it an intelligent agent — an artist or poet, an architect or engineer. Based on this uniform and repeated experience, biological designs — themselves novel, information-rich, and of great depth — would appear to be the prerogative of creative intelligence.

Eric Hedin, Canceled Science: What Some Atheists Don’t Want You to See (Seattle: Discovery Institute Press, 2021, pp. 204-5)

Notes

Martin Kemp, ed. Leonardo on Painting: An Anthology of Writings by Leonardo da Vinci with a Selection of Documents Relating to His Career as an Artist, trans. Martin Kemp and Margaret Walker (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 32.

Their kingdom is very much a part of this world.

 "Pope Pius XII, in particular, had failed to condemn the Final Solution, though he knew of it."

Paul Johnson, History of the Jews

"How could the Christian Church, apparently quite willingly, accommodate this weird megalomaniac [Constantine] in it's theocratic system? Was there a conscious bargain? Which side benefited most form this unseemly marriage between church and state? Or, to put it another way, did the empire surrender to Christianity, or did Christianity prostitute itself to the empire? It is characteristic of the complexities of early Christian history that we cannot give a definite answer to this question."

Paul Johnson, A History of Christianity

Tags: christianity, history

"Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”"

John chapter 18 verse 36 New Living translation 

File under "Well said" CXI

"The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false."

Paul Johnson