Knowing technology when we see it II

 “Poor Design”? Human Skeletal Joints Demonstrate Engineering Genius 

Evolution News @DiscoveryCSC 

A new episode of ID the Future completes a talk by award-winning British engineer Stuart Burgess, who explains how the human ankle and wrist joints offer powerful evidence of engineering genius. Burgess is answering evolutionist Nathan Lents, who has argued that human joints are poorly designed and, therefore, evidence against intelligent design and for Darwinian evolution’s blind trial-and-error process. According to Burgess, Lents ignores — and seems to be ignorant of — the many ingeniously engineered features of our joints, leading Lents to make easily refuted claims. For example, Lents says an ankle with fused bones would be a superior design to a healthy human ankle. Not if the person hopes to play squash or tackle any number of other activities that require the suppleness and responsiveness of the human ankle, Burgess notes. Download the podcast or listen to it here. 

Game over? Really? V

Theory in Crisis? Some Cautionary Words

Jonathan Wells 

Editor’s note: We have been delighted to present a series by biologist Jonathan Wells asking, “Is Darwinism a Theory in Crisis?” This is the fifth and final post in the series, which is adapted from the recent book, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Find the full series here.

Philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn was criticized for various inconsistencies in his argument, including his tendency to switch back and forth among several meanings of paradigm and theory. More seriously, he was criticized for his relativism because he sometimes wrote as though no paradigm is any closer to objective reality than any other. But it seems to me that Kuhn’s biggest problem was that he himself operated within a paradigm — Darwinism — without recognizing it as such. For example, in opposition to Karl Popper’s view that theories cannot be verified but only falsified, Kuhn wrote that “verification is like natural selection: It picks out the most viable among the actual alternatives in a particular historical situation.”1 

How Science Evolves?

Kuhn even concluded The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by calling his approach “the evolutionary view of science.” At the end of his last chapter he wrote: 

The analogy that relates the evolution of organisms to the evolution of scientific ideas can easily be pushed too far. But with respect to the issues of this closing section [i.e., progress through revolutions] it is very nearly perfect…[T]he resolution of revolutions is the selection by conflict within the scientific community of the fittest way to practice future science. The net result of a sequence of such revolutionary selections, separated by periods of normal research, is the wonderfully adapted set of instruments we call modern scientific knowledge. Successive stages in that developmental process are marked by an increase in articulation and specialization. And the entire process may have occurred, as we now suppose biological evolution did, without benefit of a set goal, a permanent fixed scientific truth, of which each stage in the development of scientific knowledge is a better exemplar.2 

Kuhn’s defense against critics who thereafter called him a relativist was based on the analogy between biological evolution and the history of science. In a 1970 postscript to his 1962 book, he wrote: 

Imagine an evolutionary tree representing the development of the modern scientific specialties from their common origins in, say, primitive natural philosophy and the crafts. A line drawn up that tree, never doubling back, from the trunk to the tip of some branch would trace a succession of theories related by descent. Considering any two such theories, chosen from points not too near their origin, it should be easy to design a list of criteria that would enable an uncommitted observer to distinguish the earlier from the more recent theory time after time…[If such a list can be compiled] then scientific development is, like biological, a unidirectional and irreversible process. Later scientific theories are better than earlier ones for solving puzzles in the often quite different environments to which they are applied. That is not a relativist’s position, and it displays the sense in which I am a convinced believer in scientific progress.3 

In the end, therefore, it seems that even Kuhn admitted that unguided processes do not solve problems or lead to truth; intelligent direction is necessary. 

A Shift Toward Design 

Despite these problems with Kuhn’s argument, we can still benefit from his descriptions of what happens during scientific revolutions. These include (1) the focus on debates over the definition of science; (2) the proliferation of variant articulations of the existing paradigm, which represent growing dissatisfaction among its adherents; and (3) the way defenders of an existing paradigm use all the institutional means at their disposal — including professional journals, membership in professional societies, and funding for jobs and research — to resist the challenger. 

All of these are evident in the current controversy between Darwinism and intelligent design. Whether intelligent design will be the paradigm that successfully replaces Darwinism remains to be seen. But without a doubt, the modern neo-Darwinian model of evolution is a theory in crisis. 

Notes 

1)Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed., 146.

2)Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed., 172-173.

3)Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed., 205-206. 

Ancient Coptic text and John Ch.1

 Coptic John 1:1-18 

The Sahidic Coptic Indefinite Article at John 1:1 

“The use of the Coptic articles, both definite and indefinite, corresponds closely to the use of the articles in English.” – Thomas O. Lambdin, Introduction to Sahidic Coptic, page 5 

What is the primary difference? Lambdin continues: “Indefinite nouns designating unspecified quantities of a substance require an indefinite article in Coptic where there is none in English.” Further, “abstract nouns such as *me*, truth, often appear with either article, where English employs no article.” (page 5)

These are the distinctions that some apologists would make of great consequence when faced with the indefinite article at Coptic John 1:1c. But making an issue of this is a smokescreen that hides either ignorance or outright deception. Why? Because these exceptions have absolutely nothing to do with Coptic John 1:1c. Why not? Because the noun used here, *noute*, god, does not fall into either of the categories mentioned above. *Noute* is not a noun designating quantities of a substance. It is not an abstract noun. Rather, it is a regular Coptic noun which, joined with the Sahidic Coptic indefinite article, *ou*, is usually translated by means of the English indefinite article “a”. Therefore, there are sound grammatical reasons for rendering Sahidic Coptic John 1:1c by what it actually and literally says, “a god was the Word.” (Note: In Coptic, the "e" in *ne* is elided with the "o" in *ou* giving neunoute instead of neounoute when the words are spelled together.)

Nothing is gained by verbose, philosophical attempts at explaining that "a god was the Word" is not what the Coptic text “means.” That’s clearly what it says, so why should that not be what it means? To impute a different meaning to what the Coptic text actually says is eisegesis, not exegesis. It is special pleading of the worst kind. It is bringing theological suppositions into the Coptic text that the text itself does not support.

True, the Coptic text is a translation of the Koine Greek text of John 1:1c , but that text also can be translated literally to say “a god was the Word.” The Sahidic Coptic translators were translating the Greek text as they understood it, from the background of 500 years of Koine Greek influence in Egypt. The challenge to those scholars and apologists who argue for a qualitative or definite reading for Coptic John 1:1c is that they have the burden of proof to show clearly, by Scripture references, where else the Sahidic Coptic indefinite article before the noun *noute*, god, has a qualitative or definite meaning.

Until they find such verses, their arguments are hollow, shallow, irrelevant, and immaterial.

It is not sufficient to merely suppose and guess that the Sahidic Coptic indefinite article before a regular noun has qualitative or definite significance. Show the proof from the Coptic Scriptures.

On the other hand, there are many verses in just the Gospel of John alone where the Sahidic Coptic indefinite article, joined to a regular noun like *noute*, god, is translated with the English indefinite article “a” in Reverend George Horner’s classic English translation of the Sahidic Coptic text, as well as in other Sahidic Coptic literature that has been translated into English.

In simple terms: Apologists and scholars, don’t continue to give us your theological biases, disguised as grammatical treatments. Don’t continue to throw up verbose smokescreens in attempts to hide the truth of what the Sahidic Coptic text says. Your arguments are built on sand.

Show us the proof of your assertions from actual Sahidic Coptic New Testament verses, if you have any. 

Lambdin gives two examples of this usage quite early in his grammar book. For example, on page 17 he gives the sentence *n ounoute an pe*, translatled in the key as “He is not a god.” On page 18 we have the sentence *ntof ounoute pe*, which Lambdin translates as “He is a god.” Not “he is God.” Not “he is Divine.” But, “he is a god.” This same indefinite article – regular noun construction is found at Coptic John 1:1c: *auw neunoute pe pSaje*

Common morphology = Common descent except when it doesn't?

 Fossil Friday: Eurotamandua — Anteater or Not Even Close? 

Günter Bechly 

A very well-preserved fossil mammal from the Middle Eocene Messel pit in Germany was discovered in 1974 and described by Storch (1981) as Eurotamandua joresi. Famous German vertebrate paleontologist Gerhard Storch considered the fossil not only as the oldest fossil anteater (about 47 million years old) but also as the first European representative of this mammal order. This was a true sensation for paleontologists and zoologists alike. The simple reason is that anteaters belong to the group Xenarthra, which includes sloths, armadillos, and anteaters, and is generally believed to have always been an endemic to the neotropical region.  

Extensive Phylogenetic Studies 

A pitched controversy about the biogeographic and evolutionary implications resulted, and speculations ran wild. Extensive phylogenetic studies either affirmed the attribution of Eurotamandua to neotropical Xenarthra (Storch & Habersetzer 1991, Szalay & Schrenk 1994, Höss et al. 1996, Branham & Gaudin 1997, Gaudin & Branham 1998) or challenged it as uncertain (Gaudin 1999), or placed it closer to Pholidota (pangolins) and its fossil relatives Palaeanodonta (Rose & Emry 1993, Shoshani et al. 1997, Rose 1999, Delsuc et al. 2001), or attributed it to a totally independent lineage called Afredentata (Szalay & Schrenk 1998). All these scientists came to very different conclusions, even though they all worked with the same single fossil and its published description. 

Finally, a study by Gaudin et al. (2009) established Eurotamandua as a fossil pangolin, contrary to their own earlier study. This was also supported by the more recent phylogenetic analysis of Kondrashov & Agadjanian (2012). An interesting detail is that Xenarthra and Pholidota were classically considered as related toothless mammals (Edentata) based on morphological similarities, but were shown to be totally unrelated and far removed in the mammalian tree of life based on molecular data (Xenarthra at the very base of mammals or as sister group to Afrotheria, but Pholidota as closest relative to carnivorans deeply nested within Laurasiatheria).  

Yet More Controversy 

However, an attribution of Eurotamandua to pangolins did not prevent further controversy. Szalay & Schrenk (1998) considered the Messel pholidote Eomanis krebsi (attributed to Euromanis by Gaudin et al. 2009) as a juvenile Eurotamandua and thus as synonym of this taxon. This was strongly rejected by Horovitz et al. (2005) based on the leg morphology. By the way: the apparent typical xenarthran joints described by Storch (1981) as a crucial character could not be corroborated by other studies (Rose & Emry 1993, Szalay & Schrenk 1994, Gaudin 1999) and ultimately turned out to be mere artifacts of preparation and restoration of the fossil (Storch 2003). All the other unique anatomical similarities between Eurotamandua and anteaters, that were previously considered as unequivocal synapomorphies (Branham & Gaudin 1997), are now considered evolutionary convergences. These include quite complex features such as horizontal palatal plates and a supplementary bulla tympanica (Storch & Habersetzer 1991). 

Darwinists thus have to appeal to the ad hoc hypothesis of convergent adaptation to similar lifestyles, which of course increases the problem of how a blind evolutionary search process could stumble upon the same complex solutions multiple times. A design perspective can explain such incongruent data much better than a Darwinian perspective, because intelligent designers typically reuse the same innovations and principles in different instantiations. 

References 

of Ernanodon(Mammalia, Palaeanodonta) from Mongolia: morphofunctional analysis. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32(5), 983–1001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2012.694319.

Rose KD 1999. Eurotamandua and Palaeanodonta: convergent or related? Paläontologische Zeitschrift 73(3/4), 395–401. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02988050.

Rose KD & Emry RJ 1993. Relationships of Xenarthra, Pholidota, and fossil ‘Edentates’: the morphological evidence. pp. 81–102 in: Szalay FS, Novacek MJ & McKenna MC (eds). Mammal Phylogeny (Placentals). Springer, New York (NY).

Shoshani J, McKenna MC, Rose KD & Emry RJ 1997. Eurotamandua is a pholidotan not a xenarthran. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 17(Suppl. 3), 76A. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.1997.10011028.

Storch G 1981. Eurotamandua joresi, ein Myrmecophagide aus dem Eozän der “Grube Messel” bei Darmstadt (Mammalia, Xenarthra). Senckenbergiana lethaea 61(3/6), 247–289. https://www.schweizerbart.de/publications/detail/artno/190506103/Senckenbergiana_Lethaea_61_3_6

Storch G 2003. Fossil Old World „edentates“ (Mammalia). Senckenbergiana biologica83(1), 51–60.

Storch G & Habersetzer J 1991. Rückverlagerte Choanen und akzessorische Bulla typanica bei rezenten Vermilingua und Eurotamandua aus dem Eozän von Messel (Mammalia: Xenarthra). Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde 56, 257–271. https://biostor.org/reference/183398

Szalay FS & Schrenk F 1994. Middle Eocene Eurotamandua and the early differentiation of the Edentata. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 14(Suppl. 3), 48A. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.1994.10011592.

Szalay FS & Schrenk F 1998. The Middle Eocene Eurotamandua and a Darwinian phylogenetic analysis. Kaupia – Darmstädter Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte 7, 97–186. 

The deprivileging of man continues apace?

The Law Society in UK Endorses “Nature Rights” 

Wesley J. Smith 

The nature-rights movement continues to move from the fringe into decidedly establishment circles, with virtually no push back and a foolish, “It will never happen here,” shrugging of the collective shoulders. Now, the UK’s Law Society — the organization that represents solicitors, roughly equivalent to the ABA — has issued a report calling for the establishment of nature and non-human rights.

First, the report clearly attacks human exceptionalism — the backbone of Western liberty — and criticizes what it calls (can you believe it?) the “binary of the species hierarchy.” Yes, transgender ideology and other critical theories have entered the environmentalist sphere. (Notice the woke gibberishy writing style.) From, “Law in the Emerging Bio-Age“:

Some argue that in the current system human rights are not properly protected or balanced. If taxonomies like the species hierarchy are important in allocating rights, then we need to think about how bio body hackers who make extreme physical changes, biorobots, human-animal chimerae, and autonomous robots will be treated.

We already see that transgender people and people with different characteristics are ‘othered’ and the effect of negative societal responses to body changes clearly links to the ‘cute or repulsive’ binary of the species hierarchy. 

Just Another Species 

In other words, we should redefine our self-understanding as being just another species in the forest.

Never mind that only humans have moral obligations and can be called to account for failing to meet our responsibilities. Nature rights will cure the injustice of human exceptionalism (my emphasis): 

Rights for nonhumans communicates our dependence on and a greater role for nature in decision-making. 

Stop the quote! “Nature” and/or animals wouldn’t have a “greater role in decision-making.” Radical environmentalist or animal-rights ideologues would. Back to the quote: 

The process and execution of a nonhuman rights-based framework in international and local law may differ radically from a human rights-based approach. For example, if rights were granted to nonhumans or living systems, then questions of liability for damage to the environment, such as climate change or biodiversity loss, arise 

A Cornucopia for Lawyers 

In other words, granting rights to non-humans would be a cornucopia for lawyers since these laws allow anyone to bring lawsuits to enforce nature’s purported rights, which the Law Society well understands:

If rights were granted to nonhumans or living systems, then questions of liability for damage to the environment, such as climate change or biodiversity loss, arise in relation to the causal link between the damage and the person/entity causing it; attribution of liability; calculation of damages and so on. 

Lawsuits without end! (Oh joy, rapture!) Not to mention transactional legal and lobbying opportunities for the horde of lawyers pursing the rights of nature and non-humans: 

Beyond litigation against responsible parties, other concerns to consider are investor pressure, public procurement rules, financial, institution decisions, and reputation-focused campaigns by civil society 

The report also targets biotechnology and other areas of innovation for assault by nature-rights extremists. Its scope and breadth would severely limit cutting-edge science and industrial development.

When a venerable law society embraces non-human rights, it is time to pay attention. If people and lawmakers don’t take this threat to our collective economic well-being and personal freedom seriously, within a few years, we will be seeing serious public-policy impacts from this radical agenda throughout the West. 

What Would China Do? 

In this regard, let me ask a serious question: Is there any chance China would grant “rights” to nature when they have no regard for those of humans? The very notion is ludicrous. If this trend continues, we will be unilaterally snuffing our economies as China’s grows. To say the least, that would not bode well for the great civilizational contest developing between Western democracies and the evil tyrants of Beijing. 

 

Game over? Really? IV

 Theory in Crisis? Circling the Wagons 

Jonathan Wells 

Editor’s note: We are a delighted to present a series by biologist Jonathan Wells asking, “Is Darwinism a Theory in Crisis?” This is the fourth post in the series, which is adapted from the recent book, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Find the full series here. 

Philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn compared scientific revolutions to political revolutions. Like a political revolution, a scientific revolution typically divides people “into competing camps or parties, one seeking to defend the old institutional constellation, the others seeking to institute some new ones.”1 The camp defending the old paradigm uses every means at its disposal, including all of its professional societies and publications, to resist the challenger. Since the mid 20th century, established paradigms have also controlled enormous funding from foundations and taxpayers, and thus jobs in educational and research institutions. With careers at stake, things can get ugly. 

And Things Have Gotten Ugly 

In the late 1990s, in Burlington, Washington, high school biology teacher Roger DeHart taught evolution as required. But he also shared with his students a few articles from mainstream science publications that questioned some aspects of neo-Darwinian theory. Militant Darwinists intimidated the local school board with threats of a lawsuit, so DeHart was reassigned to another subject and his biology class was turned over to a physical education instructor. In 2002, DeHart left his career as a public high school teacher and eventually moved with his wife and children to another country.2

In 2003, Dr. Nancy Bryson was head of the Division of Science and Mathematics at the Mississippi University for Women. After she presented an honors forum titled “Critical Thinking on Evolution,” a senior biology professor read to the audience a previously prepared statement calling her presentation “religion masquerading as science” and accusing her of being unqualified to talk about evolution. The next day, Dr. Bryson was informed that her contract as division head would not be renewed. She subsequently had to find work elsewhere.3

In 2004, biologist Caroline Crocker was a visiting professor at George Mason University. While covering a required section on evolution, she gave one lecture on evidentiary problems with Darwin’s theory and briefly mentioned the controversy over intelligent design. At the end of the lecture, she told students to “think about it for yourself.” For this reason, Crocker’s contract was not renewed.4 

OK, Then Don’t Think About It for Yourself 

In 2005, biology teacher Bryan Leonard was about to get his PhD in science education from Ohio State University. His dissertation, which was a quantitative study about how a group of students reacted to the critical analysis of evolution, had already been approved by his committee. At the last minute, however, three pro-Darwin professors (who admitted they had not read Leonard’s dissertation) lodged a complaint against him. The complaint alleged that he had engaged in unethical behavior by implying to students that there were weaknesses in neo-Darwinism. As a result, the university blocked Leonard’s PhD.5

David Coppedge began working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California in 1996. For nine years he served as the team lead system administrator for the ambitious Cassini mission to Saturn. Then he was reprimanded and demoted for privately giving DVDs about intelligent design to co-workers who requested them. In 2011, he was let go.6

Internationally renowned paleontologist Günter Bechly directed the 2009 Darwin Day exhibit at State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany. The exhibit was strongly pro-Darwin, but it included a critique of intelligent design that featured some books by intelligent design advocates. After reading some of the pro-ID books, Bechly concluded that Darwinists had been misrepresenting intelligent design. He gradually changed his views and publicly declared his support for ID in 2015. After that, Bechly reported, the museum told him he was “no longer welcome, and that it would be appreciated if I would decide to quit.” He was eventually forced to resign.7 

Controlled by the Paradigm 

As Kuhn pointed out, mainstream scientific journals (like scientific societies) are also largely controlled by the dominant paradigm. For this reason, articles about intelligent design, or even articles on other subjects that have been written by known advocates of intelligent design, have rarely been published in mainstream journals.

Some years ago, I submitted an article on cell biology to a prominent scientific journal. The article did not mention intelligent design. After I made some recommended changes, my article passed peer review, and the editor emailed to tell me he wanted to publish it. He had just one final question: Was I “the Jonathan Wells of intelligent design fame?” (His words exactly.) I answered that I was. Afterward he sent the article to yet another reader, whose “review” didn’t really deal with its contents but sounded like an angry rant from a pro-Darwin blog. The editor then informed me he had decided not to publish my article.8

In this same scientific journal in 2020, biochemist Dave Speijer justified the prejudice against intelligent design. He recommended that Internet searches hosted by tech giants explicitly discriminate against intelligent design; if the tech giants resist, the government should “make them,” he wrote. In particular, Speijer recommended “mandatory color-coded banners warning of consistent factual errors or unscientific content, masquerading as science.”9 

Notes 

1)Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed., 93.

2)Jonathan Wells, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2006), 143-144.

3)Jim Brown and Ed Vitagliano, “Professor Dumped over Evolution Beliefs,” Agape Press (March 11, 2003). http://www.arn.org/docs2/news/professordumped031203.htm (accessed August 22, 2020).

4)Wells, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism, 190-191.

5)"Outside Professors Derail Dissertation,” Free Science, https://freescience.today/story/bryan-leonard/ (accessed August 22, 2020).

6)"Demoted, Terminated,” Free Science, https://freescience.today/story/david-coppedge/ (accessed August 22, 2020).

7)"Marginalized, Shown the Door,” Free Science, https://freescience.today/story/gunter-bechly/ (accessed August 22, 2020).

8)Michael Egnor, “What Scientists Know,” Evolution News and Science Today (May 28, 2020). https://evolutionnews.org/2020/05/what-scientists-know/ (accessed August 22, 2020).

9)David Speijer, “Bad Faith Reasoning, Predictable Chaos, and the Truth,” BioEssays 42 (June 2020), 2000040

Darwinism and behavior another pressure point in the design debate.

 Birds Have a Remarkable Gift for Deceit 

Denyse O'Leary 

When Clinton Francis, a specialist in bird behavior, challenged student Wren Thompson to find out how many types of birds use deceit in their defences against predators of their nests, he hardly expected to find that the number she was able to discover was 285:

Mapping those behaviors onto the avian phylogenetic tree revealed that the trait spans from some of the most basal bird families, including pheasants and ducks, to more recently evolved taxa such as songbirds. “It’s pretty amazing,” Francis says, adding that he was surprised how “particular clades on the avian tree of life really just light up,” including blackbirds, warblers, and sparrows. The frequent and disjointed appearance of the behavior across the tree suggests it evolved independently several times, he adds.

ANDY CARSTENS, “AVIAN DECEPTION MORE WIDESPREAD THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT” AT THE SCIENTIST (OCTOBER 3, 2022); THE PAPER IS OPEN ACCESS. 

Thinking About the Killdeer 

The bird that set them thinking was the killdeer, which pretends to be injured in order to distract a predator’s attention from the young in its ground nest: 

With humans, it has the opposite of its intended effect. Wise to the trick, we begin looking around, just out of interest, to see if we can spot the nest. But it apparently works well enough with the killdeer’s usual targets. 

To Deceive a Fellow Bird 

Birds have subtle ways of deceiving other birds as well: 

Filipe Cunha, a behavioral ecologist at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, happened upon a particularly unusual case of avian deception while studying Siberian jays (Perisoreus infaustus). “They’re definitely liars,” he says, explaining how the territorial birds fake an alarm call that’s typically reserved for alerting group members to the presence of predators such as sparrowhawks. Cunha determined that the jays deceive neighboring groups of Siberian jays to scare them into fleeing, after which the liars steal caches of scavenged meat that the tricked birds had hidden to survive the Arctic winter. He says that he hopes studying within-species dishonesty will shed light on how trust evolved in our own species.

ANDY CARSTENS, “AVIAN DECEPTION MORE WIDESPREAD THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT” AT THE SCIENTIST (OCTOBER 3, 2022) THE PAPER IS OPEN ACCESS. 

It seems a bit ambitious to hope that the study of bird deception will show us how trust evolved in humans, considering that it’s not even clear how the birds learn to deceive. They must develop these tricks without applying abstract reasoning to the problems. That is, the killdeer wants to protect her nest but she is hardly a strategist planning a campaign. How then is the trait learned?

For that matter, how exactly did the jays learn to fake an alarm call — and then, like the killdeer, pass the trait on to their offspring as a neurological inheritance? There is much here we are in no position to understand at present.

Read the rest at Mind Matters News, published by Discovery Institute’s Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence. 

Knowing technology when we see it.

 Is the Human Ankle Badly Designed? 

Evolution News @DiscoveryCSC 

On a new episode of ID the Future, Stuart Burgess, one of Britain’s top engineers, explains how the skeletal joints in the human body are masterpieces of intelligent design. He also responds to claims by some evolutionists that human joints are badly designed and supposedly evidence of Darwinian evolution’s blind trial-and-error process. This presentation was taped at the 2022 Westminster Conference on Science and Faith in the greater Philadelphia area, which was jointly sponsored by Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, and Westminster Theological Seminary. Here in Part 1, Burgess focuses on the ankle joint, showing that it packs an extraordinary amount of functionality into a small space, beyond anything human engineers have managed to achieve either in prosthetics or robotics. Download the podcast or listen to it here. 

Game over? Really? III

 Theory in Crisis? Dissatisfaction and the Proliferation of New Articulations 

Jonathan Wells 

Editor’s note: We are a delighted to present a new series by biologist Jonathan Wells asking, “Is Darwinism a Theory in Crisis?” This is the third post in the series, which is adapted from the recent book, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Find the full series here. 

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.”8The 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 

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

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

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

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

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

6)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.

7)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.

8)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).

9)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).

10)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.

The Thiaroye massacre: a brief history.

 Thiaroye massacre 

The Thiaroye massacre (French: Massacre de Thiaroye; pronounced [tjaʁ.wa]) was a massacre of French West African military veterans by French forces on the morning of 1 December 1944. West African volunteers and conscripts of the Tirailleurs Sénégalais units of the French army mutinied against poor conditions and defaulted pay at the Thiaroye camp, on the outskirts of Dakar, Senegal. Between 35 and over 300 people were killed. 

Location

Thiaroye, Dakar, French West Africa

Coordinates

14.756°N 17.377°W

Date

1 December 1944

9 a.m. (GMT)

Attack type

Massacre of Tirailleurs Sénégalais mutinying against poor conditions and defaulted pay

Deaths

up to 300 (claimed by veterans)

35 (French government claim)

Injured

hundreds

Perpetrator

French Army (National Gendarmerie, 6th Regiment of Colonial Artillery) 

As colonial subjects, tirailleurs (colonial infantry) were not awarded the same pensions as their French (European) fellow soldiers during and after World War II, pensions that had been promised to them at the beginning of the war. The pensions for veterans of both races were calculated on the basis of living costs in their countries of birth, supposedly lower in colonies than in metropolitan France. These soldiers additionally claimed they were owed back pay due to an order issued by the Minister of Colonies authorizing benefits for ex-prisoners of war from West Africa, which both fell short of the benefits given to French prisoners of war and was in any case not implemented.[1] This discrimination led to a mutiny by about 1,300 Senegalese tirailleurs at Camp Thiaroye on 30 November 1944. The tirailleurs involved were actually from Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Chad, Benin, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Central African Republic, and Togo.[2] The former prisoners of war had been repatriated to West Africa and placed in a holding camp awaiting discharge. They demonstrated in protest against the failure of the French authorities to pay salary arrears and discharge allowances. The immediate grievance was the unfavorable exchange rate applied to currency brought back by the repatriated soldiers from France.[3] A French general, briefly held by the tirailleurs, promised to have the rate changed to a par with that applicable to white veterans. 

Early the following morning French soldiers guarding the camp opened fire killing between thirty-five and seventy African soldiers. A detailed French-language account of the massacre states that 24 of the former prisoners were killed outright and eleven subsequently died of their wounds.[4] However, war veterans claim that over 300 of the black African soldiers were killed while the French only claim 35 deaths.[5] The French provisional government of Charles de Gaulle, concerned at the impact of the Thiaroye incident on still-serving tirailleurs, acted quickly to ensure that claims for back pay and other monies owing were settled.[6] 

In March 1945 a military tribunal sentenced some of the survivors to ten years in prison.[7] Five of the prisoners died in detention. As President Vincent Auriol visited Senegal in March 1947, the prisoners were released, but didn't receive veteran pensions.[3]

After the war ended, the French argued that the tirailleurs were particularly prone to revolt. The French have based this claim on the notion that German soldiers, in an attempt to undermine the loyalty of France’s colonial subjects in Africa, had given the tirailleurs favored treatment as prisoners of war. This ostensibly good treatment of tirailleurs in prisoner of war camps was not, however, based in fact.[8]

Furthermore, there is no mention of the Thiaroye Massacre in any of France's history books taught in school. Despite the complications of the massacre, France still currently has strong political and military connections with Senegal, which could explain why the film[citation needed] was so poorly received and censored in France. A new generation of French leadership wants to confront the past and even planned to build an exhibition about the incident, which would travel to former French colonies in Western Africa in 2013. While the incident is merely mentioned, there is a military cemetery in Senegal that is unkept and receives no visitors. The cemetery holds the unmarked mass graves of the fallen Senegalese soldiers. The Senegalese army prevents any film or photography of the cemetery, and many locals consider the cemetery to be haunted due to the fallen Senegalese soldiers still awaiting the vengeance of their honor.[5] 

References 

 Echenberg, Myron (October 1985). "'Morts Pour la France': The African Soldier in France during the Second World War". Journal of African History. 26 (4): 363–380. doi:10.1017/S0021853700028796.

 Johns, Steven. "The Thiaroye massacre, 1944". libcom.org. Retrieved 2019-12-03.

 David Signer, Dakar. "Frankreich verriet die Senegalschützen nach dem 2. Weltkrieg". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2020-05-07.

 Mabon, Armelle (2002). "La tragédie de Thiaroye, symbole du déni d'égalité". Hommes et Migrations (in French). 1235 (1): 86–95. doi:10.3406/homig.2002.3780. ISSN 1142-852X.

 Moshiri, Nazanine (22 November 2013). "A little-known massacre in Senegal". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 13 October 2017.

 Chafter, Tony (November 2008). "Forgotten Soldiers". History Today. 58 (11): 35.

 Mortimer, Edward (1969). France and the Africans 1944–1960: A political history. London: Faber & Faber. p. 60. OCLC 875880806.

 Scheck, Raffael (January 2012). "Les prémices de Thiaroye: L'influence de la captivité allemande sur les soldats noirs français à la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale". French Colonial History. 13 (1): 73–90. doi:10.1353/fch.2012.0007. S2CID 145216683.

 Ngugi, Njeri (June 2003). "Presenting and (Mis)representing History in Fiction Film: Sembène's Camp de Thiaroye and Attenborough's Cry Freedom". Journal of African Cultural Studies. 16 (1): 57–68. doi:10.1080/1369681032000169267. JSTOR 3181385. S2CID 191490169.

 Kempley, Rita (1 March 1991). "From Africa, A 'Camp' of Tragic Heroes". The Washington Post.

 Otero, Solimar; Ter Haar, Hetty (2010). Narrating War and Peace in Africa. University Rochester Press. p. 232. ISBN 978-1-58046-330-0.

 Banham, Martin; Hill, Errol; Woodyard, George William (1994). The Cambridge guide to African and Caribbean theatre. Cambridge University Press. p. 43. ISBN 0-521-41139-4.

 Esonwanne, Uzo (1993). "The Nation as Contested Referent". Research in African Literatures. 24 (4): 49–62.

 Miller, Christopher L. (1990). Theories of Africans: Francophone Literature and Anthropology in Africa. University of Chicago Press. pp. 57, 166–67. ISBN 9780226528021.

 O'Toole, Thomas; Baker, Janice E. (2005). Historical dictionary of Guinea. Scarecrow Press. pp. 123–124. ISBN 0-8108-4634-9

Bibliography 

(in English) Myron Echenberg, "Tragedy at Thiaroye: The Senegalese Soldiers' Uprising of 1944 ", in Peter Gutkind, Robin Cohen and Jean Copans (eds), African Labor History, Beverly Hills, 1978, p. 109-128

(in French) Boubacar Boris Diop, Thiaroye terre rouge, in Le Temps de Tamango, L'Harmattan, 1981

(in French) Ousmane Sembène, Camp de Thiaroye, Feature Film, Color, 1988, 147min. 

Proverbs ch.8 Jerusalem bible

      8:1 Does Wisdom not call meanwhile? Does Discernment not lift up her voice?

8:2 On the hilltop, on the road, at the crossways, she takes her stand;

8:3 beside the gates of the city, at the approaches to the gates she cries aloud,

8:4 ‘O men! I am calling to you; my cry goes out to the sons of men.

8:5 You ignorant ones! Study discretion; and you fools, come to your senses!

8:6 Listen, I have serious things to tell you, from my lips come honest words.

8:7 My mouth proclaims the truth, wickedness is hateful to my lips.

8:8 All the words I say are right, nothing twisted in them, nothing false,

8:9 all straightforward to him who understands, honest to those who know what knowledge means.

8:10 Accept my discipline rather than silver, knowledge in preference to pure gold.

8:11 For wisdom is more precious than pearls, and nothing else is so worthy of desire.

Wisdom sings her own praises. Wisdom, the guide of kings

8:12 ‘I, Wisdom, am mistress of discretion, the inventor of lucidity of thought.

8:14 Good advice and sound judgement belong to me, perception to me, strength to me.

8:13 (To fear YAHWEH is to hate evil.) I hate pride and arrogance, wicked behaviour and a lying mouth.

8:17 I love those who love me; those who seek me eagerly shall find me.

8:15 By me monarchs rule and princes issue just laws;

8:16 by me rulers govern, and the great impose justice on the world.

8:18 With me are riches and honour, lasting wealth and justice.

8:19 The fruit I give is better than gold, even the finest, the return I make is better than pure silver.

8:20 I walk in the way of virtue, in the paths of justice,

8:21 enriching those who love me, filling their treasuries.

8:22 ‘YAHWEH created me when his purpose first unfolded, before the oldest of his works.

8:23 From everlasting I was firmly set, from the beginning, before earth came into being.

8:24 The deep[*a] was not, when I was born, there were no springs to gush with water.

8:25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I came to birth;

8:26 before he made the earth, the countryside, or the first grains of the world’s dust.

8:27 When he fixed the heavens firm, I was there, when he drew a ring on the surface of the deep,

8:28 when he thickened the clouds above, when he fixed fast the springs of the deep,

8:29 when he assigned the sea its boundaries-and the waters will not invade the shore-when he laid down the foundations of the earth,

8:30 I was by his side, a master craftsman, delighting him day after day, ever at play in his presence,

8:31 at play everywhere in his world, delighting to be with the sons of men.

8: 32a And now, my sons, listen to me;

8:33 listen to instruction and learn to be wise, do not ignore it.

8:32b Happy those who keep my ways!

8:34 Happy the man who listens to me, who day after day watches at my gates to guard the portals.

8:35 For the man who finds me finds life, he will win favour from Yahweh;

8:36 but he who does injury to me does hurt to his own soul, all who hate me are in love with death

The German synodal path: a brief history.

 Synodal Path 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

The Synodal Path (German: Der Synodale Weg or Synodaler Weg, sometimes translated as Synodal Way) is a series of conferences of the Catholic Church in Germany to discuss a range of contemporary theological and organizational questions concerning the Catholic Church, as well as possible reactions to the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church in Germany 

Organization 

The Synodal Path's supreme body is the Synodal Assembly. It consists of 230 members, made up of archbishops, bishops and auxiliary bishops, as well as an equal number of lay-members from the Central Committee of German Catholics. This number is further increased by representatives of religious orders or other ecclesial groups.[1]

The Synodal Path is further divided into four Synodal Forums that each focus on a particular topic:[2]

Power and Separation of Powers in the Church - Joint Participation and Involvement in the Mission

Life in succeeding relationships - Living Love in Sexuality and Partnership

Priestly Existence Today

Women in Ministries and Offices in the Church

An ongoing discussion is the relationship or precedence between the German Synodal Path and the international "Synod on Synodality", which was started by Pope Francis in 2021.[3] 

Meetings 

allowed by the Vatican.[10][11][12]

The laity should have more influence on the election of bishops.[13][14]

Homosexual partnerships/unions should get a public blessing ceremony.[15][16]

The Roman Catholic catechism's teachings on sexual ethics should be reformed. Homosexual sexual acts within same-sex unions/partnerships should be theologically accepted and not classified as a sinful behaviour.[17][18][failed verification]

Married priests (viri probati) should be allowed.[19][20]

Changes to the labour laws of the German church to prohibit the firing or refusal to hire of people based on marital status.[21][22] 

Reception 

that they were lacking the Holy Spirit. While not directed officially at the Synodal Path, the statement was widely considered to refer to Germany.[32]

In June 2022 the results of national synodal paths in the Netherlands[33] were nearly the same: women ordination, married priests and reform of world catechism in sexual ethics were supported.

On 21 July 2022, the Holy See released a statement in which it stated that "The 'Synodal Way' in Germany does not have the power to compel bishops and the faithful to adopt new forms of governance and new orientations of doctrine and morals".[34]

In August 2022, the results of nationals synodal paths in Switzerland[35] and in Austria were nearly the same: women ordination, married priests and reform of world catechism in sexual ethics were supported. 

Plenty of guilt to go around III

 History & Memory : The Making of an Atlantic World : Pre-colonial Africa.

By the fifteenth century, Africa was home to hundreds of vibrant, dynamic cultures populating all parts of the vast continent. Within those regions we today call West or Central Africa, for example, diverse groups distinguished themselves from one another through a complex range and combination of languages, religions, arts, technologies, and evolving worldviews.

Ancient trade routes crisscrossed the continent, many of them pathways for the movement of local and international commerce and enslaved people. African traders linked routes from the west coast to distant communities of the Nile and the Red Sea. Similarly, trade routes traversed north and south, linking the Sahara with the savanna to the south, as well as to the forested regions of the continent.

The best known of these ancient trade routes were those crossing the Sahara. For centuries, caravans of Arab and Berber traders transported African captives from sub-Saharan Africa, trekking along a series of arduous stages to the slave markets of North Africa, the Mediterranean, Asia, and Europe. From the eighth century, demand for African slaves was accentuated by the spread of Islam. The vast networks of trade routes controlled by muslims were used to capture people and transport African captives far from their homelands.

Islamic religion penetrated ever farther south, deep into West Africa, along the East African coast, and far into the African interior. Thus, its traders forged new trading links, providing goods from Europe and the East, which Africans exchanged for their exports, including slaves. North African muslims created networks of trade that spanned a vast area of sub-Saharan Africa. African societies were ensnared by foreign slavers on the trading routes and forcibly marched in camel caravans across the Sahara Desert, often enormous distances, to markets in the north.

The trans-Saharan routes were broken into small sectors, with goods and people bartered and sold multiple times to new traders en route. The end result was that African captives were transported from deep in the continent to the edge of the Mediterranean, and even onward to Europe and to the empires of the Eastern Mediterranean. Berber and Arab trading routes created noticeable African ethnic groups in many major towns around the Mediterranean, from Cairo to Istanbul.

Traders moved African captives north along the trade routes of the Nile and sold them in Cairo’s slave markets (both to local slave owners and for onward sale). Many were women, destined for lives as domestic slaves and concubines. These internal trading routes were not devoted solely to the movement of slaves: they were trade routes along which a host of African commodities, ivory, for example, were transported north from Africa. Enslaved Africans were often forced to work as porters, carrying other goods being transported north. This trading system survived into the twentieth century.

European traders and sailors benefitted from these links when they began to trade along the coast in the fifteenth century, acquiring goods—and people—who were captured from the interior and brought to the Atlantic coast via the African traders’ inland trading systems. The Portuguese were originally attracted by the possibility of trading with coastal peoples for gold. In time, the desire for labor in the colonies caused Europeans to demand African laborers to work on their plantations in the Americas and Caribbean. The Atlantic slave trade lasted 366 years, but many Saharan trade routes survived for the better part of a millennium. 

Game over? Really? II

 Theory in Crisis? Redefining Science 

Jonathan Wells 

Editor’s note: We are a delighted to present a new series by biologist Jonathan Wells asking, “Is Darwinism a Theory in Crisis?” This is the second post in the series, which is adapted from the recent book, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Find the full series here. 

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 

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

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

3)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).

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

5)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).

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

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

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

Game over? Really?

 Is Darwinism a Theory in Crisis? 

Jonathan Wells 

Editor’s note: We are a delighted to present a new series by biologist Jonathan Wells asking, “Is Darwinism a Theory in Crisis?” This is the first post in the series, which is adapted from the recent book, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Find the full series here. 

What does it mean to say that a theory is “in crisis”? It’s not enough to point out that a theory is inconsistent with evidence. Critics have been pointing out for decades that Darwinism doesn’t fit the evidence from nature. Biologist Michael Denton published Evolution: A Theory is Crisis in 1986.1 Thirty years later, he drove the point home with Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis.2

But Darwinism is still with us, for two reasons. First, Darwinism is not just a scientific hypothesis about specific phenomena in nature, like Newton’s theory that the gravitational force between two bodies is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them (17th century), Lavoisier’s theory that things burn by combining with oxygen (18th century), or Maxwell’s theory that light is an electromagnetic wave (19th century). Darwin called On the Origin of Species “one long argument,” and a central part of it was a theological argument against the idea that species were specially created.3

Second, established scientific research programs such as Darwinism are never abandoned just because of some problems with the evidence. The idea that all species are descendants of one or a few common ancestors that have been modified by mutation and natural selection will maintain its dominance until large numbers of scientists embrace a competing idea. Currently, the major competing idea is intelligent design (ID), which maintains (contra Darwin) that some features of living things are better explained by an intelligent cause than by unguided natural processes. The shift, if and when it happens, will be a major scientific revolution. One way to approach this phenomenon is through philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.4

I will begin by summarizing some of Kuhn’s key insights. I will then apply those insights to the present conflict between Darwinism and intelligent design. As I do so, I point out some problematic aspects of Kuhn’s work, but I conclude that recent events fully justify calling Darwinism a theory in crisis. 

Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions 

According to Kuhn, “normal science” is “research firmly based upon one or more past scientific achievements, achievements that some particular scientific community acknowledges for a time as supplying the foundation for its further practice.” Those achievements were “sufficiently unprecedented to attract an enduring group of adherents away from competing modes of scientific activity.” They were also “sufficiently open-ended to leave all sorts of problems” to be solved. Kuhn called achievements that share these two characteristics “paradigms.”5

Once a paradigm becomes dominant, the normal practice of science is simply to solve problems within that paradigm. In the process, an “institutional constellation” forms that includes “the formation of specialized journals, the foundation of specialist societies, and the claim for a special place in the curriculum.”6 The last is very important, because one “characteristic of the professional scientific community [is] the nature of its educational initiation.” In “the contemporary natural sciences…the student relies mainly on textbooks” until the third or fourth year of graduate work, at which point the student begins to do independent research. “It is a narrow and rigid education, probably more so than any other except perhaps in orthodox theology.”7 

A First Line of Defense 

Kuhn wrote,  

No part of the aim of normal science is to call forth new sorts of phenomena; indeed, those that will not fit the box are often not seen at all. Nor do scientists normally aim to invent new theories, and they are often intolerant of those invented by others.8 

Yet “no paradigm that provides a basis for scientific research ever completely resolves all its problems.” When anomalous evidence emerges, however, scientists’ first line of defense is usually to “devise numerous articulations and ad hoc modifications of their theory in order to eliminate any apparent conflict.” They never simply renounce the paradigm unless another is available to take its place. Thus “the decision to reject one paradigm is always simultaneously the decision to accept another,” and “the judgment leading to that decision involves the comparison of both paradigms with nature and with each other.”9 

How Paradigms Originate 

The most effective claim that proponents of a new paradigm can make is that “they can solve the problems that have led the old one to a crisis.”10 Even then, Kuhn wrote, 

The defenders of traditional theory and procedure can almost always point to problems that its new rival has not solved but that for their view are no problems at all…Instead, the issue is which paradigm should in the future guide research on problems many of which neither competitor can yet claim to resolve completely. A decision between alternate ways of practicing science is called for, and in the circumstances that decision must be based less on past achievement than on future promise.11 

How does a new paradigm originate? Kuhn wrote, 

Any new interpretation of nature, whether a discovery or a theory, emerges first in the mind of one or a few individuals. It is they who first learn to see science and the world differently, and their ability to make the transition is facilitated by two circumstances that are not common to most other members of their profession.12 

First, Kuhn wrote, “their attention has been concentrated upon the crisis-provoking problems.” Second, these individuals are usually “so young or so new to the crisis-ridden field that practice has committed them less deeply than most of their contemporaries to the world view and rules determined by the old paradigm.”13

According to Kuhn

Paradigms differ in more than substance, for they are directed not only to nature but also back upon the science that produced them. They are the source of the methods, problem-field, and standards of solution accepted by any mature scientific community at any given time. As a result, the reception of a new paradigm often necessitates a redefinition of the corresponding science.14 

Notes 

1)Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler, 1986).

2)Michael Denton, Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis (Seattle, WA: Discovery Institute Press, 2016).

3)Stephen Dilley, “Charles Darwin’s use of theology in the Origin of Species,” British Journal for the History of Science 45 (2012), 29-56.

4)Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1962).

5)Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed. (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1970), 10.

6)Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed., 19, 93.

7)Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed., 164-166.

8)Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed., 24.

9)Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed., 77-79.

10)Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed., 153.

11)Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed., 157-158.

12)Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed., 144.

13)Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed., 144.

14)Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d ed., 103. 

Not meat machines either?

 Two-Headed Tortoise with Two Personalities? 

Denyse O'Leary 

Recently, a “two-headed” tortoise at the Geneva Museum of Natural History reached the remarkable age of 25, thanks to constant care by his handlers: 

Janus also has two hearts, two pairs of lungs, and two distinct personalities.

Sometimes the heads wish to go in different direction

“The right head is more curious, more awake, it has a much stronger personality,” Angelica Bourgoin, who leads the turtle’s care team, said. “The left head is more passive and loves to eat.

NEWS, “TWO-HEADED TORTOISE JANUS CELEBRATES 25TH BIRTHDAY” AT DW (SEPTEMBER 3, 2022) ”  

How Could the Tortoise Heads Have Different “Personalities”? 

Janus — despite the single name given — seems to be a set of conjoined tortoise twins. (Here’s a human example.) The handlers acknowledge that survival in the wild would be unlikely. For one thing, both heads can’t retract into the shell.

So it’s not surprising that the two heads would have different personalities — except insofar as a tortoise or turtle has any personality at all. And it turns out that they are smarter than we used to think.

For example, researchers have shown that some can learn. Here’s the abstract from a 2019 paper:Relatively little is known about cognition in turtles, and most studies have focused on aquatic animals. Almost nothing is known about the giant land tortoises. These are visual animals that travel large distances in the wild, interact with each other and with their environment, and live extremely long lives. Here, we show that Galapagos and Seychelle tortoises, housed in a zoo environment, readily underwent operant conditioning and we provide evidence that they learned faster when trained in the presence of a group rather than individually. The animals readily learned to distinguish colors in a two-choice discrimination task. However, since each animal was assigned its own individual colour for this task, the presence of the group had no obvious effect on the speed of learning. When tested 95 days after the initial training, all animals remembered the operant task. When tested in the discrimination task, most animals relearned the task up to three times faster than naïve animals. Remarkably, animals that were tested 9 years after the initial training still retained the operant conditioning. As animals remembered the operant task, but needed to relearn the discrimination task constitutes the first evidence for a differentiation between implicit and explicit memory in tortoises. Our study is a first step towards a wider appreciation of the cognitive abilities of these unique animals.

GUTNICK, T., WEISSENBACHER, A. & KUBA, M.J. THE UNDERESTIMATED GIANTS: OPERANT CONDITIONING, VISUAL DISCRIMINATION AND LONG-TERM MEMORY IN GIANT TORTOISES. ANIM COGN 23, 159–167 (2020). HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.1007/S10071-019-01326-6 THE PAPERREQUIRES A FEE OR SUBSCRIPTION. 

According to the authors, the tortoises share resources in the wild.

Read the rest at Mind Matters News, published by Discovery Institute’s Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence. 

Compared to what?

 Our enemies have (as usual) been busying themselves on the net etc. portraying JWs as brainwashed weirdos. It all really begs the question though, weird compared to what exactly? Have any of these fools been reading the news. Regardless of your opinion of us I can furnish you with an ironclad guarantee that it will never be our police showing will never be our police showing up at your door because you dared to indulge in wrong think, nor our magistrates abusing their power to deny you your rights, nor our mobs attempting to intimidate you into conformity, nor our legislators attempting to legislate our religious or moral norms on you, nor our soldiers breaking your stuff and killing your people. None of our slanderers can honestly do the same.

On "new light"and old gloom.

  

"New Light" - Should Opposers of Jehovah's Witnesses Really be Taken Seriously When They Can't Even Use the Correct Phrase

Everything that opposers of Jehovah's Witnesses believe to be so important really is comparatively inconsequential. While Jehovah's Witnesses still adjust minor understandings of prophecy and periphery beliefs, major doctrines will not be changed because the doctrinal knowledge has increased so much that any recent changes have not been to doctrine but simple refinements in knowledge.

Still, many opposers of Jehovah's Witnesses repeatedly use the term "New Light" when attempting to ridicule them for any progressive understanding of Scripture despite the fact that "New Light" is not even the correct phrase:

Solomon declared: “But the path of the righteous ones is like the bright light that is getting lighter and lighter until the day is firmly established.” (Proverbs 4:18)

The truth gradually becomes clearer to us as we persist in studying the Scriptures patiently and diligently. The meaning or significance of Bible prophecies also unfolds progressively. Daniel's prophecy clearly said that true knowledge would "increase" during the time of the end (Dan. 12:4). Only at "the conclusion of the system of things" would "the righteous ones would then shine as brightly as the sun" (Mt.13:24- 30, 36-43; 24:45-47; Acts 3:20- 21).

Most other religions have proved that they will not change doctrines such as the Trinity, the immortal soul, and hell fire even though their own scholars admit these beliefs are not taught in Scripture. In contrast, Jehovah's Witnesses have always been willing to change any belief in order to harmonize better with increased knowledge of Scriptural teaching.

So rather than rejecting Jehovah's Witnesses understandings of Scripture simply because they progress in their understanding of it, this should be recognized as a comendable effort! It is stupid to avoid accepting current knowledge which is solidly based on known facts just because we know there most likely will be changes or adjustments with increased knowledge. Every belief that is based on knowledge changes or is subject to change.

Do we refuse to believe our Doctor's life saving direction because of all the medical mistakes in the past? Such reasoning is clearly logically fallacious.

Additionally, Jehovah's Witnesses' application of Prov. 4:18 is not new nor unique and in fact, criticism of Witnesses in this matter is hypocritical.

Both Protestant and Catholic commentators have applied the "expanding light" idea to an increase in Bible understanding regarding doctrine:

In his attempt to explain why the Trinity was not taught until the fourth century, Gregory Nazianzen in his 32nd Oration states that God used gradually increasing light to introduce the change to a belief in a Triune God.
Gill's Expositor says: "that shineth more and more...the light of the knowledge of Christ the way...is increased by means of the ministry of the word,.. Light into the Gospel, and the doctrines of it, increases yet more and more...when the light of knowledge will be clear and perfect."

Clarkes' Commentary Dan.11:1: "Bp. Newton, who is ever judicious and instructing, remarks: It is the usual method of the Holy Spirit to make the latter prophecies explanatory of the former; and thus revelation "is a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

Barnes' Notes: "And it need not be said, to anyone acquainted with the history of those times, that the Reformation was preceded and accompanied with a great increase of light."

This very same principle are found in Arthur Pink's principles of Bible interpretation: He lists the "law of progress" and says: "The path of Truth is like that of the just: it "shineth more and more." And he specifically mentions increasing light regarding prophecy.--A W Pink Interpretation of the Scriptures, p., 33-53, 56-62

We can also find this exact use of Proverbs 4:18 in many other reference works such as "The Pulpit Commentary," The Lutheran "Kretzmann Commentary," "Vincent's Word Pictures” 1Jo 1:7, "Girdlestone's Synonyms of the OT," Milton S. Terry's "Biblical Dogmatics," "Barnes' Notes on Rev. and Dan 12:4," R. Haldane's “Exposition on Romans,” Keil and Delitzsch’s commentary on the OT: and many others.

Below is a quote from the 19th century revivalist and theologian, Charles G.Finney. It is taken from the introduction to his 1878 edition of Systematic Theology:

Theologian Charles G. Finney said: "I have not yet been able to stereotype my theological views, and have ceased to expect ever to do so. The idea is preposterous. None but an omniscient mind can continue to maintain a precise identity of views and opinions. Finite minds, unless they are asleep or stultified by prejudice, must advance in knowledge. The discovery of new truth will modify old views and opinions, and there is perhaps no end to this process with finite minds in any world. True Christian consistency does not consist in...refusing to make any improvement lest we should be guilty of change, but it consists in holding our minds open to receive the rays of truth from every quarter and in changing our views and language and practice as often and as fast, as we can obtain further information...because this course alone accords with a Christian profession...It must follow, that Christian consistency implies continued investigation and change of views and practice corresponding with increasing knowledge. No Christian, therefore, and no theologian should be afraid to change his views, his language, or his practices in conformity with INCREASING LIGHT."

"The living truths of God can never be fully expounded. The Scriptures are a source of religious teaching so inexhaustible that each new generation of biblical scholars discovers therein treasures of knowledge unnoticed by previous research....so that we are not infrequently called upon to revise some of our former opinions and adjust them to the newly discovered facts. No old and permanent truth can ever suffer loss by the incoming of new light, but the weakness and unprofitableness of aged errors become thereby apparent...It is generally conceded that many subjects, which involve biblical exegesis and doctrine, call for revision and restatement."--Milton S. Terry; Biblical Dogmatics