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Has intelligent design passed peer review? That's the claim ID-proponent William Dembski makes in a coyly-titled blog post: "New Peer-Reviewed Pro-ID Article in Mainstream Math/Eng Literature". He has a new paper on search algorithms out in IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics. Dembski, a Senior Fellow at the ID think tank Discovery Institute, instantly goes on the defence: "Our critics will immediately say that this really isn't a pro-ID article but that it's about something else (I've seen this line now for over a decade once work on ID started encroaching into peer-review territory). Before you believe this, have...

The FOXP2 gene supports Neandertals being fully human --snip to conclusion-- In addition to morphological and physiological evidence for the vocal tract, including the modern hyoid bone,[5] molecular biology is now providing support that Neandertals were fully equipped for speaking complex languages. The FOXP2 genes found in Neandertals therefore show that they were Homo sapiens. These findings are entirely in accord with the creationist’s stance that Neandertals were fully human (post-Flood) inhabitants of Europe and Asia.

Jack Horner has a vision. A world-famous paleontologist who gives “an awful lot of lectures,” Horner pictures himself strolling out on stage before a crowd, just as he’s done countless times before. Instead of carrying the standard sheaf of notes or dusty slides, though, he has with him the ultimate prop: a real live dinosaur on a leash. “It’s small, but bigger than a chicken,” he writes in his new book, How to Build a Dinosaur. “Let’s say the size of a turkey, one day maybe even the size of an emu.” The emu-size dinosaur, he adds, “might have a...

After years spent hunting for the buried remains of prehistoric animals, a Canadian paleontologist now plans to manipulate chicken embryos to show he can create a dinosaur. Hans Larsson, the Canada Research Chair in Macro Evolution at Montreal's McGill University, said he aims to develop dinosaur traits that disappeared millions of years ago in birds. Larsson believes by flipping certain genetic levers during a chicken embryo's development, he can reproduce the dinosaur anatomy, he told AFP in an interview. Though still in its infancy, the research could eventually lead to hatching live prehistoric animals, but Larsson said there are no...

The amino acid glycine is one of twenty chemical building blocks of the proteins that provide most of the structures and functions in living cells. Scientists recently detected “microscopic traces of glycine” in materials retrieved from the tail of a comet. Some interpret this as evidence that life can exist elsewhere in the universe, and maybe even that life on earth began with chemicals from space. But for a host of reasons, this discovery fails to live up to its billing as being a key to the evolution of life from just chemicals...

August 21, 2009 — The appendix, that lowly dollop of tissue relegated to vestigial organ status by the Darwinians, is alive and well with new respect. Science Daily announced results of the “first-ever study of the appendix through the ages.” Conclusion: “Charles Darwin was wrong: The appendix is a whole lot more than an evolutionary remnant....

Abstract: In Eurasia, the period between 40,000 and 30,000 BP saw the replacement of Neandertals by anatomically modern humans (AMH) during and after the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition. The human fossil record for this period is very poorly defined with no overlap between Neandertals and AMH on the basis of direct dates. Four new 14C dates were obtained on the two adult Neandertals from Spy (Belgium). The results show that Neandertals survived to at least 36,000 BP in Belgium and that the Spy fossils may be associated to the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician, a transitional techno-complex defined in northwest Europe and recognized...

In the annual digs the Senckenberg Research Institute carries out in the Messel Pit, an average of 3,000 fossil remains are recovered from the shale at this UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site. Some particularly well-preserved fossils discovered in 2007 and 2008 were recently exhibited. The world-famous primeval horse browsed at the shores of Lake Messel in the warm, wet climate prevailing at that time (average annual temperature, 25°C). Around the lake, which emerged in a volcanic crater and was surrounded back then by dense primeval forest, early ungulates and rodents lived as well: the ancestors of today’s birds flew over...

<p>Two years ago, I interviewed Vaclav Smil, the prolific author and energy thinker. I asked Smil, a distinguished professor at the University of Manitoba, why Americans are so easily swayed by politicians and others when it comes to energy matters. His response: scientific illiteracy and innumeracy. “Without any physical, chemical, and biological fundamentals, and with equally poor understanding of basic economic forces, it is no wonder that people will believe anything,” he told me.</p>

Imagine that you are a teacher of Roman history and the Latin language, anxious to impart your enthusiasm for the ancient world — for the elegiacs of Ovid and the odes of Horace, the sinewy economy of Latin grammar as exhibited in the oratory of Cicero, the strategic niceties of the Punic Wars, the generalship of Julius Caesar and the voluptuous excesses of the later emperors. That’s a big undertaking and it takes time, concentration, dedication. Yet you find your precious time continually preyed upon, and your class’s attention distracted, by a baying pack of ignoramuses (as a Latin scholar...

TAU researcher says tears can help build and strengthen personal relationships Medically, crying is known to be a symptom of physical pain or stress. But now a Tel Aviv University evolutionary biologist looks to empirical evidence showing that tears have emotional benefits and can make interpersonal relationships stronger. New analysis by Dr. Oren Hasson of TAU's Department of Zoology shows that tears still signal physiological distress, but they also function as an evolution-based mechanism to bring people closer together. "Crying is a highly evolved behavior," explains Dr. Hasson. "Tears give clues and reliable information about submission, needs and social attachments...

August 23, 2009 — An alternative cosmology that doesn’t require dark energy may have the effect of putting the Milky Way near the center of the universe. That’s not the only interpretation, but it is being considered....

THE “war” between science and religion is notable for the amount of civil disobedience on both sides. Most scientists and most religious believers refuse to be drafted into the fight. Whether out of a live-and-let-live philosophy, or a belief that religion and science are actually compatible, or a heartfelt indifference to the question, they’re choosing to sit this one out. Still, the war continues, and it’s not just a sideshow. There are intensely motivated and vocal people on both sides making serious and conflicting claims. There are atheists who go beyond declaring personal disbelief in God and insist that any...

After our article on atheism was published (creation.com/atheism), a former atheist wrote to tell of how he came to faith in Christ. Following that is a poignant email received in the same time period about a young man who sadly did take his own life. Dear CMI, I cannot express my gratitude in words. I became a Christian three years ago after struggling with thoughts of suicide due to my atheistic beliefs. Your ministry truly saved my life. I was raised in a secular home, and surrounded by atheistic propaganda from an early age, whether it be from school or...

The author of The God Delusion and The Selfish Gene, whose new book, The Greatest Show on Earth, is serialised in The Times next week, has topped bestseller lists all over the world but never in a predominantly Muslim country. None of Professor Dawkins’ books, on evolution as well as religion, has ever been translated into Arabic, and his work has been heavily censored in Turkey. In an interview with The Times, he said that popularising evolution in the Islamic world, where creationist beliefs are strong, was a challenge he is keen to take up. “To be a bestseller in...

"Evolution, a religion? You must be nuts! I shall scoff at thee, mine theist!" I probably would get this type of remark from any evolutionist to whom I might suggest such a thing. Yes, evolution (or, at least, belief in it and Darwinist defense of it) is a religion and its believers are just as religious as their theistic counterparts. This fact can be a stumbling block to most atheists, but it is quite true. I should begin this essay by explaining what it is that constitutes a religion. I have expounded on this point elsewhere and I will do...

One of evidences for evolution that has been strongly touted in recent years is the fact that the genomes of the human and chimpanzee are so similar. About 98.4% of the instructions in our genome match the chimp’s. We must share a common ancestor, so goes the argument which doesn’t worry about how humans and chimps could be so different. With a 98.4% match, evolution must be true. That, of course, is not a scientific argument. But leaving that aside, when we look under the hood we actually find that comparisons of the human and chimp genomes contradict evolution...

Nathaniel Jeanson, a Harvard-trained medical researcher, was recently awarded his doctorate degree in molecular biology. He has made significant contributions to adult stem cell research, and in September he will join the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) as its newest research associate. Recently, Dr. Jeanson gave a lecture at Calvary Chapel in Boston titled “Evolution: Bankrupt Science. Creationism: Science You Can Bank On.” A number of people from the Boston Atheists organization, including at least one P. Z. Myers groupie, attended the morning talk and evening Q&A forum, which were sponsored by Calvary Chapel...

The collectivist challenge to Darwinism The general public is led to think that Charles Darwin magnificently solved the problems associated with the emergence of biological complexity. Many opinion-formers write confidently about the revolution triggered by the publication of "On the origin of species" in 1859. These people have developed a 'consensus' position which they use to convince scientific societies, policy makers, funding agencies and educationalists that any dilution of Darwinism is a retrograde step, ushering in a dark age for science. What will they make - and what will we make - of an essay in Nature Physics that talks...

--snip-- P.S. Our critics will immediately say that this really isn’t a pro-ID article but that it’s about something else (I’ve seen this line now for over a decade once work on ID started encroaching into peer-review territory). Before you believe this, have a look at the article. In it we critique, for instance, Richard Dawkins METHINKS*IT*IS*LIKE*A*WEASEL (p. 1055). Question: When Dawkins introduced this example, was he arguing pro-Darwinism? Yes he was. In critiquing his example and arguing that information is not created by unguided evolutionary processes, we are indeed making an argument that supports ID. (for link to paper,...