Archives for “Evolution/origins”

Enjoy these latest videos from the very creative Gordon J. Glover, the first in a series of videos having a little fun critiquing Intelligent Design. http://www.youtube.com/v/iE5JIzJ0yUs http://www.youtube.com/v/pqVJsmYJvDQ And while I’m linking around, check out Tom Jefferson’s Mike Beidler’s witty and semi-satirical Evolutionary Creationist’s Declaration of Independence. 2 Related posts:

  1. Why I am convinced of common descent (and why I think you should be, too)
  2. Lamoureux: links and labels
  3. Enemies united against an imaginary foe


I haven’t yet had the talk RJS asks about with my inquisitive, but trusting, science nerd second-grader, but I think she’s become aware of the science/creationism conflict, particularly as regards the age of the earth. She reads all secular books about science and we talk about science as though there were no such thing as creationism, [...] Related posts:

  1. N.T. Wright on “unfaithful”, “flat” readings of Genesis
  2. Chaos in Genesis and Germanic mythology
  3. Contextual interpretation in Genesis: Cain’s mark


The most dangerous shyster is the one who has convinced himself to believe his own pitch. Over at The Creation of an Evolutionist, Mike is continuing to blog through his weekly viewing of The Truth Project. He just completed Lesson Five. More so than the previous lessons, Lesson 5 focused on a critique of mainstream science, [...] Related posts:

  1. Thinking “Outside the Box” about the Bible
  2. The return of the evolutionist — for real this time!
  3. When Christianity undervalues truth


The poll in my sidebar asking Christians how important they considered the faith/science debate to be ran for four months as of yesterday. In that time, 99 votes were cast. Today as I close it out, I add my own as the last vote. I voted Critical. No surprise there. What I do find surprising is that one [...] Related posts:

  1. Would he be having a happy birthday?
  2. You can’t just ignore the evolution debate
  3. Mohler on theistic evolution


Two days shy of four months ago I posted a poll that asked Christians how important the faith/science debate is. I was going to wait until there were 100 results to make a wrap-up post, but I’ve decided that in honor of Charles Darwins’s 201st birthday, I’d go ahead and comment on the 97 votes [...] Related posts:

  1. Evolution and evangel(ical)ism
  2. Why are so many Christian scientists evolutionists?
  3. Darwinism Must Die


I was intrigued by this short video showing Dr. Ard Louis (Oxford University) articulate a simple but profound critique of this fundamental aspect of the reasoning behind intelligent design. Read Darrel Falk’s helpful summary and commentary here. This same sort of argument can be applied to the various attractive (but always suspicious) “fine tuning arguments“. As I said, [...] Related posts:

  1. Limitations of science
  2. Florida science standards dethrone God! Details at 11
  3. Another one bites the dust


My friend Mike Beidler’s not busy enough being a military diplomat in the Middle East right now. You know, things going so swimmingly, he doesn’t have anything at all to do. Since he’s been over there, he’s joined a group that is watching Focus on the Family’s film series The Truth Project that seeks to [...] Related posts:

  1. The Truth Project and critical thinking
  2. The place of God’s providence in my theology
  3. Lamoureux: links and labels


The Intelligent Design documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed was never released in the theaters in the UK, so now in the wake of the DVD’s release there this month, the UK radio show Unbelievable has recently partnered with someone named Mark Haville to host the first screening of the movie to a UK audience. In anticipation [...] Related posts:

  1. No arguments from ignorance allowed
  2. My crackpot detector’s about to explode
  3. Enemies united against an imaginary foe


The BioLogos Foundation hits another home run by soliciting and sharing this gem: Bishop of Durham Tom Wright, while no fundie, is generally regarded among scholars and many evangelicals as fairly conservative in his theological outlook (e.g., he affirms an historical Fall of some kind), so this is good to hear from him. I found it [...] Related posts:

  1. Why Genesis 1 was written
  2. Chaos in Genesis and Germanic mythology
  3. Indiana Jones and the Fall of Man


William Dembski, a father of the Intelligent Design movement, has recently become comfortable calling himself an old earth creationist who, as a good Baptist, accepts the historicity of Adam and Eve. This comes as no surprise really, but it’s interesting to see how his gears turn as he systematically lays all his cards on the [...] Related posts:

  1. Theodicy and evolution
  2. Lamoureux: links and labels
  3. My position on the origins question


Evolution caught in the act: US-German team measures how quickly genomes change Mutations are the raw material of evolution. Charles Darwin already recognized that evolution depends on heritable differences between individuals: those who are better adapted to the environment have better chances to pass on their genes to the next generation. A species can only evolve if [...] Related posts:

  1. Beneficial mutations observed
  2. Indiana Jones and the Fall of Man
  3. Enemies united against an imaginary foe


The other night, a friend and I reiterated our independent observations that, despite all nuances, what ultimately stands behind most of American Christianity’s implacable dedication to inerrancy is fear. Dr. Jim Kidder, in so many words, makes the same point. The following quote certainly rings familiar. For many people, this is not a scientific issue, it is a moral [...] Related posts:

  1. The Truth Project and critical thinking
  2. History and faith
  3. When Christianity undervalues truth


I generally like World magazine. Oh, there’s plenty I disagree with in every issue, but one thing editor Marvin Olasky and his team just seem to get that so many other Christian publications don’t is that the core expression of our faith is in ministry to humanity. I’ll regularly be punching the air at their blind [...] Related posts:

  1. Evolution and evangel(ical)ism
  2. Why the debate over creationism matters
  3. Mohler on theistic evolution


These well-made videos from the Cassiopeia Project are excellent and accessible primers about evolutionary theory. I appreciate that, despite their emphasis on why the evidence is clearly and uniformly in favor of evolutionary theory, they’re not polemical about specific claims or objections from evolution critics. There’s no slapping anyone around; the overwhelming evidence for common [...] Related posts:

  1. Detecting design and declaring independence
  2. Another one bites the dust
  3. Missing link found?


If so, I’m sure you made up your mind well before researching critiques. But seriously, do you have any idea how deceitful and fallacious Comfort’s introduction is? It’s really sickening that so many Christians uncritically accept any criticism of evolution as valid simply by virtue of the fact that it’s a criticism of evolution. Even a [...] Related posts:

  1. Why are so many Christian scientists evolutionists?
  2. My crackpot detector’s about to explode
  3. Chance and diminishing domains


Commonly in Christian theology, the agreement between Adam and God (the Adamic covenant) and the agreement between the Israelites and God (the Old Covenant of Moses) are contrasted (the Noahide and Abrahamic covenants are given varying significance depending on who’s talking). Many, such as those holding firmly to the Westminster Confession, argue that the Adamic [...] Related posts:

  1. Case Study: the Fall
  2. Self-preservation, the Fall, and redemption
  3. The Fallout


One of today’s posts on Science and the Sacred is called An Artist or An Engineer? The author argues that we shouldn’t expect the precision of an engineer in creation any more than we expect it in an artist. The article brings this out by raising the issue of what has elsewhere been called “unintelligent [...] Related posts:

  1. Intelligent Design and the unseen
  2. Focus on the Family responds
  3. Mohler on theistic evolution


 As a follow up to a post of mine from June 2008, I thought I’d take this opportunity to point out the excellent blog from the BioLogos Foundation called ”Science and the Sacred“, which today featured an article on the same study I mentioned in my post from over a year ago. The fact that stuff is still slowly trickling out on [...] Related posts:

  1. How quickly genomes change
  2. Another one bites the dust
  3. ID movie exploits overblown Cambrian controversy


Focus on the Family has responded to an anonymous blogging friend we call Thomas who wrote a letter in protest of their misrepresentations about evolution in the October 2009 issue of Clubhouse Jr. which I described in the post, The creation of anti-evolutionists. Timothy Masters from the “Office of the Chairman” (who until recently was [...] Related posts:

  1. Mohler on theistic evolution
  2. Enemies united against an imaginary foe
  3. Cracks in the YEC wall?


I get the impression from some I know that I spend too much time worrying about the creation/evolution controversy. So in case you didn’t notice, I posted a new poll in my sidebar. Christians only on this one, please. 0 Related posts:

  1. Evolution and evangel(ical)ism
  2. Mohler on theistic evolution
  3. You can’t just ignore the evolution debate


Have you heard about this yet? Intelligent Design Documentary to Premiere at Smithsonian Affiliated California Science Center Darwin’s Dilemma explores one of the great mysteries in the history of life: the sudden appearance of dozens of major complex animal types in the fossil record without any trace of the gradual transitional steps predicted by Darwin. Frequently described [...] Related posts:

  1. Intelligent deception
  2. Mohler on theistic evolution
  3. Chance and diminishing domains


I’m going to review an atrocious article I just read, and I think you’ll agree that deconstructing it will be like child’s play. And not just because it appeared in my daughter’s latest issue of Clubhouse Jr. Featured in Focus on the Family’s magazine aimed at children aged 4 to 8, “From Goo to You?” is [...] Related posts:

  1. Why Christian scientists are evolutionists, revisited
  2. Creationism, education, and the state
  3. Why are so many Christian scientists evolutionists?


A recent study in Nature News that I just read about is of interest to my field of graduate study, Indo-European linguistics. Of special interest to me, it ties in historical linguistics, the theory of evolution, and the nature of scientific inquiry in an interesting way. Historical linguists have long supposed a link between most of [...] Related posts:

  1. Mysteries of my field of study revealed: the Indo-Europeans
  2. Genetic map of Europe
  3. Mysteries of my field of study revealed: the Birth of Historical Linguistics


.!. Three unmistakeable signs of someone no one has any business taking even half-seriously: 1) They imply or state outright that the beginning of the universe, the earth, or life itself have something to do with evolution (completely separate fields of scientific inquiry). 2) They play the Hitler card. 3) They use Kirk Cameron as their spokesperson. Watch [...] Related posts:

  1. Why I am convinced of common descent (and why I think you should be, too)
  2. Evolution and evangel(ical)ism
  3. ID movie exploits overblown Cambrian controversy


An article from Karl Giberson and Darrel Falk of the BioLogos Foundation appeared in U.S. Today on Sunday (August 9, 2009). Admittedly, its title (“We believe in evolution – and God”) and first line (“The ‘conflict’ between science and religion in America today is not only unfortunate, but unnecessary”) had me rolling my eyes: can [...] Related posts:

  1. Human interpretations of Scripture and nature
  2. Beneficial mutations observed
  3. What peer review looks like