Tag Archives: Evolution

The Evolutionists’ Complaint: It’s Wrong to Argue For ID By Arguing Against Evolution (Part 2 of 3)

This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series The Evolutionist's Complaint

This is the second stage of an argument responding to what I have called The Complaint: that Intelligent Design’s (ID’s) negative argumentation against naturalistic evolution (NE; defined here as the development of life and its complexity through undirected random variation coupled with natural selection) is somehow illegitimate, unscientific, or otherwise weak or wrong. If you …

January 29, 2010 – 2:02 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , | Comments (4)

The Evolutionists’ Complaint: It’s Wrong to Argue For ID By Arguing Against Evolution (Part 3 of 3)

This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series The Evolutionist's Complaint

This is the third post in a series exploring The Complaint of evolutionists: that Intelligent Design’s (ID’s) negative argumentation against naturalistic evolution (NE; defined here as the development of life and its complexity through undirected random variation coupled with natural selection) is somehow illegitimate, unscientific, or otherwise weak or wrong. (This is not the place …

January 29, 2010 – 2:00 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , | Comments (76)

Scientific Bias and Its Cures, or Why Intelligent Design Is Essential to Mainstream Biology

Update inserted at 5:45 pm, August 1: There is a group I call “the loyal opposition” who have frequently disagreed with me and other Christians writing here. Of that group, my logs indicate that David Ellis, Ordinary Seeker, Tom Clark, Jacob, Tony Hoffman, and doctor(logic) have visited this blog since I posted this entry. All …

August 1, 2009 – 8:06 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , | Comments (140)

The Late Great Ape Debate by Bayard Taylor

Book Review Bayard Taylor has a knack for explaining issues for teens and college students, and doing it clearly, with a refreshing sense of humor. He did it previously with Blah, Blah, Blah, an excellent guide to worldviews (and yes, that’s its title, or at least part of it). He has done it again with …

April 2, 2009 – 3:18 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

Mary Midgley’s Moral System: Not The Answer I Was Looking For

This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Mary Midgley and Ethics

In my previous posts on Mary Midgley’s view of morality, I noted my appreciation for her unwillingness to accept reductionist explanations (especially for human experience), and her nearly answering a lifelong question of mine: is there really no way to ground a solid sense of morality apart from God? At the end of each post …

March 24, 2009 – 6:00 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Ethics, Origins and Science | Tagged , , , | Comments (37)

Mary Midgley’s Near-Answer To My Lifelong Question

This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Mary Midgley and Ethics

I was not a believer in Jesus Christ when I left home for college in 1974. My brother and I had both been very interested in the occult, and around that time I must have read dozens of books by people like Ruth Montgomery and Jeanne Dixon, purveyors of belief in psychic phenomena. My recent …

March 21, 2009 – 5:25 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Ethics, Origins and Science | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

Robert Pennock the Conciliator

This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Pennock, Monton, Matzke, Luskin

Robert Pennock recently wrote a guest blog in US News and World Report, calling for a sane and presumably peaceful end to polarization over the origins of life. His leadership toward that end is (ahem) rather remarkable. Pennock is a philosopher at my alma mater, Michigan State University; and his opinion, of which he has …

February 22, 2009 – 10:01 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in New Atheism, Origins and Science | Tagged , , , , | Comments (9)

Miscellanea

Jerry Coyne, atheistic evolutionist, is blogging now. Darwin’s “Sacred Cause:” How Opposing Slavery Could Still Enslave Dechristianizing a Church Encyclopedia Happy Darwin Day?

February 17, 2009 – 7:03 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Miscellanea | Tagged , | Comments (1)

“Born believers: How your brain creates God — New Scientist”

The question at New Scientist was, how did we ever come up with the idea of gods? The answer begins, It turns out that human beings have a natural inclination for religious belief, especially during hard times. Our brains effortlessly conjure up an imaginary world of spirits, gods and monsters, and the more insecure we …

February 11, 2009 – 6:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)

Creationism and ID: Definition or Rhetoric?

This entry is part 2 of 8 in the series Is ID Creationism?

Yesterday I tried to set aside a question about the relation between creationism and intelligent design, but bobxxx commented, I have a few things to say about creationism and intelligent design. I think people who pretend these are different ideas are being dishonest. Invoking creationism is the same as invoking supernatural magic. Invoking intelligent design …

February 3, 2009 – 9:53 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , , | Comments (17)