Tag Archives: Evolution

Jerry Coyne’s Line In the Sand

Yesterday in a very quick post I pointed to an inconsistency in Jerry Coyne’s New Republic article, “Seeing and Believing,” which is a critical review of two new books by the theistic evolutionists Kenneth Miller and Karl Giberson. Today I must mention several things I really appreciate about what he wrote, and offer some suggestions …

February 2, 2009 – 4:24 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (5)

“Study: Learning science facts doesn’t boost science reasoning”

From EurekAlert, a terribly dangerous finding: A study of college freshmen in the United States and in China found that Chinese students know more science facts than their American counterparts — but both groups are nearly identical when it comes to their ability to do scientific reasoning. Neither group is especially skilled at reasoning, however, …

January 29, 2009 – 5:32 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , | Comments (19)

“Natural Selection Not The Only Process That Drives Evolution?”

I’m wondering what this means for evolutionary theory: However, surprisingly, the patterns of molecular evolution in many of the genes they found did not contain signals of natural selection. Instead, their evidence suggests that a separate process known as BGC (biased gene conversion) has speeded up the rate of evolution in certain genes. This process …

January 27, 2009 – 9:43 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged | Comments (1)

“Is Religion Adaptive? It’s Complicated” — Scientific American

Here’s an interesting discussion at Scientific American: “Is Religion Adaptive? It’s Complicated.” Schloss’s point is the one that gets most people thinking. “That’s all fine and dandy about the scientific research, but what does it all tell us about the existence of God?” What if, as I suggested in my answer to this year’s “Annual …

January 19, 2009 – 6:13 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science, Postmodernism/ Relativism | Tagged , | Comments (177)

Slaughter of the Dissidents–Book Review

Book Review I suppose I ought to start this review on a more positive note, but here I go anyway: If you didn’t like the movie Expelled, you are really not going to like Jerry Bergman’s Slaughter of the Dissidents: The Shocking Truth About Killing The Careers Of Darwin Doubters. It’s one thing to sit …

December 18, 2008 – 6:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Ethics, The Faith, Unfiled | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)

Alvin Plantinga on Evolution vs. Naturalism

Alvin Plantinga, the prominent Notre Dame University philosopher, says that if you’re a believer in evolution, you have no warrant for believing in naturalism (atheism, roughly speaking). Here’s part of his argument, to whet your interest: Now what evolution tells us (supposing it tells us the truth) is that our behavior, (perhaps more exactly the …

August 13, 2008 – 7:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , | Comments (94)

New Age “Evolution”

Here’s a good example of how not to marry science with a worldview: the so-called Evolutionary Manifesto. There are lessons here for Christians who want to understand origins both in relation to the teachings of science as well asto alternate religions. This Evolutionary Manifesto is not the product of science, but of a New Age-oriented …

July 30, 2008 – 7:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in New Age, Origins and Science | Tagged , | Comments (6)

Postscript to the Series, “Darwin’s Gift?”

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Darwin's Gift?

Having written a four-part series on Francis Ayala’s Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion, I was already in strong disagreement over what Ayala called a “gift” to religion in Darwinism. Now I’m reading his monograph for the AAAS, “The Difference of Being Human,” and have found even more reason to disagree with him on this. The …

May 30, 2008 – 10:16 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Ethics, Origins and Science | Tagged , , , , | Comments (8)

“Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion” Part 2

This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series Darwin's Gift?

Book Review In his book Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion, Francisco Ayala suggests that evolution supplies the answer to a serious theological conundrum. I alluded to this in my first post on this book: Things that Seem Wrong About the World: When I was studying theology in Salamanca Darwin was a much-welcomed friend. The …

May 13, 2008 – 10:43 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science, Thinking Christianly | Tagged , , , | Comments (13)

“Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion” Part 1

This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Darwin's Gift?

Book Review Francisco Ayala wants us to understand and appreciate what he considers to be Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion. The author of a recent book by that name, Ayala certainly has a claim to knowledge on the issues: he trained as a seminarian in Spain, and is now an evolutionary biologist at the University …

May 12, 2008 – 7:34 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , , | Comments (10)