Dembski can’t weasel out of this one 19 Mar 2009 Ian Musgrave has a brilliant post showing that Dembski’s revisiting of the old creationist canard that Dawkins’ 1984 Weasel program, designed to show that random variation and selective retention can “evolve” a target phrase, in this case Shakespeare’s “Methinks it is a weasel” (oops; I nearly had my own mutation there – I typed “methings”), is a load of old cobbler’s. Of course we expect nothing less from Ian*, and nothing better from Dembksi. * But my title is better than his. Creationism and Intelligent Design Evolution Humor
Administrative The “who” thread 8 Jul 2010 I am, as they say in The Home Country, gobsmacked. I expected that I would have a few geeks (I’m a Geek! Say it Loud!) who read me because I was sort of interesting. Instead I find Phuds, scientists, philosophers and just plain interesting people. If one is judged by… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity Tetrapods, species selection, and extinction 14 Dec 200818 Sep 2017 Just a couple of days ago I mentioned the Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. They must have heard me because today I get my email notification that they have published this year’s volume. I’d like to mention three papers of interest to me. Alas, children, if you don’t… Read More
Evolution Species, framing, and stuff 24 Mar 2008 So here’s a neo-Thomist talking about species, and not getting it due to (i) prior metaphysical commitments, and (ii) not understanding Aristotle – dude, he never called anything a species, not in the biological sense. Eidos and genos were just ordinary words he coopted for the Metaphysics and Posterior Analytics…. Read More