Richard Dawkins

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Actor preparing lines

Prophets of the New Atheism

While the American cultural landscape includes many religions, it’s still fascinating to watch closely when we have the chance to observe a new faith being born. Consider, for example, a religious phenomenon that has been dubbed the “new atheism,” prominently represented by some bestselling books. Can disbelief in God be considered “religious”? Sure. Just ask Zen Buddhists, who worship no Read More ›

Does Darwinism Devalue Human Life?

[Note: This article first appeared in The Human Life Review 30, 2 (Spring 2004): 29-37.] A number of years ago two intelligent students surprised me in a class discussion by defending the proposition that Hitler was neither good nor evil. Though I kept my composure, I was horrified. One of the worst mass murderers in history wasn’t evil? How could Read More ›

A Scientific Scandal

For more information about David Berlinski – his new books, video clips from interviews, and upcoming events – please visit his website at www.davidberlinski.org.  The full text of this article is available at Commentary’s website. IN SCIENCE, as in life, it is always an excellent idea to cut the cards after the deck has been shuffled. One may admire the dealer, Read More ›

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Against Sociobiology

They believe, or at least for the purposes of doing science they believe, that matter in motion is all that exists, and that mind and consciousness are merely special configurations of that matter. Anyone who believes this must, as a matter of logical necessity, also believe in evolution. Read More ›
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Close up of sunflower. Detailed sunflower with its seeds anf fibonacci sequence.
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Intelligent Design Coming Clean

1. Cards on the Table In the movie Dream Team starring Michael Keaton, Keaton plays a psychiatric patient who must feign sanity to save his psychiatrist from being murdered. In protesting his sanity, Keaton informs two New York City policemen that he doesn’t wear women’s clothing, that he’s never danced around Times Square naked, and that he doesn’t talk to Read More ›

Disbelieving Darwin — And Feeling No Shame!

Science, we are told, is tentative. And given the history of science, there is every reason for science to be tentative. No scientific theory withstands revision for long, and many are eventually superseded by theories that flatly contradict their predecessors. Scientific revolutions are common, painful, and real. New theories regularly overturn old ones, and no scientific theory is ever the Read More ›

Intelligent Design is not Optimal Design

I was recently on an NPR program with skeptic Michael Shermer and paleontologist Donald Prothero to discuss intelligent design. As the discussion unfolded, it became clear that they were using the phrase “intelligent design” in a way quite different from how the emerging intelligent design community is using it. The confusion centered on what the adjective “intelligent” is doing in Read More ›

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Lower Fox Creek School in the Flint Hills of Kansas
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Darwin’s Hostages

In 1995 the National Academy of Sciences, through its National Research Council arm, issued a set of national science education standards calling for “dramatic changes” in the way science is taught in grade schools and high schools. Several years later the Kansas State Board of Education appointed a panel of scientists and academics to advise it on bringing state guidelines Read More ›

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Abstract futuristic concept of spherical algorithm analysis. Big data. Quantum virtual cryptography. Business visualization of artificial intelligence. Blockchain.
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Why Evolutionary Algorithms Cannot Generate Specified Complexity

While it's true that shaking out random scrabble pieces would render METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL highly improbable (and therefore complex), Dawkins's evolutionary algorithm renders that sequence certain and thereby removes its complexity. Read More ›