Category Archives: News

News

Stephen C. Meyer and Marcus Ross lecture on the Cambrian explosion

2 Comments
Cambrian Explosion
Cambrian Explosion

Access Research Network is a group that produces recordings  of lectures and debates related to intelligent design. I noticed that on their Youtube channel they are releasing some of their older lectures and debates for FREE. So I decided to write a summary of one that I really like on the Cambrian explosion. This lecture features Dr. Stephen C. Meyer and Dr. Marcus Ross.

The lecture is about two hours. There are really nice slides with lots of illustrations to help you understand what the speakers are saying, even if you are not a scientist.

Here is a summary of the lecture from ARN:

The Cambrian explosion is a term often heard in origins debates, but seldom completely understood by the non-specialist. This lecture by Meyer and Ross is one of the best overviews available on the topic and clearly presents in verbal and pictorial summary the latest fossil data (including the recent finds from Chengjiang China). This lecture is based on a paper recently published by Meyer, Ross, Nelson and Chien “The Cambrian Explosion: Biology’s Big Bang” in Darwinism, Design and Public Education(2003, Michigan State University Press). This 80-page article includes 127 references and the book includes two additional appendices with 63 references documenting the current state of knowledge on the Cambrian explosion data.

The term Cambrian explosion describes the geologically sudden appearance of animals in the fossil record during the Cambrian period of geologic time. During this event, at least nineteen, and perhaps as many as thirty-five (of forty total) phyla made their first appearance on earth. Phyla constitute the highest biological categories in the animal kingdom, with each phylum exhibiting a unique architecture, blueprint, or structural body plan. The word explosion is used to communicate that fact that these life forms appear in an exceedingly narrow window of geologic time (no more than 5 million years). If the standard earth’s history is represented as a 100 yard football field, the Cambrian explosion would represent a four inch section of that field.

For a majority of earth’s life forms to appear so abruptly is completely contrary to the predictions of Neo-Darwinian and Punctuated Equilibrium evolutionary theory, including:

  • the gradual emergence of biological complexity and the existence of numerous transitional forms leading to new phylum-level body plans;
  • small-scale morphological diversity preceding the emergence of large-scale morphological disparity; and
  • a steady increase in the morphological distance between organic forms over time and, consequently, an overall steady increase in the number of phyla over time (taking into account factors such as extinction).

After reviewing how the evidence is completely contrary to evolutionary predictions, Meyer and Ross address three common objections: 1) the artifact hypothesis: Is the Cambrian explosion real?; 2) The Vendian Radiation (a late pre-Cambrian multicellular organism); and 3) the deep divergence hypothesis.

Finally Meyer and Ross argue why design is a better scientific explanation for the Cambrian explosion. They argue that this is not an argument from ignorance, but rather the best explanation of the evidence from our knowledge base of the world. We find in the fossil record distinctive features or hallmarks of designed systems, including:

  • a quantum or discontinuous increase in specified complexity or information
  • a top-down pattern of scale diversity
  • the persistence of structural (or “morphological”) disparities between separate organizational systems; and
  • the discrete or novel organizational body plans

When we encounter objects that manifest any of these several features and we know how they arose, we invariably find that a purposeful agent or intelligent designer played a causal role in their origin.

Recorded April 24, 2004. Approximately 2 hours including audience Q&A.

I learned a lot by watching great lectures from Access Research Network. Their YouTube channel is here. I recommend their origin of life lectures – I have watched the ones with Dean Kenyon and Charles Thaxton probably a dozen times each. Speaking as an engineer, you never get tired of seeing engineering principles applied to questions like the origin of life.

If you’d like to see Dr. Meyer defend his views in a debate with someone who reviewed his book about the Cambrian explosion, you can find that in this previous post.

Further study

The Cambrian explosion lecture above is a great intermediate-level lecture and will prepare you to be able to understand Dr. Meyer’s new book “Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design“. The Michigan State University book that Dr. Meyer mentions is called “Darwin, Design and Public Education“. That book is one of the two good collections on intelligent design published by academic university presses, the other one being from Cambridge University Press, and titled “Debating Design: From Darwin to DNA“. If you think this lecture is above your level of understanding, then be sure and check out the shorter and more up-to-date DVD “Darwin’s Dilemma“.

News

Ron DeSantis wants to end mandatory collection of union dues for FL teachers

1 Comment

I’m still monitoring Ron DeSantis to see what sorts of actions he is taking as governor of Florida. This week, there was one related to teachers. I once wanted to be a teacher, but I refused to do it because of the mandatory dues I would have to give to teacher unions. Teacher unions are very supportive of secular leftism. But now, in Florida, teachers can work without paying union dues.

This is from The Florida Standard:

Governor Ron DeSantis continued his battle against the progressive influence of teachers’ unions by previewing a bill on Monday that would potentially mitigate their power. Speaking to supporters of his educational agenda at a school board retreat, DeSantis intimated that he expects the legislature to pass a “paycheck protection” bill in the upcoming session.

After suggesting that teachers can expect “probably the biggest [pay] increase for teachers that we’ve ever done in Florida in this coming legislative session,” DeSantis said the new legislation, if passed, would help ensure that state funding for teacher pay will not be siphoned off by the unions.

“That fact that you’re also doing stuff like this paycheck protection, it’s more of a guarantee that that money is going to actually go to those teachers,” he said. “It’s not going to be frittered away by interest groups who get involved in the school system.”

Like taxes and insurance, union dues are automatically deducted from paychecks for members. Some teachers may not pay close enough attention to realize the money they could keep if they opted out of the union. By requiring the teachers to actually write the checks for union membership themselves, the presumption is that teachers would give more consideration to the commitment of their money and perhaps be less willing to surrender it to the union.

Previous DeSantis actions:

 

News

What’s in the Democrat’s 1.7 TRILLION dollar omnibus spending bill?

2 Comments

I heard that the Democrats are trying to pass a huge “omnibus” spending bill, and I thought it would be useful for us to take a look at it. Who does this “omnibus” bill help? And will it cause inflation to continue to rise?

This is from Daily Wire:

And according to The Heritage Foundation, the omnibus bill they may not have time to read is packed with woke pet projects. Among them are a number of LGBTQ projects — from pride centers to museums — and “anti-racism” initiatives, according to a thread shared on Twitter on Tuesday.

What followed was a list of the “woke agenda” projects — along with their respective price tags and which areas of the country stood to benefit from omnibus money.

“$1.2 million for ‘LGBTQIA+ Pride Centers’; $1.2 million for ‘services for DACA recipients’ (aka helping illegal aliens with taxpayer funds) at San Diego Community College; $477k for the Equity Institute in RI to indoctrinate teachers with ‘antiracism virtual labs,’” the thread continued.

More projects were listed in the following tweets, including “$1 million for Zora’s House in Ohio, a ‘coworking and community space’ for ‘women and gender-expansive people of color’; $3 million for the American LGBTQ+ Museum in New York City; $3.6 million for a Michelle Obama Trail in Georgia.”

New York’s state capital is set to receive three-quarters of a million dollars for “LGBT and Gender Non-Conforming housing”; Baltimore will rake in a cool $2 million for a wax museum dedicated to African Americans, tentatively named “Great Blacks in Wax”; and New York will get over $800,000 for an “LGBT center.”

An additional $750,000 is earmarked for the “TransLatin@ Coalition” in Los Angeles, which is supposed to create “workforce development programs and supportive services for Transgender and Gender nonconforming and Intersex immigrant women.”

On Twitter, North Carolina Republican congressman Dan Bishop had another list of wasteful spending items in the “omnibus” spending bill:

  • an additional $47 billion in Ukraine funding, and the bill also authorizes a “Ukrainian Independence Park” in Washington DC.
  • $11.33 billion for the FBI. $1.75 billion for the ATF. & $2.63 billion for US Attorneys, with an emphasis on J6 prosecutions and domestic terrorism cases. All with significant increases from the previous year.
  • $535 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which indirectly funds NPR via grants.
  • it expressly prohibits CBP funding from being used to improve border security.
  • it allocates $1,438,000,000 for membership in global multilateral organizations, including the UN.
  • it allocates at least $575 million for “family planning” in areas where population growth “threatens biodiversity.”
  • $524.4 million for a DEI and “structural racism” focused NIH subdivision
  • it allocates $410 million towards border security for Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman.
  • $335 million to prepare for an influenza pandemic! Including the use of surveillance tools.
  • $286 million in Title X funding, which funds Planned Parenthood.
  • Gender programs in Pakistan and a $200 million for a Gender Equity Fund.
  • $70 million for minority business development – an increase of $15 million from Fy22.
  • nearly $26 million for the House of Representatives Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
  • $7.5 million to better understand the “domestic radicalization phenomenon,” plus $1 million for gun violence research. These research programs are often a smokescreen for violating civil liberties down the road.

What will be the end result of spending $1.7 trillion for Americans? I think it will cause inflation to go up, and people will pay even higher prices for gas, groceries and everything else. The higher inflation goes, the more interest rates will rise.

One of my favorite places to go to find out what is going on in the economy is the Wall Street Journal. There, I found a recent article entitled “Inflation Isn’t Vanquished Yet”.

It says:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation rose only 0.1% in November, and shelter made up half of the monthly increase. The 12-month inflation rate fell to 7.1% in November, which is down from 7.7% in October and is the fifth annual rate drop in a row since inflation peaked at 9.1% in June. The Fed’s monetary tightening is making a difference.

Yet a 7.1% increase in prices is still a long way from victory, and inflation continues to be sticky across much of the economy. Food rose 0.5%. Much of the decrease came in energy prices, which are volatile, and fell by 1.6%. But service prices excluding energy services rose 0.4% and are up 6.8% in the past year. The core CPI less energy and food rose 0.2% in the month and is still high at an annual rate of 6%.

What does this mean? It means that inflation is not under control, and interest rates will have to continue to rise. That’s bad news for economic growth. If Biden gets his omnibus bill passed, then we will be looking at rising inflation again, and an even longer recession that is currently being considered. I hope Democrat voters understand that they can’t spend their way out of inflation. It’s the spending that’s causing it.