In his book, The Edge of Evolution; the Search for the Limits of Darwinism, Michael Behe tries to find where exactly the limit to Darwinian evolution is. In a previous thread, Behe's Test, Take 2, it was admitted that if it takes more than two mutations (with the question of whether this includes neutral mutations being brought up by not discussed at length) before a selective advantage is bestowed, then Darwinian evolution probably wouldn't happen. The question is whether or not more than two mutations have ever been needed for evolution to occur. Behe would say, "Yes." And in Chapter 7, "The Two-Binding-Sites Rule," he presents his argument. First there is a long discussion on the nature of "shape space," and then Behe gets to his argument, beginning on page 133: Read the rest of this entry »

(Yeah, yeah, I'm on vacation, and I was staying away from the library. Who knew I would stumble upon another computer linked to the internet and read what was going on at Behe's Test? So here I am trying to repair the damage. Who knew leaders of the ID movement could shoot themselves in the foot so many times? Oh yeah, we did.)

A very hearty, big "THANK YOU!!!" to our own, obsessive, compulsive Thought Provoker for finding and providing a link to Barry Hall's paper! I assumed that I would have to go to a college library and hope they carried the journal that Hall's paper was published in. It didn't occur to me that it would be online and for free. I suggest that anyone interested in pursuing this topic further, first read the paper. It's short, and despite the technical jargon, not that difficult to understand. But read it. Don't just scan it. Read the rest of this entry »

In his book, The Edge of Evolution; the Search for the Limits of Darwinism, Michael Behe cites work by Barry Hall in support of his view that there are limits fairly narrow limits to what Darwinian evolution can accomplish: Read the rest of this entry »

I deleted the open letter to Dembski. It occurred to me that it was the type of thing that would fit in better at UD, instead of at TT. Sorry it took me so long to see that. But Raevmo asked a great question:

Bilbo, how do you know Dr Moon is a false Messiah?

I don't know if the following discussion belongs at TT. If you guys would prefer that I move it to my own blog, I can do that. No offense will be taken. Read the rest of this entry »

A structural engineer has been reviewing Mike Gene's book, The Design Matrix; a Consilience of Clues, and has recently discussed Behe's concept of Irreducible Complexity, and how Mike Gene views it in his book, here.

Read the rest of this entry »

Let's get back to biology. The latest from Mike Gene's blog:

[Caveman ask that somebody do that magic thing with links]

Setting up a culture of cells is a relatively simple task. All you need is some media, which would be a solution that contains all the ingredients needed for cell growth, and some cells, obtained from another previous culture. Put simply, you fill a container with media and add a small amount of cells. These cells then do what cells do – they divide and form a large population of cells over time. In other words, the machinery within the cells converts the simple biomolecules in the media into new cells.

But now I have a puzzle for you. Read the rest of this entry »

For people who want to discuss the question of what Jesus claimed about himself. I changed the title from "Open Thread" to the above, to avoid confusion with Joy's "Open Thread."

"The success of Darwin's theory…stems from the manner in which Darwin's theory has been successfully used to guide research and generate insights into biology. Such research and insights have, in turn, generated much circumstancial evidence that supports the Darwinian thesis." (Mike Gene in his book, The Design Matrix; a Consilience of Clues, p.26). Read the rest of this entry »

Mike Gene doesn't post here any more, for family reasons. So I thought I would post the latest from his blog, The Design Matrix:

Recent research concerning tyrosine kinases continues to strengthen the case for front-loading evolution:

When it comes to cellular communication networks, a primitive single-celled microbe that answers to the name of Monosiga brevicollis has a leg up on animals composed of billions of cells. It commands a signaling network more elaborate and diverse than found in any multicellular organism higher up on the evolutionary tree, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered. Read the rest of this entry »

Sorry, Joy. I'm not very good at this managing stuff. I didn't see a "close thread" tag. So I just deleted the whole thing. I didn't mean to be disrespectful to you or anyone else. Just incompetency on my part.