Bill Pratt | May 11, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt I am told again and again by blog commenters that there is absolutely no controversy over any aspects of Darwinian evolution among those who study biology in the scientific community. Here is a typical quote from a recent commenter, who was speaking about the pro-intelligent design Discovery Institute’s advocacy of teaching the [...]
Bill Pratt | May 4, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt In part 1, we looked at 6 definitions of evolution and explained how different Christian creationist positions deal with them. If you recall, definition 6 was the most controversial: 6. “Blind watchmaker” thesis: the idea that all organisms have descended from common ancestors solely through unguided, unintelligent, purposeless, material processes such [...]
Bill Pratt | May 2, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt One of the first things I was taught in my seminary classes was to carefully define terms and concepts before launching into a debate over them. So many times, when I see two people arguing about a topic, they are using different definitions for the same words. It’s impossible to have [...]
Bill Pratt | March 5, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt In part 1 , we started looking at G. K. Chesterton’s commentary on the zeal of paleontologists of his day. Chesterton noted that there is a definite and often ignored difference between the science of paleontology and empirical sciences such as aerodynamics. In part 2, we hear more from Chesterton on [...]
Bill Pratt | March 2, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt It never ceases to amaze me that a certain breed of skeptic will believe everything presented in an hour-long History Channel program about an alleged prehistoric ancestor of Homo sapiens - all of it based on a couple fossils - and yet believe nothing in the voluminous written historical records contained in the Bible. I have seen hours of TV programming [...]
Bill Pratt | July 27, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt In the last chapter of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, he introduces the metaphor of Middle World. The idea of Middle World is that the human sensory organs have only evolved in order to help humans survive in a world of medium-sized objects moving at relatively slow speeds (compared to the [...]
Bill Pratt | June 27, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt Trick question! There isn’t one, despite what some people will tell you. You see, the issue of exactly how God brought forth life on earth is just not something that is part of the essential teachings of Christianity. What are the essential teachings of Christianity? Those doctrines that were elucidated by [...]
Bill Pratt | April 27, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt This post is a few months belated, but better late than never. Every year, Access Research Network does a phenomenal job collecting science news that bears on the intelligent design and evolution debate. For 2010, they have again assembled a great list. If you are at all interested in this debate, [...]
Bill Pratt | April 25, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt I have followed the intelligent design (ID) movement for several years now and there is an error that I’ve seen opponents of ID make over and over. The error is confusing the idea of common descent with the idea of random mutation and natural selection. Common descent refers to the idea [...]
Bill Pratt | March 14, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt In most cases, fossils cannot give us ancestry, according to paleontologist Donald Prothero. This statement, coming from Prothero, shocked me when I first read it, because it seems like fossil news headlines always make claims about ancestry, but here is Prothero, a staunch supporter of evolution, disagreeing. Let me explain, lest [...]
