Re: Wistar Symposium "Mathematical Challenge to Neo-Darwinism".

On Tue, 4 Jun 2024 23:12:53 -0400, Ron Dean
<rondean-noreply@gmail.com> wrote:

Martin Harran wrote:

On Sun, 2 Jun 2024 11:15:24 -0400, Ron Dean
<rondean-noreply@gmail.com> wrote:
 
[snip for focus]
 

In my youth I came to accept evolution as a fact. But after reading a
book by Dr Michael Denton, on a challenge, I began to question the
"evidence" for evolution and that's where I am today.

 
When forming my own views on a subject, I always make an effort to
understand the various views on the subject. For example, on my
bookshelf, 'The Selfish Gene' by Richard Dawkins sits alongside his
'God Delusion'; Jerry Coyne's 'Why Evolution is True' sits alongside
his ' Faith Versus Fact'; Francis Collins's 'The Language of God' sits
alongside Stephen Meyer's 'God Hypothesis'.
 
What books or authors have you read you that argue against Intelligent
Design?
>

Would you recomend a few?

In terms of books by religious believers, I've already recommended
Francis Collins's 'The Language of God'.

Another good book is Ken Miller's 'Finding Darwin's God'. Miller is
one of the most high-profile debunkers of ID and played a key role in
the Dover case.

'Quantum Leap: How John Polkinghorne found God in science and
religion' by Dean Nelson and Karl Giberson

'Teilhard de Chardin's The Phenomenon of Man Explained' by Louis
Savary; this is not anti-ID as such but it is very strong on evolution
from a religious perspective. (BTW, don't go straight to the original
Teilhard book, his writing style is very difficult to comprehend,
easier to understand after reading Savary's book.)

Far too many books from non-religious believers to list but two of my
favourites are:

''Why Evolution is True' by Jerry Coyne, probably the best book I have
read on exacrly what its title says.

'The Selfish Gene' by Richard Dawkins. A bit dated now and weak in
some areas like altruism but I have a soft spot for it as it was the
second-ever book I read on evolution (see below for my first book.)

It might surprise you that as a religious believer, I am recommending
books from two such virulent and strident atheists but as I have noted
elsewhere, whilst they are total pricks when writing about religion,
they are both outstandingly good when writing about the area where
they actually have expertise.

How many have you read pointing out the flaws
in evolutionary theory?

I have read quite a few *alleging* flaws in evolutionary theory but
they have all failed to convince me. that they have a better answer.
Here's a sample list:

'Of Pandas and People' - the very first book I ever read about
evolution which triggered my interest to find out more and led me to
initially to the Selfish Gene and then onto wider reading.

 'Darwin's Black Box' - Michael Behe

'By Design or by Chance in the Universe' - Denise O'Leary

'Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical and Theological
Critique' produced by the ID movement, contributors including Stephen
Meyer, Doug Axe, Ann Gauger, Paul Nelson, Casey Luskin, and a host of
other ID proponents.

'Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical
Science' - various authors, published by the Discovery Institute

'Return of the God Hypothesis' by Stephen Meyer who almost exactly
mirrors the Main arguments that you make for ID - the origins of the
Universe, DNA and coding/intelligence, the Cambrian explosion and
development of so many novel life-forms. I wrote a detailed review of
it here:
https://groups.google.com/g/talk.origins/c/z8Yq7lvkAfU/m/um8mt8MDAgAJ

 
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