by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent
A new book, Nature's IQ: Extraordinary Animal Behaviors That Defy Evolution, by Hungarian Hindus, demonstrates the resonance of design in nature among the world's cultures.
I'll have more to say when I finish reading it, but one point they stress - that is often neglected in the West - is this: Intricate physical adaptations among animals are useless without adaptations in behaviour. How does the animal know that it has a skill? I mean "know" not so much in a philosophical sense, but just "know" how to do it? I think they are right to stress that behaviour is key to adaptation.
I well remember the day that a kitten rushed off the staircase while chasing a house fly. She propelled herself about two metres straight forward - and fell about 4.5 metres, a straight drop.
She picked herself up and went on with the hunt, but she never tried walking on air again. Of course, a fledged young bird, faced with similar circumstances, would have discovered that it could fly.
So far, my favourite thing about the book is the golden ant on the cover, carrying what looks like a computer chip (or something similar) in its mandibles.
The book is available here at Access Research Network.
Also just up at The Post-Darwinist:
DNA analysis means the death of taxonomy (discovering new species in the field)?
New Book: Ben Wiker's Life and Lies of Charles Darwin
Speaking: Five Critical Things You Must
Do With New Media
Human evolution: More on the Ida? I dunno ... files
Darwinism and academic culture: Not another one for the Expelled files ... ?
Toronto-based Canadian journalist Denyse O'Leary (www.designorchance.com) is the author of the multiple award-winning By Design or by Chance? (Augsburg Fortress 2004), an overview of the intelligent design controversy. She was named CBA Canada's Recommended Author of the Year in 2005 and is co-author, with Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, of The Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist's case for the existence of the soul (Harper 2007).
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Evolution has become a favorite topic of the news media recently, but for some reason, they never seem to get the story straight. The staff at Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture started this Blog to set the record straight and make sure you knew "the rest of the story".
A blogger from New England offers his intelligent reasoning.
We are a group of individuals, coming from diverse backgrounds and not speaking for any organization, who have found common ground around teleological concepts, including intelligent design. We think these concepts have real potential to generate insights about our reality that are being drowned out by political advocacy from both sides. We hope this blog will provide a small voice that helps rectify this situation.
Website dedicated to comparing scenes from the "Inherit the Wind" movie with factual information from actual Scopes Trial. View 37 clips from the movie and decide for yourself if this movie is more fact or fiction.
Don Cicchetti blogs on: Culture, Music, Faith, Intelligent Design, Guitar, Audio
Australian biologist Stephen E. Jones maintains one of the best origins "quote" databases around. He is meticulous about accuracy and working from original sources.
Most guys going through midlife crisis buy a convertible. Austrialian Stephen E. Jones went back to college to get a biology degree and is now a proponent of ID and common ancestry.
Complete zipped downloadable pdf copy of David Stove's devastating, and yet hard-to-find, critique of neo-Darwinism entitled "Darwinian Fairytales"
Intelligent Design The Future is a multiple contributor weblog whose participants include the nation's leading design scientists and theorists: biochemist Michael Behe, mathematician William Dembski, astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, philosophers of science Stephen Meyer, and Jay Richards, philosopher of biology Paul Nelson, molecular biologist Jonathan Wells, and science writer Jonathan Witt. Posts will focus primarily on the intellectual issues at stake in the debate over intelligent design, rather than its implications for education or public policy.
A Philosopher's Journey: Political and cultural reflections of John Mark N. Reynolds. Dr. Reynolds is Director of the Torrey Honors Institute at
Biola University.