jmclatchie

In its Design, the Body’s Thermostat Resembles Human Technology

We are all familiar with thermostats — devices we use to regulate temperature, typically in central heating and air conditioning systems, as well as ovens, refrigerators, and water heaters. But did you know that our bodies also contain their own thermostat, which is responsible for maintaining our body temperature at the optimal level?

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Carnivory in Plants: A Problem for Evolution

I recently read a paper from 2007 by two plant geneticists, Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig and Heinz-Albert Becker, from the Max-Planck-Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany. The paper presents a review of carnivorous plants, which, by employing “enormously different and ingenious trap mechanisms,” ensnare and digest insects.

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Atheist Philosopher Explains Why Intelligent Design is Not a ‘God-of-the-Gaps’ Argument

Lowder concludes that “Whatever problems may exist within that argument, being a God-of-the-gaps argument clearly isn’t one of them.” I completely agree with Lowder’s assessment. Intelligent design makes the argument that various specific features of life and the universe are rendered vastly more probable than they would otherwise be by the supposition that a conscious mind was involved in their origins.

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The Exquisite Design of Egg Cells

The development of an egg cell and its activation in response to encountering a sperm cell exhibit exquisite design, being contingent upon multiple mutually dependent processes, all of which are needed for successful reproduction. When considered in conjunction with the incredible engineering features of the sperm cell and the seminal fluid, it would seem to put the thesis of design almost beyond question.

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Understanding the Biochemistry — and Intelligent Design — of Muscle Contraction

Muscle contraction — which we so easily take for granted — is an incredibly complex and elegant process, involving incredible engineering and design. To contend that the phenomenon of muscle contraction arose through a blind and undirected process, one tiny Darwinian step after the other, seems to me to strain credulity.

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How NOT to Argue Against Irreducible Complexity

Here, I will address an objection to irreducible complexity I’ve encountered that attempts to handwave the argument away as though I were missing something obvious. This is, in my judgment, one of the weakest objections to irreducible complexity, though it persists as a popular one — even among experts. It is therefore worth commenting on. I will use as case examples two responses to recent articles of mine.

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For Males, an Engineering Marvel that Originates in the Brain

As in the case of so many physiological processes, the male erection and ejaculation reflex requires multiple processes to function in unison to achieve a higher-level objective — in this instance, depositing seminal fluid, containing millions of sperm cells, in the female vaginal cavity.

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First Life Must Have Had a Minimally Reliable Replication System ­— A Conundrum for Materialists

An important requirement of life is a means of minimally accurate self-replication. Biologist Jack Szostak explains that “In order for RNA to have emerged as the genetic polymer that enabled protocells to evolve in a Darwinian manner, the process of RNA replication must have been accurate enough to allow for the transmission of useful information from generation to generation, indefinitely.”

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