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Endless Forms Most Beautiful, Part 1

Endless Forms Most Beautiful, Part 1

How could we make progress on questions involving the evolution of form without a scientific understanding of how form is generated in the first place? [By the 1970s] population genetics had succeeded in establishing the principle that evolution is due to changes in genes, but this was a principle without an example. No gene that affected the form and evolution of any animal had been characterized. New insights in evolution would require breakthroughs in embryology.
Jun 17, 2013 
Sean Carroll 
History of Life
3
<strong>Series:</strong> Evolution Basics

Series: Evolution Basics

Written by BioLogos Fellow of Biology Dennis Venema, this series of posts is intended as a basic introduction to the science of evolution for non-specialists.
May 30, 2013 
Dennis Venema 
Genetics, History of Life, Evolution - How It Works, Evolution - Evidence
Does Evolutionary Psychology Explain Why We Believe in God? Part 1

Does Evolutionary Psychology Explain Why We Believe in God? Part 1

When we look across times and cultures and find very similar beliefs concerning the nature of physical, biological, and psychological reality, those similarities cry out for some explanation. Since these different individuals have a very diverse range of experience, something other than common experience alone just might account for the similarities of belief. In some cases we can fairly conclude that there is a common nature – some fundamental similarity in how human cognition works – that underlies broadly shared beliefs.
May 21, 2013 
Michael Murray, Schloss, Jeff 
Brain, Mind & Soul
1
<strong>Series:</strong> Biological Evolution: What Makes it Good Science?

Series: Biological Evolution: What Makes it Good Science?

Is the contemporary theory of evolution an example of good science? Biologist Michael Buratovich explore this question in a well-researched two part essay.
Apr 16, 2013 
Michael Buratovich 
History of Life, Genetics
Where are the Transitional Fossils?

Where are the Transitional Fossils?

A common argument leveled against the theory of evolution is that scientists have not been able to produce transitional fossils that show the change of one species into another. In this podcast, we address a common misconception about what transitional fossils actually are.
Feb 01, 2013 
Kelsey Luoma 
History of Life, Evolution - Evidence, Fossils
163
<strong>Series:</strong> Science and the Bible: Intelligent Design

Series: Science and the Bible: Intelligent Design

In this series, Ted Davis identifies the history, core tenets and assumptions about the Intelligent Design view.
Dec 18, 2012 
Ted Davis 
Design, ID Movement
Oxygen and Co-Creation

Oxygen and Co-Creation

In the mid-seventeenth century, John Mayow conducted a series of experiments in which he showed that burning candles in bell jars consumed one-fifth of the enclosed air before extinguishing. Remarkably, mice placed in bell jars did exactly the same thing...
Oct 13, 2012 
Mike Tice 
History of Life
79
<strong>Series:</strong> Shaping the Human Soul

Series: Shaping the Human Soul

In Washington DC, Church of the Advent teamed up with The Trinity Forum to offer a series of lectures exploring the synergy between modern science and Christian Faith. This presentation by psychiatrist Curt Thompson and philosopher James K.A. Smith addressed the process of Christian discipleship and spiritual formation through the lens of neuroscience.
Oct 04, 2012 
Curt Thompson, James K.A. Smith 
Brain, Mind & Soul
Dispatches From the Physicalist Frontier, Part 1

Dispatches From the Physicalist Frontier, Part 1

I’m a physicalist when it comes to human persons. I believe, in other words, that we are wholly physical objects. I don’t believe there are non-physical souls in the natural world. So I don’t believe that we are or have such non-physical souls as parts. I believe we are through-and-through physical.
Aug 20, 2012 
Kevin J. Corcoran 
Brain, Mind & Soul
15
Rediscovering Human Beings, Part 1

Rediscovering Human Beings, Part 1

That we are animals is something we hardly needed Darwin to tell us. It is obvious from the fact that, like other animals, we have stomachs and skin, eyeballs and ears, limbs and teeth, muscles, brains, and other organs. Yet it doesn’t follow that we are mere animals.
Aug 18, 2012 
Edward Feser 
Brain, Mind & Soul
23
Body and Soul, Mind and Brain: Pressing Questions

Body and Soul, Mind and Brain: Pressing Questions

“Bit by experimental bit,” writes philosopher P. Churchland, “neuroscience is morphing our conception of what we are.” For many, this includes dispensing with the “soul” in favor of biologically anchored processes.
Aug 16, 2012 
Joel Green 
Brain, Mind & Soul
16
Death and Rebirth: The Role of Extinction in Evolution

Death and Rebirth: The Role of Extinction in Evolution

When they imagine evolution, many Christians picture novelty: new species arising over time, or speciation events. But as the most recent Southern Baptist Voices exchange makes clear, many Christians also focus on the role of death in evolution—something that can be a stumbling block.
Aug 14, 2012 
Dennis Venema 
History of Life, Evolution - How It Works
16
<strong>Series:</strong> Asa Gray and Charles Darwin Discuss Evolution and Design

Series: Asa Gray and Charles Darwin Discuss Evolution and Design

Many Christians believe that they face a painful choice-- either life was designed by God or it is an evolutionary product of natural selection. Charles Darwin himself believed in this dichotomy, and people ever since have felt the need to "choose sides". However, looking back at history, we find that one of Darwin's chief scientific colleagues, Asa Gray, did not share this perspective. In this three-part essay, part 1 charts the relationship of Asa Gray and Charles Darwin. Part 2 describes Darwin's struggle with the problem of natural evil and design in nature, and part 3 explores how Asa Gray was able to embrace evolution without rejecting the idea of design.
Aug 04, 2012 
Sara Joan Miles 
Design, Problem of Evil, ID Movement
The Fossil Record

The Fossil Record

There are two opposite errors which need to be countered about the fossil record: 1) that it is so incomplete as to be of no value in interpreting patterns and trends in the history of life, and 2) that it is so good that we should expect a relatively complete record of the details of evolutionary transitions within all or most lineages.
Jul 13, 2012 
Keith Miller 
History of Life, Fossils, Evolution - Evidence
8
Southern Baptist Voices: A Response to John Hammett, Part 1

Southern Baptist Voices: A Response to John Hammett, Part 1

The Scriptures teach that we human beings have been created in God’s image. What does that mean? I am in substantial agreement with Dr. Hammett on this question.
Jun 22, 2012 
Tim O'Connor 
Brain, Mind & Soul
0
Fine-tuning and the “Fruitful Universe”

Fine-tuning and the “Fruitful Universe”

I ask the question, “Why is the universe so special?” Now scientists don’t like things to be special; we like things to be general, and our natural anticipation would have been that the universe is just a common specimen of what a universe might be like.
Jun 01, 2012 
John Polkinghorne 
Design, Astronomy & Physics, ID Movement
15
Caution! Design Arguments Ahead

Caution! Design Arguments Ahead

Design arguments have been around forever and expressed in various ways. Most of them fall into what we call natural theology, which is the process of inferring something about the existence and nature of God by the inspection of nature.
May 15, 2012 
Karl Giberson 
Design, Astronomy & Physics
11
Understanding Evolution: The Evolutionary Origins of Irreducible Complexity, Part 1

Understanding Evolution: The Evolutionary Origins of Irreducible Complexity, Part 1

I will take some time to clarify exactly how Michael Behe, the biochemist and Intelligent Design (ID) proponent who has most extensively developed the "irreducible complexity" argument, uses the term.
Apr 19, 2012 
Dennis Venema 
Design, ID Movement
13
Understanding Evolution: Theory, Prediction and Converging Lines of Evidence, Part 1

Understanding Evolution: Theory, Prediction and Converging Lines of Evidence, Part 1

In science, we don’t really know the true way things actually work. What we have are theories—broad explanatory frameworks supported by experimentation, which we can use to make testable predictions about the natural world.
Apr 05, 2012 
Dennis Venema 
History of Life, Evolution - How It Works, Evolution - Evidence
59
Speciation and Macroevolution

Speciation and Macroevolution

A common challenge to evolutionary theory is that while life does indeed change over time (what is known as microevolution), no one has ever seen one species evolve into another species (macroevolution).
Feb 23, 2012 
Kelsey Luoma 
History of Life, Evolution - How It Works
37
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