The specter of intelligent design emerges at the Royal Society meeting in London

The specter of intelligent design emerges at the Royal Society meeting in London The smart design bomb, which was ticking all day and the first half, finally exploded in today’s afternoon session of the Royal Society (New Directions in Evolutionary Biology). But it was a shell explosion, as the speaker (Andy Gardner) from the University of St Andrews was not advocating intelligent design, but replacing it as a cause of natural selection. Yet: Boom! Douglas Axe had previously referred to the cheetah chip in Gardner's lecture. But Dr. Gardner had opened his talk with a different slide, featuring William Paley (1743-1805), and pictures of a stone, a clock, and an eye. He then explained Paley's classic argument (let's say I set my foot against a clock...), and emphasized that complex organic design requires a sufficient reason to explain the effect. Then we got to the question-and-answer section. Professor Tim Ingold from the University of Aberdeen was sitting on my left visibly disturbed. Gardner asked, are you saying that organisms are actually designed objects? Gardner replied: Yes. Well, if organisms are actually designed, that would require a designer; could you please explain – and stress – how your interpretation of Bali differs? I didn't put their notes in quotation marks because this summary presses too much hustle and too much take-and-take between Engold and Gardner, but it puts your hand on the gist of their interaction. In the coming weeks, readers are supposed to be able to see the dialogue for themselves, when the Royal Society makes recordings of the entire event available. As has been explained previously by other reporters, the specter of true potency as a cause of biological complexity hangs over almost everything that happens in this meeting. As I was writing this report, Patrick Bateson’s lecture was about to conclude, with a slide that read “Natural Selection Is Not Effective,” with an implicit warning that the summons to effectiveness is to fall from the edge of the known world.[1] Only about two minutes ago, in today’s roundtable discussion, she was a speaker at the front of the room – I couldn’t recognize her but I was told she was Dr. Eva Jablonka from Tel Aviv University. [1] Hallelujah, it is as if in the "knowing world" we see anything that happens or appears without an actor behind it! Alas, these scientists are forced to turn the facts straight and clear, only to remain within an acceptable framework according to their materialistic ideologies. (Bra n) - Dr. Paul Nelson — Source: Brahin Center website - Published 2016-11-08 (archived at the Internet Archive) https://www.braheen.com/articles/evolution-design/شبح-التصميم-الذكي-يتجلى-في-اجتماع-الجمعية-الملكية-بلندن