Author Archives: thebookofworks

A popular approach to explaining consciousness and other attributes of the human mind and soul is to attribute all of it to evolutionary mechanisms. The purpose of the new field of evolutionary psychology (EP, or Evo Pyscho, my own invention) … Continue reading →

Andreas Wagner and his research  group found, both in laboratory experiments and using computer models, that there is not just one way to build a protein with a particular function. There are millions (at least) of ways to do it. … Continue reading →

Everyone knows that life is complex, but what does that really mean? Take the following fact: we can throw away a large fraction of the genes of most organisms (up to 80% in some cases), and they will live and … Continue reading →

Atheism is simply the lack of belief in a god, or in a supernatural being. We hear that all the time, and it’s generally true, from a dictionary point of view. So are there no other beliefs or attitudes or … Continue reading →

Why doesn’t anyone speak Esperanto? For the same reason that communism failed, that there are always shortcuts, and that mutations are random. The answer is that planned, designed systems never work as well as unplanned, natural systems that arise by … Continue reading →

Today, August 31, 2017 is the last day of the John Templeton grant that made this blog possible. BUT, it is NOT the last day of the blog. I will be continuing this blog into the future, and have no … Continue reading →

Today’s guest post is by my friend and colleague, Jennifer Secki Shields. Jen was trained as a biologist, and was the long-term Director of Christian Education at Christ Crossman United Methodist Church in Virginia. More recently, she founded a new … Continue reading →