Christian cadres: Alarm clocks work better when you keep the batteries up to date ...

A friend draws my attention to Christian Cadre, who writes,

I'm ashamed that as a self-proclaimed critical thinker I let myself be swayed by the emotional atheist rhetoric against ID. The truth is that I haven't really engaged with the ID writings in any depth, and at the very least I owe people like Dembski, Behe, Meyer, Denton and others the courtesy of careful consideration, more than they get from the hysterical mass media. I've always been about the quality of arguments. I couldn't care less if ID is creationism disguised as science, or whether there is a pernicious political agenda behind it. I want to know how good the arguments are. And I haven't really gone a long way towards doing that.

Honestly, I wish some of these people would blow clear of the Kool-Aid for good.

Scripture, tradition, reason, and evidence all point to design in the universe. That's a lot of evidence. All the atheists have is anti-religious rhetoric and legal decisions from sympathetic judges.

Christian cadre, whoever you are and if that's what you are, which would you rather have on your side?

Find out why there is an intelligent design controversy:

Cells: From slime to supercomputers in one not-so-easy, big fat research project. But then what?

Geoffrey Robinson, of Faith, Beer, and Other Things That Interest Geoff blog, interviewed Reasons to Believe's Fuz Rana on his recent book, The Cell's Design:

1) What is the central thesis of your book?

In the last decade or so molecular biologists, biochemists, and biophysicists have developed a wide range of new techniques that give us an unprecedented view of life’s operation at a molecular level. In my opinion, these new insights provide some of the most compelling evidence that life must stem from the work of a Creator.

The Cell’s Design is my attempt to communicate the breadth and depth of these discoveries and organize them into a formal argument for intelligent design (ID). To make my case, I utilize a form of analogical reasoning called pattern recognition.

I attempt to define an intelligent design pattern using the behavior of human designers as a guide. Remarkably, the defining characteristics and features of life’s chemical systems closely correspond to the intelligent design pattern.

In my view, this analogy compels the conclusion that life stems from a Creator. It’s not that life’s chemistry appears to be designed. But it appears to be designed in the same way that a system or object created by a human designer appears to be designed.

For more, go here. One thing I find interesting is that Fuz Rana works with Hugh Ross. Hugh Ross attacks the intelligent design theorists, but Fuz Rana makes ID a central thesis. (See also this item on Ross's views of ID.)

I see it as a generational thing. Ross belongs to a generation that saw design as proof for God but did not see its potential in other areas.

The younger design theorists don't deny any of that, but they see a broader picture. Seeing design in nature has many uses besides apologetics.

I am trying to read The Cell's Design, while struggling with six other books on the Toronto Transit or else late at night. (I didn't know insomnia could be such a blessing.)

Junk DNA: I told you, keep those documents in the packaging ... are you listening NOW?

Commenting, I gather on this post, a reader writes,

This morning I had a guest speaker giving a run down on DNA diagnostic technology to a Medical Science class and almost as a throw-away line he commented on part of the DNA which doesn't code for proteins and virtually dismissed the use of the term Junk DNA and confirmed it afterwards in a brief conversation.

See also:

Junk RNA just like junk DNA? Stuff you should NOT have thrown out with the packaging?

Intelligent design vs. Darwinism: Junk DNA as the genes' antique shop? Find out who honestly believed it was junk and went on record ...

Find out why there is an intelligent design controversy:

Phineas Gage: The evolution of the lecture room psychopath

In Intro Psych 101, you probably studied Phineas Gage, the 19th century railroad worker whose personality completely changed after a tamping rod went through his skull - thus demonstrating the frontal lobe theory of personality.

Or, is this just another of the many things we know that ain't so?

For the story go to The Mindful Hack, here.

The Mindful Hack is my blog on neuroscience and spirituality, which supports The Spiritual Brain