Science

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How do living creatures change and adapt to new and changing environments? That is a question that has been debated by creationists and evolutionists for well over a century. When it comes to the large-scale changes like moving from molecule to man, the two camps hold to irreconcilable positions/answers to that basic question. Special creation and macroevolution (be it the Darwinian version or the “theistic” version) always have been, and continue to be, mutually exclusive. Either God created the original “created kinds” (or baramins) and one never “evolves” into another, or all of life has descended from an initial life-form as a result of major transformations driven by environmental/selective pressure, that is to say “natural selection” acting on random mutations.

That being said, for decades now, creationists and evolutionists alike have agreed on the validity of microevolution, the idea that small-scale changes (within a Biblical “created kind”) can occur naturally via the same process of “natural selection” acting on random mutations. Thus, up until recent times, most creationists would not question the mechanism that theoretically drove the change postulated by neo-Darwinism, just the unlimited extent of the change that was claimed by evolutionists. That is now beginning to change with the introduction of a brand new theory of biological design called “continuous environmental tracking” (CET) that has been proposed by scientists at the Institute for Creation Research (ICR). In contrast to the existing evolutionary paradigm of random mutations and natural selection, CET is engineering-based and non- random/non-mystical in nature. It holds much promise in providing design-based explanations for how creatures change and adapt to their environments. Before examining this new theory in detail, let’s first review and evaluate the old theory about “how creatures change/adapt” that has dominated the scientific literature for nearly a century.

What is the human mind? What is its relationship to the brain?

These fundamental questions have captivated human thought for millennia. In the chapter “Neuroscience and Dualism” by Michael Egnor, part of the recently published book Minding the Brain (edited by Angus Menuge, Brian Krouse, and Robert J. Marks), Egnor offers a detailed exploration of these enduring philosophical and scientific issues through the lens of his extensive career in neurosurgery and neuroscience.

Is Answers in Genesis Going the Way of the International Conference on Creationism?

To the TASC reader: The following Letter to the Editor was submitted by Jerry Bergman, a colleague of the anonymous writer of the letter. The letter writer’s name was withheld at the writer’s request. The assertions, opinions, views, and claims expressed in the letter are not necessarily those of TASC. – Ed.