PZ lays a smackdown on a neurosurgeon who is one of the Discovery Institute's 700 who are "skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life" and claims:
I am asking a simple question: show me the evidence (journal, date, page) that new information, measured in bits or any appropriate units, can emerge from random variation and natural selection, without intelligent agency.
Predictably, PZ doesn't even have to break into a sweat taking care of this stupidity.
More like this
Someone sent me some questions about information theory; or actually,
about some questions raised by a bozo creationist arguing about information
And I was. It was the dreaded Seven Random and Weird things meme! It's on the loose and I've been tagged.
The rules are:
This week's article on the "most random" number was the most popular post ever on Cognitive Daily. The stats aren't all in yet, but so far the post has been viewed at least 40,000 times.
The first key concept in probability is called a random variable.
Random variables are a key concept - but since they're a key concept of the
frequentist school, they are alas, one of the things that bring out more of
Update:
Egnor responds, the DI crows, and PZ hits back. For a trained doctor, this guy is clueless.