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The argument from design, recast today in the Intelligent Design movement, relies critically on the contrast of designed things with undesigned things. This poses a problem for Christians, however, because they affirm that God designed the whole universe. How then can we call anything undesigned? I argue that this problem is equivalent to the problem of free will, or the problem of moral evil, and as such can be addressed by the same philosophical frameworks developed in the past for addressing those issues, in particular the notions of different levels of description and Augustine’s different levels of giftedness.
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Most educated people nowadays, I believe, think of themselves as Darwinians. If they do, however, it can only be from ignorance: from not knowing enough about what Darwinism says. For Darwinism says many things, especially about our species, which are too obviously false to be believed by any educated person; or at least by an educated person who retains any capacity at all for critical thought on the subject of Darwinism. Of course most educated people now are Darwinians, in the sense that they believe our species to have originated, not in a creative act of the Divine Will, but by evolution from other animals. But believing that proposition is not enough to make someone a Darwinian. It had been believed, as may be learnt from any history of biology, by very many people long before Darwinism, or Darwin, was born. What is needed to make someone an adherent of a certain school of thought is belief in all or most of the propositions which are peculiar to that school, and are believed either by all of its adherents, or at least by the more thoroughgoing ones. In any large school of thought, there is always a minority who adhere more exclusively than most to the characteristic beliefs of the school: they are the "purists" or "ultras" of that school. What is needed and sufficient, then, to make a person a Darwinian, is belief in all or most of the propositions which are peculiar to Darwinians, and believed either by all of them, or at least by ultra-Darwinians. I give ten propositions which are all Darwinian beliefs in the sense just specified. Each of them is obviously false: either a direct falsity about our species or, where the proposition is a general one, obviously false in the case of our species, at least.
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The article presents George John Romanes’ view on the relation between religion and science. Romanes was nineteenth century English evolutionary biologist interested also in theology. According to Romanes, the task of science is to find causes of particular phenomena, while religion is a general theory of reality assuming that everything is ultimately caused by an intelligent agent. Romanes claims that in their pure forms science and religion have no logical contact. However, till recently religion influenced science. As a result of prevalence of faith, there was a habit to referring all phenomena to the deity. When one of these activities crosses its appropriate boundaries, trying to use the methods of the other, the resulting effect is chaos. An attempt to explain particular phenomena in terms of a religious theory of ultimate causes, i.e. intelligent design theory, was a case in point. Romanes suggests that proponents of design argument are too eager in recognizing that there cannot exist other causes of perfect adaptation of organisms except a designer, and that is why they immediately look for examples confirming their thesis. Conversely, Darwin’s aim was to find other causes. For Romanes, emergence of the Darwinian theory of evolution was a turning point when science began to exert significant influence on religion.
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The article concerns necessary life’s solutions according to Simon Conway Morris (born 1951), a British paleontologist who is famous in scientific circles thank to his research on fossils of Burgess Shale. Initially, close analysis led him to the same conclusions as Stephen Jay Gould – especially about the significant role of chance in the process of life’s evolution. Later, however, Simon Conway Morris radically changed his mind which is expressed in his book "Life’s Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe". He believes that, in fact, nature is highly limited in its choices and that is the reason of necessity of many solutions. The problem of solutions in evolution of life is interesting because of the limited number of predictions formulated by the theory of evolution which is accepted by biologists. Theory of evolution assumes the randomness of evolutionary process. I will try to assess whether opposite stance of the author of "Life’s Solution" is a real alternative to theory of evolution. I want to present solutions which, according to Simon Conway Morris, are necessary and to show on what ground he rests his belief. He divides such solutions to molecular, necessary due to physical properties of substances, and environmental, being a response to adaptative needs. It will be substantiated by numerous examples from the living world, including both contemporary and extinct organisms. My purpose is also to present predictions given by the author of "Life’s Solution" as to the results of future evolution of living things, and to assess their validity.
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Proponents of intelligent design theory frequently claim that their theory is analogical to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) program and, as a consequence, it has scientific character. However, author shows essential differences between these two undertakings.
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Intelligent design theory (ID) is an alternative – to Darwinism – explanation of the origin of life on earth, according to which life is unexplainable without invoking an intelligent designer as its cause. From the point of view of its founders and advocates, it is a scientific theory. Critics, however, object that ID theory speaks of supernatural designer and thus it is a veiled form of creationism which is believed to be a religious doctrine. Author answers this objection indicating that ID theory respects scientific criteria – especially methodological naturalism and empirical grounding of conclusions – and that it cannot be classified as a form of creationism due to fact that it does not address religious claims about the supernatural. ID theorists’ research are natural objects and they conduct research using knowledge about the effects of actions of intelligent beings. In this way they try to inquire whether the action of some intelligent cause is responsible for the existence of natural objects. Author argues that ID theory cannot determine the nature of the potential designer of such objects if it want to stay within the bounds of scientific investigations. The identification of the designer is impossible in the light of presently accumulated evidence which, according to ID theorists, indicate just that the origin of certain biological structures required involvement of some closer unidentified intelligence. Many ID advocates, such as Michael Behe or Phillip Johnson, identify the designer with Christian God, but making a proviso that this conclusion is not a logical consequence of ID theory and that it is only their personal belief. Furthermore, they argue that ID theory is compatible with many worldviews, not only with Christian one, and that it must not assume that the designer is a supernatural being.
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Author analyzes the methodological specificity of such scientific disciplines as forensics, cryptography, archeology or SETI program showing that intelligent design theory, contradictory to claims of its proponents, applies essentially different methodology and there is no indication that it is a scientific theory.
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The article presents foundations of the theory of punctuated equilibrium which was formulated as an alternative account of the course of macroevolution to gradualistic Darwinism. Founders of the theory of punctuated equilibrium are American paleontologists Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge who claim that the process of macroevolution does not occur gradually, step by step, but it is characterized by long periods of stasis punctuated, from time to time, by rapid – on geological scale – transformations of organisms.
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While anti-Semitism is usually perceived as a universal phenomena, the Holocaust is often viewed as a unique and unprecedented event. However, when it comes to explaining the Holocaust, reference to anti-Semitism seems to be the only answer, the sole factor that led to the tragedy. But if – in one or another form – anti- Semitism is a constant feature, what makes the Holocaust an unparalleled experience? The aim of this study is not to investigate the uniqueness or “historicization” of the Holocaust, but rather to analyse the relation between anti-Semitism as a phenomena and the Holocaust as an event. The concerned relation is studied on the example of Slovakia, in the period between the formation of Slovak national consciousness and the end of the Second World War.
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The study is devoted to the plans of the former Hungarian political elite for the inclusion of “new born” Slovakia in Hungary. Several such plans arose immediately in the period 1918 – 1920, when the “Slovak question” was regarded primarily as a solvable task on the way to renewal of the integrity of the historic Hungarian state. This fact was also reflected in the activities of the Budapest government circles, which established their own irredentist organizations and supported movements, which tried to undermine the idea of Czecho-Slovak statehood. Especially the groups of emigrants, who had voluntarily or involuntarily left the territory of the emerging Czechoslovak Republic, became substantially engaged in this direction.
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The study is devoted to the Chronicle of the Council of Konstanz by Ulrich Richental, in which he described the events of the Church council of 1414 – 1418. The chronicle is also known from the point of view of Slovak history in relation to its mentions of the territory of Slovakia, which prove that in the 15th century, the territory of Slovakia was perceived as special and ethnically different in the framework of the Kingdom of Hungary. In several places, Richental mentions noblemen, whose property was located in the territory of present-day Slovakia as lords “in Windischen länden”. A closer geographical location, such as on the river Váh, is sometimes given. In Richental’s Chronicle, apart from the name “Hungary”, also called in one place “Ungerland”, we also find Slovakia designated as “Windenland”. Richental’s mentions of Slovakia are very valuable, but so far more or less unknown in expert literature Council of Konstanz.
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Dangl, Vojtech: Under the Banner of Emperor and King (Milan Podrimavský) .. 139 Michela, Miroslav: Under the slogan of integrity (Maroš Hertel) .. 142 Segeš, Dušan: The Slovak Cross in the Politics of the Polish Eagle (Dagmar Čierna-Lantayová) ..144 Londák, Miroslav – Sikora, Stanislav et al.: The Year 1968 and its Place in our History (Vladimír Varinský)... 148.
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By analysing selected texts by S.H. Vajanský from the period 1881 – 1897, the author points to his conception of history, in the context of his national ideology and conception of the policy of the Slovak National Party (Slovenská národná strana) at the end of the 19th century. Vajanský’s historical argumentation rests on two different but inter-connected interpretations of national history. The first starts from the concept of the Slovak nobility as an elite group in the society of the Kingdom of Hungary, the only group able to represent the mass of the nation. However, instead of this, it voluntarily “broke its connection with its people”, which is the cause of national poverty. Vajanský, however, did not find any cause for pessimism, but for optimism, thanks to the fact that the role of representing the mass of the nation had been taken up by the national intelligentsia. On this basis, he constructed a second interpretation of national history based on their negation. According to him, the Slovak people remembered “prehistoric times”, but remained untouched by “historic times”, which, in the interpretation of the author, meant event or political history. The negation of event history led to historical optimism – the Slovak nation still had its history in front of it.
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The study is devoted to the transformation of the Slovak Academy of Sciences as a result of the social changes after November 1989. The transformation is traced in three stages. The first stage, which lasted from November 1989 to the election of a new Presidium of the Academy in January 1990, was very dynamic. Strike committees were formed and there were changes in the leadership of the Academy and its institutes. The changes culminated in the election of a new democratically elected body: the Council of Scientists of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The second stage occurred during the term of office of the new democratically elected Presidium of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (Predsedníctvo SAV) (1990 – May 1992). The coarsest deformations and injustices caused by the totalitarian regime were corrected, and the Academy developed a new character as a non-university academic institution. During the second Presidium of the Academy (May 1992 – 1993), the transformation continued especially in the field of making scientific research more effective. The number of employees of the Academy was reduced by almost half, while scientific research was maintained on a good level. Apart from structural changes, the introduction of a grant system contributed to this. The transformation was largely completed in the period 1989 – 1993, and the Slovak Academy of Sciences was transformed into a democratically run, effective scientific institution, which carried out basic research and in some areas also targeted applied research.
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