In the spring of 2011, a diverse group of scientists gathered at Cornell University to discuss their research into the nature and origin of biological information. This symposium brought together experts in information theory, computer science, numerical simulation, thermodynamics, evolutionary theory, whole organism biology, developmental biology, molecular biology, genetics, physics, biophysics, mathematics, and linguistics. This volume presents new research by those invited to speak at the conference.The contributors to this volume use their wide-ranging expertise in the area of biological information to bring fresh insights into the many explanatory difficulties associated with biological information. These authors raise major challenges to the conventional scientific wisdom, which attempts to explain all biological information exclusively in terms of the standard mutation/selection paradigm.Several clear themes emerged from these research papers: 1) Information is indispensable to our understanding of what life is; 2) Biological information is more than the material structures that embody it; 3) Conventional chemical and evolutionary mechanisms seem insufficient to fully explain the labyrinth of information that is life. By exploring new perspectives on biological information, this volume seeks to expand, encourage, and enrich research into the nature and origin of biological information.

In the spring of 2011, a diverse group of scientists gathered at Cornell University to discuss their research into the nature and origin of biological information. This symposium brought together experts in information theory, computer science, numerical simulation, thermodynamics, evolutionary theory, whole organism biology, developmental biology, molecular biology, genetics, physics, biophysics, mathematics, and linguistics. This volume presents new research by those invited to speak at the conference. The contributors to this volume use their wide-ranging expertise in the area of biological information to bring fresh insights into the explanatory difficulties that biological information raises. Going beyond the conventional scientific wisdom, which attempts to explain biological information reductionistically via chemical, genetic, and natural selective determinants, the work represented here develops novel non-reductionist approaches to biological information, looking notably to telic and self-organizational processes. Several clear themes emerged from these research papers: 1) Information is indispensable to our understanding of what life is. 2) Biological information is more than the material structures that embody it. 3) Conventional chemical and evolutionary mechanisms seem insufficient to fully explain the labyrinth of information that is life. By exploring new perspectives on biological information, this volume seeks to expand, encourage, and enrich research on the nature and origin of biological information.

In the spring of 2011, a diverse group of scientists gathered at Cornell University to discuss their research into the nature and origin of biological information. This symposium brought together experts in information theory, computer science, numerical simulation, thermodynamics, evolutionary theory, whole organism biology, developmental biology, molecular biology, genetics, physics, biophysics, mathematics, and linguistics. This volume presents new research by those invited to speak at the conference. The contributors to this volume use their wide-ranging expertise in the area of biological information to bring fresh insights into the many explanatory difficulties associated with biological information. These authors raise major challenges to the conventional scientific wisdom, which attempts to explain all biological information exclusively in terms of the standard mutation/selection paradigm. Several clear themes emerged from these research papers: 1) Information is indispensable to our understanding of what life is; 2) Biological information is more than the material structures that embody it; 3) Conventional chemical and evolutionary mechanisms seem insufficient to fully explain the labyrinth of information that is life. By exploring new perspectives on biological information, this volume seeks to expand, encourage, and enrich research into the nature and origin of biological information.

Most people intuitively understand that Darwins theory of evolutionnatural selection acting upon random mutationsis a wholly inadequate theory for the creation of a human being. And most people feel unprepared to debate those scientists, professors, and scholars who use their academic authority to defend Darwinism, often bullying and belittling those of us who dare doubt Darwin. Now, Bredemeier identifies and succinctly encapsulates why Darwinism fails. Using anatomy and physiology as only a physician can, Bredemeier exposes the errors and false logic that Darwinian acolytes continue to employ as they protect their mortally wounded theory. Any reader with a high school or college education will become armed with straightforward examples of exactly why Darwinism fails. From anatomy and physiology of the human bodyincluding neuroscience, genetics, embryology, and other fascinating fields of the increasingly numerous biological sciencesBredemeier provides indisputable and damning evidence for which academicians, scientists, and even Nobel laureates, who zealously defend Darwinism, have no adequate answer.

The didactical level of exposition, together with many astonishing images and animations, accompanied by the related simple computer programming codes (in Python and POV-Ray languages) make this book an extremely and unique useful tool to test the power of algorithmic information in generating ordered structure models (2D and 3D) like regular geometric shapes, complex shapes like fractals and cellular automata, and biological systems as the organs of a living body. Informational biologists besides mathematicians and physicists of complexity may learn to test their own capabilities in programming and modelling ordered structures starting from random initial conditions at different scale of each system: from elementary particles, to biological systems, to galaxies and the whole universe. Moreover the philosophical comments comparing some aspects of modern information theory to the Aristotelian notion of 'form are very appealing also for the epistemologist and the philosopher involved in complexity matters.

To romance: “to tell stories that are not true, or to describe an event in a way that makes it sound better than it was – in this case, more scientific than it is. A myth is not always a fairy story, but most often, the presentation of facts belonging to one category in the idioms appropriate to another. Usually, there is some factual basis for the narrative. This book seeks to expose neuromythology – mythology developed by scientists in their attempts to describe the human mind in material and mechanistic terms.

This book discusses the theory, general principles, and energy source conditions allowing for the emergence of life in planetary systems. The author examines the material conditions found in natural hydrothermal sites, the appropriate analogs of prebiotic environments on early Earth. He provides an overview of current laboratory experiments in prebiotic materials chemistry and substantiation of a new direction for the experiments in the origin of life field. Describes thermodynamic inversion and how it relates to the living cell; Examines the current direction of experiments on prebiotic materials chemistry; Introduces and substantiates necessary conditions for the emergence of life.

The author started his working career as an Air Traffic Control Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, and after resigning his commission, spent thirty-five years in the Information Services industry. In the context of his writings, he describes himself as an analyst, by aspiration, inclination, proclivity, training, and occupation. His books reflect his primary intellectual pursuit: explanations given for human existence by both religions and evolution. Having published several analyses including “Religion: Of God or Man” and “Seeking After God”, he concluded that there was nothing more that he could learn on that subject – the issue remained an enduring mystery. Returning to the other explanation, evolution, he had long wanted to complete a more thorough analysis of evolution theory, than as presented in his earlier publications, “The Dawkins Deficiency” and “Information, Knowledge, Evolution and Self”. This required that he acquire and study dozens of academic books and other publications, seeking to understand the plausibility, and at times hollowness, of scientific explanations. Using his background knowledge of relevant technologies, he was able to identify parallels between modern automation and mechanisation, and human biological processes. One of particular interest was an analysis of the technical similarities between the human sensory system, and modern telemetry systems. With a lifelong passion for a travel, and a modest appetite for adventure, he has trekked in the Khumbu and Annapurna regions of Nepal, the Peruvian Andes, and Patagonia. His hobby, apart from writing, has been a love of all things motorcycling, from touring remote areas, and attending races, to complete restoration of vintage motorcycles. He has motorcycled throughout parts of his native Australia, North America, New Zealand, Iceland, Bolivia, Peru, Turkey, the Himalaya, Morocco, Greece, and eastern Europe. His business and holiday travels have taken him through sixty countries, and all continents, including Antarctica. Evolution is defined as the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations, resulting in changes in both the genotype and phenotype. The evidence for evolution is primarily circumstantial, being based on fossils of extinct species, physical similarities, and a largely common genome. Charles Darwin believed that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. Today, we know so much more than Darwin did 150 years ago, leading many scientists to discard genetic mutation and natural selection as having the development power previously ascribed to them. What has been missing in the science so far is “systems thinking” - a holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system's constituent parts interrelate, and how systems work over time and within the context of larger systems. Questioning whether the mind consists of organs of the brain, an emergent property of the brain, or activities of the brain, as scientists suggest, the author has concluded for none of these. The brain being physical, it can only deal with the physical, but the mind deals in the conceptual, which has no physical properties. With his background in related technologies, the author has compared the human nervous system with telemetry systems as used in modern aircraft, vehicles, and other applications. Though implemented differently, the functional requirements remain the same, which has prompted a different perspective on how it could have evolved. The telemetry system in the human body is astounding in its complexity, accuracy, and reliability, leading to the author’s doubts as to its claimed evolutionary origins. Crossing a Chasm is an analysis of the probability that such could be accomplished by innumerable, unguided small steps, over whatever time.

"A must-read for anyone who seeks to share the gospel and defend the faith!” —Josh McDowell “Crucial to the next generation of missionaries and apologetic evangelists.” —Norman L. Geisler In a postmodern, post-truth society, how can we be certain our faith is based on more than our feelings? And how do we answer the complex questions about Christianity posed by skeptics and searchers alike? The Comprehensive Guide to Apologetics challenges you to understand and defend the tenets of your faith. This informative resource covers topics spanning from the evidence for the Bible’s reliability, to the relationship between science and faith, to the comparisons between Christianity and other worldviews. The many contributors to this volume include respected apologists and Bible scholars such as… Norman L. Geisler Josh McDowell Gary R. Habermas Walter C. Kaiser Jr. Ron Rhodes Edwin M. Yamauchi John Warwick Montgomery William A. Dembski Randy Alcorn Stephen C. Meyer Randall Price Ed Hindson Essential reading for every Christian, The Comprehensive Guide to Apologetics will equip you with the knowledge and confidence to testify for your faith with compassion, intention, and Christlike wisdom.

"The Harvest Handbook of Apologetics is a rich and unparalleled resource. The writers here are among the best in this discipline and will add to your thinking in enriching ways." —Ravi Zacharias “This long-overdue volume is crucial to the next generation of missionaries and apologetic evangelists.” —Norman L. Geisler "Some of the most well-known scholars of our time. This is a must-read for anyone who seeks to share the gospel and defend the faith!” —Josh McDowell Do You Truly Understand Your Faith? Can You Defend It? Scripture calls every believer—including you—to be prepared to defend the faith (1 Peter 3:15)? From the preacher to the churchgoer, the teacher to the student, The Harvest Handbook™of Apologetics is the comprehensive resource all believers need in a world full of uncertainty and relentless criticism. This collection of well-reasoned, Scripture-based essays comes from respected Christian apologists and Bible scholars, including... Norman L. Geisler Josh McDowell Gary R. Habermas Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. Ron Rhodes Edwin M. Yamauchi John Warwick Montgomery William A. Dembski Randy Alcorn Stephen C. Meyer Randall Price Ed Hindson What is the evidence for Jesus's existence? How can you address the seeming contradictions in the Bible? How can you best explain the relationship between science and faith? You'll discover concise and convincing responses to these questions and many more. Defending your faith is a lifelong quest, and this handbook is the perfect guide to help you skillfully answer the topics people ask about. Prepare to "contend for the faith" you call your own (Jude 3)—and become equipped to evangelize with wisdom and passion.