Intelligent design and natural theology

Natural Theology is an attempt to provide arguments for the existence of God based on reason and ordinary experience of nature. It became quite popular with both orthodox Christians and Deists between about 1650 and 1850, inspiring much of the scientific fieldwork done during that period. However, Darwin’s theory of evolution brought about a temporary decline of this Christian apologetic tradition. Intelligent Design is a relatively new scientific research program that investigates the effects of intelligent sources, and challenges basic parts of contemporary Darwinism. Fred Hoyle first issued the ideas of Intelligent Design in modern times when he discovered the unique energy level of the carbon atom in the 1950s. On Copernicus’s 500th birthday in 1973, Brandon Carter presented the discovery that the fundamental constants of physics are fine-tuned to precise values for life permittance. In the 1990s, Michael Behe and others presented arguments for Intelligent Design in molecular biology, and irreducibly complex biochemical machines in living cells. In this paper, we briefly present Intelligent Design and discuss its possible application within a revitalized version of Natural Theology. The paper is mainly written from a scientific perspective

Estimating the information content of genetic sequence data

A prominent problem in analysing genetic information has been a lack of mathematical frameworks for doing so. This article offers some new statistical methods to model and analyse information content in proteins, protein families, and their sequences. We discuss how to understand the qualitative aspects of genetic information, how to estimate the quantitative aspects of it, and implement a statistical model where the qualitative genetic function is represented jointly with its probabilistic metric of self-information. The functional information of protein families in the Cath and Pfam databases are estimated using a method inspired by rejection sampling. Scientific work may place these components of information as one of the fundamental aspects of molecular biology

Ny forskning avdekker cellenes digitale verden

Source at https://www.forskersonen.no/biologi-celler-dna/ny-forskning-avdekker-cellenes-digitale-verden/2293365.To nordiske professorer publiserte en artikkel om manglene ved Darwins tradisjonelle teori. Dette vakte oppstyr, og nå er oppfølgeren kommet fra Royal Society

Hva stimulerer utforskende undervisning i naturfag? Et studium av rollen for læreboken i noen norske ungdomsskoler.

Inquiry-based science education is highly emphasized in recent curricula. Our paper aims to find out more about the connections between science teachers’ orientation toward the textbook and the enabling of inquiry-based teaching. It will be important to map this connection better in improving how to facilitate inquiry-based education. The textbook has a strong position in the Norwegian school system, and teaching based on the textbook is often seen as oppositional to inquiry-based teaching. On a national level, more research about the use of textbooks and its implications for science teaching is needed. A survey has been conducted among science teachers at 68 lower secondary schools in three (recently merged into two) counties in Norway. The survey data is used to measure the textbook’s importance for science teachers, and the extent to which the textbook contributes to inquiry in science teaching. Results show that the textbook has a central role for science teachers. The textbook is partly perceived as supportive for facilitating inquiry activities, especially for textbook-oriented teachers. At the same time, the study shows that those teachers who frequently facilitate inquiry are not closely tied to the textbook

Decoding the Digital Gap in Teacher Education: Three Perspectives across the Globe

Educational use of technology is regularly assessed, and results often show a gap between educational policies and what is actually practiced. This chapter will help clarify how teacher educators experience the changing educational contexts due to the digital revolution, how their meaning-making shifts, and how outside forces influence those processes. The results are based on comparative international studies. Central for this study is practitioners’ professional digital competence, their attitudes towards digital technology and the use of digital technology in education. We found that the influence and contribution of digital practice is carried out quite differently across the globe. Our research questions were: How do practitioners experience teaching in a rapidly changing context? How do attitudes change due to top-down governing of education? and What motivates teacher educators to implement digital technology

Are Teacher Students’ Deep Learning and Critical Thinking at Risk of Being Limited in Digital Learning Environments?

The 21st century is quite different from the 20th in regard to the skills people need for work, citizenship, and self-actualisation. Proficiency in the 21st century differs primarily due to the emergence of sophisticated information and communication technologies. In this chapter, we will discuss whether teaching students are sufficiently prepared regarding the need for 21st century skills and how learning in a digital age affects the need for high-level critical thinking. Based on 20 in-depth interviews of Norwegian and New Zealand teaching educators, teaching students’ low critical thinking skills seem to be understood as a global challenge and as connected to the digital revolution. Despite being from different sides of the globe, teaching educators from both countries expressed concern regarding students’ in-depth learning and critical thinking skills in an educational where learning is influenced by digital technology. This article discusses the dilemmas regarding having easier access to greater amounts of information, which requires a different form of critical thinking. We question whether we are and have been preparing students sufficiently for this educational change

L.L. Leastadius: A Visual Story. Historical Fragments from Karesuando and Pajala.

Published version. Source at http://egede.no/sites/default/files/dokumenter/pdf/5.%20%232-3_2016_En%20visuell%20fortelling.pdf.License: It is allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print out, search or link to the articles. The content can freely be used in research and teaching as long as the source is attributed.A visual narrative, or visual storytelling, is a story told primarily through the use of visual media. The story may be told using still photography, illustration, or video. The visual narrative has also been of interest to the academic community and educators that have sought to understand the impact and power of image and narrative in individuals and societies. In this paper, we tell the story of the priest and revivalist Lars Levi Leastadius using pictures from his museums in Karesuando and Pajala in Northern Sweden

Kunstig intelligens og en ny bevissthet? Om datamaskinen som menneskets nye speil

Journal home page at https://www.origonorge.no/