Advocacy against Materialism and Neo-Darwinism: 2023 (part 1)

Recording of my presentation on the waiting time problem and the species pair challenge for the inaugural conference of the CIID in Torino on June 18, 2022 (online Jan. 4, 2023).

Article "Fossil Friday: Fossil Golden Moles and the Abrupt Origin of Afrosoricida" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (January 6, 2023).

Photo: Diamantochloris inconcessus, Eocene, Namibia, combined after Pickford 2018 figs. 1 and 3, fair use

Photo: Titanohyrax andrewsi, Oligocene, Egypt, after Tabuce 2016 fig. 2, fair use

Article "Fossil Friday: Fossil Hyraxes and the Abrupt Origin of Hyracoidea" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (January 13, 2023).

Article "Fossil Friday: Fossil Sea Cows and the Abrupt Origin of Sirenia and Desmostylia" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (January 20, 2023).

Photo: Pezosiren, Thesupermat via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0

Photo: Deinotherium, composite from Wikimedia, Concavenator CC BY-SA 4.0, HeMei CC BY-SA 3.0. — Photo: Deinotherium, composite from Wikimedia, Concavenator CC BY-SA 4.0, HeMei CC BY-SA 3.0

Article "Fossil Friday: Elephants and the Abrupt Origin of Proboscidea" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (January 27, 2023).

Article "Fossil Friday: The Abrupt Origins of Treeshrews (Scandentia) and Colugos (Dermoptera)" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (February 3, 2023), discussing extreme disagreement among experts about the interpretation of the very same fossils.

Photo: Eudaemonema webbi, after Scott 2010 fig. 3, fair use

Photo: Palaeolagus haydeni, James St. John, Wikimedia, CC BY 2.0

Article "Fossil Friday: The Abrupt Origins of Lagomorphs and Rodents" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (February 10, 2023).

Article "Fossil Friday: Abrupt Appearance of a Distinct Dragonfly Group" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (February 17, 2023).

Wightonia spec. (Photo credit and copyright: Günter Bechly)

Nothomacromia sensibilis (Photo credit and copyright: Günter Bechly)

Article "Fossil Friday: A Strange Dragonfly Larva" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (February 25, 2023).

Article "Fossil Friday: Evolutionary Stasis in Fossil Damselflies Challenges Darwinism" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (March 3, 2023).

Jurahemiphlebia haeckeli (Photo credit and copyright: Günter Bechly)

Article "Fossil Friday: A Waiting Time Problem for Feathers" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (March 10, 2023).

Keynote lecture “Scientific Evidence against Neodarwinism and for Intelligent Design” and Q&A for the International Conference on Islam, Science and Atheism in Lahore, Pakistan organized by IDP (March 12, 2023; participants: 98 live and 55 online).

(YouTube 7:52:15-8:21:35)

Photo credit: H. Zell, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Article "Fossil Friday: The Abrupt Origin of Ichthyosaurs" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (March 17, 2023).

Article "Fossil Friday: The Abrupt Origin of Winged Insects" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (March 24, 2023).

Photo: Lithomantis, courtesy of Lutz Koch

Photo: Psephoderma, modified after Ghedoghedo via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0

Article "Fossil Friday: The Triassic Explosion of Marine Reptiles" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (March 31, 2023).

New book God’s Grandeur on the Catholic case for intelligent design edited by Ann Gauger and released on April 18 by Sophia Institute Press, to which I contributed a chapter about the evidence from the the fossil record:

Bechly G 2023. The Fossil Record. Chapter 7, pp. 75-90 in: Gauger A (ed.). God’s Grandeur. Sophia Institute Press, Manchester (NH), 352 pp.

Photo: Prodryas persephone, fair use and Franz Anthony via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Article "Fossil Friday: The Abrupt Origin of Butterflies" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (April 14, 2023).

Article "Fossil Friday: The Explosive Origin of Complex Eyes in Trilobites" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (April 21, 2023).

Photo: Plesioplatecarpus planifroms, MCDinosaurhunter via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0

Article "Fossil Friday: The Explosive Origin of Mosasaurs in the Cretaceous" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (April 28, 2023).

A "Farewell to My Teacher, Gerhard Mickoleit" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (May 3, 2023). With his death an era of great classical biologists ended in Germany.

Photo: Gerhard Mickoleit, by Günter Bechly

Photo credit: U.S. Department of Energy from United States, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Article "Fossil Friday: The Stubborn Mystery of the Tully Monster" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (May 5, 2023).

Article "Fossil Friday: The Devonian Nekton Revolution" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (May 12, 2023).

Photo credit: James St. John, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Photo: credit: Ghedoghedo, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Article "Fossil Friday: The Explosive Origin of Flying Reptiles in the Mid Triassic" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (May 19, 2023).

Evolution News presents Film Festival 2023 — “Günter Bechly Explains What the Fossil Evidence Really Says” (May 22, 2023).

Photo: Dinosaur feather in Burmese amber, coll. SMNS, photo G. Bechly

Article "Fossil Friday: A Dinosaur Feather and an Overhyped New Study on the Origin of Feathers" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (May 26, 2023).

Article "Fossil Friday: How an Austrian Scientist Concocted a New Domain of Life called Gabonionta" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (June 2, 2023).

Photo: Gabonionta, Ventus55 via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0

Photo: Conodonts from the Triassic of India, Goel 1977, fair use

Article "Fossil Friday: The Gupta Scandal" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (June 9, 2023), about the biggest scientific fraud of the century.

Article "Fossil Friday: The Supposed Oldest Cheetah Was Yet Another Fraud" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (June 16, 2023).

Photo: Forged fossil cheetah skull, Wang 2013, fair use

Photo credit: Nachosan, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Article "Fossil Friday: To Be or Not to Be Homo" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (June 23, 2023), about the status of Homo habilis.

Article "Fossil Friday: Homo rudolfensis, Another Contentious Homo" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (June 30, 2023).

Photo credit: Gunnar Creutz, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Brief comment about "William Shatner and Our Privileged Planet" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (July 5, 2023).

Photo: Dickinsonia-like pseuodofossil, Bhimbetka cave, Retallack et al. 2021, fair use

Article "Fossil Friday: Alleged Precambrian Fossil Unmasked as Rotten Beehive" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (July 7, 2023), about a real big oopsie.

Article "Fossil Friday: Cloudina Still Lacks the Guts to Be a Worm" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (July 14, 2023), about a fulfilled prediction.

Photo credit: Wilson44691, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Article "Fossil Friday: Eozoön, the Dawn Animal Fallen from Grace" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (July 21, 2023).

Dave Farina, an ill-bred psychopath and ignorant wannabe science educator without any credentials, who runs a popular YouTube channel, spilled out another video rant against me (July 24, 2003). I will neither waste my time watching his silly garbage nor bother to respond to his usual package of ad hominem and straw man fallacies, as well as cherrypicked references and misrepresented science. This clown is not a worthy opponent for me.

Photo: Hominin tibia KNM-ER 741, after Fig. 1 in Pobiner et al. 2023, fair use

Article "Fossil Friday: Another Prediction Vindicated" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (July 28, 2023) about yet another successful prediction by Darwin critics.

Speaking engagements and other scheduled events for 2023:

March 12, 2023 (via Zoom): Keynote speech “Scientific Evidence against Neodarwinism and for Intelligent Design” and Q&A for the International Conference on Islam, Science and Atheism in Lahore, Pakistan organized by IDP (98 live and 55 online participants).
June 1-3, 2023 (via Zoom): Two invited lectures about “The Waiting Time Problem and a New Argument against Neo-Darwinism” (Thursday June 1, 12:30) and “Discontinuities in the Fossil Record: A Problem for Neo-Darwinism” (Friday June 2, 12:45) for the Catholic conference Faith and Science in the Age of Secularisation in Krakow, Poland (about 150 live participants). I also presented my personal testimony (June 1, 18:30) and participated at the Q&A panel session (June 3, 13:45). See this article about the conference at Evolution News.
June 9-10, 2023 (via Zoom): Two invited lectures about “Discontinuities in the Fossil Record as Evidence against Neo-Darwinism and for Intelligent Design” (Friday evening) and “Evidence from Modern Physics against Materialism and for a Universal Mind” (Saturday morning) at the cultural week Regoliamoci! in Sardinia (Italy) organized by CIID. Cancelled by the education department because of bias against ID!
June 29 (via Zoom): Online Q&A for the Summer Seminars of Discovery Institute.
August 9 (via Zoom): Recording of an interview by Matt Fradd for his YouTube channel and podcast Pints with Aquinas.
October 6: Recording of an interview by Andrew McDiarmid for the ID the Future podcast.