A while back I wrote an article on ‘micro-evolution’ and used the commonly quoted ‘Peppered Moth’ studies to illustrate natural selection and evolution. However, a recent commenter pointed out that in fact, the British entomologist Bernard Kettlewell’s experiments that set out to prove the classical story of natural selection have since been found to be largely incorrect.
I should have looked into it more closely and so, I agree with him - I did get it wrong. This is not an accurate illustration of natural selection, there are far better examples to use.
However, the commenter finished his remarks with this: “The main beef that anti-Darwinist people secular and religous have with evolution is the lack of proof for Macro-Evolution, which would be like a fish turning into a frog or intermediary for a frog, for example. This is a big hole that even Darwinists acknowledge.”
Tags: creationism, evolution, genetics, science
What? I hear you say. But, yes it is true. A talented geek (who shall remain nameless but I’ll call him Gary the Geek) has come up with an amazing invention. While looking into the area of future css and xml formats - whatever they are - he intercepted part of a news bulletin/feed which seemed to come from the future.
No, I’m not kidding - the content of the feeds seem to indicate that they are real and while I don’t pretend to have any idea how Gary the Geek is locating (if that’s the right word) this information - I feel that it is my duty as a citizen of the world to release what he finds.
Tags: churches & cults, creationism, evolution, global warming, humour, intelligent design, science
In a recent post, I mentioned the term ‘macro evolution’ and said that I’d get back to that in a later discussion. Creationists like to use the terms micro and macro when discussing evolution and often refer to the former as possible/likely/proven (strike out that which doesn’t apply depending on how ‘fundamentalist your views are), while denouncing the latter as being impossible - read this as ‘I don’t understand it so it’s impossible’.
In reality, scientists hardly ever use the terms as they describe the same process that happens in the same way and for the same reasons. The basic evolutionary mechanisms—mutation, migration, genetic drift, and natural selection—can produce major evolutionary change - or ‘macro’ evolution if given enough time.
Unfortunately for him and the other creationists, crocodiles did not evolve from ducks, ducks did not evolve from crocodiles, and nobody is proposing that they did. Crocodiles and ducks both have known evolutionary lineages. In fact, to find a “crocoduck” would contradict both theories of lineage and it would actually be a huge problem for the theory of evolution. Recently, a fossilized skull of a giant, bony-toothed seabird that lived up to 10 million years ago was found on Peru’s arid southern coast and has been named a Pelagornithid. Not a crockoduck but yet another example of a transitional fossil. Wait a moment! They don’t exist! Sorry Kirk, wrong again.Tags: education, evolution, fundamentalism, intelligent design, science
Finally, an educated, intelligent US president. Barrack Obama is delivering on the rational front as we all hoped he would. In his press conference on April 6 in Turkey, President Obama explained: “One of the great strengths of the United States is … we have a very large Christian population — we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.”
Conservatives assert that the U.S. is in some sense a Christian nation and tend to make the following arguments. The first is that the majority of Americans describe themselves as Christians, even though the number of voters who describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated has grown from 5.3 percent to 12 percent in 2008 in the last twenty years. The ratio of Christians to non-Christians in American society as a whole is actually irrelevant to the question of whether the American government or indeed the nation, is Christian.
Tags: america, christianity
I first heard about this on Freethought Radio and couldn’t believe it - but sure enough a quick Google found that it’s sad but true.
Two women serve in Israel’s new Cabinet, but some Israelis would rather not see them. Newspapers aimed at ultra-Orthodox Jewish readers tampered with the inaugural photograph of the Cabinet, erasing ministers Limor Livnat and Sofa Landver.
The daily Yated Neeman digitally changed the photo, moving two male ministers into the places formerly occupied by the women. The weekly Shaa Tova simply blacked the women out, in a photo reprinted Friday by the mainstream daily Maariv.
Tags: churches & cults, fundamentalism, religion
Loading ...
Recent Comments