The Crafty Attacks on Evolution

The New York Slimes ^ | 23 January 2005 | EDITORIAL

[Outraged]

I beg your pardon...I evidently misunderstood your intent.

[judywillow]

That's WAY better than what I'd view as normal for you guys:

Obviously, somewhere, somehow, somebody or something at least thought about the possibility of having something with teeth strain for krill. I still don't see a possibility of that "evolving" into baleen or of an animal any larger than a seal living that way since there is a sort of a square/cube problem inherent in the process so that a larger animal would not be able to take in sufficient amounts of krill in such a manner.

Whales on the other hand had already gotten much larger before baleen whales first appeared and there is no evidence of any whale ever using teeth to strain for krill or plankton, at least to my knowledge.

Baleen of course do not look like teeth at all:

Again, predatory whales kill large fish and mammals with their teeth and eat them. A whale whose teeth started to look the least bit like baleen would be lost as to what to do next. All his instincts would be worthless.

What the evidence indicates is that the changes which produced baleen and the teeth of the crabeater seal alike were engineering changes and modifications in prehistoric times, and that whatever or whoever was making such changes has since found other avocations and is no longer doing so.

[neutrality]

Some embryos of the baleen whales begin to develop teeth. As with body hair, the teeth disappear before birth. Since there is no use for teeth in the womb, only inheritance from a common ancestor makes any sense; there is no reason for the intelligent designer or special creator to provide embryonic whales with teeth

http://www.talkorigins.org/features/whales/

[shubi]

Q: Mollusks, brachiopods and vertebrates have the
best fossil record because they have nice hard parts.
Some other groups (arthropods, sponges, etc.) also
have hard parts, but they are not as hard, nor are
they as easy to identify in pieces, so the record for
those can be expected to be less complete.

A: Typical scientist hedging. They know how weak their proof is compared to the literal King James Version
which says that God created each kind individually.

[judywillow]

Some embryos of the baleen whales begin to develop teeth. As with body hair, the teeth disappear before birth.

I'll agree that indicates a common ancestor; the question is as to method. To me the whole thing looks like an engineering change back in prehistory.

[shubi]

Why would God engineer giving an embryo teeth that are not needed? That is assumes God is a moron. I don't like that assumption.

[Right Wing Professor]

That's WAY better than what I'd view as normal for you guys

Let me tell you what an intellectually honest person would have replied

"In order to try to refute the hypothesis that baleen evolved from teeth, I tried to spread scorn on the idea that the teeth of a carnivorous animal could be used to strain for krill. So I issued a challenge for anyone to identify a living animal that does that. Unfortunately, my ignorance of zoology was such that I was unaware of the existence of the crabeater seal, which, in fact strains for krill with its teeth. I was caught red-handed. How embarrassing! I will now re-evaluate my entire attitude."

[general_re]

Be sure to ping me if you EVER see a post like that, but you'll understand if I don't wait by the phone, so to speak, for that ping ;)

[Right Wing Professor]

Evolution theory is of its father, Satan...Who do you worship?

You're darn right, Outraged. Even among us evil ones, AndrewC is considered a particularly devout evo. He spends most of his spare time out dynamiting anomalous fossils of humans with dinosaurs on leashes, hacking into the human genome database to erase obviously designed sequences, even climbing in the Himalayas to scrub off the high-water marks from the Noachian flood. I don't know where he gets his energy, but even to me, it seems a little, well, sinister.

(Sorry, Andrew, but that was just too much fun to pass up!)

[Outraged]

Why would God engineer giving an embryo teeth that are not needed? That is assumes God is a moron. I don't like that assumption.

1 John 2:18-21

Warning Against Antichrists

"Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist–he denies the Father and the Son."

[js1138]

Why would God engineer giving an embryo teeth that are not needed?

You will be called the Antichrist for that one.

[Outraged]

shubi: "Did you know that I am a Christian minister that runs a homeless ministry in the inner city?"

then...

shubi: "Creationists spout their nonsense, because some false prophet has misinterpreted the Bible and convinced them they will go to hell if they believe scientific fact."

I am not going about calling people "THE anti-Christ", I am merely suggesting they may be anti------Christ...There is a difference and shubi has proven himself to be so.

[AndrewC]

(Sorry, Andrew, but that was just too much fun to pass up!)

I'm glad I could provide some entertainment for you. ;^)

Now back to Paluxy to turn those human footprints into something reptilian.

[shubi]

Thanks for the non-sequiter.

Belief in creationism is nonsalvational.

[shubi]

"I am not going about calling people "THE anti-Christ", I am merely suggesting they may be anti------Christ...There is a difference and shubi has proven himself to be so."

Bwaaahaaahaaaa You owe me a new keyboard.

[balrog666]

I'll agree that indicates a common ancestor; the question is as to method. To me the whole thing looks like an engineering change back in prehistory.

So you've become a Raelian since you were here last?