Posted on 08/09/2002 10:52:13 PM PDT by jennyp
There have been a lot of little news items having to do with creation vs. evolution lately, each one not necessarily worth a thread on its own. Here are the last 10 days' worth of headlines culled from Creation/Evolution: The Eternal Debate:
Posted on 2002/08/09
New Fossil Discovery Sinks Evolutionary Theories
Harun Yahya - 2002/08/01
When the Toumaï fossil was found recently, and was quickly dismissed by some as just a female gorilla, most creationists rejoiced at the foolishness of those deluded evolutionists. But prominent Muslim creationist Harun Yahya is more impressed. He hopes Toumaï will "sink our current ideas about human evolution".
Posted on 2002/08/09
Scientific American's 15 Errors
Harun Yahya - 2002/08/01
Not to be outdone by the Christian ministry Answers in Genesis, the Muslim creationist Harun Yahya provides his own critique of Scientific American's recent "15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense".
Posted on 2002/08/09
Revolution in science: a genetic discovery to change the world
The Independent - 2002/08/10
RNA interference (RNAi) is a new technique for turning off individual genes that could turn out to be revolutionary for curing genetic diseases, cancers, & viral infections of all kinds, not to mention for our understanding of which genes do what. (Set of 4 articles)
Posted on 2002/08/09
Researchers' Latest Results in Search for Ancient Martian Life
NASA-JPL - 2002/08/02
In the latest study of a 4.5 billion-year-old Martian meteorite (ALH84001), researchers have presented new evidence confirming that 25 percent of the magnetic material in the meteorite was produced by ancient bacteria on Mars. These latest results were published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
Posted on 2002/08/09
History of Science Society Adds its Voice for Evolution
NCSE - 2002/08/09
NCSE is pleased to announce a further addition to New Voices for Evolution: a statement from the History of Science Society reading, in part, that "such concepts as evolution and geological change are well established and belong in science curricula along with other basic scientific ideas. ... In view of this historical perspective, the History of Science Society disapproves of recent efforts by state school boards effectively to remove evolution as a subject from the secondary school curriculum, either through textbook disclaimers or censorship."
Posted on 2002/08/09
Speed of light slowing down after all?
AiG - 2002/08/09
...in addition to being different from the prediction of Barry Setterfield's theory, this research by itself does not support c-decay theory of the magnitude that Setterfield proposed. The change is billions of times too small. In fact, the newspaper hype surrounding Davies’ theory, and the quotes attributed to him, hardly seem to be justified by the Nature article itself, which is rather speculative. ...
Posted on 2002/08/09
KC conference explores evolution debate
Kansas City Star - 2002/07/29
Until intelligent design is accepted by a majority of scientists, don't look for it in public school science classes, a panel of evolution supporters said on Saturday (7/27). The idea that life arose not through unguided natural processes but from the intent of an intelligent being is an interesting postulate at this point, but nothing else, the panel said at a debate closing a Kansas City gathering of ID advocates. Four evolution advocates debated four ID adherents at the third annual Darwin, Design and Democracy conference at Rockhurst HS.
Posted on 2002/08/08
Moderates Lose 2 to Conservatives in Kansas Board of Ed Primaries
KC Star - 2002/08/07
Voters on Tuesday ousted two incumbent moderates on the Kansas Board of Education, raising the possibility that the board could return to a 5-5 moderate-conservative split. The split on the board has been an issue since Aug. 1999, when a then-conservative majority approved science standards that omitted many references to evolution, the big-bang theory and the age of the Earth. After a moderate majority was elected two years ago, the board reversed the 1999 vote.
Posted on 2002/08/07
Selection for short introns in highly expressed genes
Nature Genetics - 2002/07/22
Transcription is a slow and expensive process. Thus, at least for highly expressed genes, transcription of long introns, which are particularly common in mammals, is costly. We show that introns in highly expressed genes are substantially shorter than those in genes that are expressed at low levels.
Posted on 2002/08/07
T.O. Creates New Kent Hovind FAQs Portal
Talk.Origins - 2002/08/08
Talk.Origins has come out with a page that gathers together their several Kent Hovind pages, as well as several off-site links, into a handy starting point.
Posted on 2002/08/07
Save Me from My Comrades: Dawkins Disses Bush
Here - 2002/08/07
Inside a longer article re: Iraq appealing to England to stop the invasion: "A Guardian survey yesterday of leading politicians, diplomats, military chiefs and scientists showed the depth of scepticism across British society about any involvement in an Iraq attack. ... Richard Dawkins, an Oxford science don, suggested Mr Bush was just as much of a danger to world peace as Saddam Hussein, adding: 'It would be a tragedy if Tony Blair were to be brought down through playing poodle to this unelected and deeply stupid little oil-spiv.'"
Posted on 2002/08/07
Inconstant Speed of Light May Debunk Einstein
Reuters - 2002/08/07
A team of Australian scientists has proposed that the speed of light may not be a constant, a revolutionary idea that could unseat one of the most cherished laws of modern physics -- Einstein's theory of relativity. The team, led by theoretical physicist Paul Davies of Sydney's Macquarie University, say it is possible that the speed of light has slowed over billions of years. If so, physicists will have to rethink many of their basic ideas about the laws of the universe. "That means giving up the theory of relativity and E=mc squared and all that sort of stuff," Davies told Reuters.
Posted on 2002/08/06
Evangelical colleges paid to teach evolution
AiG - 2002/08/06
Increasing numbers of evangelical colleges around the world are accepting large monetary awards from the John Templeton Foundation to run courses that promote evolutionary teaching and millions of years. One such course, run by an evangelical Bible college and taught by theistic evolutionists, never touched on the implications of evolution and millions of years for the Gospel of Jesus Christ or the implications for the authority of Scripture.
Posted on 2002/08/05
AiG Strikes a Nerve
AiG - 2002/08/03
Ken Ham revels in the fact that Scientific American's lawyers accused AiG of copyright infringement when it responded to SA's recent article "15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense". Obviously it's proof that "the secular world is closely watching AiG and is trying to suppress our Biblical message", which "is seen as a serious threat by the ‘world.’"
Posted on 2002/08/02
Sheer vs. Real Possibilities: A Response to Allen Orr
designinference.com - 2002/08/02
This is Dembski's response to Allen Orr's review of No Free Lunch, which we reported on a week ago. Dembski repeats his demand that biologists produce actual causal explanations for IC structures instead of merely showing why they're plausible. At the same time, Dembski ignores Orr's critique of Dembski's use of No Free Lunch theorems to prove that Darwinism can't create specified complexity.
Posted on 2002/08/02
Human-Specific Retroviruses Developed When Humans, Chimps Diverged
U. of Georgia - 2002/08/02
Scientists have known that remnants of ancient germ line infections called human endogenous retroviruses make up a substantial part of the human genome. Once thought to be merely "junk" DNA, many of these elements in fact perform functions in human cells. Now, a new study suggests for the first time that a burst of transpositional activity occurred at the same time humans and chimps are believed to have diverged from a common ancestor - 6 million years ago. These new results suggest retroviruses may have had some kind of role in that divergence.
Posted on 2002/08/02
The Battle for the Cosmic Center
ICR Impact - 2002/07/25
Biblical teaching places man at the center of God's attention. Recent astronomical evidence restores man to a central place in God's universe. Over the last few decades, astronomers have become convinced that the red shifts of light from distant galaxies occur in distinct, evenly spaced groups. The Hubble Law implies that galaxies are expanding in evenly spaced spherical shells around us, who are sitting at the center of the universe - just where the Bible says we are.
Posted on 2002/08/02
Commentary on Scott and Branch's "'Intelligent design' Not Accepted by Most Scientists"
designinference.com - 2002/07/02
This is a must-read, if only to see Dembski say "All the design could have emerged through a cosmic evolutionary process that started with the Big Bang." Later, he compares evolutionists to the Taliban!
Posted on 2002/08/02
Boiled Creationist with a Side of Hexaglycine: Sarfati on Imai et al. (1999)
No Answers in Genesis - 2002/07/31
In an AiG web article titled Hydrothermal origin of life? Jonathan Sarfati manages to write three pages about a single five page original peer reviewed paper on growing short peptides in a simulated hydrothermal vent system, published in Science by Imai et al. (1999), and to make over seventeen errors of fact, emphasis or interpretation. Not bad, even for a fanatical creationist.
Posted on 2002/08/01
Updates to Talk.Origins Fossil Hominids Pages
Talk.Origins - 2002/07/31
Jim Foley's comprehensive set of pages on hominid & australopithicene fossils at Talk.Origins has been updated. Includes new pages on the spectacular new skull from Dmanisi, Georgia, which causes problems for creationists who claim that habilis is an ape and erectus is a human, the new 6-7 million year old Toumaï skull from Chad, and Homo habilis: is it an invalid taxon?
Posted on 2002/07/31
Pufferfish DNA Yields Clues to Human Biology [Another 1,000 Human Genes?]
DOE Joint Genome Institute - 2002/07/25
An int'l research consortium led by the US DoE’s Joint Genome Institute reported today on the draft sequencing, assembly, and analysis of the genome of the Japanese pufferfish Fugu rubripes. Pufferfish have the smallest known genomes among vertebrates. While it has roughly the same number of genes as the much larger human genome, it's in a compact form streamlined by the relative scarcity of the “junk” DNA that fills much of the human sequence. Through comparison of the human and pufferfish genomes, the researchers were able to predict the existence of nearly 1,000 previously unidentified human genes.
Posted on 2002/07/30
Race Is Seen as Real Guide to Track Roots of Disease
NY Times - 2002/07/30
Challenging the widely held view that race is a "biologically meaningless" concept, a leading population geneticist says that race is helpful for understanding ethnic differences in disease and response to drugs. Dr. Neil Risch of Stanford U says that genetic differences have arisen among people living on different continents and that race (i.e. geographically based ancestry) is a valid way of categorizing these differences.
Posted on 2002/07/30
Species and languages flock together
Nature Science Update - 2002/07/30
Areas with the most animal species also contain the greatest number of human languages, say researchers. The coincidence of biological and cultural diversity hints that preserving cultures may also preserve species, and vice versa. Development and conservation "probably need to go hand in hand", says Carsten Rahbek of the U. of Copenhagen. His findings call into question the wisdom of trying to save wildlife in remote uninhabited areas.
Posted on 2002/07/30
U.S. News and World Report joins in the evolution onslaught
AiG - 2002/07/30
U.S. News and World Report ran a major story pushing evolution on 29 July, 2002, giving it cover story exposure. The usual evolutionist hand-waving and bait-and-switch tactics were employed in a grand piece of propaganda. Here is our detailed response, interspersed between their actual item which is reproduced in full to avoid suggestions of misrepresentation:
Posted on 2002/07/29
Boeing tries to defy gravity
BBC News: Science/Nature - 2002/07/29
Researchers at the world's largest aircraft maker, Boeing, are using the work of a controversial Russian scientist to try to create a device that will defy gravity. The company is examining an experiment by Yevgeny Podkletnov, who claims to have developed a device which can shield objects from the Earth's pull. Dr Podkletnov is viewed with suspicion by many conventional scientists. They have not been able to reproduce his results.
Posted on 2002/07/29
Bacteria defies last-resort antibiotic
Nature Science Update - 2002/07/29
US doctors have reported the first case of a new strain of Staphylococcus aureus that is completely resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin, one of the last lines of defence against bacteria. Further outbreaks of infection are expected.
Posted on 2002/07/29
Jonathan Wells and Darwin's Finches
Talk.Origins - 2002/07/27
In Chapter 8 of Icons of Evolution, Jonathan Wells examines the case of "Darwin's Finches", and claims that textbooks exaggerate not only the importance of the finches to Darwin's thinking, but also the evidence that they are an excellent example of evolution in action. He also accuses biologists Rosemary and Peter Grant, who spent 30 years studying these birds, of exaggerating the evidence as well. As we shall see, Wells's case is weak. Darwin's Finches remain one of the best examples of adaptive radiation in the literature of evolutionary biology.
Posted on 2002/07/26
Book Review: No Free Lunch
Boston Review - 2002/07/25
Excellent, engaging article by Orr, as he cooly dismantles Dembski's latest book. Assuming his understanding of "NFL" was correct, his critique is devastating. And to think I found this at the ARN site! If they're highlighting this review, then it can only mean there's a fierce counterattack in the works. Read this article now to understand what all the fireworks will be about shortly.
Posted on 2002/07/25
Paranormal beliefs linked to brain chemistry
New Scientist - 2002/07/24
Whether or not you believe in the paranormal may depend entirely on your brain chemistry. People with high levels of dopamine are more likely to find significance in coincidences, and pick out meaning and patterns where there are none.
Posted on 2002/07/24
UCSD Researchers Identify Eye-Formation Strategy in Mice That Provides Clues to Development of Other Organs
UCSD Health Sciences - 2002/07/23
Researchers at the UC San Diego School of Medicine have discovered a linkage between proteins that is an essential part of the complex series of molecular events leading to normal eye development in mice. The investigators also suggest that the combination of specific proteins in eye formation may be similar to yet unidentified genes that act together to allow development of other organs.
(Excerpt) Read more at crevo.bestmessageboard.com ...
We don't see souless animals acting in this fashion. When a member of a dolphin pod is injured the other dolphins gather around to protect it and keep it from drowning. When a member of a wolf pack is injured, the others make sure it still gets food and is cared for. The skeletal remains of Smilodons (saber-toothed cats) indicate severely-injured individuals were well cared for by others. Why would humans do anything less, even without divine command?
The Communist Chinese, because of their "one child policy" have engendered the infanticide problem. From your rather shallow and facile reply methinks you are not actually thinking through your answers. Modern China doesn't hold itself to Confucianism any more, at least officially. That rather placid philosophy has been replaced by the more aggressive and inherently violent Maoism. Confucianism does form the basis of some of the more introspective philosophies of the region, but these are officially banned by the communists as they compete with the state for control of the individual's mind.
We could all prey on the weak, killing each other at will. But then, societal life would be impossible. I've made a decision to agree to live by and uphold certain societal norms, so we can work to the benefit of all mankind. Its very much a golden-rule type situation.
Oh, and you say that "most" people subscribe to this belief. What about those who don't?
They cannot coexist in a civil society. So they can either go to prison, or they can have fun in a chaotic free-for-all like Somalia.
Who are you to judge them? You're just an "ape" like they are.
No, I'm a man. And this country is a community of men and women, so we get to set the rules.
The Roman philosopher Seneca stated: "We drown our frail and sickly children". There will be about 40 million extra males in China in the next generation due to infant drownings, according to USA Today. Happens all throughout history. In fact in Rome it was legal to throw your children by the side of the road to die of exposure; these were called the "exposti" or 'exposed children'.
This practice was stopped in the Western world in 374 A.D. by the Christian emporor Valentinian I at the urging of Bishop Basil of Caesaria.
The fact that the Commandments are written doesn't prove that God is the author. There is no crime or moral offense that has not been committed by people claiming to be believers. There are few categories of crimes that have not been committed in the name of God. The Bible itself states that God ordered the Israelites to commit genocide.
Bad people do bad things. Sometimes they take the trouble to construct elaborate rationalizations and justifications. Thes justifications sometimes invoke science, but often invoke religion. In either case, it is just a bad person trying to wiggle off the hook.
Yeah, and you think it's wrong because you grew up in a Christian country. But if you were living in China you wouldn't. Or the Muslim world.
Or maybe you missed that story recently out of the middle east where two brothers strangled their 16-year old sister with a garden hose after she had an out-of-wedlock affair with an older man. The brothers got three months in prison, each.
If you want to pile up bodies, your stack is way, way taller than mine.
The correct format is AD 374. AD stands for Anno Domini (sp?) -- "In the Year of the Lord" -- and would naturally precede the date in the spoken word, and thus would do so in the written. One would think that you, at least, would have gotten that one right.
Infanticide has been practiced throughout history and even, during times of famine or strife, in so-called Christian countries.
Let's talk partial birth abortion. Let's say your "libertarian" society allows abortion on demand up until delivery. But my version of "liberty" states that life begins at conception and that without life there is no liberty.
So, a woman can abort her baby in the 9th month, because it's in her body. But I think that's murder.
What's your position? Who's right here, and who's wrong? Should abortion be banned, or not?
It is those very men who most deeply believe that God is watching that are currently committing the atrocities, and in God's very name, no less.
Your level of the basic decency of man is far below that of my own. I believe it is very difficult for individuals to commit attrocities. It is belief systems that are used to manipulated men to commit attrocities. The Romans used one to commit unspeakable acts against early Christians. In this century, you correctly note that Communists have murdered on an enormous scale.
The belief system that goes furthest in restricting atrocious behaviors is one with liberty as the prime engine. That is because any attempt to initiate force against another is a violation of liberty. Liberty neither requires nor precludes belief in God.
Re: infanticide. Yes, true. But it was illegal in Christendom. And Christian nations still ban it.
Ok, who determines these societal norms? An on the golden rule, if you're an atheist, what are the consequences of not observing it? There are none, really.
Let me cut to the chase here. It is impossible to found a society based on the idea of "liberty" or "fairness" or "justice" or whatever because everyone disagrees about what these ideas entail. Your version of "liberty" is going to be much more preferential to your position than my definition of "liberty". And everyone is going to have to have their own version of "liberty" or "fairness" or whatever.
So, guess what. In a society such as this someone is going to have to decide which version of "liberty" or "fairness" or "justice" is going to prevail. And because you can't appeal to God for authority, well then you have to appeal to force. If I refuse to go along with a version of "liberty" that I personally disagree with, then you're going to have to "initiate force" against me to comply, in direct contravention of your stated "gold standard" for libertarianism.
And who gets to decide what "liberty" or "justice" or whatever actually means? An intellectual elite? The people with the most guns? Who?
From my point of view, libertarianism--the atheistic variety--looks like this: an abstract idea that requires some sort of elite to make arbitrary decisions to stop that abstract idea from plunging into absurdity. These arbitrary decisions are backed up with force.
Gee, sounds like tyranny to me.
In this country, we all do, through our chosen representatives. In other countries, the ruling despot or oligarchy does.
An on the golden rule, if you're an atheist, what are the consequences of not observing it? There are none, really.
Not true. If murder is excused, and I murder somebody I don't like, then I'm likely to be murdered in turn by a vengeful family member. And even if it doesn't happen, my wanton violence would simply set an example to others that wanton violence is permissable, and I could be the target of some other random act of violence.
But even beyond this uber-rationalism, I (and I suspect this is true of most people) simply have no desire to kill wantonly. I believe that most people are born with a sense of civility and altruism that precludes violence. Man is not inherently a violent animal; he must be trained to kill. I do not believe I need to be coerced by threat of retaliation to be a good person.
I'd like to think I treat people decently, not because I fear eternal perdition, but simply because compassion is ingrained into my mind as a member of the human race.
Oy vey.
Let's talk about witch-burning. Let's say your "Christian" society allows the burning of witches for their beliefs and practices, based on the Biblical injunction that "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Ex 22:18). But my version of "liberty" states that individuals are free to believe as they will, and that without life there is no liberty.
So society can burn witches at will, because that what God commands. But I think that's simply state- and Church-sanctioned murder.
What's your position? Who's right and who's wrong? Should witch-burning be banned or not?
Is that enough information to proceed, or is it not cartoonish enough?
What if I chose not to subscribe? By what standard can you or anyone force me to submit.
If morality is nothing more than a set of rules man has reasoned to and forced upon by others, it has no bind on anyone who chooses to ignore.
If however morality is a set of rules set by a moral (un-corruptible, in-fallible) authority. A moral authority gained through authorship. Then what?
You cannot have it both ways, either
killing is wrong because the author of life says it is
or
killing is wrong because man has reasoned it to be so.
If you subscribe to the later I'd say that is fairly communist of you, or at least fascist. A body of men ruling morality from intellectualism or power.
I am a Free man and no reasoning of another will constrain me. I will not be kept from killing simply because society says it is wrong. Society has no hold on me, it has no Moral Authority over me.
Are you a free man or are you told what is right and wrong by the ruling society of men.
I guess that depends on your viewpoint. I would say there will be 40 million less women (due to 40 million infanticides).
This practice was stopped in the Western world in 374 A.D. by the Christian emporor Valentinian I at the urging of Bishop Basil of Caesaria.
No, it was outlawed. It has never been stopped anywhere or anytime, and for obvious reasons.
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