Free Republic

The American Left, as a political force, relies on deception. At the macro level, the Left lies about pretty much everything. They do this because they are acutely aware that if they told the truth about their policies, very few people would support them. But there are also smaller fibs. Call them micro-deceptions, ones that betray select issues at the edge of the Left’s radar that are irritating them at the moment. I received one such micro-deception the other day from Amazon. After purchasing a book from Amazon a few days earlier, (I heartily recommend the Autobiography of Josiah Henson)...

A blackened, broken leg bone from Earth’s prehistoric past may hold the answer to when early humans diverged from apes and started their own evolutionary path.The fossilized find, first uncovered two decades ago, suggests that early humans regularly walked on two feet some seven million years ago... Since many consider bipedalism the major milestone that put our own lineage on a different evolutionary path than the apes, Sahelanthropus could be the very oldest known hominin—the group consisting of modern humans, extinct human species and all of our immediate ancestors.The species could even be our oldest non-ape ancestor, if its lineage...

A new wave of scientists argues that mainstream evolutionary theory needs an urgent overhaul. Their opponents have dismissed them as misguided careerists – and the conflict may determine the future of biology

Intelligent Life Really Can’t Exist Anywhere Else Hell, our own evolution on Earth was pure luck. In research published in 2020 from Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute, scientists study the likelihood of key times for evolution of life on Earth and conclude that it would be virtually impossible for that life to evolve the same way somewhere else. Life has come a very long way in a very short time on Earth, relatively speaking—and scientists say that represents even more improbable luck for intelligent life that is rare to begin with. For decades, scientists and even philosophers have chased...

A growing number of scientists seem finally ready to at least include intelligent design within the ‘range of views’ allowed to be heard.At first glance, the Potential and Limitations of Evolutionary Processes conference in Israel last week, which I attended, looked like any other scientific meeting on evolution, with talks by highly-credentialed scientists from institutions such as the Technical University of Munich, Cambridge, and the Weizmann Institute. But a closer look at the list of speakers shows that this one was different; it gave a platform to numerous notable proponents of intelligent design. The conference included chemistry Nobel prize winners...

The theory that the universe was crafted intentionally explains many essential realities that theories based on spontaneous chance do not.The scientific establishment is slowly beginning to allow scientists who believe in intelligent design to have a platform. Why? It may be because the theory that the universe was crafted intentionally explains many essential realities that theories based on spontaneous chance do not. Perhaps the simplest and best argument for intelligent design is to clearly state what you have to believe to not believe in intelligent design, as I did in my book, “In the Beginning and Other Essays on Intelligent...

One would think that asking such a question is beyond observed, yet if you truly look at all the facts, then one must consider the idea that maybe, just maybe there is no such thing as an original author. After all, unless you can verify that you sat down next to someone writing or typing an artless from start to finish, how can you honestly testify that the one claiming to write something, indeed did? Take this post as an example, I am in my office sitting in front of my computer. My wife is on the other side of...

A SUNY professor is under investigation after video clips emerged of him asserting that “it’s a mistake” to think pedophilia is wrong and that there are “evolutionary advantages to child/adult sex.”Yes, really.SUNY Fredonia professor Stephen Kershnar teaches teaches libertarian philosophy and applied ethics at the university.As part of his libertarian philosophy, Kershnar believes that society’s reaction to pedophilia is what’s wrong, and that consenting sexual relationships between adults and children could actually be a good thing.“Imagine that an adult male wants to have sex with a 12-year-old girl. Imagine that she’s a willing participant. A very standard, very widely held...

COCONUT ISLAND, Hawaii (AP) — On a moonless summer night in Hawaii, krill, fish and crabs swirl through a beam of light as two researchers peer into the water above a vibrant reef. Minutes later, like clockwork, they see eggs and sperm from spawning coral drifting past their boat. They scoop up the fishy-smelling blobs and put them in test tubes. In this Darwinian experiment, the scientists are trying to speed up coral’s evolutionary clock to breed “super corals” that can better withstand the impacts of global warming. For the past five years, the researchers have been conducting experiments to...

In 2010, scientists unearthed an ivory pendant from an abandoned Polish cave. Punctured with patterns reminiscent of moon cycles and mathematics, the artifact's origins eluded archaeologists -- until now. An international team of researchers just declared the relic to be 41,500 years old. That makes it the earliest piece of ornate jewelry ever found in Eurasia, and a wonderful reminder that art is timeless. Images and details of the discovery were published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports. But beyond its aesthetic value, this ancient pendant also marks the first proof of post-Neanderthal civilization in the Polish region...

A recent study claims that a majority (54%) of Americans now accept as true the statement “Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals.”1 Unfortunately, given the increased secularization of American society, this increased acceptance of evolution may well be real. Nevertheless, it’s remarkable that, despite decades of attempts by the scientific establishment and popular culture to convince Americans of human evolution, 46% of Americans still reject it! Not too surprisingly, evolutionists attribute this apparent increase in acceptance of human evolution to higher levels of education and scientific literacy. In their minds, it is only...

...Neanderthals in Europe were one of the last hominin species to succumb, dying out around 39,000 years ago. However, recent studies – outlined at a meeting of the European Society for the study of Human Evolution earlier this year – have shown that this takeover by Homo sapiens was not straightforward. On several occasions, groups of early settlers perished as they moved into the continent... ...In one study, international researchers re-examined a partial skull and skeleton of a woman found in the Zlatý Kůň cave in the Czech Republic. Originally thought to have been 15,000 years old, this new analysis...

Some are hailing him a progressive “Fairy Godfather” of sorts — but others think he’s just plain desecrating Disney classics. A concerned dad is stirring the pot online after releasing a series of TikTok clips that show him editing out “gender stereotypes” in his daughter’s Disney Princess books. The father — who goes by @dcaspers on the platform — uploaded the “woke” makeovers last year, but they’ve recently gone viral, racking up millions of views. “Changing tomorrow starts today,” reads the caption to one of the director’s cuts, which currently boasts nearly 3 million views.

... The chimpanzee is our closest living relative in evolutionary terms and research suggests our kinship derives from a common ancestor. About five to six million years ago, our evolutionary paths separated, leading to the chimpanzee of today, and Homo Sapiens, humankind in the 21st century. In a new study, stem cell researchers at Lund examined what it is in our DNA that makes human and chimpanzee brains different -- and they have found answers. "Instead of studying living humans and chimpanzees, we used stem cells grown in a lab. The stem cells were reprogrammed from skin cells by our...

The study, led by scientists at the University of Bath and including collaborators from Bristol, Cambridge and Germany, used fossils and analysed genetic differences between modern snakes to reconstruct snake evolution. The analyses helped to pinpoint the time that modern snakes evolved.Their results show that all living snakes trace back to just a handful of species that survived the asteroid impact 66 million years ago, the same extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs.The authors argue that the ability of snakes to shelter underground and go for long periods without food helped them survive the destructive effects of the impact. In...

Turkish Education Minister İsmet Yılmaz has said a new national school curriculum will exclude evolution theory but will include the concept of jihad, or holy war, as part of Islamic law in textbooks. Speaking during a press conference to introduce the new school curriculum in Ankara on Tuesday, Yılmaz said: “Jihad is an element in our religion; it is in our religion… The duty of the Education Ministry is to teach every deserving concept correctly. It is also our job to correct things that are wrongly perceived, seen or taught.” {..snip..}

As far as Lower Paleolithic archaeology goes, this is quite the haul: Experts have uncovered a record 98 elephant-bone tools at a site dating back some 400,000 years. This discovery could change our thinking on how some of the early humans – such as Neanderthals – fashioned implements like these. The bones were collected from a place called Castel di Guido, close to modern-day Rome. In the dim and distant past, it was a popular watering hole for the now-extinct straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), and it looks as though a substantial number of the animals died there too. This newly...

“The fact that all organisms are nearly equally fit has profound implications for the evolution and persistence of life on Earth,” said James H. Brown, a physiological ecologist at the University of New Mexico, referring to a “New Evolutionary Law” proposed by evolutionary theorist and palaeobiology pioneer, Leigh Van Valen. Van Valen argued that evidence from fossil record data shows that the probability of extinction within any group remains es­sentially constant through time. Van Valen described this phenomenon as “The Red Queen Hypothesis”. The first hypothesis , which he labeled the law of constant extinction states that the probability of...

Types of venom fangs in snakes: Rear fangs (crab-eating water snake), fixed front fangs (taipan), and hinged front fangs (Gaboon viper); fangs highlighted in redEver wondered how deadly snakes evolved their fangs? The answer lies in particular microscopic features of their teeth, research led by Flinders University and the South Australian Museum suggests. "It's always been a mystery why fangs have evolved so many times in snakes, but rarely in other reptiles. Our study answers this, showing how easy it is for normal snake teeth to turn into hypodermic needles," says lead author Dr. Alessandro Palci, from Flinders University.Of...

Dogs really are “man’s best friend” and “get” humans in a way other animals simply can’t relate to. Sorry “Game of Thrones” fans, a new study finds even the dog’s closest relatives — wolf pups — don’t gel with people the same way. Researchers from Duke University say 14,000 years of domestication plays a big part in this. In fact, man’s best friend has actually evolved to understand human gestures and look to humans for help in a way that no other animals do. Study authors, who compared wolf pups raised by humans to dogs who had barely any contact...