Why Do People Laugh At Creationists

Intelligent Design is Dead…Finally!

Over at Jerry Coyne’s blog ‘Why Evolution is True’ he is writing of the death of Intelligent Design (ID).  It’s about time I say.  Creationist Muggles have kept the stupid sham going far beyond its sell by date

“There is no longer any pretense that ID is science. It’s been reduced, as have all forms of creationism, to simpleminded criticism of evolutionary theory, without any predictions or insights of its own.  Twenty years on, ID has offered us not a single insight into nature.”  -Jerry Coyne

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Creationist Lose Again

Just one more brick in the wall separating real factual evidence and religious, creationist, ID, YEC  nonsense.
Human language almost certainly started in Africa (where WE as the human race started coincidentally) and it started MANY years before the Bronze Age (c.4000 +-BC) It has been speculated by many that the invention of language was the beginning of man’s rising intelligence and domination.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6027/346.abstract

Puts a whole new outlook on the “Tower of Babel” story from the Bible, Huh?
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The Theory of Evolution…is it True?

There is no doubt at all that evolution is a fact. That may upset you or not depending on what religious affiliation you have or don’t have. Bear with me though…I’m not talking about Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection right here.  I speak of the changes to the gene pools of all species that occurs every day due to births and deaths.  Members of a species do not all have the exact same DNA, which can be demonstrated easily, and sexual reproduction combines the DNA of two parents to form a little bit different combination of genes. Also, not all creatures survive to reproduce and some little bits are lost.

If you can understand and accept these facts that this is an observed, common, natural fact of life then you are understanding evolution at its basic level. This has been known and fully understood for over a hundred years, and there is NO doubt about it-at all-in the scientific community that it is working.

When you talk about the “Theory of Evolution” though, what you are talking about is the attempt to describe how and why life is doing what it is doing. You come up with the theory when you observe the facts and posit the reason behind them.  When you are talking or experimenting on live things and how they came to be and what changes they have, or are, going through and you find common threads then you are talking about evolutionary things, and when large numbers of your observations show many similarities then you make a theory to cover what you are seeing.

The theory that C. Darwin proposed to cover the observations he made in his long voyage on the HMS Beagle was the most eloquent and simple theory that seemed to work…and it worked so well that here we are 150 years later and it’s still the only “theory” that has any credence and continues to explain how life worked in the past and continues to work today.

The religious right continues to attack Darwin and his work precisely because it is the one explanation for life that really works, makes sense, unlike the error filled Bible, and it has tremendous explanatory power in the areas that it is used in, and is constantly being corroborated by dozens of different scientific disciplines.

A good theory can be used to produce predictions about future findings about known facts, and the theory of evolution has proven to be able do this…over and over again for 150 years.

The religious right, the evangelical fundamentalists have a big problem in that they have to advance magic/supernatural causes to explain natural phenomena and since this is not testable in any degree it has no real explanatory power. If a naturalistic explanation is capable of totally explaining natural phenomena on earth…what need is there for some lame…my magic God did it!

Evolution is a fact of nature…just like gravity.  I propose we now call it the Fact of Evolution.  🙂

Creationists, ID, Muslims and England

America is not the only country that is facing the rising tide of creationist theory. England is also experiencing a flood of evangelical fundamentalists and Muslim students in sixth-form colleges (kinda’ like community colleges in the States) and universities who are trying to replace Darwin’s theory (fact) with their theory (not fact) that the earth is just 6,000 years old.

“A growing number of science students on British campuses and in sixth form colleges are challenging the theory of evolution and arguing that Darwin was wrong. Some are being failed in university exams because they quote sayings from the Bible or Qur’an as scientific fact and at one sixth form College in London most biology students are now thought to be creationists.”

“Earlier this month Muslim medical students in London distributed leaflets that dismissed Darwin’s theories as false. Evangelical Christian students are also increasingly vocal in challenging the notion of evolution.”

“There is an insidious and growing problem,” said Professor Jones, of University College London. “It’s a step back from rationality. They (the creationists) don’t have a problem with science; they have a problem with argument. And irrationality is a very infectious disease as we see from the United States.”

People from the US are apparently helping those across the pond in setting up organizations using methods and systems tested in America. Answers in Genesis have a British office and they are busy spreading the gospel of “Biblical Inerrancy” to all who would listen. Most of the kids who are questioning their teachers about Darwin’s “theory” (fact) are from homes that are following the lead of American sects such as Pentecostals and Baptists.

And then of course there are the Muslims, and they are a very strong presence in England. The Muslims are smack-dab in the middle when it comes to fundamentalist religious thought. Their Koran is different in many (most) ways than the Bible, but on matters of creation they pretty much sing the same song, and their young students in English schools are making big waves by denouncing Darwin and England’s mostly secular teaching and ways.

The whole story is HERE From Guardian.co.uk

The evangelical fundamentalists of religion are trying every diabolical, backhanded, cunning, and fiendish tricks they can to try and teach religion-as-science in schools, and of course their final goal would be to kick science out of school altogether.  You see they want “their” religion to rule everyone and everything…and of course the Muslims want the same thing…going to be an interesting war.

Fitna – Documentary about Islam – Watch more

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Christians vs. Muslims

Most people in the US are aware that there is an amazing diversity of religious beliefs and forms and observances not only in our country, but all over the world. Religions come and go over time and their continuity depends mostly on how ardent they are, and how strongly they proselytize their beliefs to others.

Most of us also know that Christianity and Islam are the top religions. Christianity leads the pack with an estimated 2.1 Billion adherents, followed closely by Islam with an estimated 1.5 Billion believers. What may surprise some though is that Secular Humanists, Agnostic, Atheists as a group fall in third place with an estimated 1.1 Billion people professing that they believe there is no God. Hinduism follows in forth place with about 900,000 to 1 Billion faithful. What surprised me was that Judaism is in 12^th place with only about 14 Million believers.

Another thing that continuously amazes me is each of the primary religions splits into many, sometimes hundreds, of smaller groups with different practices, and each one of them believes with every fiber of their being that theirs is the only ‘True’ belief and expression of that belief. Past beliefs or religions now tend to be labeled ‘Myths’ although at the time of their heyday many of those people would swear theirs was the only ‘True’ belief.

One thing we do know though by logic alone…only one or none could be true. That is true for the whole of religious beliefs…now or in the past. Christianity now has the upper hand in the United States, but Muslims are increasingly poking their heads up and asking for recognition and for consideration of their religious views and practices. Not too many people know that Muslims are reproducing at a rate at least double of that of Christians.* and if we can refrain from killing each other off, Muslims will surpass Christianity as the largest religious body in the world probably in this century.

England is already experiencing problems with their high percentage of Islamic followers. They are asking for their own court system and want to be the ones who dole out justice to their Muslim brethren for a number of offences such as wife beating and intolerance of homosexuality. How England will deal with this problem is up in the air at this time, but one needs to remember that as the population grows, these people will be able to elect their own into the political body now in power.

Now I am not writing this to knock the Muslims, I am only using them as an example of religious ambition to political control. They think (know?) that theirs is the only true and real religion on earth…and they want everyone to acknowledge and bow to their God. Connected to this recognition is following their religions laws and practices.  How should we as a country deal with this problem when it finally hits us (and it will)?

When this country was forged our founders had the good sense to separate the church and state in political affairs…this has benefited this country more than most people know.  Think back to your history classes in school and remember what life was like under religious state control in Europe in the Dark Ages.  The churches, Catholic and Protestant and Muslim made miserable leaders, and the worst of what they have done isn’t even well known…except to scholars.

The religious right in this country (Evangelical Fundamentalists Protestants) has taken over the Republican Party and although they no longer control the White House (soon) they control many local, state, and national political positions. This in itself is not a problem with me, what bothers me is that they are slowly using their power to move us closer to their own outmoded or just flat wrong religious interpretations of law. Since most of these people believe that the Bible is totally inerrant they think everybody should live and think ‘their way.’

Does this not sound creepily similar to the Islamic way of thinking? The Christians are already doing in our country what the Muslim’s are trying to do in England and meanwhile the US population of Muslim’s continues to grow…and they proselytize their faith just as much as Christians do…or maybe more.

No religion of today has arguments which are unequivocally superior to any other. None of them have any supporting empirical evidence which is stronger than any other. I was brought up in a Christian environment so I tend to follow a Christian ethic, with all the baggage that entails. People that are brought up in different religions are going to follow their own ethic, with all that entails.  Problem is that Christians and Muslims don’t see eye to eye on anything and there is a long-long-history of conflict (killing each other).

Is the solution to the coming problem to let one side rule over the other? We all know how well that works in the Middle East. Perhaps a better, more civil and less deadly answer would be to keep ALL religion out of politics. Is that even possible?

When we look at the many diverse religions we should notice that they are all incompatible. To put it bluntly; they can’t all be true, but they can all be false.
*In 1997 futurist John Gary stated that Islam is the fastest-growing of the major world religions. This is mostly driven by the higher birth rates in the third world. 1-22-09 corrected typo

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Intelligent Design and Science

Interesting find while surfing this morning. The ID people keep claiming they’re all about science, but the never reveal any.

ISSR Statement on the Concept of ‘Intelligent Design’

The authors of this statement constitute a group set up for the purpose by the Executive Committee of the International Society for Science and Religion. Through a process involving consultation with all members of the Society, the statement has now been accepted by the Executive Committee for publication as a statement made on behalf of the Society.

The International Society for Science and Religion is a scholarly society devoted to ongoing dialogue between the sciences and the community of world faiths.  It was established in 2002 for the purpose of promoting education through the support of interdisciplinary learning and research in the fields of science and religion, conducted where possible in an international and multi-faith context.

The society greatly values modern science, while deploring efforts to drive a wedge between science and religion. Science operates with a common set of methodological approaches that gives freedom to scientists from a range of religious backgrounds to unite in a common endeavor. This approach does not deny the existence of a metaphysical realm but rather opens up the natural world to a range of explorations that have been incredibly productive, especially over the last 400 years or so.

The intelligent-design (ID) movement began in the late 1980s as a challenge to the perceived secularization of the scientific community, which leaders of the movement maintained had been coloured with the philosophy of atheistic naturalism. ID theorists have focused their critique primarily on biological evolution and the neo-Darwinian paradigm. They claim that because certain biological features appear to be “irreducibly complex” and thus incapable of evolving incrementally by natural selection, they must have been created by the intervention of an intelligent designer. Despite this focus on evolution, intelligent design should not be confused with biblical or “scientific” creationism, which relies on a particular interpretation of the Genesis account of creation.

We believe that intelligent design is neither sound science nor good theology. Although the boundaries of science are open to change, allowing supernatural explanations to count as science undercuts the very purpose of science, which is to explain the workings of nature without recourse to religious language.  Attributing complexity to the interruption of natural law by a divine designer is, as some critics have claimed, a science stopper. Besides, ID has not yet opened up a new research program. In the opinion of the overwhelming majority of research biologists, it has not provided examples of “irreducible complexity” in biological evolution that could not be explained as well by normal scientifically understood processes. Students of nature once considered the vertebrate eye to be too complex to explain naturally, but subsequent research has led to the conclusion that this remarkable structure can be readily understood as a product of natural selection. This shows that what may appear to be “irreducibly complex” today may be explained naturalistically tomorrow.

Scientific explanations are always incomplete. We grant that a comprehensive account of evolutionary natural history remains open to complementary philosophical, metaphysical, and religious dimensions. Darwinian natural history does preempt certain accounts of creation, leading, for example, to the contemporary creationist and ID controversies. However, in most instances, biology and religion operate at different and non-competing levels.  In many religious traditions, such as some found in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, the notion of intelligent design is irrelevant. We recognize that natural theology may be a legitimate enterprise in its own right, but we resist the insistence of intelligent-design advocates that their enterprise be taken as genuine science – just as we oppose efforts of others to elevate science into a comprehensive world view (so-called scientism). See the website: Here

Intelligent design is nearly universally condemned as science and as a concept. Most people recognize it for what it really is; a wedge devise to sneak WASP religion into our school systems. The only support for it is from evangelical fundamentalists, Young Earth Creationist (YEC), and some Old Earth Creationist (OEC).

Now proponents of Intelligent Design (ID) are using ‘Stealth Candidates’ who are running for positions on local and state school boards without declaring or admitting that they will advocate teaching ID in schools when elected. They just don’t get it…and they will try anything, including dishonesty, to achieve their goals. That they would use dishonesty in the furtherance of their religious sect speaks volumes about the true value of their faith.

Most people don’t analyze this battle enough, and don’t seem to realize that the ultimate goal of the religious right is to take over our country and remake it into a religious society; kind of like the Dark Ages in Europe when the Catholics ruled, and the strength and direction of your belief…decided whether you lived or died.  A lot of people don’t realize that the religious right has taken control of the Republican Party.

Cognite tute-think about it/use your head.

For latest post go: Here

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Sunday Sermon for Non-Believers

Sunday sermon

Man was essentially spread over the whole earth by 10,000BC. The evidence is totally overwhelming and incontrovertible. The only way fundamentalists, evangelicals, creationists, and intelligent design proponents get around this fact is by denial. The “proofs” they forward to support their beliefs are not real, and they fall apart when people who are schooled in the subject review the “proofs” If they were to accept real science the made-up world view they have collapses and they know it.

All the mumbo-jumbo that the world theologists try to smother us in, is just that, mumbo-jumbo. It’s witchcraft, or Voodoo of the highest order; it’s looking at entrails to divine the future…and the past.

The world history that is real is laid out by science…and involves time spans that are hard to grasp, and a beginning of life that involves no gods. We and our world are the stuff of stars. Look out at the universe sometime, use a telescope; you’ll see nothing but stars and gas. The chemistry of life is the stuff all around us, and we keep trying to find the recipe.

There is no serious scientist on earth who believes the earth and humanity, and by extension the whole Universe, has only been around only some 6,000 years. Our world is Ooold. In the real world this is known with a certainty that gets stronger every year. The evidence does not go up and down, it goes up only. It is known with a certainty that transcends any religious thought or exegesis.

The well-known religious thinkers and writers down through time were furthering the cause for their own careers. They were writing and espousing feelings and superstitions that were simply nonexistent. There never was any tangible “gods” All they had was writing, not evidence that could be examined. All they were doing was duping the population for their own furtherance…that’s all most ministers, priests, and rabbis are doing now…they are supporting superstition or magic and involving you.

It has been true down through time that religion has to fight harder and harder to get educated people to believe. Not just the Christian God, but all others. Christianity keeps reinvented itself, trying to keep it’s relevance in a world that surpassed it several centuries ago. Religion tries it’s best to keep woman/man in their clutches. Read your history, religion kills to keep you on the straight and narrow path…not now…but not long ago. (actually after some thought I have to say it is still killing today…think Muslim. They worship the same god…they say.)

Religion would have you believe that a theocratic form of government is needed to save our society, our country. It’s been tried before and didn’t work very well. Just think about the consequences of such a thing. Would you want the religious police stalking around looking into your life? How many out there are truly righteous and “sin” free at all points in their life? If you think praying to Jesus after every sin works, then you are truly helpless. Do you want to look over your shoulder to see if anyone is watching before you stare at that beautiful young woman passing by you? Do you want someone else deciding what you can read, or filtering what news you can see? Do you really want Pontiffs or deacons deciding what your child learns in school?

If I try to envision a country world ruled by religion, I think about Muslims, third world deterioration, a world that is gray and truly with out soul. Where men kill women over “honor”. Where children are taught not to use their inventiveness and imagination. Where you are careful about what you say, you cannot express a curiosity about the world because it is already explained in terms that you are not allowed to question. I think I would commit suicide.

Intelligent Design…I Can’t get no Respect.

Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget. – Cheop’s Law. I just knew contractors were always like that :}

People who subscribe to the Intelligent design “theory” are constantly complaining that nobody accepts their “theory.” What they mean is, no real scientists or serious science journal accepts what they say; so consequently, they get no respect.

What they invariably forget to mention is that their “theory” depends on the acceptance of magic as a part of the real world. I can see why they don’t mention this, as there has never been an instance of verifiable, repeatable, testable magic in the whole history of our world.

Have you, or anyone you know, ever been witness to magic? If you think this happened, have there been witnesses, and has it been widely acknowledged as a true event? Don’t say the Bible either, as this book is widely known to be copies of copies and parts are known to be allegory and other parts could be made up theology. Also, the man who went around raising dead people, curing leprosy, and had thousands of followers is not supported in non-biblical writing. I know two billion people believe in it, but one billion people are Hindu’s, with a whole nother’ belief in world history, and apparent validity of their own Gods.

There is, of course, no recognizable physical support for any of the ‘God as a spirit’ believing religions, and there never has been. Of course ID people try to turn this around by saying that there is no evidence for evolution, conveniently forgetting that Darwin has been gathering steam for 150 years, long before ID was even a gleam in anybodies eyes, and it keeps getting stronger in proofs. The ID people need to accept that and stop trying make our whole world fit into their rather small and smothering mold.

All the “facts of science” that ID people advance, generally sound plausible to the layman, or even to the well educated sometimes. But, this same “fact”, when given to someone who is schooled in the science in question, the ID argument invariably falls apart. And the problem for the ID’ers is all of the sciences are advancing so rapidly now that even they can’t stay ahead of the curve.

The biggest problem facing the Intelligent Design fans is that they have so far been unable to come up with any convincing science or proofs to back up their claims. All of their claims (except the paranormal ones, that are inherently un-provable) have been disproved in the real world of physical sciences.

In the February issue of the conservative magazine ‘Townhall‘ (they can be found on the internet at townhall.com) a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, David Klinghoffer, bemoans the fact that people that believe in ID get no respect at mainstream universities. In fact they usually hide their belief from fear of being fired. He writes of Guillermo Gonzalez, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Iowa State University who was denied tenure, reputedly because of his being outspoken on ID. He goes on to describe others who have suffered in the science community because of their beliefs in intelligent design religion.

I wonder if the universities are doing this so they don’t get into the same situation as Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, where Michael Behe, author of various ID friendly books is a professor of biochemistry. The Department of Biological Sciences department, of which he is of course a member, had to come up with a disclaimer, telling the world that they do not subscribe to professor Behe’s theories. Following is that disclaimer:

Department Position on Evolution and “Intelligent Design”
“The faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences is committed to the highest standards of scientific integrity and academic function. This commitment carries with it unwavering support for academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas. It also demands the utmost respect for the scientific method, integrity in the conduct of research, and recognition that the validity of any scientific model comes only as a result of rational hypothesis testing, sound experimentation, and findings that can be replicated by others.

The department faculty, then, are unequivocal in their support of evolutionary theory, which has its roots in the seminal work of Charles Darwin and has been supported by findings accumulated over 140 years. The sole dissenter from this position, Prof. Michael Behe, is a well-known proponent of “intelligent design.” While we respect Prof. Behe’s right to express his views, they are his alone and are in no way endorsed by the department. It is our collective position that intelligent design has no basis in science, has not been tested experimentally, and should not be regarded as scientific.” My emphasis.

I think this is a fair position for the university to take, as they have to compete for serious students and faculty in the real world. Let the ID proponents form their own institutions of higher learning, get accreditation, and compete for credibility. I might add that professor Behe’s testimony in the Kitzmiller vs. Dover School District was singled out by the judge as specious, and that: “intelligent design is not science but essentially religious in nature.”

It helps if you remember that a number of right wing religious organizations are trying to make the whole United States a theocracy…that is; religiously ruled and dominated by evangelical leaders…and real science…no longer taught in our schools.

Now, we as a country have some real problems admittedly, but compared to countries that are ruled by religionists, we are a profound “Paradise.” Can you even imagine how deeply disturbed our society would be if we gave up scientific inquiry in this country or indeed, the whole world?

Can you conceive of a world where trying to understand the physical universe would be considered blasphemy?

Perhaps punishable by brainwashing in government facilities.

Where you would be punished for trying to consider reality.

Evolution, Flood, Neanderthals

Today’s Evangelical preachers and those who urge that “The Bible is the Accurate Word of God” (Answersingenesis) seem to be repeating a 170-year-old arguments

The Reverend William Buckland, the first professor of geology at Oxford University, rejected a single flood theory in 1837, 22 years before Darwin’s seminal work. He wrote:

“Some have attempted to ascribe the formation of all the stratified rocks to the effects of the Mosaic Deluge; an opinion which is irreconcilable with the enormous thickness and almost infinite subdivisions of these strata, and with the numerous and regular successions which they contain of the remains of animals and vegetables, differing more and more widely from existing species, as the strata in which we find them are placed at greater depths. The fact that a large proportion of these remains belong to extinct genera, and almost all of them to extinct species, that lived and multiplied and died on or near the spots where they are now found, shows that the strata in which they occur were deposited slowly and gradually, during long periods of time, and at widely distant intervals.” My emphasis.

Even in 1837 some preachers were trying to tell us that Noah’s flood caused the stratigraphy record. Any person with just a bit of intelligence, and no preconceived notions, can see what Reverend Buckland saw. And yet, the religious right continues to push the same old argument

Neanderthals
“In 1996, Jean-Jacques Hublin and colleagues (1996, p. 224) proved that the human remains at Arcy-sur-Cure were Neanderthal. This site is a Chatelperronian site–the Chatelperronian being the earliest Upper Paleolithic technological complex. The importance of this was the association of Neanderthals with personal ornamentation, including pendants and necklaces. The necklace made the cover of Nature magazine. At that time, Hublin et al suggested that Neanderthal had obtained the necklace by means of trade or imitation. The assumption was that Neanderthal could not be intelligent enough to have invented such a symbolic object.” Wrong…see full Article: http://www.asa3.org/archive/ASA/199809/0030.html

Also see: The case of a Neanderthal skull that was carved into a drinking cup. This also has symbolic implications http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/neandertal.html.

There is already pretty good info out there that implies Neanderthals were a living, intelligent entity, well before any supposed worldwide flood.

All Neanderthal remains are found WAY below biblical era/supposed flood era relics and artifacts. This fact was noted in the 1800’s when they were first found, but it just doesn’t seem to sink into “Genesis” people and evangelicals. They just continue to deny facts. The evidence sits there, both in the field, and documented in museums.

Everyone in science sees it, understands it, knows it, and goes on with their life. The people that hold on to their superstition have a blind spot in their mind. Their mind just does not register what’s there. It filters through misrepresentations and what comes out is superstition. Any effort to lay out the truth before them is, they think, the work of the devil testing them.

Politicians are reaching out to suck up that power.

They are succeeding.