Letter On Lucy's Child

There was a letter to the editor in my local paper on Monday about the September 21 article of the fossil of "Lucy's Child" in the Nature Magazine.

The writer says scientists are not only the smartest people on the planet, they are also the funniest. He says the picture on the cover of the National Geographic looks more like an ape.
And he found hilarious the comments: "The [scientists] have already begun making striking discoveries, including a tiny throat structure that suggests ... her wails probably sounded more like a chimp than a human baby" as hilarious.

Obviously, this person does not know anything about anthropology like the scientists do. And humans are apes, look it up an encyclopedia.

Back To School

This Monday, I am going back to school. I am taking the Digital Media program at a local college. I have been wanting to upgrade my computer skills and get a diploma in something that I am capable of doing. I am hoping after six months of training in the field that I will be able to make a career out of it.

Remember September 11

I was watching Live with Regis and Kelly at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, when they showed the first tower on fire. I went downstairs thinking it was nothing important. Later, I heard my mom say “oh, no!” The second plane hit the other tower.

I went back upstairs and watched as they showed the aftermath of the plane hitting the Pentagon, the collapse of the towers and the remains of the final plane in Pennsylvania.

Looking back, not much as changed in American’s attitudes towards Middle Easterners and vice versa. We should remember those who died in the terrorist attacks and not blame the government for what happened or exploit it for the purpose of one’s beliefs and opinions.

Conspiracy Video

In the comment section in oen of my posts on myThe Truth Hurts blog , someone named anonymous sent me a link to a video on "what really happened" on September 11. It is nothing more than a conspiracy theory as it lacking in real depth.

Only interviews with firefighters and heresay (secondary sources), the narrator has not the interviews himself and there are no experts to confirm his theories.
He claims the buildings were blowing away by explosions or bombs but he provides inconclusive evidence to suggest bombs were planted in building and whether explosions were bombs.

He suggests that the steel in the buildings would not burn, yet evidence show the buildings collapsed from structure damage.

According to Discovery’s What Really Happened Inside The Twin Towers, there were survivors around the 7th floor of one of the buildings. It is noted by one of the firefighters that if you were below this area you would have been crushed and if you were above it, you would have been part of the collapse.

But the major questions are what about the two other planes, the one that crashed at the Pentagon and the other that was brought down in Pennsylvania? What about the terrorists that hijacked the planes and Usama bin Ladin and Al-Qaida confirming the terrorist plot? Were there bombs planted at the Pentagon and the White House?

Karr Cons District Attorney

With John Mark Karr not going to jail for killing JonBenet Ramsey, the prosecutors have screwed up. Sure they got a child predator off the streets, but he got free press and special privileges such as a plane ride to the US and not having other inmates with him.

I wonder what, in his confession, the authorities think that he was the killer. Did he describe how JonBenet was found, what the interior of the house look like, etc.

Hopefully, when Karr is put in jail (for only one year for child pornography) that they put him with the other inmates so he realizes that he will never get 15 seconds of fame.

New Web Log

I have new web log The Truth Hurts: What Is Wrong With Christian Right. This blog will, exclusively, refer to the religious right's wrongdoings and lies.

Daily Creationism Is Back

The Daily Creationism Blog is back after a two month hiatus. It is written, I use that loosely, by Big Bang Myth. I am not sure if the guy is for real or if he is just poking fun of creationists' thinking.

Bill Clinton Is A Sinner

This is a letter to the editor about Bill Clinton coming to Kitchener for a fundrasier at the "Roman" Catholic Family Counselling Centre. The author is upset because Clinton is an adulterer and he vetoed legislation that banned partial-birth abortions in the third trimester, twice.
He says that he cannot support politicians who "promote policies attacking human life and human dignity." He plans to be present to wave to Clinton from behind his pro-life sign with my rosary in his hand.
I wonder if the author approves of current American president, who is "pro-life," including vetoing a stem-cell research bill and approving the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon?

Kent Hovind Complains

Apparently, Kent Hovind has decided to speak up about being arrested for tax evasion on his CSE blog. This is despite being "advised by counsel not to discuss the case openly yet."

First off, he claims that IRS "dragged" his "sick wife" out of bed and handcuffed her in her nightgown and refused to let her get dressed or go to the bathroom. He does he seem to think that the authorities should give them special privileges.

He states that "if the charges are dropped or we win in court, will the media publish that? I have said for years that people who love God should cancel their subscription to the liberal paper and support missionaries with the money. Will the pastors and other Christians who have spread malicious rumors about me repent, apologize and undo the damages?"

He continues to claim that he is falsely accused and calling the evolutionists cowards for talking about the charges and God will be the final judge.

When Hovind dies, he will to say to God "Lord, Lord did I not prophesize in your name" and God will say "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoer." (paraphrase from Matthew 7:22-23)

Hovind's Arrest

Over the past few days, I have been looking over several web log posting on Kent Hovind's arrest. He was charged on Thursday with tax evasion (or is that ovasion?), Filing a frivolous lawsuit against the agency demanding damages for criminal trespass, filing an injunction against an IRS special agent, filing false complaints against the IRS for false arrest, excessive use of force and theft and making threats against investigators and those cooperating with the investigation.

After Hovind protested the charges, the judge took away his passport and guns Hovind claimed belonged to his church. Earlier this week, I tried to asked on Hovind's blog if he has informed people about his no contest pleading for the Dinosaur Adventure Land permits.

On a side note, I made a comment on blog that support Hovind and creationism. It was noted posted, so I informed about Hovind's arrest. He e-mailed me saying "if you've got beef with Kent, good for you. I don't care what he's done as a person, I believe in what he believes in."

I replied that he should care about what he has done. I said when the truth comes out Hovind will not be going to heaven and who is the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows the fool? (from Star Wars)

He replied back that the "Fool has said in his heart, there is no God (from the Bible). Creation is proof of a creator, just as a painting is proof of a
painter."

He replied back with the proverb, A fool and his money are soon parted. i said that science has proven evolution, not creationism. I mentioned an article from the Associated Press shows that Darwin's finches having evolved a smaller beak after the arrival of a larger rival for its original food source.

I said "there is no credible evidence to suggest the universe and the earth is young and there is no evidence to suggest humans were created from modified dirt. If God is ominpotent, why can't He use evolution to create? Do you want to believe a big lie rather than the truth?"

I e-mailed me "are you 100% sure that you're right? And are you 100% sure that
you'll go to heaven if you were to die right now?"

I replied back "are you sure that YOU are right? Can a blind man lead
a blind man, will they not both fall into the pit?" (quote from the Bible)

"Apparently, you are denying the truth since you are either, unable or unwilling, to provide me with any evidence of creationism. Anyone who says I will not get to heaven, will not get to heaven."

I am waiting for a reply back.

Blessing Same-Sex Unions

The Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada voted 197-75 to allow individual congregations to decide whether to bless same-sex couples who are committing to lifelong relationships. Opponents tried to reverse the decision at the Waterloo convention because the synod does not have the jurisdiction to conduct the vote. They pointed out that a virtually identical motion was voted down at the church's national convention in Winnipeg last year. The rules allow a synod to ask the National Church Council to refer the issue of jurisdiction to a church court, but
delegates in rejected a motion to ask the National Church Council to consider the matter.

Before a Lutheran pastor can bless a gay couple's union, the pastor must consult the bishop and get a two-thirds majority approval from the congregation.

If the church council decides on its own to refer the jurisdiction question to the church court, pastors will be asked to refrain from blessing couples until there is clarity. But bishops do not have the authority to veto decisions made by synod delegates, so pastors might decide to go ahead. However, it will probably be September before the congregations can meet, discuss and vote on the whether they will allow the blessings.

Rev. Raymond Schultz, the church's national bishop, said he believes jurisdiction over same-sex blessings resides with the national church. He views the Eastern Synod's vote as an act of civil disobedience akin to the civil rights movement in the United States which fought for equal rights for African Americans during the 1950s and 1960s.

I am amazed at how quickly this has changed the ELCIC. My family goes to the ELCIC's church in Elmira. My aunt was a theologian teacher at the Lutheran Seminary in Waterloo. Before she died in 1997, she was researching on Paul's views of homosexuality and the ordination of gays as clergy. If she were she alive, she would not believe how the acceptance of homosexuals in the church has come a long way in a short period of time.

Satirical Blog

For a couple of weeks I wrote comments to Jesus Loves Amy: America's Best Christian. It is written by a 16-year-old girl who is being home schooled by her mother. Se believes in Creation Science and she ministers to people like homosexuals and atheists. Her mission is to protect people from the sin's of people like Richard Dawkins and Friederich Neitshcze.

For several posts, I argued with her evolution existed, Kent Hovind is a liar and the Bible cannot be taken literally. I also questioned her numerous spelling errors such as "intellegent" and "evilution." I even wanted to help her.

I am was e-mailed by Daryl Cobranchi who said the blog is satire and is written by a guy. I was wondering because she never mentioned "her" father, and when i asked, "she" got upset. It is rarely that I am fooled that easily if it is satire.

Homo Sapiens

I watched The Nature Of Things: Homo Sapiens Part 1 today.

It explained how we evolved from the great apes of 7 millions. How we evolved from Australopithecus to Homo Habilis to Homo Erectus to Homo Sapiens. It was mention that eating meat and its proteins helped gradually increased brain size of homo sapien and then they would be able to create more sophisticated tools. One scientist says that "we know evolution happened." Homo Sapiens would develop arts, religion, clothes and language during this time. They would bury the dead to perseve to memory of the dead and to fight off the anguish. This would lead spiritualism and religion.

There is discussion about if Homo Sapiens came out of Africa, evolved from Homo Erectus while they were in Europe and Asia or multi-region effect. It is noted that Homo Sapiens adapted quickly and their skin colour gradually changed as they approached colder climates. Homo Sapiens would eventually come into contact with their cousins, the Neanderthals in Europe, and Peking Man, Java Man and Homo floresiensis in Asia. They would interbreed and share customs.

Eventually, Homo Erectus and Homo Sapiens created rafts and sailed across to Australia. Since Australia has never been connected to Asia, there was no way for humans and animals to walk across from Asia. Part two is next week.

James Loney

James Loney, who spent four months in captivity in Iraq, says the Knights of Columbus is closing the Ontario Catholic Youth Leadership Camp because the chairman made reference to Loney in expressing his concern that the event was promoting a homosexual lifestyle.

Loney said he had been a staff member at the camp for a number of years before this year, when he introduced his partner, Jim Hunt, on national television upon his return from Iraq.

"This is the litmus test for us: we love God as much as the one we love the least, and that's what we've been trying to be about, as a leadership camp," Loney said. "We want the teasing and the bullying and the harassment that comes with homophobia to stop. We want the teenage suicide and the self-loathing of the closet to stop. We want people to be able to speak freely about what they are and what they believe without fear."

The Knights Of Columbus have offered no proof that the camp was promoting homosexuality, so it is obvious that they are embarrassed that they allowed James Loney to work there.

Reworking Web Site

I am planning to update my The Truth Hurts web site this weekend. I have changed the chapter titles and I am adding more information in. I hope that it will provide more insight and originality into what is wrong with the Christian right.

Canadian Immorality Poll

Sixty-five per cent of Canadians seem to agree with the Conservative government's belief that sex under age 16 is wrong which ranked fifth on a Leger Marketing survey of behaviour that Canadians consider immoral.

That belief was strongest in British Columbia, where 71 per cent of respondents said it was immoral, and weakest in Quebec, where 51 per cent agreed. Support was also stronger among women, at 68 per cent, than men, at 61 per cent.

Pedophilia was ranked the most unforgivable behaviour, considered immoral by 81 per cent of respondents. Extra-marital sex was second, condemned by 74 per cent of respondents. Womeen were more outraged than men about adultery, with 81 per cent declaring it taboo, compared to 68 per cent of men.

Prostitution was third considered immoral by 68 per cent of the 1,508 adults polled. Again, more women than men condemned prostitution, at 76 per cent compared to 59 per cent of men.

"We found that men are much more tolerant than women on most of these issues, except for abortion," said Christian Bourque, of Leger Marketing.

Thirty-four per cent of respondents disapproved of abortion, men at 35 per cent and women at 33.

The gap between the sexes was greatest on the issue of pornographic films, which 68 per cent of women considered wrong but only 46 per cent of men. Alcohol abuse, pornographic films, and blasphemy were condemned by more than 50 per cent of respondents.

Those were followed by abortion, which 34 per cent felt was immoral, and divorce, at 17 per cent.

Bourque said he was surprised that 31 per cent of respondents considered homosexuality immoral.

"That's a third of Canadians," he said. "This is one issue where still we haven't resolved our views collectively regarding homosexuality. We probably tolerate it much better now that we used to, but still I don't think we've resolved this issue in the country."

Contraception was last on the list, considered immoral by just eight per cent of those polled. The poll results have margin of error of plus of minus 2.6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The Atlantic provinces were most conservative, with the highest percentages of respondents who considered prostitution, alcohol abuse, pornographic films, blasphemy, abortion, homosexuality, divorce and contraception immoral.
Respondents in Quebec and Alberta were the most tolerant of the behaviours put to them by pollsters.

Albertans had the lowest percentages when it came to prostitution, alcohol abuse, porn and contraception. Quebecers were the most tolerant of adultery, sex before 16, blasphemy, abortion and homosexuality.

I guess this shows the religious right, that Canadians do not care that much about bring back legislation against same-sex marriage and abortion.

King James Or New International

For all those who say the King James Bible is more popular:
I did a search on Google Trends for the King James and New International Versions of the Bible. Pretty interesting.

Terror Plot Foiled

Canadian police arrested 17 people on charges conspiring to commit terrorism acts in Canada.

But American politicians are not happy, wanting to tighten the border and saying that Canada is refuge for Islamic terrorists. The suspects were born in Canada, they were alledgedly inspired by Al Qaida. New York Rep. Peter King warned Americans to be concerned about Canada because its lax immigration policy had allowed the country to become a haven to a ''disproportionate'' number of al-Qaida members.

Such comments are inaccurate and an attack on Canada's immigration policies. Americans should be reminded that the terrorists that planned 9/11 were Americans and were inspired by Al Qaida.

Rally Against Homo Marriage

On Saturday, about 30 people protested outside Kitchener-Waterloo Liberal MP Andrew Telegdi's office against his stance on same-sex marriage. There number is pretty pathetic considering thousands turned out for the protests against deporting illegal refugees in other cities and most of the people were older than 50. The spokesperson for Defend Traditional Marriage said that gay marriages hurt children, yet, as one gay couple mentioned, the protesters have no problem when single parents raise children.

The free vote that the Conservatives promised to bring forward for revisiting same-sex marriage will not happen until, at least, the fall session.

I wonder why Defend Marriage does not go to talk to my MP, Conservative Harold Albrecht, who currently working on a bill to toughen the Young Offenders Act. They should ponder which is more important.

Kent Hovind's Day

This is from A Day in the life of Kent Hovind - April 25 to 29

Apparently Dr. Hovind had a bad weekend. He had problems with hisequipment in Port Huron, Michigan, he could not to sleep, was awakened by a party in the next room and missed his flight because the motel gave someone else his wake-up call. He was interviewed by LA Times during the trip to Port Huron. The only article I could find was on the Dinny the roadside dinosaur bought by creationists last year.

He is upset the "idiot" shuttle driver dropped him off at the wrong terminal, he notes that most of the employees are "Arabs" and the coffee was mistake because it tasted terrible, even with no alcohol.

The plane is cold, the crew had to photograph a dent in the plane, delaying the flight, and misses his radio braodcast as his cell phone is dead.

He complains about his "supermodel" stewardess with a miniskirt, apparently raised in a country without training on modesty training on how to sit. I guess he just committed adultery for thinking this. He, also, complains about some people speaking in German.

In Kansas, his driver is so excited to talk to him that the driver was not paying attention to the road and had to slam on the brakes many times. He was "mobbed" by fans after a debate in Kansas City.

His flight back had mechanical problems and was cancelled and he had to re-booked another flight. My cell phone screen quit working so I can only call speed dial numbers I know by heart.

Maybe, God is telling the "Doctor" it is time to take some time off. Apparently his CSE blogs and his Dr. Dino web site has not been updated recently. His schedule is basically his speaking engagements and not family. With the trouble he is in with DAL, he should really take a sabbatical.

Telemarketing And Poker

This Thursday, while at work, I answered the phone and it was a prerecorded message saying that I have an opportunity to win a stay at a resort in Collingwood. Apparently, they have been calling all over town.

On Firday night, I played in a freeroll poker tournament at PartyPoker.com for nearly three and half hours. Placed 25th out of over 11,000 entrants and played 211 hands. I made a chart of how well I did.

Roundabouts in Waterloo Region

Since last year, several roundabouts (often found in Europe) have been constructed in the cities. There is one being built in between Waterloo and Elmira on the 86. The road closed due to the roundabout and the bridge being rebuilt over the Conestoga River. Truck driving companies have been complaining that the roundabout is to small for trucks. Also, horse and buggies will have travel down the road through a pipe undeneath the road. But the pathway they have built seems to be not wide enough for buggies going opposite directions of the same side of the road. I hope that the engineers know what they are doing because this is a major route not an oridinary street in the city

From Ardent Atheist

The Ardent Atheist The results are in, and it appears that you have scored 61%...

You are an atheist, pure and simple. You think God is just one big lie, and consider religious people to be both annoying and beneath you. Ardent atheists will argue tooth and claw for their position, and have no truck with people that won't listen. You think being an atheist is the only way to lead an honest life, and see no reason to accept the pleas of faith. Ardent atheists are the backbone of atheism. Be proud.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 24% on pentagrams

Link: The Atheist Test written by chi_the_cynic on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Parents Try To Sue School

Two families filed a lawsuit on Thursday against a Massachusetts town and its public school system after a teacher read a gay-themed fairy tale to children without notifying them first.

The suit against Lexington seeks unspecified damages after the book "King & King" was read to a classroom of about 20 mostly 7 years olds. It is believed the first of its kind, the families' lawyers said.

The complaint said the school had "begun a process of intentionally indoctrinating very young children to affirm the notion that homosexuality is right and normal in direct denigration of the plaintiffs' deeply held faith."

It also charges that Lexington broke a 1996 Massachusetts law requiring that parents be notified of sex-education lessons. It names Lexington Superintendent of Schools Paul Ash and several other school and town officials.

Ash said the school was under no legal obligation to inform parents the book would be read. "This school district is committed to a welcoming environment for all kids. We embrace the diverse nature of the community," he told Reuters.

"King & King" tells the story of a crown prince who rejects a bevy of beautiful princesses, rebuffing each suitor until falling in love with a prince. The two marry, sealing the union with a kiss, and live happily ever after.

Ash has said reading the book was not intended as sex education but as a way to educate children about the world in which they live, especially in Massachusetts, the only U.S. state where gays and lesbians can legally wed. It was read during a lesson on different types of weddings.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston alleges violations of the federal civil rights of the two sets of parents, David and Tonia Parker, and Rob and Robin Wirthlin. The families are devout Judeo-Christians, it said.

"I was concerned that I had not broached this topic with my young child yet and I was concerned that the point of view that was being presented was different from our family's personal moral values," said Robin Wirthlin.

The suit also accuses the town and school officials of violating the Massachusetts civil rights code and the state's parental notification law.

The issue erupted when Robin Wirthlin complained to the school's principal after her 7-year-old son told her about the reading last month. She then turned to the conservative Massachusetts-based advocacy group Parents Rights Coalition, which issued a statement on the case to the media last week.

David Parker has been entangled with the town's school system since he was arrested a year ago for trespassing when he refused to leave school grounds until authorities promised to excuse his son from classroom discussions on same-sex parents.

His son, who at the time was about 5 years old, had brought home a "diversity book bag" that included the book "Who's in a Family?" The book includes pictures of same-sex parents along with other types of families.

Lexington school superintendent Paul Ash said the schools have no agenda and have done nothing illegal.

Natives Occupying Land

Last week, the Ontario Provincial Police tried, unsuccessfully, to remove some Six Nations natives from a residential development in Caledonia, Ontario. The police may have been asked by the developer to invoke a judge's decision to get them out and ended up arresting 16 people. Some of the protestors armed themselves with two-by-fours and crowbars. Now, the natives have set up barricades around the site.

Several years ago, there was a similar protest at Camp Ipperwash just north of Sarnia. Native Dudley George was shot and killed and there is an inquiry into his death. There was mention in today's paper that natives might protest a bridge that would be built across the Grand River in Kitchener to create a road from the city to the aiprort. This is despite that there are no native reserves in the region.

The natives better stop and think what they are doing. They have been asking the federal government to help with water quality in the reserves and I think iit is time that there should no longer have special rights in the Constitution when they abuse their rights.

The Exodus Decoded

The Exodus Decoded aired in Canada this past Sunday on the Discovery Channel and will be broadcast in the US soon. It is produced by James Cameron and narrated and directed by Simcha Jacobovich. A disclaimer at the beginning says the opinion is the producer's and not necessarily Dicovery's.

The first piece of evidence that the Exodus happened is the Ahmose Stele dated from 1500 B.C. The stone describes a catastrophic event, a great storm, and that is was created by one God. The pharoah that is believed to be the one that released the Israelites was Ahmose, which in Herbrew is brother of Moses. Ahmose's father had a crushed skull suggesting he died from a battle.

Next evidence is Avartis, the city of slaves, which Egyptians force archaelogists to cover it up every year. They have found Egpytian seals with a Hebrew name on it. They have found evidence on Alphabetic inscriptions on walls in Sinai area.

There was a major volcanic eruption of Santorini, near Greece, around this time. Pumice was found in the Nile Delta and the Stele and the Bible describe large earthquake storms.

The first plague was from underwater gas leaks that caused the Nile to turn red. Similar events happened at two lakes in Cameroon about twenty years ago. This would cause the frog, lice, flies and bacteria infestions. The boils were also caused by the carbon dioxide gas as they did in Cameroon. The hail of ice and fire was caused by the Santorini eruption. This would keep the locusts down at ground level and cause darkness for several days.

The tenth plague was from the release of the toxic gas coming from the water and form in mist-like fog. Because Egyptian first-born slept on low-levelled beds, they died while the other Egpytians slept higher up and the Israelites were celebrating the Passover. A similar incident happened at Cameroon as people and animals died from the toxic gases. A mass grave of only male plague victims was found and Ahmose's son died at the age of tweleve.

The Yam Suf or Sea of Reeds is found at Lake El Bah. Several hieroglyphics in a museum tell of the Exodus. It is believed that salt collapsing in the Mediterrean Sea from seismic tremors caused the area to be drained and a tsunami flooded the lake again. Some Israelites may have gone to Greece because Greeks were trade partners.

The traditional Mount Sinai, Mt. Catherine, is not the mountain because it has no large plateau, a holy mountain or place where sheep/goats can graze. The mountain is 14-day journey from Egpyt, about 45 km from the grazing site Timea and a 11-day journey from Kadesh Barnea. The mountain is Mt. Hasham El Tarif, which has a large cleft, rock grave site on the summit and had a natural spring as mentioned in the Bible.

The final piece of evidence is the Ark of the Covenant. They found a small artifact in the Egpytian museum where they found the hieroglyphics. It seems to depict the ark as described in the Bible. The conclusion says the only question is that did this happen from nature or divine intervention.

Naked Archaeologist

I was watching a four-episode marathon of The Naked Archaeologist the other day. The episodes dealt with Jesus' crucifixion, Jesus' early years, the story of David and St. John the Baptist.

There has been only one piece of evidence found of a Roman crucifixion, that the Romans did not invent crucifixions and there were different ways of crucixion. It was noted at the end, the reason why we cannot find more evidence of crucifixions is that family would take the nailed hands or feet and keep them as lucky charms like a rabbit's foot.

In the early years episode, it is noted that nativity is different is the Gospels, there are two Bethelems, one in Judea - the traditional one, and one in Galilee.

In the David episode, many believe that the size of Goliath is exaggerated but there is disputation in the size of David's kingdom.

In the St. John the Baptist episode, they mention of several sects in Christianity that believe that John was bigger than Jesus and Da Vinci painted John more often Jesus.

Fossil Fish Sheds Light on Transition

From Yahoo! News and Nature Magazine:

Scientists have caught a fossil fish in the act of adapting toward a life on land, a discovery that sheds new light one of the greatest transformations in the history of animals. Scientists have long known that fish evolved into the first creatures on land with four legs and backbones more than 365 million years ago, but they've had precious little fossil evidence to document how it happened.

The new find of several specimens looks more like a land-dweller than the few other fossil fish known from the transitional period, and researchers speculate that it may have taken brief excursions out of the water.Experts said the discovery, with its unusually well-preserved and complete skeletons, reveals significant new information about how the water-to-land evolution took place.

The new find includes specimens, 4 to 9 feet long, found on Ellesmere Island, which lies north of the Arctic Circle in Canada. It is reported in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature by Shubin, Ted Daeschler of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and Farish A. Jenkins Jr. of Harvard.

Some 375 million years ago, the creature looked like a cross between a fish and a crocodile. It swam in shallow, gently meandering streams in what was then a subtropical climate, researchers say. A meat-eater, it lived mostly in water.
Yet, its front fins had bones that correspond to a shoulder, upper arm, elbow, forearm and a primitive version of a wrist.

It might have pulled itself onto stream banks, perhaps moving from one wet area to another, and even crawled across logs in swamps. The researchers have not yet dug up any remains from the hind end of the creature's body, so they don't know exactly what the hind fins and tail might have looked like.

The creature was dubbed Tiktaalik roseae, and also had the crocodile-shaped head of early amphibians, with eyes on the top rather than the side. Unlike other fish, it could move its head independently of its shoulders like a land animal. The back of its head also had features like those of land-dwellers. It probably had lungs as well as gills, and it had overlapping ribs that could be used to support the body against gravity. Yet, the creature's jaws and snout were still very fishlike, showing that "evolution proceeds slowly; it proceeds in a mosaic pattern with some elements changing while others stay the same," Daeschler said.

Shubin said the researchers plan to return to the small rocky outcropping that yielded the fossils and recover more material. "We've really only begun to sort of crack that spot," he said.

The site is in Nunavut Territory, and "Tiktaalik" in the creature's name comes from the traditional language used in the area. It refers to a large freshwater fish seen in the shallows.

Jesus' Crucifixion May Be Wrong

From Yahoo News

According to Britain's prestigious Royal Society of Medicine, the crucifixion may be quite erroneous because there is no evidence to prove Jesus was crucified in this manner.

Around the world, Jesus Christ is seen nailed to the cross by his hands and feet, with his head upwards and arms outstretched. But RSM says this image has never been substantiated in fact. Christ could have been crucified in any one of many ways, all of which would have affected the causes of his death.

"The evidence available demonstrates that people were crucified in different postures and affixed to crosses using a variety of means," said Piers Mitchell of Imperial College London. "Victims were not necessarily positioned head up and nailed through the feet from front to back, as is the imagery in Christian churches."

The authors do not express any doubt on the act of Jesus' crucifixion itself, but note that the few eyewitness descriptions available today of crucifixions in the 1st century AD show the Romans had a broad and cruel imagination. Their crucifixion methods probably evolved over time and depended on the social status of the victim and on the crime allegedly committed.

The cross could be erected "in any one of a range of orientations", with the victim sometimes head-up, sometimes head-down or in different postures. Sometimes he was nailed to the cross by his genitals, sometimes the hands and feet were attached to the side of the cross and not the front, or affixed with cords rather than nails.

Crucifixion was widely practised by the Romans to punish criminals and rebels, but if the empire ever circulated instructions for the soldiers who carried out the gruesome task, none has survived today. Nor is there any detailed account of the method of Jesus' crucifixion in the four Gospels of the Bible.

Only one piece of archaeological evidence has ever been found about a crucifixion, mainly because crucified people were not formally buried but left on a rubbish dump to be eaten by wild dogs and hyenas. The clue to his demise comes from an 11.5-centimetre (4.8-inch) iron nail that had been hammered through one of his heels, attaching it to the side of the cross. But there are no signs of any nail holes in the bones of the wrist or the forearm.

Over the past 150 years, there have been at least 10 books and studies to try to understand the physical causes of Jesus' death, and one US attempt, in 2005, even featured a "humane re-enactment" in which volunteers were attached to a cross in safe and temporary way, using gloves and belts.

These explorations have yielded a wide range of hypotheses, from heart failure and pulmonary embolism to asphyxia and shock induced by falling blood pressure. Excruciating pain endured over the six hours between crucifixion and death, loss of blood, dehydration and the weight of the body on the lungs are cited as contributing factors.

But these efforts have all been prejudiced by the automatic assumption, derived from religious images, that Jesus was crucified head-up. Given the uncertainty as to exactly how he was crucified, the answer may only ever come if some new archaeological evidence or piece of writing emerges from the shadows of the past.

The Truth Of Kent Hovind's Age Of The Earth

Kent Hovind is the founder of the Creation Science Evangelism and has conducted seminars on evolution and creationism. I watched a DVD called Age Of The Earth produced by the CSE and it is full of inaccuracies of evolution, creation and the Big Bang.

For some reason, Kent Hovind starts off by talking about his family and saying how pride he is to have a "beautiful" family. Isn't pride one of the seven deadly sins?

Kent Hovind says that evolution is a dumb religion and says that if evolution is true then humans are worthless. However, according to evolution, humans are unique to other animals. We walk on our hind legs and we have large brains unlike any animal.

He claims to be not against science and says that evolution says humans came from rocks, slime and frogs. This is incorrect as it is known we evolved from a prehistoric ape-like creature and the evolution scale does not include rocks and slime and that we did not evolve from frogs (not our grandfather as Hovind puts it). He says that a wolf, a coyote and a dog all come from the same animal and that they are different from a banana. Is not this the same that a human, a gorilla and a chimpanzee are different from a banana?

Hovind states that science books say that the big bang came from nothingness and this is unbelievable. Yet, can he answer where God from? In his PowerPoint presentation, matter (mater) and humanism (hunanist manifesto) is misspelled.

Hovind uses the angular momentum law, in which planets and moons should rotate clockwise, to debunk the big bang theory. This is part of the Coriolis effect, where water in the northern hemisphere flows counterclockwise and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. Also, there is the uncertainty principle, which the position and velocity of a particle cannot simultaneously be measured with exactness.

Hovind states the evolution is the cause for rise in premarital sex, STDs, out of wedlock births, unmarried couples, divorce, violent crime, teen suicide and lower SATs. Some of these stats are only to 1995 and 1985 (unwed girls). The presentation was recorded in 2002. Also, the rises did not occur until 1970 and several have declined, particularly violent crime. Overall, all these stats have nothing to with evolution and thus they are cause-and-effect fallacies.

Hovind blames evolution for the Columbine massacre because one of the killers’ dad was a geologist, one wore a T-shirt that said “natural selection” and they killed two people because they were black and Christian. Yet, the killers were believers of Nazism that has links to Christian fundamentalists, white supremacy and hatred of the Jews. Although, social Darwinism has some connection to fascism, its immediate roots were in certain irrational, socialist, and nationalist tendencies of the turn of the century that combined in a protest against the liberal ideas in Western Europe.

Hovind states that scientists were wrong about planets revolving around the earth, big objects falling faster than smaller ones and bloodletting and scientists are wrong about evolution. Yet, it was Christian doctrine that accepted these things as facts, as in the Middle Ages, European barbers performed bloodletting tasks and Galileo was condemned to life imprisonment for “vehement suspicion of heresy.”

Hovind says that books now use BCE (Before Common Era) instead of BC (Before Christ) for dating. Yet, the Christian calendar borrowed the old pagan calendar and uses the names of several months that are named after Roman gods. He claims that Noah took baby dinosaurs on the ark, because taking adults would be too large and that dinosaurs could still exist citing the Loch Ness monster, which has been found to be a hoax.

In part 2, Kent Hovind compares the question of who was Cain’s and Seth’s wives to the Big Bang theory. He claims that they had sexual relationships with their sisters and it was not a problem for God until Moses (Letivicus). He claims that Adam was alive when his 7 great grandson was born and Shem was alive when Joseph was born. According to the record, Noah was not born until 1056 years after the creation and Adam lived 930 years. Shem died at 2056, 30 years before Jacob, Joseph’s father, was born.

There is no date in the Bible to suggest when Joseph was born and when Jacob died. Also, the word "father" or begat in this part of the Bible probably means ancestor.

Hovind claims that evolutionists say that we live in limited space and some people want to lower the population. There are many places that are unlivable for humans whether it is too hot (deserts), too cold (Antarctica), too mountainous or the oceans. He claims that the population can live comfortably in a small district of Florida. With over 6 billion people in a small area, there would be poor sanitation. According to 20/20’s Myths, Lies and Straight Talk, the world’s population would live better in an area the size of Texas.

Hovind states that one person, who carves walking sticks from trees, told him when he cuts a tree that he planted seven years ago, the rings numbered around eleven. Yet, typically, we plant tree samplings that are around four years old. So, when you cut a tree seven years later, the tree would have been around eleven years old.

Hovind claims that only a flood could explain why petrified trees can found in different layers underground, but a glacier can do the same. He was told that annual glacier rings tell the age of the earth. While the rings do reflect the warm and cold periods and not a yearly basis, the rings provide the age of the glacier not the earth.

Hovind states the stars were created at the time of creation and cloud galaxies may not exist. But how can light from galaxies and stars that are over million light-years away reach Earth?

Hovind says that the moon would be close to earth based on that it is moving away from the Earth. What he fails to mention is that the moon has come closer towards Earth and the theories of the moon formation. He says that Pangaea is a dumb theory and questions where central America is, which was formed by the mountain ranges rising from the water. If Pangaea did not happen, how did animals get to the Americas and Australia? How did the dodo (a non-flying bird) get to the Mauritius Island? How did the kangaroo get to Australia? How did the tree sloth get to the central American rainforest?

Dr. Hovind seems to make a lot of lies. More examples can be found at No Answers In Genesis, 300 Creationist Lies and Talk Origins. It is obvious he lives by the Hitler quote he uses at the beginning of the DVD to denounce evolution. "If you tell a lie long enough, loud enough, and often enough, the people will believe it."

Creationist Claims Part 2

Evolution hasn't been proven.

Fallacies include argument from ignorance, equivocation and slothful induction

This claim is true, but it doesn't go far enough. No scientific theory can be "proved"; this is because in science, you can never be 100% certain you you've identified all of the relevant axioms and principles. The best you can hope for is that a theory is well-supported by empirical evidence, and evolution is extremely well-supported.

Evolution cannot be proven, but it has been observed. When scientists took a sample of Nereis Acuminata, separated it, and exposed them to three different environments, they were unsuccessful in their attempts to cross them, which is one of the many evidences for natural selection and evolution.

Evolution could be disproved. Many have attempted to disprove it; all of them have failed. This means that it is probably true.

Evolution can't be replicated.

This is a four term fallacy (science, replication of experiments, evolution, replication of evolution)

How often has Creationism been replicated? This one example of a Creationist argument which would be at least as damaging to creationism as it could be to real science. Science can be based on observation & deduction. Falsifiability is probably a better criterion for determining science. Evolution and common descent are both falsifiable.

Humans have created (evolved) thousands of breeds of domesticated plants and animals. Bacteria evolving resistances to antibiotics or insects evolving resistances to insecticides happen again and again. The beaks of "Darwin's Finches" evolve again and again with climate changes. No, we can't re-run millions of years of history in the lab to re-create a particular evolutionary history; however, we can replicate fossil finds to confirm previous results and run genetic comparison experiments again and again.

Science requires that experiments can be replicated (assuming that it is possible to replicate the experimental conditions). Evolution is a theory, not an experiment.
Many sciences are not replicable by the above logic, including astronomy, archaeology, and history. Is the study of Ancient Rome not a science because we cannot replicate the Roman Empire? What is important is that observations of the evidence can be made repeatedly and consistently and that experiments based on those theories produce replicable results, not that events themselves can be replicated.
The eruption of Mt. St. Helens can not be replicated but its consequences and causes can be studied scientifically.

Evolution is only a theory.

Fallacies contained in this claim include slothful induction, equivocation and too broad.

The germ theory of disease is "only a theory" and so is atomic theory, as well as the special and general theories of relativity, and, indeed, every scientific concept that has ever been confirmed by empirical evidence. If "it's only a theory" is a valid reason to dismiss the theory of evolution, it is, equally, a valid reason to dismiss all of science. It is a measure of how utterly weak the Creationist position is, that Creationists must resort to arguments which would, if valid, nuke the entirety of scientific endeavor.

Theory is used to mean an idea that may or may not be true; a scientist would refer to this as a hypothesis. When a scientist uses the word theory, s/he means a hypothesis which has been tested and has so far passed all of its tests.

Experiments confirming or disproving scientific theories are being conducted every day. Evolution, as a "theory", has stood the test of time - dismissing it as a wild guess or based on no experimental evidence blatantly ignores the last few centuries of research and proof of its validity. In the spectrum of valid theories: [Evolution : ID :: Gravity : Astrology]

Evidence for evolution has not been observed.

This a slothful induction fallacy.

In science, "evidence" usually only has meaning when related to a hypothesis. We compare data to the predictions of a hypothesis. If the data agrees with the predictions, it becomes evidence for the hypothesis, otherwise it becomes evidence against. In a way this might be referred to as interpreting evidence to fit the hypothesis, but the process isn't so subjective as the word "interpretation" implies. All of the sciences work in this manner, so criticizing evolution for it is hypocritical.

Science is about explaining the makeup of the natural world, not interpreting it to fit a preconceived belief. If a theory explains the natural world properly, interpretation is not an issue. Evolution does precisely that, and Creationism does not.

Recapitulation theory is not supported

This is an equivocation fallacy.

While recapitulation of the sort propounded by Haeckel is no longer supported, homology of embryonic developmental stages can and does provide support for the theory of evolution.

Lucy's knee was found far from the rest of the skeleton

This is a false rumour. Johanson was discussing another A. afarensis knee and NOT that of Lucy that had been discovered in 1973.

There are flood myths from all over the world

Most cultures have been located near bodies of water prone to regular flooding, it is unclear why anyone should think that the prevalence of flood-type myths is a mystery that requires any explanation at all, let alone a Divine "explanation".

Most ancient cultures had only a very limited understanding of the size of planet earth. To them, their little land was the "world", and if it was flooded, this was, quite literally, "the end of the world". Common flood-mythology does not indicate a single shared past experience. It is possible that flood-event experiences propagated among cultures from one source. Common shared experiences of floods in no way mean said flood was of divine origin or covered the entire world.

Examination of flood myths indicates they can vary extremely, from world-destruction to world-creation, from localized to encompassing the entire planet. If there was one primal flood, more consistency would be expected.

Very few of the world-destroying flood myths describe humanity escaping in a boat. Some speak of people avoiding the flood by hiding within giant trees, escaping to higher ground, and in some cases, the myths speak of how the entire world was completely destroyed or how the flood was stopped before any devastion was caused.

Other myths appear amongst many cultures. Numerous cultures recognize creatures that live off of stolen human blood, frequently identified as unnaturally prolonging their lives after death. Nearly every culture has myths of humans who can change shapes into animals, either at will or under some imposed circumstance. Does the prevelance of these myths indicate that vampires and werewolves actually exist? The average creationist would certainly reject the idea that there are many gods, despite the fact that belief in Pantheons occurs worldwide.

Many myths represent the experience of the populace writ large. People who live in regions with large reptiles tell stories of gigantic reptiles. People who live in areas prone to forest fires tell of the fire big enough to destroy the world. People who live near glaciers have myths of when the world was consumed by ice. The prevalence of flood myths needs no explanation except that humans like to live near water and water sources have a tendency to flood periodically.

Given that all but Noah et al perished in the Biblical flood myth where then do the stories from other cultures come from? These groups of people would have to be descendants of Noah's family repopulating the world and therefore wouldn't they have the same story?

What is the point of reporting the other flood myths in that often the myths are severe contradictions to the Genesis version. If Genesis is literally true, then these other myths must be false, and if they are false how do they add weight to the Genesis account? And, of course, why aren't these other versions of myth more believable than the Genesis version thereby directly proving Genesis wrong?

Failure or shortcomings in experiments involving the application of evolutionary theory to the production or use of computer hardware of software demonstrates that evolution can not work elsewhere.

Fallacies contained in this claim include argument from ignorance, false analogy, straw man and fallacy fallacy.

Computerized evolutionary models have proven effective. An analysis of the Avida software and it's results indicates that computer models can be used to demonstrate evolutionary theory.

The criticisms about evolutionary models are often directed at a Brandeis experiment in evolving concepts for machines via simulation of the evolutionary process. These are better viewed not as a simulation of evolution, but an application of evolutionary concepts to producing mechanical design. Though useful and interesting in that it did produce surprisingly sophisticated mechanisms, it was not a full-bore testing of evolutionary theory in the vein of the Avida software.

There are programs that use computer-simulated evolution to solve certain tasks. One amusing and rather simple example of this is breveWalker, where an animal made out of blocks uses evolution to learn how to walk.

Genesis 1 got the order of events right.

This is a begging the question fallacy.

The odds are nothing more than a combinatorial expansion of 10!. Counting "in the beginning, there was a beginning" isn't a valid stage. At the very least, the count should be 9! or 1 in 362,880. Other events also simply cannot be in any other order (land plants cannot be before land, etc.) and so reduce the unlikelihood still further.

Some of the steps are not clearly derived from the Bible at all. Point two has Earth "...enshrouded in heavy gases..." not because anything in Genesis suggests this, but as part of an effort to save the order by asserting sunlight wouldn't have been visible during the early stages of Genesis. Adding elements to save the order rather injures the argument that the accuracy of the order is amazing.

The order proposes that land plants existed for a significant fraction of time before the sun could be seen from earth. The idea that plants existed for any length of time without access to direct sunlight is contrary to science and common sense.
And by any reasonable definition, "tame beasts" had to await the arrival of man to even have any meaningful notion of "tame". By most genomic studies a dog is still a wolf in an arrested state of development due to the artificial selection by man. Did dogs really exist before man? And if so, wouldn't their wild beast variants have quickly either killed them or reverted them back to "wild"?

Since there is no mention of animals before, then did the pollinators arrive to keep land plants (#6) reproducing? or perhaps were the first land plants not flowering (as the science shows) and that later "evolved" when the pollinators arrived in #8?

While one may believe that mainstream science is wrong, doing so would negate the test of the Bible's accuracy that this order supposedly entails.

Scientists lie if they talk about an old earth and evolution.

This is an abusive ad hominem fallacy.

Lying implies that the person knows better. Even if creationists were right, scientists could just be mistaken. Lying also implies that evolution and old earth are false, for which there is no evidence. See all the failed attempts at proving evolution false. If all scientists who accept evolution were lying, this would be a world-wide conspiracy with thousands of members, which is not believable. To accept that you need to be paranoid. How do we know that all creationists are not the ones who are actually lying? How can we be sure that even all teachers of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or any other religion is lying?

Creationism and evolution are the only 2 models.

This is a false dilemma fallacy.

Creation and evolution are both broad categories. Each contains a potentially infinite set of actual models. Furthermore, the two sets overlap (Theistic Evolution). Fred Hoyle's idea of a universe that has always existed is a third model.

The Christian model of creation is currently the single most popular, but by far not the only creation story. Many other religions had or still have their own creation story. Additionally, there are parodies of creationism, such as Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, that work just as well. No shread of objective scientific evidence credits one above all others.

Evolution excludes the existence of a creator.

Evolution functions on the principle of methodological naturalism. This principle states briefly that natural causes are the only things that can be objectively identified. As a result, science functions on the principle that science itself is incapable of elucidating a supernatural cause.

Many creationists conflate methodological naturalism with metaphysical naturalism. Metaphysical naturalism states that the natural universe is all that exists, and this position does exclude the possibility of a creator. However, methodological naturalism does not exclude the possibility of a creator, nor does belief in evolution require disbelief in a creator. Indeed, there are a great many theistic evolutionists and the Clergy Letter Project shows that at least 7000 clergy see no conflict between evolution and faith.

Evidence for Universe Expansion Found

Evidence for Universe Expansion Found

Physicists announced that they now have the smoking gun that shows the universe went through extremely rapid expansion in the moments after the big bang, growing from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space in less than a trillion-trillionth of a second.

The discovery, which involves an analysis of variations in the brightness of microwave radiation, is the first direct evidence to support the two-decade-old theory that the universe went through what is called inflation. It also helps explain how matter eventually clumped together into planets, stars and galaxies in a universe that began as a remarkably smooth, superhot soup.

Researchers found the evidence for inflation by looking at a faint glow that permeates the universe. That glow, known as the cosmic microwave background, was produced when the universe was about 300,000 years old, long after inflation had done its work.

But just as a fossil tells a paleontologist about long-extinct life, the pattern of light in the cosmic microwave background offers clues about what came before it. Of specific interest to physicists are subtle brightness variations that give images of the microwave background a lumpy appearance.

Physicists presented new measurements of those variations during a news conference at Princeton University. The measurements were made by a spaceborne instrument called the Wilkinson Microwave Anistropy Probe, or WMAP, launched by NASA in 2001.

Earlier studies of WMAP data have determined that the universe is 13.7 billion years old, give or take a few hundred thousand years. WMAP also measured variations in the cosmic microwave background so huge that they stretch across the entire sky. Those earlier observations are strong indicators of inflation.

The new analysis looked at variations in the microwave background over smaller patches of sky, only billions of light-years across, instead of hundreds of billions.

Without inflation, the brightness variations over small patches of the sky would be the same as those observed over larger areas of the heavens. But the researchers found considerable differences in the brightness variations.

The physicists said small lumps in the microwave background began during inflation. Those lumps eventually coalesced into stars, galaxies and planets. The measurements are scheduled to be published in a future issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

Creationst Claims Part 1

Creationist Claims From EvoWiki.

Macroevolution has never been observed and no new species have been observed.

Depending on the definition, this may be true. Nevertheless, large-scale evolution is well-evidenced. Direct observation isn't the only way to confirm a theory in science. There have been observed instances of speciation. Of course, creationists will claim this is microevolution since they define the border between macroevolution and microevolution by the existence or non-existence.
· The honeysuckle maggot fly has recently been found to have directly arisen from a hybridization between the snowberry maggot fly and the blueberry maggot fly.
· In 1905, in his patch of Oenothera lamarckiana, Hugo de Vries discovered an unusual specimen, and found that he was unable crossbreed it with its parent-plants. He later named it O. gigas, and found that it had 2N=28, while its parent had 2N=14.

Created kinds are distinct and all kinds could fit on Noah's ark.

It is true that living things are naturally divided into kinds or species. The species designation is in fact the only natural classification are purely human constructions. Almost without exception, the most important naturalists and evolutionary biologists of all time have been taxonomists dedicated to the classification of kinds. Additionally, a large part of the work of evolutionary biologists is researching systems of classification that can reflect the evolutionary history of organisms or the field of systematics.

Evolutionary theory does allow for hybridization between closely related species, under those species concepts that allow for it. If the hybridization is frequent and prevalent, the component species are usually not designated good species. If the hybridization is infrequent, or only during special circumstances, while the separate species maintain their distinctive character, the speciation is considered true.

None of this invalidates the fact that a species can change through time, the process of anagenesis, or that sometimes they split into two, the process of cladogenesis, and that these two follow their own evolutionary paths.

Creationists' term of kind is rather vague, since it tends to be poorly defined.
What about diseases? They had to be carried as well, most won't survive in silty water. Which member of the crew volunteered to have their brain eaten, which is the only way to transmit Kuru? How about diseases that have a cycle less than 40 days?

Evolution requires as much faith as creationism.

Evolution has been directly observed in viruses, bacteria and smaller changes in animals and plants. It was observations of changes in beak shapes in the Galapagos islands that helped inspire Darwin's theory of evolution. We can use indirect evidence to make very strong predictions about occurrences in geology, astronomy and cultural anthropology, so we can in biology. There is a lot of this sort of evidence that supports the idea that evolution is the source of species.

Science as an Epistemology rests on certain philosophical assumptions about how the universe works. While its true that these assumptions might be false, it's hypocritical to only reject them in areas of science that creationists disagree with.


Evolution rests on scientific evidence. The only major assumption is that the scientific method is a good way to investigate the universe.
The only "faith" evolution requires is faith that any God which exists is not a deceitful trickster who goes around when you're not looking, stage-managing the Universe so that the physical evidence cannot be trusted.

Do you want to be descended from a monkey?

This is a wishful thinking fallacy. Creationist would not like it if asked if they wanted to be descended from dirt.

If man comes from random causes, life has no purpose or meaning.

This is an appeal to consequences, a straw man and a naturalistic fallacy

The goal of science is to explain the workings of the world. It makes statements about what happens and what causes those things to happen. Statements about what should happen and why those things should happen belong to the fields of philosophy and religion.

Science alone cannot provide a meaning to life. Criticizing a scientific theory for failing to provide ultimate meanings is missing the point of science. Evolution is not composed entirely of random causes. Even if evolution were composed entirely of random causes, how would that necessarily make life meaningless? Even if evolution were composed entirely of random causes, and even if this somehow did devalue human life and meaning, these negative consequences wouldn't disprove evolution.

Evolution is a religion.

The scientific theory of evolution does not say anything about values or meanings. Some people may add on such constructs to the theory, forming a separate philosophy that should not reflect on the theory itself.

It is true only if one accepts an overly-expansive definition of "religion", under which any number of unrelated things would count as "religions" as well.

The term religion is confused with what would be more agreeably called a ‘world view’. Any system of thought or perceptive will inherently be value laden and supported by various underlying assumptions of metaphysics. Thus while both modern science and Christianity are approaches to explain, interpret, and view existence, they differ in the supports and values on which they rest. While no perfect definition of religion, or science for that matter, is agreed upon, a clear demarcation of the underlying differences between the two generalized approaches can be seen in the questions that are asked. The questions of religion such as: Where do 'we' go when we die? What exists outside of existence? and, Who is God? are not so much unanswerable by science but more inapplicable as the religion’s underlying metaphysical conceptions inherent in such questions are not shared by the scientific perspective.

Science, as a way of viewing the world, may be a religion, but evolution in and of itself cannot be. While it maybe the case that evolution is *bad* science, such a claims would need to be submitted with evidence for peer review.

The Bible must be accurate because archaeology supports it.

Fallacies contained in this claim affirming the consequent and exclusion.
While some bits of the Bible have indeed been confirmed by modern archaeological research, some bits of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey have been confirmed by modern archaeological research. If the bits of the Bible which have been confirmed are reason to believe that all the Bible is accurate, the bits of the Iliad and Odyssey which have been confirmed are, by that same reasoning, reason to believe that all of the Iliad and Odyssey are accurate.

Bible is harmonious throughout.

Any "harmony" the Bible has is greatly enhanced after one comes up with rationalizations to account for what would otherwise be obvious contradictions. You can always come up for a justification for any discrepancy, the concept of the Bible being harmonious is almost circular. The official Bible was hand-picked by the Council of Nicea several centuries after the death of Jesus. When a group of established religious leaders is able to choose which books are a part of the Bible and which books are not, it is a simple matter to ensure that the theme and content are consistent throughout.

Records say civilization was man's original state.

Since we know humans existed before writing, I would be curious to see what exactly they recorded. Civilization is relative. Ancient Chinese, saw themselves as the sole civilization in the universe and all other races as either barbarians or subhumans.
Civilization does not prevent evolution from occurring, nor does evolution prevent civilization from existing, so this issue is entirely irrelevant to the theory.

Jesus refers to creation and flood as though they were literal.

This an appeal to authority fallacy.

Mark 10:6 is teaching about divorce. Jesus uses the Genesis creation story to illustrate his point in verse 9: "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." This point can still stand even if the reference verse 6 was allegorical. Just because Jesus refers to scripture, doesn't demonstrate that the scripture was intended to be taken literally.

This assumes that the texts of the New Testament accurately document Jesus' words. Not all people agree on this point; only those that do will find this claim convincing.

Genesis must be literal; it is straighforward narrative.

This suggests that the person has not actually read the Bible with all its poetry, metaphors or looked into the history of the various interpretations/redactions/translations. Even if the Bible were "straighforward narrative", this wouldn't tell us anything about its truth or otherwise.
The first and second chapters of Genesis actually give differing accounts as to the order that God made the various things. The Lord of the Rings is a straightforward narrative, but we all know it isn't historically true.

Haeckel's embryo drawings were proven wrong in 1874 and are still in biology books and human embryos don't have gill slits.

Frequent claim by the creationist movement as it proposes to cast into doubt the embryological evidence for evolution and common ancestry. However, it attributes a number of observations to Haeckel which he did not in fact make. Haeckel emphasized many embryological similarities in order to support his view of "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny". This idea proposes that our embryonic development "replays" our evolutionary history. He emphasized the fact that our embryos had a series of gill arches early in development because by Haeckel's time, this was already a well-established observation made by Baltic-German embryologists Karl Ernst von Baer, Heinrich Rathke, and Christian Pander. It was Rathke, not Haeckel, who described the "gills" of chicken embryos. Similarly, it was von Baer who noted that, in the early stages of development, it was often difficult to tell the embryos of different vertebrate classes apart. The observations and principles of the Baltic-German school are the earliest foundations of modern embryology and are hardly in dispute.

As noted by Gilbert, Haeckel's views had already been disposed of by von Baer in the 1830s. Von Baer's ideas of a nested hierarchy of embryological homology was more Darwinian and was in fact the greatest influence on Darwin's use of embryological evidence. Haeckel's views of embryology and evolution are fundamentally non-Darwinian. Moreover, they in no way form the basis of modern developmental biology or evolutionary developmental biology. The presence of "gills" in all vertebrate embryos has been known since Rathke and have never been in dispute by any biologist, nor is the concept of embryological homology. It is dishonest to attribute the discovery of gills in vertebrate embryos to Haeckel, in fact, it is as dishonest as Haeckel fudging his drawings.

Haeckel's drawings should be removed because they are fraudulent and do not represent a modern view of evolution and development. However, the points about embryological homology should be discussed in biology classes and texts as they help students understand the mechanisms of morphological evolution.

Gill slits are simply the invaginations between the pharyngeal pouches. The pouches contain mesodermal tissue, the gill arches or gill bars. The term is correct because the slits make contact between the outside and the pharynx. Let's not succumb to creationism paranoia. The gill arches themselves were not actually discovered by Haeckel, but some three decades before Darwin by a Baltic-German embryologist Heinrich Rathke in his two-volume treatise on human and animal development. The existence of these structures is not in dispute.

Most experts now agree that Lucy was only an unusual chimpanzee.

This is a misrepresentation fallacy.

Most experts in the field do not support that statement at all. Lucy remains a premier example of Australopithecus afarensis (Johanson 1999). A creationist making the claim needs to back up the statement with some references.

If it truly were the case that "most experts agree" that Lucy was only a Chimpanzee, Lucy's genus classification would have been changed from Australopithecus to the Genus Pan, which is that of Chimpanzees. A unanimous or near consensus opinion would force a change in Genus classification. Lucy still remains in the Australopithecus genus rather than Pan and, as such, is testimony that Kent Hovind's statement is but a falsehood.

Fairness demands evolution and creation be given equal time and teach the controversy.

Fallacies include false dilemma and appeal to pity and equivocation.

The statement is an appeal to false bisection. It is not the case that differing points of view must be included in teaching with equal weight, irrespective of their objective merits. Different hypotheses, theories and conclusions have objectively differing merit based on reasoning applied to the available evidence. Teaching of science must necessarily favor those hypotheses, theories or conclusions which have such greater merit, and discard hypotheses, theories or conclusions not supported by reasoning applied to the available evidence.

If this argument were valid, every other pseudoscience could also demand equal time with the scientific theories and hypotheses which are taught. The result would be that mainly questionable world views and pseudoscience would be taught in school instead of knowledge which is based on good science.

In fact, it would be remarkably unfair if in public schools time would be wasted for learning pseudoscience like creationism instead of preparing students by teaching good science for a world in which science is constantly becoming more important. In this case, this would be in particular unfair against students which could not afford expensive private schools where no time is wasted with pseudoscience, and which would then have even more advantages. Also, in the age of globalization and global job markets, students would have a disadvantage compared to students of other countries where proper science is taught.

It would be unfair to allow Creationism to bypass the scientific process and directly enter public science education when the theory of evolution has successfully gone through that process and continues to be supported by the world's experts.

Would Creationists like it if the Star Wars concept of midi-chlorins created life or that we were cloned by extra-terrestrials?

Scientifically, there is no controversy. Creationism is pseudoscience, and the theory of evolution has no scientific rival. It might well be a good idea for schools to teach students about the creation/evolution controversy. Since this controversy is basically political, it follows that the best classes in which to teach it would be those dealing with political science or social studies. There is clearly no reason to consider 'teaching the controversy' in biology classes, any more than any other political controversy ought to be presented in a biology class.
It should not be a goal of the education system to teach falsities along with truth. Teachers should not, for instance, teach that the holocaust happened, and then give "equal time" to holocaust deniers. If one wishes to teach critical thinking, taking all viewpoints to be equally valid is not the way to do it.

Darwin was racist, evolution is racist, Darwin's work refers to preservation of favoured races and Hitler based his views on Darwinism.

Fallacies contained in these claims include an abusive ad hominem, poisoning the well, appeal to consequences, naturalistic fallacy, theoretic fallacy, straw man, equivocation and guilt by association.

Regardless, what does this have to do with whether or not his theories are valid?

Darwin was remarkably egalitarian, in as much as he was a staunch opponent of slavery and had compassion for members of other races.

Since this Creationist argument is implicitly dependent on the proposition that the racism of a theory's proponents is a valid reason to reject a theory, it is worth noting that a number of prominent Creationists have been racist. The list includes Louis Agassiz, who denied that blacks and whites were even of the same species; George MacCready Price, who held that Negroes were a degenerate form of homo sapiens; and Henry Morris, who, in 1976, argued that the "genetic character" of "Hamites" is such that they are often "displaced by the intellectual and philosophical acumen of the Japhethites and the religious zeal of the Semites".
Darwin in The Descent of Man (chapter 7), after much consideration, concluded that all human races were probably the same species. He used the word "sub-species" for races, to designate that there were different varieties which did not differ significantly enough to be considered independent species. He thus undercut one of the major arguments for racism.

Racism is an ideology of value. It places different value on people of different race. While many racist ideologies may depend on some version of Darwinism, this does not mean that they are its logical consequence. Theories do not address fundamental values.

Some racists often misuse evolution as an explanation for the "superiority" they believe some races to have over others. Their belief, though, is usually held for reasons independent of this explanation. Evolution is completely devoid of racism; it is not even possible to be both a racist and an evolutionist. Since all races are currently surviving and reproducing, they are currently well-suited for survival on this planet.

"Race" to a 19th century naturalist simply meant differing populations. To be very specific, human races are not discussed at all in Darwin's first book on evolution, nor is human evolution. So any claim that Darwin was "racist" for the title of the book would suggest that he was "racist" concerning pigeons, or pigs, or mollusks, three of the more common examples given in the book.

Even if the connection between Darwin and Hitler were true, the consequences of a world view are irrelevant to its truth.
A particular person's misuse of a scientific theory does not invalidate the theory anymore than someone's misuse of scripture would invalidate religion.

Hitler abused science to justify his abuse of religion. In other words, his views were not based on Darwinism, but rather his distorted religious beliefs. Darwinism appeared to support his case, so he twisted it to fit his purposes.

Were you there?

This is a slothful induction fallacy and is equally effective against creationists.

Past events often leave evidence that can be found in the present. Techniques can be developed to extrapolate from findings. This is the basis of a great deal of science, industry, economics, and human interaction. This argument makes all human acts of logical deduction, intuition, extrapolation, and analysis meaningless. "Yes, I was." How do you know it's not true? Were you there?

College Teachers Strike

With the Ontario college teachers, librarians and counsellors on strike, there are no negotations planned between the colleges and the union.

In an ad on Wednesday, the colleges state that the teachers are the highest paid in the country and will have a 12% increase in pay with the deal. The teachers say that they want smaller classrooms and more time for prep like they had in the 80s. Maybe, they should take a pay cut so there would be more money for more teachers, more resources and more funding.

Noah’s Ark: Fact Or Fiction

People want to believe that Noah’s ark and the flood happened. However, two programs shown on TLC and produced by the Discovery Channel and BBC show that the Biblical account of the ark and the flood could not have happened.

The Mysteries Of Noah And The Flood

In June 1949, the CIA flew over Mt. Ararat during missions. They took photographs of the mountain and mentioned an interest of a rectangular anomaly. It was kept secret until 1995 when it was declassified.

There have been several claims of discovery of an ark in 275 BC by Berossus and by Marco Polo in 13th century. People are looking for the holy grail, the holy cross and they want something tangible to have. A German professor, Dr. Friedrich Parrot, claimed that monks from a monastery at the base of Mt. Ararat showed him wood, manuscripts and artifacts from the ark. In 1955, Fernand Navarra found a 5 foot cut ancient wood in a fault of the ice on the mountain. But, the wood was carbon dated to 4 or 5 century AD and was found 1000 feet below the anomaly. Astronaut James Irwin was so convinced that God showed him a rock on the moon that he went on expeditions to find the ark.

Upon getting five photographs, experts concluded that it was hard to tell what the anomaly is because the photos were of poor quality. A satellite took photos of Mt. Ararat in October 1999 and August and September 2000. Experts say it could be a shadow, rock or a man-made feature but third is option is highly unlikely, Only rocks or wood would be in the glacier. It is unlikely that something would be against the ridge and that it should be further down the mountain due to glacier movement.

In the 19th century, archaeologists found tablets in what is now Iraq describing a massive flood. In 1853, they discovered Babylonian tablets that were written around 1700 BC George Smith, assistant of the British Museum, translated the tablets that told the Epic of Gilgamesh. A Sumerian and Atrahasis versions were also discovered among the tablets and both were older than the Biblical account. Although they are flood stories in many cultures, rare in Africa, there are similarities among the four that are found in what was Mesopotamia. They have Noah figure, animals, boat resting a mountain and birds being sent out.

Sir Leonard Woolley dug near Ur and found a thick layer of sterile soil that could only be explained by water deposits. He and his wife theorized that Noah’s flood happened there. He informed the Times of London and sold boxes of sand and silt to finance future excavations. However, there are similar layers that can be found elsewhere to show a worldwide flood.

In 1997, scientists discovered that the Mediterranean Sea had risen 7500 years ago causing the breach of the strait to the Black Sea and flooded the area around the Black Sea to rise. It rose 6 inches per day and, to locals, would have seen it as an act of God. The fresh water turned salty and forced residents to leave the area going to Europe, Asia or Middle East and taking the story with them. Scientists found former beach and coastlines in the Black Sea that suggest a massive flood happened.

Scholars believe the stories may be the source of Noah and that the writers were making a theological point. They say that a flood that covered the world means it happened in only their world. To date, there are no conclusive proof that an ark exists on Mt. Ararat nor a worldwide flood.

Noah’s Ark: The True Story

Noah’s ark story was set in the Middle East. The ark is described as big as a super tanker and nearly as big as Titanic and made out of wood. But even 19th century boats could not have a wood frame without a steel one. According to ancient boat expert, Tom Vosmer, the ark would leak at its hull and sank. With 30 million species currently listed, it would have taken Noah 50 pairs per second or 30 years to load the ark. Scholars believe that Genesis refers to only animals in the area, 7 pairs of clean animals of 10 species (140), one pair of unclean of at least 30 species (60) and 7 pairs of clean birds. This is a total of 260 animals.

There is no evidence of a worldwide flood that should have left uniform marine sediments across the world. There would need to be five times the volume of water as rain to cover the Himalayas. Deep springs and geysers are ruled out because it would change the atmosphere making it hard to breathe. Comets could not be the source since the temperature would rise to 12000 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than the surface of the sun.

In the 1950s, a French expedition found a piece of wood 12,000 feet on Mt. Ararat in a glacier but it was dated to 8 century AD. The photos of the anomaly from the CIA were poor quality and satellite photos show retreating and advancing ice. This leads Plimer to conclude that the ark should be further down the mountain.

Bailey says that searchers say that there is a boat on Mt. Ararat, yet they cannot found photos and news articles to rationalize it.

According to Biblical scholars, Jewish priests, in 6 century BC, were exiled to Babylon where they found about the Babylonian story of flood. In 1851, Sir Henry Layard found tablets and sent them to the British Museum where George Smith translated them. The tablets were dated to 5000 years ago. Millard say that the Hebrew word for land, country and earth are the same. Woolley’s find of a massive layer shows that a flood happened which hit three towns.

It is concluded that the story happened in Sumeria starting at the city of Shuruppak. This is where writing, the wheel and accounting were invented. Noah was a Sumerian businessman who wore eye makeup, a kilt and had a shaved head. He had a boat or barge that would carry grain, beer and animals and may have been the king of the city. He used the Euphrates river to transport his goods and his boat may have been divided into sections as described in Gilgamesh. A flood could have happened when snow melted from the mountains in July and a freak storm such as a hurricane or tropical storm occurred at the same time. 6000 years ago, the area was warmer and wetter and the Babylonian story suggests a storm occurred. Also, the Babylonian story says the storm lasted seven days and that the river became salty as the barge was swept into the Persian Gulf. It says they looked up the sea and saw nothing for miles. The people and the animals on the boat would drink the beer for their thirst as it was sterile and had nutrients.

In the Babylonian story, the Noah figure was expelled after merchants searched for their payments. Under the law, anyone who did not pay their debts were forced into slavery. It is believed that the Sumerian Noah ended up going to Dilmun, what is now Bahrain, and may be buried in the Sumerian burial mounds.

Scholars believe that these stories were told generation to generation and Jewish priests read about them and added their own spin to it.

These two shows show that the literal interpretation of Noah and the ark is not plausible. There is no conclusive evidence of a boat on Mount Ararat. If we find nothing at the mountain’s anomaly, believers will say the ark is somewhere else on the mountain. There could have not been a worldwide flood but the story of the small boat and a local flood may be true. AiG’s attempt to build an ark to 30% scale may be well-intentioned to prove that Biblical story to be true, but, if they fail, they will cause people to lose their faith.

Interviewed for The Mysteries Of Noah And The Flood

Porcher L. Taylor, Ass. Prof. - University of Richmond
Dr. Michael Harrison, Ass. Prof. of Geography & Environment Studies - University of Richmond
Dr. Farouk El-Baz, Director Center for Remote Sensing - Boston University
Dr. Bruce Zuckerman, Ass Prof. School of Religion - University of Southern California
Dr. David Vanderhooft, Ass. Prof of Hebrew Scripture - Boston College
Dr. Peter Machinist, Prof. Of hebrew and Other Oriental Languages - Harvard Divinty School
Dr. Steve Tinney, Ass. Curator - Unversity of Pennsylvania Museum
Dr. Richard L. Zettler, Ass. Curator Unversity of Pennsylvania Museum

Interviewed for Noah’s Ark: The True Story

Tom Vosmer - Marine Archaeologist
Ian Plimer - Geologist
Lloyd Bailey - Biblical Scholar
Irving Finkel - British Museum
Alan Millard - Biblical Historian

Mexican Police Screw Up

The Mexican police have screwed up on the murder of two Canadians near Cancun. The police have accused two Canadian women from Thunder Bay for slashing the throats of Domenico and Annunziata Ianiero. Mexican authorities initially suggested the slayings were a professional job, but then backed down from that. They also quickly ruled out local involvement in the killings, even though other guests at the resort threw doubt on the thoroughness of the investigation in the hours and days after the bodies were found.

People were allowed to walk freely in the hotel during the investigation. The RCMP was called five days after the deaths and the bodies were exhumed before the Canadian coroner could examine throughly.

With the disappearance of Natalee Halloway last year in Aruba, Caribbean police authorities do not live up to North American standards and relations to other countries.

Questions That Creationists Cannot Answer

Who was Cain’s wife? This question was asked to William Jennings Bryan at the Scopes trial by Charles Darrow. Also, creationists do not know who was Seth’s wife. Creationist Kent Hovind claims that Cain’s and Seth’s wives were their sisters and that God allowed this kind of sexual relationship until Moses.

Did Adam live to 930 years old? How come humans cannot live that long?

What did Adam and Eve look like, what was their colour of their skin, did they have a vertical forehead, large brain and limb bones similar to us?

How old are the fossils that are found by scientists? Is the dating system accurate and if not, do creationists have a better system?

How could a large wooden boat float, would it not be prone to leaks without a steel frame?

How could Adam and Noah be giants and smarter than humans now? There is no evidence given by creationists to suggest that were giants and these humans must have been meat eaters to have big brains and be smarter, creationists believe they were vegetarians.

Abortion Ban In South Dakota

There is no doubt that there are anti-abortionists in the South Dakota lawmakers. The bill will not allow abortions even if the women was raped. Apparently, the lawmakers were bribed with an anonymous donation of $1 million to defend the bill.

Govenor Mike Rounds says he is pro-life but South Dakota has capital punishment, even there are only four inmates on death row and there has not been an execution since 1947.

Planned Parenthood should fight this tooth and nail and get South Dakotans to vote out legislators who approved the bill in the next election much like what happened when Dover, PA, tried put intelligent design in science classes.

Where Is Mount Sinai

I was watching a program called The Naked Archaeologist on Wednesday on Vision TV. They were trying to find the real Mount Sinai. They first went to Mount Katrina, the traditional place where it is believed that Moses received the Ten Commandments. They do not believe it is Mount Sinai because there is no plateau for the thousands of people to stay, there is no water source, it is too steep for Moses to climb and it is too far away from Israel. They believe that the Hebrews would have taken a central route because going to the north would lead into enemy territory and going south would be long and difficult.

They would told to look at Sin Bisher which is a three-day walk from Egypt. But the mountain is not a holy mountain because in the Bible it says that Mount Sinai was the mountain of God.

Mount Kharkom was suggested because there are many religious relics and drawings on it. However, they found it was too far away for the Hebrews to travel to in 50 days.

By using measurements to find where Mount Sinai might be, they narrowed the area down. They believe the final key is the grazing goats that the Hebrews had. The second part will air on March 1.

Elmira Downtown Changing

Elmira's downtown is changing. The Stedman's store, a small department store, that is closing will be turning into The Bargain Store. The owners decided to close because of big box stores in Kitchener-Waterloo. Recently, a burger restaurant closed and a diner continues to sit empty. With several dollar-type stores and the thrift shop opening in the downtown and a boarded-up hotel, Elmira's downtown is unattractive to people like me.

But the biggest problem might be that most stores are not open on Sundays, only the grocery and convenience stores are open. Stedman's was not open on Sundays nor is the hardware store and the drug store. With, at least one grocery store opening soon at the south end of town, more commercial development and the big box stores that are short drive away, the town's downtown will have improve its image as the town grows.

More About Me

I am 29 years old and single. I work at Tim Hortons (our Roll Up The Rim promotion starts Monday). My hobbies include my web site and my music video collection, I have over 1,400 music videos from Nancy Sinatra's These Boots Are Made For Walking to Madonna's Sorry. I have written letters to the editors for 12 years to my local newspapers. I have written on subjects such as a bike helmet law to abortion and homosexuality. I am currently writing on what is wrong with the Christian right. Some of what I have researched can found at my The Truth Hurts web site.

Intro

My name is Corey Schlueter. I live in Elmira, Ontario, Canada. I will start my blog later today. You can visit my web site for more about me.