Neanderthals Smarter Than Sarah Palin?

Again, come on! How could I ignore a headline like this?

[Excerpt]

Neanderthals were smarter than Sarah Palin, researchers say. Sort of.

No offense, but your ancestors probably were no brighter than a Neanderthal. That’s the message a pair of researchers delivered on Wednesday after analyzing archaeological evidence detailing the capabilities of Neanderthals, our closest extinct human relative, compared to the early modern humans who first crossed their path about 40,000 years ago. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

Science is Cool: Darwin Fish, for Real

This fish, a transitionary form between an ordinary fish and a land animal, was actually discovered several years ago, and is in the news because of new book. But I missed it, and so it's new to me! And it's cool. Ugly, but cool. A fish with a neck? And armlike fins? It also shows a minor advantage to climate change: the Arctic was melted enough for them to find the thing.

Image from source, Mother Jones

[Excerpt]

This Fish Crawled Out of the Water…and Into Creationists' Nightmares

We all know the Darwin fish, the car-bumper send-up of the Christian "ichthys" symbol, or Jesus fish. Unlike the Christian symbol, the Darwin fish has, you know, legs. Har har. But the Darwin fish isn't merely a clever joke; in effect, it contains a testable scientific prediction. If evolution is true, and if life on Earth originated in water, then there must have once been fish species possessing primitive limbs, which enabled them to spend some part of their lives on land. And these species, in turn, must be the ancestors of four-limbed, land-living vertebrates like us. . .

Read more at: Mother Jones

Bill Nye the Science Guy Debates Creation Museum Guy

It can't have been a contest. I haven't had time to watch it yet, but it just had to be a lopsided "debate." I mean, the topic is science, and there is no science in Creationism. So, if you've got the chance to take a look at this, see what you think. Once I've seen it, I'll try to give it a proper review. In the meantime, I'll simply congratulate Bill Nye on his inevitable win over Ken Ham, who thinks the universe is 6,000 years old.
 

Messin' With Texas: Idiot Texan Argues for Creationism in Science Books

You're a genius. Image from Raw Story.

It's hard out here for a non-believer. Especially if you're the argumentative type like me, who just can't seem to avoid commenting in Facebook, Twitter or message boards. Because I'm a gay atheist (gaytheist!) and a liberal, I very often find myself arguing with religious types about all sorts of things. And the biggest problems stem from the religious person's insistence that their faith is on par with facts. No, worse than that: if facts seem to dispute their faith, it is faith that wins the argument, from their perspective!

Here's a fact: creationism isn't science. It isn't anything like science. So, ipso facto, it doesn't belong in science books. Period. What the hell is the matter with Texas and religious nutjobs? Is that redundant?

[Excerpt]

Former Texas Board of Education chair argues for ‘final blow’ to evolution studies

The former chair of the Texas State Board of Education appeared at a board meeting this week to argue in favor of a new science textbooks he hoped would strike “the final blow” to studying evolution. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

Crazy Creationists: Dinosaurs Fled the Flood!

Last night I posted a piece about Mitt Romney' literal belief in his wacky religion. And, I noted that as an atheist, I find 'em all wacky, so I'm not so much singling Mormonism out, as I am saying it's just extra special goofy. But Mitt's not alone in his belief in unbelievable things.

Somehow, I got on the Creation Ministries International mailing list. And these folks are literal believers in the book of Genesis. Just FYI, that's the book that set me on the road to atheism, because it was taught to me at the same time as freshman Earth science. Guess which book won? Anyway, Genesis is chock full of ridiculous things that only the deeply deluded could believe are literal. From the "firmament" to the items set into it, from the cleanliness rules to the list of sacrificial requirements, from the conflicting dual creation stories to there being light before there was a light source? All of it is frankly unbelievable.


























But nothing is more ridiculous than the flood story. Forget that there are (again) two conflicting Noah's Ark stories, and different numbers of animals in each. There are problems with the size of the boat. There are problems with the technology of building such a boat. There's the problem of how every kind of animal got to the middle east, and then re-dispersed themselves back to from whence they came. There are the uncomfortable facts about feeding and housing these animals for such an extended period, and what they would do about the waste. How did they keep the animals from eating each other, or the humans? How did they transport the bacteria, viruses, insects, arachnids and amoeba? How did the sealife and freshwater animals survive in the stirred up, seawater/rainwater/sediment-filled water? How did plantlife and fungi survive submerged for 100 days? And we're not even talking about where the water came from, and where it went! Why would an "all-loving" god murder his "children," no matter how disobedient they were?

Creation Museum folly. Image from Bay-of-Fundie.com

On top of this is the question of dinosaurs. Why doesn't the Bible mention dinosaurs? Well, some try to parlay allusions of "dragons" and whatnot into dinosaurs, but it's a stretch. It actually makes the bible sound more like a bunch of fables to me. So, the question is, if man coexisted with dinosaurs, why do they get such scant coverage in the Bible? Why weren't they on the Ark? Did Noah take dinosaur eggs, rather than full-grown T-Rexes and Stegosauri? Why isn't it mentioned?

Obviously, it isn't mentioned, because the writer(s) of Genesis never heard of dinosaurs, and thus couldn't write about them. They didn't realize that the sun is the source of our light, so they could say it was created after light. They didn't know how clouds, the atmosphere, the orbits of the moon and planets, or stars in the universe worked, so they made crap up about the celestial bodies being placed in a bowl that separated the waters of heaven and earth. There are so many, countless, obvious problems with Genesis, an irreligious person like me just stands with my mouth agape. How can any adult take these fairy tales seriously?

And then I get my latest installment of further attempts at devising a narative that makes sense out of a book that really doesn't.  You know what I liken groups like Christian Ministries International to? I liken them to Rankin-Bass. You know, the studio that made such holiday classics as, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Year Without a Santa Claus. In those holiday specials, they took all of the implausibilities in the Santa Claus story, and explained them in such a way as to keep kids believing it just a little while longer. And as kids, we wanted to believe. That's all this foolishness is.

If you are interested (and I hope it's only for amusement value), you can find this group here: Christian Ministries International.

What's Wrong With Tennessee? Creationism In Schools Allowed

Pssst. . .creationists: Darwin didn't claim to know the origin of
the universe! Image from source.

Insanity. I don't care how fervently you believe that God created the universe, the idea doesn't belong in science class. As hard as they've tried to separate "creationism" from "intelligent design," there is no difference, other than taking the "Christianity" brand off of it. It's still taking the idea of an all-powerful magical being, and inserting it into science class. There isn't a scintilla of science in that. Not to mention that evolution makes no claim to the origins of the universe.

I know that I'll never convince a true believer that there is no God. But there is no denying that positing a "creator" into evolution or the big bang just makes the whole thing more complicated, not less. If you disbelieve the idea of the universe having always existed in one form or another, how is it so easy to believe that an omnipotent, invisible, intangible, omnipresent, omniscient, all-loving, vengeful, jealous God has always existed? You've just inserted a doozy of a claim into the story! And we won't even get into how this mega-creature, creator of the vastness of all that is, cares what we individual humans on this little speck called Earth, do with our private parts.

[Excerpt]

TN science bill protects teachers who allow debate over evolution

Senators voted 24-8 to pass a bill that says schoolteachers cannot be punished for "helping students to understand, analyze, critique and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories" taught in public schools. . .


Read more at: WBIR.com

Another Creationist Bill in Missouri

C'mon, are they serious? When I was growing up (and I'm aware that was a while ago), there were certain things that were understood to be true. Like, child labor was bad. Unregulated, laissez faire  capitalism was bad. Combining church and state was bad. These weren't radical things, they were simply "social studies." And in science, we learned about evolution. Nobody made a big deal about it. Religious people manage to square it on Sunday with their Bibles. I, on the other hand, gravitated into the "non-believer" category.

But evolution wasn't denied by people openly, or at least not that I remember. Inherit the Wind, which chronicled the Scopes "Monkey" Trial was seen as a lesson from a less enlightened time. It was shown to us in school! Somewhere along the way, all of these "accepted" things have been seemingly coming undone. Newt Gingrich advocates forced child labor, at least for poor kids. Unregulated capitalism is championed by every single Republican candidate for president. And they're all in favor of combining church and state, going so far as to say they were never supposed to be separate in the first place! Evolution though, has been under attack going back a little longer.

As a heathen myself, I find the creationist and "intelligent design" stories to be greatly lacking as any kind of "theories." They are certainly not science. And they don't even answer the question! If a religionist is going to say that the universe is too complicated to have "just happened," how do they figure that inserting an all-powerful super-being into the story simplifies things? They've just inserted hugely complicated new step.

[Excerpt]


Missouri GOP Introduces Second Creationism Bill In State Legislature


As if one creationism bill wasn’t enough already, Missouri Republicans have introduced a second one in an attempt to force Christianity on schools one way or another. . . 

Read more at: Addicting Info

Captain Obvious: Republicans are in Denial

The headline of this piece is perhaps not as clear as I'd like it to be. Especially since I've put it under the heading of Captain Obvious. But what I'm getting at, is that Republicans are denialists. Or perhaps, they are deep into the weeds of conspiracy theories. Why do I say this? Because they deny all manner of experts, or they claim that those experts are being controlled by liberals/socialists/Marxists/Maoists/communists/statists (there, I said it!). Here is a list of experts that many conservatives discount or are deeply suspicious of:

- Climate Scientists: Hoaxers or are in cahoots with Democratic politicians. Invented phony Global Warming/Climate Change. Falsely believe that 100+ years of spewing waste into the environment could possibly have any effect on it.

- Psychologists/Psychiatrists: Falsely claim that gay people are born that way. Wrongly purport that "praying away the gay" is harmful.

- Economists: Lie when they say that government should be spending during a recession. Lie again when they say cutting government spending will hurt the economy. Only if they are supply side/trickle down economists are they to be believed.

- Archaeologists/Anthropologists/Geologists/Biologists: Falsely tout the "theory" of evolution. Falsely date the earth at (far) more than 6,000 years old.

That was just a short list, hitting the bullet points. The breakdown is basically that no matter what experts say, or how many of them say it, if their findings go against Republican policy goals, the experts are wrong. Period.

In short, Republican/conservative ideology has morphed from a political philosophy into a religion. It's a new New Testament, welded onto the (usually) evangelical Christian religion. And like all religions, it is immune to empirical facts, immune to reason, immune to argument. So:

- Global warming is a hoax, or at least is just cyclical, and not man-made.
- Gay people choose to be that way, and deserve no rights or legal recognition.
- Cutting taxes, especially for the rich, and cutting regulations will spur growth and create jobs. Even though it hasn't for the last ten years that we've tried it.
- The earth, man and all life was created, not evolved. It's all too complex to have "just happened," or have always existed. However, this does not contradict the fact that God--who is infinitely more complex than the universe--has always existed, and didn't require a creator.


And that's just a short list off the top of my head. Obviously.

Science is Cool: 20-Million-Year-Old Ape Skull Discovered

In Uganda, on July 18th, French & Ugandan scientists discovered a 20-million-year-old ape skull.

To put the age of the ape skull in context; humans (homo-sapiens) evolved into our current form roughly 100,000 years ago. Which took over 2.5 million years to accomplish from a 5-7 million year old chimpanzee blueprint. A proverbial snap of Ma Nature's fingers.

Mother Nature has always fascinated me. Her beauty is unquestionable; her ferocity is unmatched. Whether it is the ocean, the land, the weather, the moon or the countless stars... She is an awe inspiring sight.

It is impossible to imagine the trillions upon trillions of cleverly evolved living things that she has given birth to. From microscopic amoeba to monstrous reptiles. From the tiniest particle to the tallest tree.

Our tiny little speck of a planet alone is over four billion years old. Embedded with a rich history of numerable creations striving, surviving, developing & dying. And to think Mother Nature has been doing this much longer than our stupid monkey brains can comprehend... on a universal scale.

Discoveries like these serve to remind me that all of "it" is so much bigger, older & more complex than we are. And that there is so much more for us to discover about nature & ultimately ourselves.

I will always be a great admirer of the infinite creativity Mother Nature possess & nurtures. Respectful of the fearless cataclysmic force she wields. And hopeful she will finally create a NON-self-destructing monkey on this planet.

We're all lucky to be part of Mother Nature's plans... good or bad. We're lucky to be alive... for now.


For more awe inspiring work from Mother Nature check out the latest news on Mars.

The British Have it Right: Creationism is NOT Science

Image from source, Telegraph UK

Creationism--sometimes euphemistically (and ironically)  called "intelligent design"--has long been one of those heated topics that interests me. From the waning days of the Prodigy online service, I've gotten into arguments with supporters of teaching creationism in science classrooms (and of course all the other religion vs. science arguments). Whatever you think about the topic, there is a central, inarguable truth: creationism isn't  science. It's theology.

As such, I'd have no problem with the subject being taught in a comparative religion class, or a "Bible Lit." class, or a philosophy class. But it can't be presented as the literal truth, and it can't be presented as science. At least in England, they understand this. Our country, on the other hand, is more likely to let public opinion have a say over facts.

[Excerpt]

Creationism 'banned from free schools'

Creationism, intelligent design and other theories that contradict evolution are to be banned from being taught as science in free schools. . .

Read more at: The Telegraph UK

Science is Cool: How Men Lost Their Penis Spines

Hey, everybody! I didn't get anything up on the blog on Friday, because I was quite simply spending time with The Other Half. Thanks to my good friend Stupid Monkey Planet for sending me some links so that I could at least get something fresh up. And leave it to the Monkey to find something kind of bawdy about science, and monkeys! I think that straight women and gay men can all breathe a healthy whew! when they find out that men came thisclose to having spiny penises!

Image from BoingBoing

[Excerpt]

How Men Lost Their Penis Spines

Time to give thanks for your genome: A new study finds that at some point in our evolutionary history, humans lost a stretch of DNA that would have otherwise promoted the growth of spines on the penis. . .

Read more at: Live Science

Bill O'Reilly: That Man is an Idiot

Bill O'Reilly recently made a fool of himself. This is not particularly unusual. But this time he's making himself more a fool than he was originally by digging deeper. Previously, he claimed he could prove the existence of God by the regularity of the tides. Nothing else could prove tides. When people pointed out the gravity pull of the moon, Bill-O came up with this video response:



To which I say: Bill! Venus and Mars do have the sun! The same sun as us! Venus doesn't have a moon, but Mars has two! More than the strangeness of his questions is the strangeness of his speech while doing so, where he sounds like Rain Man.

The argument between atheism/agnosticism and religion will be waged for a long, long time. But O'Reilly will not win it with his smug--but oddly childlike--reasoning.  But he's right in one respect: it takes more effort to be a non-believer. You have to think, reason, study and deliberate. That is harder than just accepting a religion on faith alone. "They said it, it must be true. End of discussion." is very easy.

It Isn't Just Conservatives Who Don't Believe in Evolution

There are certain things that are either known to be real, or so nearly so that dismissing them, disbelief in them, or disagreement with them seems ridiculous. I think this whenever I hear someone say they "disagree" with homosexuality. Gay people exist whether you "agree" with them or not. Ridiculous. It is much the same with evolution. Evolution--if Darwin hadn't spelled it out--would likely have been "discovered" by someone else shortly after. It's logical. It makes a ton of sense. And lots of other science hinges upon it.

On Friday Night's Real Time with Bill Maher, Georgia Republican Jack Kingston (who is good looking, but kind of douchey, creating conflict for me) flatly stated that he doesn't believe in evolution. That didn't surprise me. D.L. Hughley, the liberal actor/comedian stated the same. That surprised me. Basically, it looks to me like it is a strong belief in religion--something with far less evidence than evolution--that creates this disbelief. It's curious. They can accept the whoppers in the bible, but can't swallow The Origin of Species.

[Excerpt]


Jack Kingston wants to see man-fish-newt





On Real Time with Bill Maher, Representative Jack Kingston (R-GA) apparently wants to see some kind of manfishnewt before he will accept evolution (For Southpark fans, that would be half-man, half-fish, and half-newt). Which, if ever found, would utterly destroy our understanding of human evolution along with a giant chunk of vertebrate biology. . .


Read more at: DailyKOS

And if you want a site that refutes Kinston's and Hughley's opinion, check this out for some quick debunking: Top 10 Myths About Evolution

Evolution Taking Hold Over Creationism?

Image from source, Raw Story

It's easy to get down about America, to think that overt religiosity, superstition, ignorance and outright stupidity is taking hold. But every once in a while, I'm heartened by a story like the one excerpted below. I'm not arrogant enough to say that I'm 100% right about my (nearly atheistic) agnosticism. As an agnostic, I don't have to claim that I know 100%, it's kind of the point. But it is easy to say that Genesis cannot be taken literally, or squared with what we know about science.

[Excerpt]

Poll: More Americans believe humans evolved without God



More Americans today believe that human beings developed without any involvement of a higher power, according to a new poll.


Gallup reported that since 1982, the number of Americans believing that humans evolved over millions of years increased by seven percentage points. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

Glenn Beck: "I Haven't Seen A Half-Monkey, Half-Person Yet"

Image from source, Huffington Post

Question: do high-profile conservatives actually not understand the fundamentals of evolution, or are they pandering to those who do not?  Because if Glenn Beck believes this statement to be some sort of profound argument against Darwin, he's a bigger moron than I thought he was.

[Excerpt]

Glenn Beck: 'I Haven't Seen A Half-Monkey, Half-Person Yet' (AUDIO)



If it's Wednesday in America, then someone, somewhere, is probably saying something astonishingly crazy about evolution. Today, it's Glenn Beck, who is probably happy to have the attention of the blogs! Per Media Matters, Glenn was asking the tough questions today, such as "How many people believe in evolution in this country?". . .
 
Read more at: Huffington Post

Christine O'Donnell's Views on Evolution

From Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher.

Science is Cool: "Missing Link" Found?

Image from source, Telegraph

I really wanted to use a photo of Glenn Beck for this story. . .

[Excerpt]

Missing link between man and apes found

The new species of hominid, the evolutionary branch of primates that includes humans, is to be revealed when the two-million-year-old skeleton of a child is unveiled this week.

Scientists believe the almost-complete fossilised skeleton belonged to a previously-unknown type of early human ancestor that may have been a intermediate stage as ape-men evolved into the first species of advanced humans, Homo habilis. . .

Read more at: Telegraph

Stuck on Stupid: Texans Believe The Flintstones a Documentary

Image from source, The Texas Tribune

OK, that's an oversimplification. But not by much. Thanks to Stupid Monkey Planet for the link.

[Excerpt]

Meet the Flintstones

Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

The differences in beliefs about evolution and the length of time that living things have existed on earth are reflected in the political and religious preference of our respondents, who were asked four questions about biological history and God. . .

Read more at: The Texas Tribune

Genesis Explained Scientifically, At Last

A lot of people ask me, when I tell them that I'm agnostic, what led me down the road to that non-specific belief system. Or words to that effect. And the one thing I can point to is that I was taking Sunday School lessons to be "confirmed" in the Lutheran Church at precisely the same time that I was taking Freshman Earth Science. As it happens, my textbook made a whole lot more sense than Genesis. Presto, change-o, agnostic. Well, it wasn't that fast, but you get the idea.

Now, I'm not out to change anybody's religion. And by the way, it would be very nice if the religious folks would afford me the same respect, and stop knocking on my door. Oh, and trying to take my rights away based on their specific religious beliefs. But, I digress. . .

Here is a great video that makes the attempt to squeeze actual science into the Genesis story of creation, without being too snarky about it. Enjoy.

Bill Maher's New Rules, May 1, 2009

From last night's Real Time with Bill Maher, this list is a little breezier than is typical. But--as usual--I really liked the last one. This time, he talks about the hypocrisy of evolution deniers who accept science when they need it. Check it out.