evolution – The Aristophrenium

Friday

1

February 2013

1

COMMENTS

Putting the conflict in perspective

Written by David Smart, Posted in Apologetics, Creation/Evolution

The following is excerpted from Origins: Christian Perspectives On Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design, 2nd ed. (Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2011): Debate the Weather? To illustrate why the debate about origins isn’t simply a matter of science versus religion, imagine living in a culture where there is a similar debate about the weather. The Bible clearly teaches that God governs the weather. Many Bible passages proclaim that God causes rain and drought (see Deut. 11:14-17; 1 Kings 8:35-36; Job 5:10; 37:6; Jer. 14:22). Writers of Deuteronomy, the Psalms, and Jeremiah refer specifically to storehouses of rain and snow (see Deut. 28:12, 24; Ps. 135:7; Jer. 10:13). What causes the rain? Most of us were taught that water evaporates from the ground level, rises to where the air is cooler, and condenses into water droplets that form clouds. We learned how cold fronts and warm fronts and low pressure systems bring [...]

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Monday

19

March 2012

3

COMMENTS

An Unbelievable Podcast!

Written by Duane, Posted in Apologetics, Religion, Science, Society & Culture

I have posted previously on The Ultimate Apologetics MP3 Audio Page by Apologetics.com and frankly, nothing can top that as a general resource for all things both audible and apologetic. But when we zoom in and have a closer look at some of those resources in more detail, we find little gems like Premier Christian Radio’s Unbelievable? podcast. [no, the question mark is not a typo] Relatively unique in its style among many of the podcasts I have heard, host Justin Brierly (pictured), expertly moderates, what can be at times, a dramatic discussion, on a vast range range of hot topics concerning theists and atheists alike. I knew I had discovered something special having listened to only one show; a lively discussion on Intelligent Design and Evolution. I was to learn later that the program won a Gold Medal at the New York Festival Awards. Justin Brierley, produced and presented [...]

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Tuesday

11

October 2011

1

COMMENTS

A Rat is a Pig is a Dolphin is a Conservationist

Written by Duane, Posted in Anthropology, Creation/Evolution, Ethics, Science

Is it consistent, on the one hand, to hold to an evolutionary world view, and yet claim, on the other hand, that humans who are causing the extinction of other creatures are improperly interfering with the evolutionary process (e.g. natural selection, survival of the fittest) that’s been shaping the development of those creatures? That was the question bumping around in my mind on Sunday evening after listening to an interview with Conservationist, Dr. Samuel Turvey (pictured), concerning the extinction of the Baiji – also known as the Yangtze River Dolphin. During my Sunday afternoon drive home a couple of days ago, I found myself inadvertently listening to a program called Earth Beat – a product of Radio Netherlands Worldwide – courtesy of ABC News Radio, Australia. During the program we learned that Dr. Turvey has spent quite a bit of time working to locate and preserve any remaining members of [...]

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Tuesday

15

March 2011

0

COMMENTS

Dead Theory Walking

Written by Duane, Posted in Creation/Evolution

Have you ever seen the movie Weekend at Bernie’s, where the corpse of the recently murdered Bernie Lomax is paraded around town by two of his employees who are desperate to convince everyone that he’s alive? Similarly, despite being presented as the best (the only) explanation for just about anything – from homology to morality; from origins to oration; from lifeless mindless chemicals to living thinking reasoning beings – some have likened evolution to a corpse being paraded around as if alive. For example, there is an apparent pattern of reporting in the secularised mainstream media (MSM) that builds up this facade by trumpeting the latest evolutionary interpretation, while remaining silent as it falls from grace (e.g. see the development on Tiktaalik below). Each new story then, has a cumulative affect, giving the impression that Neo-Darwinian evolution is being constantly validated. In quite dissimilar fashion, every December, the Access Research [...]

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Wednesday

12

January 2011

7

COMMENTS

Sticky Feet

Written by Adam, Posted in Creation/Evolution, Creationism

The other night I was watching a show on tv called Richard Hammonds Invisible Worlds (BBC). One of the topics he covered was gecko feet which was quite facinating. The following article goes into some detail of this amazing creature and his feet. Great Gecko Glue The best explanation seems to be that the geckos’ feet can exploit the weak short-range bonds between molecules. That is, they stick via van der Waals forces. But for such weak forces to work, there must be an enormous intimate contact area between foot and surface, so that enough individual weak forces can add up to a very strong force. Under an electron microscope, researchers have found that the feet have very fine hairs (setae), about 1/10th of a millimetre long and packed 5,000 per square mm (three million per square inch). In turn, the end of each seta has about 400–1,000 branches ending [...]

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Friday

30

July 2010

30

COMMENTS

Creationists are more critical and honest

Written by David Smart, Posted in Apologetics, Creation/Evolution

My friend and very esteemed colleague Duane Proud two days ago wrote an article in which he asked evolutionists to provide examples of bad evolutionary arguments they have seen used in debates and discussions on origins. And he provided a list of twelve examples to help get the ball rolling, asking whether evolutionists would concede that any of the arguments listed are bad—and if so, which ones—or provide other examples of evolutionary arguments they have seen used which are bad. “In other words,” he said, “I’d like evolutionists to be self-critical and provide a list of arguments they would endorse as ‘arguments evolutionists should not use’.” Duane wanted to see if there were any among our evolutionist readers “who are capable of reflecting on the merits and shortcomings of an argument,” which could be demonstrated by their providing “any arguments for evolution they think are lacking and why.” Not a [...]

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Friday

11

June 2010

13

COMMENTS

Good evolutionary science

Written by David Smart, Posted in Creation/Evolution, Science

In a recent article from Science Daily [1] we find a compelling bit of science. Evidently the thinking is that humans became the ‘hairless ape’ we are because we evolved in a really hot region in East Africa. You see, the need to “stay cool in that cradle of human evolution may relate, at least in part, to why pre-humans learned to walk upright, lost the fur that covered the bodies of their predecessors and became able to sweat more,” Johns Hopkins University earth scientist Benjamin Passey said. [2] These constituted an “evolutionary advantage” these pre-humans gained. What I find curious, however, is in what intelligible sense this granted an evolutionary advantage when other fauna in that region or similar climates supposedly evolved just fine, walking around on all fours and covered in hair, etc. (picture animals like buffalo, wolf, baboon and such). Surely the Panthera genus had even more [...]

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Sunday

28

March 2010

4

COMMENTS

Synthetic Evolution: The Art of Equivocation

Written by Duane, Posted in Creation/Evolution

According to a recent CreationSafaris[1] post: Some Cambridge scientists engineered a four-character genetic code and made some proteins with it. They guided the process at every step, but claim that they “evolved” this code. Is that a fair use of language? This strange admixture of concepts is found in today’s issue [18 March 2010] of Nature. The confusion began right in the title: “Encoding multiple unnatural amino acids via evolution of a quadruplet-decoding ribosome.” [emphasis in original] http://creationsafaris.com/crev201003.htm#20100318a After summarising the work as reported in the scientific journal Nature, they rightly observe the equivocation: …everything was intelligently designed, both the natural and unnatural codes and functions. This paper was one of the best examples in recent memory of Truman’s Law: “If you can’t convince them, confuse them.” Using evolve as a synonym for design is a clever way to blow smoke using equivocation. Words mean things. This has nothing to [...]

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Monday

1

February 2010

1

COMMENTS

Evolution isn’t…

Written by Duane, Posted in Creation/Evolution, Molecular Biology

[Last Updated: 22 February 2010] Dr. Terry Mortenson provides a great example of what evolution isn’t in his review of a 33-page 2004 National Geographic cover story which asked, “Was Darwin wrong?” It’s examples exactly like this that are typically paraded as evolution in action, when really it is nothing of the sort. The bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, is troublesome to humans, but doctors can destroy it with an antibiotic. After the patient takes the antibiotic, it is absorbed through the cell wall of the bacterium. It has the genetic information to make an enzyme which reacts with the antibiotic converting it into a poison, killing the bacterium. But due to a mutation, some H. pylori cannot make the enzyme and so cannot convert the antibiotic and so do not die but reproduce, giving the patient and doctor a new problem. The mutant survived through a loss of information, which is [...]

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The Aristophrenium

evolution Archive

1

1

Putting the conflict in perspective

19

3

An Unbelievable Podcast!

11

1

A Rat is a Pig is a Dolphin is a Conservationist

15

0

Dead Theory Walking

12

7

Sticky Feet

30

30

Creationists are more critical and honest

11

13

Good evolutionary science

28

4

Synthetic Evolution: The Art of Equivocation

1

1

Evolution isn’t…

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