evolutiongeek's blog

Things have been a little quiet around here lately... a little too quiet. The deluge of creationist objections to my posts seem to have abated for the moment, but I did notice a new blog here on ProgressiveU today about Intelligent Design. I attempted to comment, but for whatever reason it did not go through so I thought I would dissect it here, being this is a public forum after all. The post entitled "Intelligent Design is Leading Edge Science" by Homunculus is posted below, with my comments dispered throughout, but I would reccomend looking at the original article and give the poster some reads as well (it's only fair right?) Anyway, here we go again...

"It is hard to understand how individuals who fancy themselves progressives are so closed minded to seeing the truth about Darwinian evolution."  Read More »

There are plenty of arguments I hear from creationists that don't make sense or have nothing to back them up, but the Answers in Genesis treatment of St. George and the Dragon is one of the most ridiculous concoctions I've ever seen. You know it must be a stretch to begin with, borrowing from Medeival Catholic mythology, but AiG has gone even further so as to provide the informed reader with a good laugh at their shenanigans. Don't believe me? Just check out the cover from the Buddy Davis book When Dragons' Hearts were Good -> http://www.creationsensation.com/MuseumStore/images/dragons.jpg Can anyone recognize that "dragon"? Bueller? Bueller? Nobody? Well, it's the magnificent dinosaur known as Baryonx walkeri from the early Cretaceous of England and Spain. Over and over AiG has misappropriated this dinosaur's likeness to sell a big fish tale, and the results are unintentionally comic.  Read More »

I've spent quite a lot of time going over the intelligent design/creationism/evolution debate in my blog, but I have to admit I've mostly focused on why the "alternatives" to evolution are scientifically laughable rather than on the philosophical ramifications of the anti-evolution movement. In most debates I've seen, creationists (of one stripe or another) and evolutionary scientists throw data, figures, and examples back and forth at each other without addressing what I feel is a fundamental point in this entire debate; what happens when we come to the edge of our understanding, look into the void, and say "I don't know, so God must have done it"?  Read More »

It's amazing the stuff you can learn if you really take a good look at a subject. In fact, it's almost like the walks in the woods I would take in the summertime. The deciduous trees and sparse aggregations of wildflowers were easy to spot, but when I got down on my hands and knees and started peering under rocks, a whole new world came to light. Such is my continuing enfatuation with any number of subjects, especially in light of the ping-pong-esque debates I've had on here recently; the more rocks I turn over in the search for information, the more interesting stuff there is to learn. I'm probably losing memories from my childhood, cramming all this new stuff into my brain, but somehow I can't resist. So, the question of Cain's wife is one that has continuously bothered me. Where did Cain (of Biblical infamy) get his wife from? Where there other people around or did he (shudder) marry his sister?  Read More »

Skimming over the internet this morning for something to write about other than evolutionary refutations of creationist claims (I've been barraged lately, my replies sucking up 1 to 2 hours a day since Wednesday), I came across this little nugget of information. According to an article on thinkprogress.org, Laurie David (a global warming activist) attempted to donate 50,000 free copies of Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth to the National Science Teachers Association for use in classrooms. During my primary and seconday school education, I don't remember much time being spent on ecology at all, but the film would be an excellent way to introduce students to the pending ecological crisis and at least spark some debate, if nothing else. In any case, the NSTA turned down the gift, and Laurie David describes their reply as follows:  Read More »

I wish I was able to post more over the past week or so, especially since a lot has been going on that I'd like to comment about. Even so, there have been a few creationists that have challenged what I've had to say through this blog and most of my attention since Wednesday has been to respond to their assertions and ideas. As if that were not enough, today a few copies of Creation Research Society Quarterly landed on my doorstep, inundating me with criticisms and assertions, both constructive and unkind, and of course I felt obligated to hear them all and respond in kind. It's a lot of work, and now I'm starting to realize why people like Gould decided not to respond directly or debate- it just takes too much damned time. In any event, now that I can breathe a bit, I thought I would share something I've been thinking about lately. As children, we all become familiar with dinosaurs in one respect or another, especially Tyrannosaurus rex. Even though there have been other predatory dinosaurs that rival or exceed T. rex in size, it's still the most popular. When I was growing up, during my early visits to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, I was greeted by the same T. rex that had inspired many paleontologists before me and represented our image of the great beast as it was at the turn of the 20th centry when it was discovered. It walked upright with its tail dragging on the ground, looking like some sort of demonic kangaroo. Fortunately, this posture has been corrected and the posture seen in films like Jurassic Park is much more accurate, but it almost seems as if we've gone the other way with speculation about dinosaurs. The wonderful animals are not longer confined to swams, coming only in shades of green or brown with tails dragging in the mud. No, they're vibrant and active (possibly even warm-blooded) and predators like T. rex ruthlessly hunt down any prey they can get their mouth around. Perhaps we've gone too far. Personally, I think Tyrannosaurus was primarily a scavenger, but still hunted by ambush when possible, almost like an analog to crocodiles today (whose main method of prey capture is biting with the mouth, which was also T. rex's primary tool). In any case, it's difficult to dislodge ideas people are enamored with, and sometimes I feel that even though people have an improved image of this great monster, it's still almost as speculative and baseless as the gargantuans that were exhibited around 1900.  Read More »

I don't know about other users, but so far I think I get the award for most amount of new users that sign up just to disagree with me. The total is now 3 (possibly 4) in the past 2 weeks, apparently because some of my posts are coming up on google searches, google news wires, and I even got a link on infidels.org at one point. In any case, most times I welcome the dissent as it's challenges my position and forces me to refine my arguments, but the one below is really unnecessary, especially the last part. I've mentioned a few times through my posts that I am a Christian and I don't believe the science of evolution and faith to be mutually exclusive, but apparently this poster believes that since I'm not rooting for the creationists or read the Bible a certain way, somehow I have forsaken God. How they know so much about my personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I don't know, but apparently they believe they've got it down. In any case, here is their post and my reply->  Read More »

First of all, thank you for replying to my post Mr. Bennett. Am I correct in assuming that you are the same Anthony Bennett that is the current acting secretary of the Popular Alliance Party in the UK, as well as being the author of "Creation and Evolution, Your Questions Answered"? If so, I appreciate the time you took to reply to my post, and I am humbled that someone outside of the normal ProgressiveU audience like yourself felt strongly enough to question my assertions. I do, however, vehemently disagree with your conclusions and will dissect your reply to my post in detail here, being both our statements on the topic were made in this public forum. Let's get to the breakdown, shall we?

"I'll be very brief.  Read More »