evolutiongeek's blog

Sorry for the explicit title, but it's really 100% true. As straight laced as many Christians may be about sex, the Bible really can be a sexually frank book. Don't believe me? Read the Song of Solomon (or Song of Songs) and do some research into the metaphors... steamy stuff indeed. So what about the big animal parts then? Well, during my exchanges with various creationists, they've been very adament that dinosaurs are mentioned in the Bible, the Behemoth mentioned in Job being a prime example. Scholars traditionally believe that Behemoth was an elephant, hippo, or rhino, but many creationists say no way- Behemoth is a dinosaur, with the verse "He moves his tail like a cedar" being the one they rest their case on. Little do they know what they're really basing their argument on is a giant elephant penis, and I'll tell you why.

The text of Job (40:14-24) referring to Behemoth is as follows (taken from the King James version):

15Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.

 16Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.  Read More »

Sometimes I wonder how much mankind is changing evolution. The process doesn't work in a vaccuum, with each species striving to become the "fittest." No, individuals react to individuals, populations to populations, species to species, ecosystem to ecosystem, etc., man being primary among influential organisms. Global warming the the best example of this, one species changing the global climate that affects many others on the planet, some populations taking it on the chin more than others. Various species, from coral to polar bears are suffering the change we've wrought on the planet, and I have to wonder how life is going to be shaped.  Read More »

Last night my wife and I headed into the city to view Randy Olson's film Flock of Dodos at the American Museum of Natural History. The film was pretty good, sometimes making little diversions that didn't seem to mean very much to the more important aspects of the film, but it did raise some key points in the debate between science and theology that is occurring in America. Indeed, it seems that even though scientists are coming up with new information all the time, they are terrible at conveying the information to the public, whereas groups like Answers in Genesis and the Discovery Institute know how to do PR and do it well. I've already gone over my personal feelings about evolution and ID on this blog is previous posts (see "Why Intelligent Design isn't science" and "Why Evolution beats Creationism in the classroom, every time" if the mood strikes you), but if nothing else the film made me wonder how science is communicated to the public, and often this seems to hold the key to acceptance of ideas.  Read More »

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if Homo sapiens didn't essentially wipe out most of the North American megafauna. Sure, dinosaurs get a lot of the attention, but not very long ago there were lions, saber-tooth cats, mastodons, glyptodons (think an armodillo the size of a tank), giant sloths, and plenty of other crazy critters running around here. The ideas as to how all these wonderful beasties disappeared, well, the run the gamut from disease to climate change to overhunting, and personally I think it was a bit of all of them. Even so, the arrival of man in North America seemed to signal the end of many of these big animals, and it reminds me of a trend that is far more visible today.  Read More »

I'll be honest, I didn't vote yesterday. To tell you the truth I wasn't even registered to, mostly being due to my moving several times in the past year. In a way, it's perhaps better that I did not, mostly because I didn't know enough about the candidates. Between school, work, and down time for myself, I didn't keep track of who was running or their platforms. In fact the deepest I got into it was "It'd probably be better if Democrats gained control of the house." I don't think that's enough for me to go on, however. In fact, I think if I went in and just voted for the Democrats for that reason alone, I'd be doing a disservice to myself and the political system. I'm suppossed to make a choice between these people and decide who I think it better for the job, not just pick because I feel the GOP has royally screwed this country over during the past 6 years.  Read More »

Anytime I see anything related to evolution on this website, naturally I am compelled to take a look. This isn't because I can't wait to smack down people whose opinions differ from my own on the subject, but I'm always interested to see what people have to say about the issue and see what arguments are being used. Strangely enough, I see people on both sides parroting old arguments or the standard anti-evolution dogma from the likes of Answers in Genesis books and Icons of Evolution by Johnathan Wells. There are even ministry camps dedicated to teaching children how to confront their biology teachers on the issue. So, rather than posting the same comments over and over again I thought I would give a basic run-down of why it isn't appropriate to teach intelligent design or creationism in science class, and why the "teach the controversy" idea ultimately fails.  Read More »

I thought eugenics was dead, but apparently Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics couldn't let its corpse rot peacefully. In a new controversial paper, Kanazawa essentially claims that people in Ethiopia have short life expectancy and high infant mortality rates because they're stupid, with the average IQ Kanazawa recorded being 63. I really can't believe he got away with publishing this, have we reverted back to when people called Africa "The Dark Continent"?  Read More »

I thought eugenics was dead, but apparently Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics couldn't let its corpse rot peacefully. In a new controversial paper, Kanazawa essentially claims that people in Ethiopia have short life expectancy and high infant mortality rates because they're stupid, with the average IQ Kanazawa recorded being 63. I really can't believe he got away with publishing this, have we reverted back to when people called Africa "The Dark Continent"?  Read More »