evolutiongeek's blog

Apparently the United States still is being a stick-in-the-mud about lessening our gigantic ecological footprint. It seems that the United States, rather than recognizing it contributes 21% of the world's greenhouse gasses and pollutants is content to say that because our growth in greenhouse emissions is 1.3 percent between 200 and 2004 (41 other nations averaged 2.4%), we're doing a good job here. Ugh. That's like saying to a cancer patient "Well, the rate of growth of the disease has slowed down, so we won't do anything about it since it seems to be slowing its growth." In defense of the US, the negotiator over the issues says that cutting back our emissions would be a detriment to our economy and that it's unfair that poorer countries don't have the same restictions as we do. Just like many other decisions made by this administration, ignoring the impact we have on the world's ecology is a bad move.  Read More »

Well, not REALLY legs, but extra fins or leg remnants frozen in embryonic development doesn't sound as fun. Nonetheless, a dolphin has been found by Japanese researchers that has two pelvic fins, which is two more than dolphins should have. Some early whales had remnants of their limbs as fins in their pelivs region, Basilosaurus being one of them. Over time, however, the limbs disappeared externally and what remains of the pelvis is usually just two little bones in some whales, used to anchor the genitals. This dolphin is being hailed as a link to the evolutionary past, but how significant is it really?  Read More »

On the stage, a woman screams, a gaping and bloody hole in the hospital gown situated between her legs. She pleads for the abortion to stop, the unsympathetic doctors saying "It's just a medical procedure. Come on, this was your choice". A man with a raspy voice , the embodiment of Satan, then steals into the light and says "Too bad I wasn't there when you were born!" Such is a scene from many of the Hell House Outreach events that go on throughout the country. I had never even heard of such a ghastly event until this past weekend, where it was revealed in the Richard Dawkins documentary "The root of all evil?" (look it up on YouTube if you can). The point of the "outreach" is to portray abortion, homosexuality, pre-martial sex, etc. in the most grisly and horrifying way possible to essentially scare people into having faith. This must be one of those "Knowledge begins with the fear of the Lord" bits huh?  Read More »

I think one of biggest myths perpetuated by many people, Christians in particular, is that people choose to be gay. There seems to be this idea that at some point in their lives, homosexual people sit up and say "Hm, you know what, I think I'll be gay now" and it's so after that, but they can be converted back from their "illness". Keep in mind that homosexuality hasn't been listed as a mental illness for many many years and I haven't seen any evidence or testimony that suggests it's a choice. Hell, with the amount of homophobia in the world today, who would choose to be homosexual? But, of course, people would HAVE to choose to be homosexual, because God wouldn't make them that way, right?  Read More »

I was watching Life of Mammals: Life in the Trees earlier today and it struck me how many lemurs there were on Madagascar. Compared to the rest of Africa, the island is pretty small, yet is has a TON of biodiversity, especially among primates. How could this be? If there are limited resources, wouldn't "the fittest" push all the others out, leading to lower biodiversity and hard times? Nope, and it actually makes sense to have more biodiversity in an environment where there's a lot of competition for resources. It would seem to be counterintuitive, but the island's population speaks for itself: animals in heavy competition in a small area will readily speciate and cause more biodiversity. How does this happen? Well...  Read More »

This weekend I feel my brain is going to explode because of overcontemplation on the issues involving the intersection of science and faith. Last night I watched the Richard Dawkins documentary "The root of all evil?", the South Park that featured Richard Dawkins (oddly enough), and today the new issue of Nature arrived with a cover story "Islam and science; Must the Muslim world stay science-poor?" Everything would be easy if the world operated in accordance with Gould's idea of non-overlapping magisteria (science deals with the material world and empirical study, religion is the realm of faith and morality, and therefore there is no conflict because they do not have the same aims), but the truth is it isn't that simple, mostly because of the strange relationship between religion and politics. A politician who has at least the appearance of deep religious conviction seems to be favored by many, but how do those convictions affect the state of science in the societies they oversee? Unfortunately for scientists, the answer is typically not good at all.  Read More »

There seems to be a glut of polls about religion lately. At least the past two issues of TIME have had results from polls, as well as a new poll that came out the other day, and nearly every survey I see has different results. According to some, most Americans are Christians but at unsure about their actual beliefs within the religion. Other polls say the more Americans believe in a vindictive God than a benevolent one. Still others suggest that there's a large swatch of people who believe we can hasten the coming of Christ by going to war. If all these surveys are the believed, the faithfuls image of God and how they chose to worship changes on a weekly basis, but what is the reality of it all?  Read More »

I've long thought that one of the biggest injusticies carried out between people today involves the common phrase "I'll pray for you". Life isn't easy, and many Christians turn to God in prayer in the hard times, and often I hear other Christians say "I'll pray for you". It almost becomes an automatic response, and it seems to be the extent of what most are willing to do. I've never heard anyone say "Hey, this is some pretty heavy stuff, do you want to go talk somewhere for a while?" or "Is there anything I can do to help you?" Instead too many people say "Oh, that's a shame. I'll pray for you" and leave it at that, and I wonder how many even follow through on their promise. This practice of half-hearted social appeasement took on a new dimension as a bag full of mostly unopened prayer letters (addressed to God or the church leaders) was found off Atlantic City. The link to the story is below  Read More »