I ran across “Mother and Grandmother”, a Mother’s Day sermon by one Edwin Whitney Bishop from May 14, 1911, about a hundred years ago, and was curious to see what it might say. The first surprise came in the first sentence: A VERY decided attempt is being made in many quarters to have this second Sunday in… Continue reading A Mother’s Day Sermon
According to Slate, a Pew Research poll has found that a bare majority of millennials accept evolution as described by scientists. This is in contrast to findings from the last few decades, that a significant number of Americans favor a magic-based or -friendly explanation of where human beings came from. Oddly enough, this seems to… Continue reading Young Americans Are Finally Figuring out Evolution
table.figure { background-color: #f0f0f0; } table.figure caption { caption-side: bottom; font-size: 90%; padding: 1em; background-color: #f0f0f0; } For quite some time now, I’ve had a question: We can see evolution in the present. And we can see natural selection in the present. And we can see lots of evolution in the fossil record. But can… Continue reading Natural Selection in the Fossil Record
1) Premise: there are no beneficial mutations; all mutations lead to decay, disease, or death. 2) From (1), some mutations cause death. 3) Presumably, some mutations cause death at a very early age, or even in utero. 4) When young children die, they go directly to heaven. 5) Going to heaven is the best possible… Continue reading Beneficial Mutations: a Reductio ad Absurdum
I feel chastised. Undoubtedly the most controversial, most thought-provoking talk at TAM 8 was Phil Plait‘s “Don’t be a dick” talk, in which he decried what he sees as the rise of incivility in the skeptical blogosphere. He wrote it down ahead of time so as not to ad lib and accidentally say something he… Continue reading The “Don’t Be A Dick” Heard Round the World
We’ve all heard about the peppered moths of England: how soot from the Industrial Revolution turned English trees dark, and how as a result, peppered moths went from being mostly light-colored to being mostly dark. One argument in creationsts’ bag of misinformation is that peppered moths don’t rest on tree trunks. Therefore, a textbook that… Continue reading Another Creationist Myth Bites the Dust
I don’t I Get Email as often as PZ does, but I figured I’d share this one, sent in by someone going by “Your Name”. I’m not entirely sure what he’s on about, but I think it’s this, which I wrote in a moment of being tired of being calm and reasonable all the time.… Continue reading I Get Email
Looks like Ray Comfort found it too hard to write a 50-page introduction to Origin on his own: Metropulse.com, a Knoxville, TN local paper, has a story about Stan Guffey, a University of Tennessee lecturer who wrote a brief bio of Charles Darwin. Turns out that bio bears a striking resemblance to the first few… Continue reading Ray Comfort, Plagiarist?
I think I just came a little in my mouth. But then again, I’m a glutton for punishment. Kent Hovind’s “doctoral dissertation” at Patriot “University” has been released on Wikileaks. Grab it while it’s hot! Those who lack the patience to read the whole thing may wish to read Karen Bartelt’s analysis. (HT PZ.)
At this time of year, it’s traditional to say what you’re thankful for. And I’m thankful for a lot of things: that I know where my next meal is coming from, that I don’t have any debilitating diseases, that I have good friends and family… Heck, I’m thankful that the job I had to do… Continue reading Thanks to No One
