History, Evolution, and the Darwin Debate
A Riddle Resolved:
The Eonic Effect
The belief in random evolution is mocked by the clear evidence in world history of non-random evolution.
The Darwin thugs prefer to hide their ignorance by talking only about deep time, which they can’t observe at close range.
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/atheist-squabble-update/
The New Atheists really don’t get it: they have spoiled an important opportunity to challenge Christianity by proposing something even more stupid. The question is not atheism (or theism), which has an ancient and honorable legacy in religion itself, but the narrow world view that comes packaged with the atheism. This confusion is first visible in Nietzsche who constantly stripped the universe of properties that might give the faintest challenge to an atheism view, which also echoes the rising scientism of the time.
The New Atheists can’t win against Xtianity with the cult they have manufactured, and atheists outstanding should not endorse this adolescent style of thinking. A dialectic of atheism, on the hand, is perfectly OK. The point is to move on to something more robust, that can serve the public better than this concoction of Harris, Dawkins, et al.
It is almost incredible that a Buddhist atheist can’t even have a discussion with a new atheist, who will recoil in fear, contempt, refusal to dialogue and a clear unconsciousn desire to exterminate all religions via the critique of monothesim.
It is worth recalling that Sam Harris the New Age hypocrite exposed his interest in New Age religion in his book on atheism. Later changing his story.
Top 100 Stories of 2010 #3: E.O. Wilson’s Theory of Altruism Shakes Up Understanding of Evolution
In 1975 Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson published Sociobiology, perhaps the most powerful refinement of evolutionary theory since On the Origin of Species. Darwin’s theory of natural selection postulated a brutal world in which individuals vied for dominance. Wilson promoted a new perspective: Social behaviors were often genetically programmed into species to help them survive, he said, with altruism—?self-destructive behavior performed for the benefit of others—bred into their bones.
In the context of Darwinian selection, such selflessness hardly made sense. If you sacrificed your life for another and extinguished your genes, wouldn’t the engine of evolution simply pass you by? Wilson resolved the paradox by drawing on the theory of kin selection. According to this way of thinking, “altruistic” individuals could emerge victorious because the genes that they share with kin would be passed on. Since the whole clan is included in the genetic victory of a few, the phenomenon of beneficial altruism came to be known as “inclusive fitness.” By the 1990s it had become a core concept of biology, sociology, even pop psychology.
So the scientific world quaked last August when Wilson renounced the theory that he had made famous. He and two Harvard colleagues, Martin Nowak and Corina Tarnita, reported in Nature that the mathematical construct on which inclusive fitness was based crumbles under closer scrutiny. The new work indicates that self-sacrifice to protect a relation’s genes does not drive evolution. In human terms, family is not so important after all; altruism emerges to protect social groups whether they are kin or not. When people compete against each other they are selfish, but when group selection becomes important, then the altruism characteristic of human societies kicks in, Wilson says. We may be the only species intelligent enough to strike a balance between individual and group-level selection, but we are far from perfect at it. The conflict between the different levels may produce the great dramas of our species: the alliances, the love affairs, and the wars.
When you published Sociobiology in 1975, you faced enormous resistance, especially to the implication that human nature was genetically based. Now your colleagues are defending one of key tenets in your book—kin selection—while you try to dismantle it. What do you make of the shifting attitudes in your field?
Interesting, isn’t it? But I’m not so sure I pivoted that much on kin selection in Sociobiology. If you look at the opening pages, I had a diagram showing how a future science of sociobiology would be built. Kin selection was a nice little part of it in 1975, but Sociobiologywent way beyond that. It goes into demography: how groups are formed, how they compete, how communication evolves. Together with ecology and population genetics, it all formed a framework to help explain the origin of social behavior…
E. O. Wilson’s abandonment of evolutionary psychology theory is Discover’s #3 story of annual 100
Pigs and dogs: a double standard
By RICHARD DAWKINS
Updated: Monday, 28 February 2011 at 9:57 AM
http://richarddawkins.net/discussions/596445-pigs-and-dogs-a-double-standard
The behaviour of Louie the pig in this BBC film is so like that of a dog, including the apparent enjoyment he takes in performing tricks for his owner, that it left me wondering at the conspicuous difference in our attitudes to dogs and pigs.
Pigs are often raised in intensive, factory farm conditions, bundled into an overcrowded, smelly truck, windowless like the one-way trains to Buchenwald, then slaughtered (under conditions which we hope are humane but how sure are we of that?), then eaten. In very large numbers.
Dogs are treated with enormous sympathy and affection, loved as members of the family, taken to the vet when suffering from even a slight ailment, and are there treated with kindness and deference. If we kill a dog, we “put it to sleep”, often cradling it in our arms and weeping while the vet does the painless injection. Just imagine, for a short moment, factory farms of dogs raised under the conditions to which we subject pigs by the millions, followed by a one way trip to a doggy abattoir. Or alternatively, imagine Louie the pig, being given one last trot around the agility circuit before . . .
Most of us are aware of the double standard, and are perhaps vaguely uneasy about it, but we probably don’t think about it often. If we do think about it, we perhaps justify it on the grounds that dogs are ‘smarter’ than pigs. Even if the relevance of that assumption were not open to dispute (there seems no reason to think that intelligence is correlated with the ability to feel pain or fear), is the assumption of mental superiority even true? If you wanted to devise a test of a dog’s intelligence, you would probably come up with something like the obstacle course of a standard dog-show circuit. And it is precisely this test that Louie passes, with flying colours and what looks very like enjoyment.
I offer no solution, but here is the film for your consideration. Sometimes a double standard needs no more than to be pointed out.
U. Iowa team investigates function of ‘junk DNA’ in human genesPart of the answer to how and why primates differ from other mammals, and humans differ from other primates, may lie in the repetitive stretches of the genome that were once considered “junk.”
A new study by researchers at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine finds that when a particular type of repetitive DNA segment, known as an Alu element, is inserted into existing genes, they can alter the rate at which proteins are produced — a mechanism that could contribute to the evolution of different biological characteristics in different species. The study was published in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Subtle Shifts, Not Major Sweeps, Drove Human EvolutionScienceDaily (Feb. 17, 2011) — The most popular model used by geneticists for the last 35 years to detect the footprints of human evolution may overlook more common subtle changes, a new international study finds.
Migrating Sea Turtles Have Magnetic Sense for LongitudeScienceDaily (Feb. 24, 2011) — From the very first moments of life, hatchling loggerhead sea turtles have an arduous task. They must embark on a transoceanic migration, swimming from the Florida coast eastward to the North Atlantic and then gradually migrating over the course of several years before returning again to North American shores. Now, researchers reporting online on February 24 in Current Biology have figured out how the young turtles find their way.
Brain’s ‘Reward’ Center Also Responds to Bad ExperiencesScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2011) — The so-called reward center of the brain may need a new name, say scientists who have shown it responds to good and bad experiences. The finding, published in PLoS One, may help explain the “thrill” of thrill-seeking behavior or maybe just the thrill of surviving it, according to scientists at Georgia Health Sciences University and East China Normal University.
Markedly Higher Vitamin D Intake Needed to Reduce Cancer Risk, Researchers Say
ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2011) — Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha have reported that markedly higher intake of vitamin D is needed to reach blood levels that can prevent or markedly cut the incidence of breast cancer and several other major diseases than had been originally thought.
Scientists Find Gene Responsible for Color Patterns in MiceScienceDaily (Feb. 27, 2011) — Scientists at Harvard University are moving closer to answering some age-old questions. How did the leopard get its spots? How did the zebra get its stripes?
I Had Ray Davis’s Job, in Laos 30 Years Ago
By ROBERT ANDERSON
The story of Raymond Allen Davis is one familiar to me and I wish our government would quit doing these things – they cost us credibility.
Read the rest of this entry »
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2011/02/the-kings-speech-the-triumph-of-hollywood-conservative-values.html
The Big Picture
Patrick Goldstein and James Rainey on entertainment and media
As one essayist wrote not long ago, it’s become an article of faith in Conservative America that Hollywood is a “collection of hopeless la-la-land liberals — or worse, an elitist gaggle of heartland-bashing snobs.” Conservatives have routinely ridiculed Oscar movies for attacking the military (“Avatar”), promoting homosexuality (“Milk” and “Brokeback Mountain”) and depicting corporate executives as evil villains (“The Constant Gardener” and “Syriana”).
So it must’ve been quite a shock to watch all the la-la-liberals at the Oscars Sunday night honoring their elders and celebrating tradition on a show where the first clip of the night was from “Gone With the Wind” and the two guys who may have had the most screen time were Kirk Douglas and Bob Hope. Outside of a couple of lesbian jokes and one tiny barb directed at Wall Street from documentary filmmaker Charles Ferguson, the awards were drearily free of controversy, outrage or anything remotely resembling lefty sanctimony.
Published on Monday, February 28, 2011 by Empire
Information Wars: How Will Governments Deal with the Information Revolution?
Information is power and in the age of the information revolution, cyber and satellite communication is transforming our lives, reinventing the relationship between people and power.
New media, from WikiLeaks to Facebook, Twitter to YouTube, is persistently challenging the traditional flow of information, and cyber disobedience is exposing powerful governments.
Websites are now being treated like hostile territories; whistleblowers and leakers as terrorists, and hackers as insurgents.
Governments are scrambling to salvage their influence and take advantage of the new cyber and satellite media. From China to the Sudan, Egypt to Iran, despots and armies are tracking web activity and setting up Facebook accounts to spy on their citizens.
Published on Sunday, February 27, 2011 by The Nation
Upwards of 125,000 March in Madison, as Activists Rally Nationwide to Back Wisconsin Workers
by John Nichols
Published on Monday, February 28, 2011 by The Guardian/UK Barack Obama May Be Forced to Delay US Climate ActionFunding gap could force president to order a two-year delay in Environmental Protection Agency action, conference hears
by Suzanne Goldenberg
WASHINGTON – Barack Obama may be forced to order a two-year delay in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action on climate change to try to avoid a complete government shutdown, an environmental conference has been warned.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/anger-in-egypt/2011/02/201122675333177233.html
Al Jazeera
26 Feb 2011
Anger in Egypt
Saturday’s army crackdown in Cairo’s Tahrir Square highlights deepening
tension between protesters and army.*
RG mail
by James Petras
dissidentvoice.org (February 21 2011)
One of the least analyzed aspects of the Egyptian pro-democracy movement
and US policy toward it, is the role of the influential Zionist power
configuration (ZPC) including the leading umbrella organization – the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (CPMAJO) -
Congressional Middle East committee members, officials occupying strategic
positions in the Obama Administration’s Middle East bureaus, as well as
prominent editors, publicists and journalists who play a major role in the
prestigious newspapers and popular weekly magazines. This essay is based
on a survey of every issue of the Daily Alert (propaganda bulletin of the
CPMAJO), the New York Times and the Washington Post between January 25 and
February 17 of this year. {1}
http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/02/american-zionism-against-the-egyptian-pro-democracy-movement/#footnote_0_29676
RG mail
By Issandr El Amrani
The Arabist
February 27, 2011
As most of you know by now, the Egyptian army beat up protestors on Friday
night, with some apparently donning masks to hide their identity and using
electric cattle prods. The army subsequently apologized, and then once again
stressed the need for everyone to go home, and then spoke of the usual
foreign dangers against the sanctity of the Egyptian people, etc.
http://www.arabist.net/blog/2011/2/27/egypt-the-militarys-gambit.html
Origins of Farming in Europe Result of Human Migration and Cultural Change, Study Suggests
ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2011) — It has long been debated as to whether the transition from a largely hunter-gatherer to an agricultural subsistence strategy in Europe was the result of the migration of farmers from the Near East and Anatolia, or whether this transition was primarily cultural in nature. A new study, co-authored by researchers at University College Cork and the University of Kent suggests that the prehistoric adoption of farming practices in outlying regions of Europe, Scandinavia, the Baltic, European Russia and the Ukraine, was the result of cultural diffusion.
Floating Solar Panels: Solar Installations on WaterScienceDaily (Feb. 27, 2011) — Most of the solar energy systems on the market today bare two major weaknesses: they require vast land areas in order to be built, and the costs related to solar cells fabrication and maintenance are high. A new technology is about to overcome these challenges and many more: floating solar power plants.
The rise of civilization is reallya new phase in the evolution of man, and the future of the process is totally different from that of natural selection.
Dobzhansky is famous for saying that nothing makes sense except in the light of evoluition. But it is also true that nothing makes sense in the light of natural selection, which has confused the clarity of the evolution idea.
Beyond Darwinism:
A Theoretical Self-defense
The strategy of defending Darwinian pseudo-science is effective: few can defend themselves against its sophistries, or else they are ensared in the ID gambit.
Defending Richard Dawkins and the New Atheists from the Irrational Theist
By KEN079
Added: Sunday, 27 February 2011 at 1:30 AM
http://richarddawkins.net/discussions/596846-defending-richard-dawkins-and-the-new-atheists-from-the-irrational-theist
The Irrational Atheist: Dissecting the Unholy Trinity of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens, by Theodore Beale (who is also known as Vox Day), has been praised it seems to me more than any other book that’s been written seeking to rebut the New Atheists, even by a few atheists. One of the most notable of these atheist reviewers is Brent Rasmussen who wrote his overly positive opinions on the now discontinued blog Unscrewing the Inscrutable.
The many positive reviews I’ve read all say the same thing: Day utilizes facts, statistics, and reason to demolish the arguments of the New Atheists. Most of the negative reviews I’ve seen, I’m disheartened to say, don’t seem to deal with any substantial points raised by Day and many reviewers haven’t even seemed to have finished the book.
I’ve decided to take it upon myself to do my own dissection of Day’s book to see if his arguments actually hold water. What I found is that those praising the book clearly did not check Day’s facts because more often than not he did not accurately present the all the statistics or cherry-picked only those that supported his case.
Take, for example, the FBI data he utilizes to prove that religion doesn’t cause many conflicts. Day cherry-picked the data if you look at the 2005 hate crime statistics he used. The fact is that the data flatly refutes Day’s claim that religion doesn’t cause that much conflict. The fact is that religion is actually the second – yes, read that again, the SECOND – leading cause of hate crimes, in 2003, 2005 and 2006. Why did Vox’s data show the opposite? Well, Day only looked at the figures for murders caused by religious hate crime, not violence and threats of violence. I’m reminded of the book How to Lie with Statistics right about now…
When you get to the sections of the book dealing with the New Atheists individually, this is the part of the book that was hailed by Rasmussen but even here the chapters were riddled with problems. Mostly these chapters consisted of Day taking the New Atheists out of context, or failing to deal up front with a main argument. Instead, Day takes pot shots at a few minor statements in the books of the New Atheists. Of course, he also does point out a few major errors, such as Harris’ Red State/Blue State argument and he was also successful in pointing out the great historical errors that many atheists make: the common mistaken belief that religion is the number one cause of war and that religion has always battled against scientific progress. Now, note that I said the error that many atheists make, and not the New Atheists. This is because the New Atheists have never made these two statements in their books while many “internet atheists” have. So, while Vox wasted an entire chapter and part of another one erecting a strawman against the New Atheists, he did refute those atheists who do make such claims.
In each chapter there were many problems and I think it’s save to say that Day’s book raises the bar on how many times the New Atheists are taken out of context. Aside from the few problems I discussed above I’ve written a detailed rebuttal to the book that picks apart Day’s arguments and exposes his many errors and some dishonesty. Due to the length of the rebuttal I’ve chosen to link to it. It can be viewed at my blog, Arizona Atheist.
With all of the misinformation floating around out there it’s too bad very few take the time to set the record straight about the New Atheists and their arguments. This review is one of my attempts to do just that.
PSU Probing Question: Why is Teaching Evolution Still Controversial?February 27, 2011 at 4:34 AM by Gant Team ·
This article shows the problem: evolution is confused with Darwinism, but the two are not the same.
In 2008, the Church of England issued an unexpected apology. Wrote Reverend Dr. Malcolm Brown, “Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still…But the struggle for your reputation is not over yet…”
That may be an understatement. Darwin—a mild-mannered naturalist who attended church most of his life and shied away from controversy—sparked one of the most enduring battles between religious doctrine and science when he introduced the concept of natural selection in his 1859 book, On the Origin of Species.
Explain Penn State political scientists Michael Berkman and Eric Plutzer, despite 40 years of court cases ruling against teaching creationism in American public schools, the majority of high school biology teachers are not strong classroom advocates of evolutionary biology.
“Considerable research suggests that supporters of evolution, scientific methods, and reason itself are losing battles in America’s classrooms,” they write in a January 2011 Science article that details their study of 926 public high school biology instructors.
Placebo Effect Works Both Ways: Beliefs About Pain Levels Appear to Override Effects of Potent Pain-Relieving Drug
ScienceDaily (Feb. 26, 2011) — Poor expectations of treatment can override all the effect of a potent pain-relieving drug, a brain imaging study at Oxford University has shown.
Transgenic Fungi May Be Able to Combat Malaria and Other Bug-Borne DiseasesScienceDaily (Feb. 26, 2011) — New findings by a University of Maryland-led team of scientists indicate that a genetically engineered fungus carrying genes for a human anti-malarial antibody or a scorpion anti-malarial toxin could be a highly effective, specific and environmentally friendly tool for combating malaria, at a time when the effectiveness of current pesticides against malaria mosquitoes is declining.