Back near the beginning of August I wrote about some new discoveries in palaeontology and the probable reaction from certain quarters. The soon to-to-come braying from the Intelligent Designers.
There was quite a response and I thought that was that.
Other than I read Robyn Williams’ lightweight but enlightening “Unintelligent Design” which asks the question, “Shouldn’t we sue God for sinus blockages, hernias, appendix flare-ups and piles, not to mention bad backs?” Those are some really great Intelligent Designs.
This evening I wandered over to Pharyngula and found that PZ Myers has written of the actual fallout. The braying has been even worse that I expected. From the rather strange “TownHall“.
One of the milder quotes used by PZ was contained in the following paragraph.
“a commenter who demands transitional hominins on an article where the creationist author is babbling about the discovery of Homo erectus and Homo habilis specimens—one guy waving a skull around claiming “these transitional fossils prove evolution false!” while the other is ranting “the absence of transitional fossils prove evolution false!” Come on, people, get your story straight.”
One of the stronger and more offensive was, “Darwin’s theory is racist. The truth is Darwin was a seething racist. The ‘theory’ of evolution wasn’t created to explain any facts about man’s origin. It was to provide a ‘scientific basis’ for Darwin’s life- long preaching that ‘niggers are apes and descended from apes’.”
Oh dear. What a pity he didn’t check a few facts first.
As an educator, I found a picture saves a thousand words. As a slow, two-fingered typist let me guide you to this rather neat little item. Just be aware that it may be rated PG.
I’m off to swing through a few trees.
Ærchies Archive - Digital Detritus 
Mme Metro introduced me to Ernia Cline. My personal fave is probably his Nerd Porn Auteur
I think this piece sums up the ID movement very neatly:
“The monkeys don’t want to be monkeys–they want to be something else. But they’re not.”
They want to believe they’re special, so they invent Creators who have some hidden beat to which we all dance, so that nothing is stupid or random or horrid–it’s all part of the Plan.
LikeLike
Sehr geEhrter AerChie
It is a Truth universally acknowledged that an Eagle in possession of a good GoodLord-Designed swooping Wings is in want not of swinging through trees, unlike you pSimian-descended Evolutionizers
Perhaps I think too much about these things but I worry about the pScientific credentials of these Evolutionizers – doesn’t Evolution have its pScientific problems
eg You suggest that Neanderthals & Cromagnons are separate species – but what if they weren’t – how do you kNow that Neanderthals weren’t merely ill-fed communities of Cromagnons suffering from mal=nourishment (err … hunger in obese North-Amerikanisch) or that (bigger-brained) Neanderthals couldn’t interbreed with (dim-witted) Cromagnons
What constitutes a separate species ????
As an Eagle, I kNow that I do not have any Neanderthal Jeans …. but can you Caucasians (or AfriKans) have the same confidence
AND as for this absurd Heresy that Homo pSeudo Sapiens is a Higher Form of Life descended from Apes !!!
You do not have to be an Eagle or a Yangtse River Dolphin or an Australian Beaver to realize that Apes are a Pleasanter form of Life ascended from mere Humans
I would like a bit more pScience about the mechanics of HOW a Fish-Heart became a Mammal Heart rather than an Ex-Cathedral assertion of dEvolution, but without an explanation as to HOW this happened
Alles Gute
G Eagle
LikeLike
Modern Fish are not the ancestors of mammals, so the question has no meaning. As to how the heart _specifically_ evolved from early lobed fishes into what we find in mammals today, we don’t really know because soft organs do not leave much fossil evidence to go off of.
But nothing about the transition makes it implausible. In fact, it’s pretty easy to imagine how all sorts of different organ systems would have evolved: many of the modern ones are just more muscled, twisted, invaginated versions of those found in more basal creatures that we suspect have similar organs to common ancestors.
LikeLike