Recently in Evolution Category

We’ve written on evolution and beginnings for a while now, but the discussion doesn’t change much; debates over side issues continues to occur, while the foundations rarely receive much attention. For a sadly humorous read, find out what happens when evolutionary data is asked to be supplied, just about everything but scientific evidence for foundations pops up.

Carl Sagan provides many quotes loved by both atheists and evolutionists in an attempt to demonstrate the absurdity of God and religion in general. Here’s a popular Sagan quote:

You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief isn’t based on evidence, it’s based on a deep seated need to believe. Carl Sagan

The search for the evolutionary missing link continues. It’s funny how those “missing link” proclamations receive big attention, but what happens they’re found out to be false? Have you heard archaeopteryx and Ida aren’t what they were originally claimed to be? Probably not.

Devotees of evolutionary dogma face a problem as it’s widely accepted neither the time the universe has existed (let’s just use 15 billion years) nor the amount of matter in the universe allow for random mutations to produce what surrounds us. So what’s a disciple of evolution to do? Declare the non-randomness of evolution, as atheist Richard Dawkins does — only one teeny tiny problem, which we’ll get to after the quote.

Richard Dawkins makes absurd claims which don’t withstand even a casual glance, but at least provide some entertainment value — get the popcorn, this could surpass the best summer movie. You’ll watch as Dawkins equates scientific inquiry with Holocaust deniers. The suspense! The thrill! The betrayal! See Mr. Dawkins replace the scientific method by his own vision of truth by fiat! It’s the greatest show on earth! Get your tickets now for the best comedy of the year! Oh the humanity!

Many times you’ll hear both atheists and evolutionists point to something as a mistake by God as a reason for denying God’s existence and creation. Various so-called vestigial organs become used as evidence against God, for those organs don’t appear to perform any function — but perhaps vestigial organs aren’t so useless.

For example, recently we’ve found out the spleen isn’t so useless after all:

Throughout history, simple inquiries in science start firestorms of controversy. While we certainly don’t claim to be in the same league as Einstein (and his quantum theory), our simple query regarding evolution and the scientific evidence supporting it generate much response. As we’ve written before^[1], we seek simple answers to scientific questions using the scientific method. Nothing more, nothing less.

Remember those charts from school detailing how birds evolved from dinosaurs? It turns out those are false:

ScienceDaily (June 9, 2009) — Researchers at Oregon State University have made a fundamental new discovery about how birds breathe and have a lung capacity that allows for flight — and the finding means it’s unlikely that birds descended from any known theropod dinosaurs.

The conclusions add to other evolving evidence that may finally force many paleontologists to reconsider their long-held belief that modern birds are the direct descendants of ancient, meat-eating dinosaurs, OSU researchers say.

One of the basic questions of life is “How did I get here”? Either evolution is correct (from the goo to the zoo to you) and the universe came into being from nothing by itself, or some god or other being created the universe and life.

We’ve written about evolution before, yet continually encounter misunderstanding and misrepresentations of the theory — frequently hearing comments such as “overwhelming evidence exists” or the “evidence is all around us” without any supporting proof given. Most likely, many people writing letters lack understanding of the scientific method, and if they do, never apply it to the “science” of evolution. Is evolution scientific? We’ve seen lots of letters to the editor similar to the following:

There are lies, dammed lies, and statistics. (Mark Twain)

I’m reminded of a story about newspaper reporting in the old Soviet Union (I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it illustrates a point well). A car race between the United States and the Soviets ended with the United States car in first, and the Soviet car second (you should also know only two cars were in this race). But the reporting in the Soviet Union stated the Soviet car came in second, while the United States car came in second to last. Perfectly true, and yet perfectly misleading.

It’s been said evolution is a fact, with just a few details left to work out. But if you study science much, you recall another time when science had the same amount of assurance — just at the first part of the 1900’s. Physicists thought they had all the laws of physics explained, with just a few details left to work out. But along came a guy by the name of Einstein who shattered their comfort with a new branch of physics called quantum mechanics. So much for the assurance of science — will the same happen to evolution?

Recent three-year and five-year reports from a NASA program (WMAP) indicate the universe is 13.7 billion years old. Many Christians dismiss those findings, claiming a “young earth” of about 6,000 years. Who is right?