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Comment by Neal on June 5, 2012 at 10:22am

Can't fix stupid.

Comment by doone on June 5, 2012 at 8:22am

Mass Denial

Jun. 5, 2012

Comment by doone on May 30, 2012 at 7:51am

TREES OF LIFE: A VISUAL HISTORY OF EVOLUTION

Maria Popova in Brain Pickings:

Since the dawn of recorded history, humanity has been turning to the visual realm as a sensemaking tool for the world and our place in it, mapping and visualizing everything from the body to the brain to the universe toinformation itself. Trees of Life: A Visual History of Evolution (public library) catalogs 230 tree-like branching diagrams, culled from 450 years of mankind’s visual curiosity about the living world and our quest to understand the complex ecosystem we share with other organisms, from bacteria to birds, microbes to mammals.

Though the use of a tree as a metaphor for understanding the relationships between organisms is often attributed to Darwin, who articulated it in his Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, the concept, most recently appropriated in mapping systems and knowledge networks, is actually much older, predating the theory of evolution itself. The collection is thus at once a visual record of the evolution of science and of its opposite — the earliest examples, dating as far back as the sixteenth century, portray the mythic order in which God created Earth, and the diagrams’ development over the centuries is as much a progression of science as it is of culture, society, and paradigm.

 

 

Posted by Robin Varghese at 11:30 AM | Permalink |

Comment by doone on May 26, 2012 at 8:01am

n Uncanny Resemblance

May. 26, 2012

Comment by doone on May 20, 2012 at 1:50pm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9275101/...

Comment by doone on May 16, 2012 at 9:22am

SCIENTISTS LIFT LID ON TURTLE EVOLUTION

From PhysOrg:

The turtle is a closer relative of crocodiles and birds than of lizards and snakes, according to researchers who claim to have solved an age-old riddle in animal evolution. The ancestry of the turtle, which evolved between 200 and 300 million years ago, has caused much scientific squabbling -- its physiology suggesting a different branch of the family tree than its genes do. "The evolutionary origin of turtles has confounded the understanding of vertebrate evolution," the scientists wrote in a paper published Wednesday in the Royal Society journalBiology Letters. Until the latest study, that is -- which claims to have been the biggest of its kind. "Our study conclusively shows that the genetic story is that turtles are more closely related to birds and crocodilians," research team member Nicholas Crawford from Boston University told AFP. Anatomy and fossil studies of turtles and their reptilian relatives generally place the shelled creatures in the family of lepidosaurs -- snakes, lizards and tuataras (rare lizard-like animals).Genetic studies, however, say they have more in common with crocodiles and birds -- which fall into the archosaur group of animals that also included the extinct land-bound dinosaurs. The latter finding has now been confirmed by the most exhaustive genetic study on the topic ever done, said Crawford -- having gathered "ten times as much" information as previous research efforts.

More here.

Posted by Azra Raza at 07:12 AM | Permalink 

Comment by doone on May 13, 2012 at 6:14pm

Ah, but you make your own story - you are here due to randomness but at least you are here and can make a life you want in the constraints of biology and physics.  God on the other hand can make nothing being a creature of human imagination.  It is much better to be a creature who can understand evolution than a creature who places the value of their life in a being who does not exist.

Comment by doone on May 13, 2012 at 6:12pm

Why Religion Resists Evolution

Dan McAdams offers a new theory - that evolution isn't a very good story:

Every great story you can think of—from Homer’s Iliad to your favorite television show—involves characters who pursue goals over time, characters who want something and set out to achieve it. In this sense, the classic biblical creation stories are very good stories. You have a main character—God, the creator—who sets out to achieve something over time. There is purpose and design to what God, the main character, does. God is an agent—a self-conscious, motivated actor. All stories have agents.

Evolutionary theory, however, is not a story in that there is no prime agent, no self-conscious and motivated main character who strives to achieve something over time. For this reason, there is no overall narrative arc or design, no purpose that is being achieved by a purposeful agent. Instead, you have random, mechanical forces—variation, selection, and heredity. Bad story! But, at the same time, extraordinarily brilliant and elegant theory, for it provides a compelling and scientifically testable explanation for life on earth.

Jonathan Gottschall thinks he has a point:

Stories are about a character finding a solution to a problem. Evolution has problems and solutions but no character. As a result, according to Gottschall, "it doesn’t connect as well—especially at the emotional level."

Comment by doone on April 22, 2012 at 11:49pm

Does anyone remember where Jesus forsaw future human evolution?

Quote For The Day

"Jesus convinced me that he was right because what he taught has become consistently more and more the necessary and natural attitude for man as society has developed the way it has, i.e. he forecast our historical evolution correctly. If we reject the Gospels, then we must reject modern life ... Neither the heathen philosophers nor Buddha nor Confucius nor Mahomet showed this historical insight," - W.H. Auden.

Comment by Neal on April 20, 2012 at 8:42am

Where is this out of doone The article right under the Darwin on talks about needing in council meetings. Heh, I'd pick a southern state.

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