YouTuber QualiaSoup has produced a very nice, concise, refutation of the “irreducible complexity” argument used by intelligent design creationists against evolution; check it out:
Irreducible complexity reduced
November 29, 2010
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Antievolution, Creationism, Defending evolution, Evolution, Intelligent design, Natural selection, Zoology | Tagged: bacterial flagellum, Behe, Bombardier beetles, Creationism, eyes, Gish, Intelligent design, irreducible complexity | 
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Posted by Troy Britain
Rush Limbaugh’s clueless rant about evolution
September 30, 2010This last week I had the misfortune to hear Rush Limbaugh flapping his yap attempting to defend Christine O’Donnell’s ignorant comments about evolution. Unsurprisingly his comment were a grab bag of typical creationist nonsense. Here is the audio of the beginning of his diatribe:
Paraphrasing from the audio: “If humans evolved from monkeys then why are there still monkeys?”
This is logically exactly the same thing as asking “if my cousin and I are actually related, then why does my cousin still exist?”
2 Comments | Antievolution, Creationism, Defending evolution, Evolution, History of Science, Intelligent design, Natural selection, Politics | Tagged: appeal to nature, Arguments creationists should not use, Creation Ministries International, creation science, Darwinism, evolution, faith, naturalistic fallacy, predictions, retrodiction, Rush Limbaugh, speciation, tautology | Permalink
Posted by Troy Britain
We need creationists lecturing us on evolution like we need another fenestra in the head
February 19, 2010The Institute for Creation Research has presented the world with another taxonomic turd from the cat box of creationist wisdom. This time it comes from ICR’s “Senior Science Lecturer” Frank Sherwin. However before I get to the main event, I want to take a closer look at the litter in which Mr. Sherwin’s little jewel is nestled.
In the February (2010) issue of ICR’s monthly Acts & Facts Mr. Sherwin (whose background is in parasitology) graced us with an article titled “Darwinism’s Rubber Ruler” in which he argues that descent with modification is untestable and that “any and all scientific evidence” can be “stretched to fit” the theory.
The first thing that comes to my mind when reading this is to ask: if this is so, then how is it that I could have in my personal collection literally hundreds of books and pamphlets, many of them originating from Mr. Sherwin’s organization, that purport to contain absolutely scads of evidence that contradict evolutionary theory?
How about Dr. Duane Gish’s (the emeritus vice president of ICR) books Evolution the Fossils Say NO! (1978) and the update Evolution: the fossils STILL say NO! (1995)? How can the fossils say “no” to evolution if any scientific evidence (in this case fossils) can be “stretched to fit” the theory?
3 Comments | Antievolution, Biology, Comparative anatomy, Creationism, Defending evolution, Evolution, History, History of Science, Natural selection, Paleontology, Systematics, Zoology | Tagged: birds, Creationism, diapsid, dinosaurs, fossils, Frank Sherwin, Gould, ICR, Insitute for Creation Reseach, mammals, Paleontology, phylogeny, punctuated equilibrium, Reptiles, synapsid, taxonomy | Permalink
Posted by Troy Britain
Epic Horse Exhaust
January 24, 2010
OK, it took me a while to get to it but I am, as promised, responding to creationist Arthur Biele’s lengthy comments left in response to my criticisms of his writings on horse evolution. For those interested I suggest you go back and read Mr. Biele’s article and my original critique first. Those that do I think will find that his response didn’t really answer any of my original criticisms. Instead what he did was dump a new load of barely coherent nonsense on me.
A warning though, this goes on for quite a bit (it sure felt like it while I wrote it), which is of course due to the well known fact that accurately and substantially responding to horseshit takes considerably more time and effort than it does to spewing it.
Biele: With regard to Eohippus, If you knew anything about the actual fossil record, Eohippus finds are many and that category has been a dumping ground for certain archaic partial skulls that defy any specific classification, nor are they known to be ancestors of any known ‘evolved’ descendants, and they are mostly from Europe.
While apparently attempting to impugn my knowledge of the “the actual fossil record” Mr. Biele clearly demonstrates his own ignorance of the subject at hand. Let’s break this down in order:
8 Comments | Antievolution, Biology, Creationism, Defending evolution, Evolution, Genetics, History of Science, Natural selection, Paleontology, Systematics, Zoology | Tagged: Answers in Genesis, Antievolution, Arthur Biele, Creationism, Eldredge, Eohippus, Equidae, equids, evolution, fossils, Gould, horses, Hyracotherium, Mayr, Paleontology, punctuated equilibrium, quote-mining, Simpson, Wistar Symposium | Permalink
Posted by Troy Britain
Evolution Rap from the Galápagos
December 21, 2009
Leave a Comment » | Biology, Education, Evolution, Genetics, Humor, Natural selection, Science, The Arts | Tagged: Darwin, evolution, Galápagos, music, rap | Permalink
Posted by Troy Britain
Darwin and Lincoln’s bicentennial
February 12, 2009Happy Darwin/Lincoln day everyone! On this auspicious day we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of both the founder (but not finisher) of evolutionary biology, Charles Darwin, and the great emancipator Abraham Lincoln, both of whom were born on this day, February 12, in the year 1809. Tis a day to celebrate both knowledge and freedom.
Leave a Comment » | Evolution, History, History of Science, Natural selection, Politics, Science | Tagged: birthday, Darwin, Lincoln | Permalink
Posted by Troy Britain
The Discovery Institute’s “A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism” list examined
May 11, 2008In my review of the so called “Leaders Guide” (part 1 and 2) put out by the producers of the movie Expelled I addressed its reference to the Discovery Institute’s “A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism” list.
L.G. More than 700 scientists have signed this statement!
A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism
“We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.” (p.12)
To which I responded: “Yes they have a list of scientists, and many of them are the usual creationist suspects. Still others are scientists whose field of study is not particularly relevant to the subject of evolutionary theory. More importantly they constitute a tiny fraction of the global scientific community.”
1 Comment | Antievolution, Creationism, Defending evolution, Evolution, Intelligent design, Natural selection | Tagged: Discovery Institute, dissent from Darwinism, Expelled, Intelligent design, Natural selection | Permalink
Posted by Troy Britain
