Natural Selection Evidence
New evidence that natural selection is a general driving force behind the origin of species
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Science, Education, Evolution
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Intelligent Design? A special report reprinted from Natural History magazine | |
Darwin's evidence convinced scientists that natural selection can better explain life's complexity than intelligent design (ID).
| Introduction Prepared by Richard Milner & Vittorio Maestro, senior editors of Natural History The idea that an organism's complexity is evidence for the existence of a cosmic designer was advanced centuries before Charles Darwin was born. Its best-known exponent was English theologian William Paley, creator of the famous watchmaker analogy. If we find a pocket watch in a field, Paley wrote in 1802, we immediately infer that it was produced not by natural processes acting blindly but by a designing human intellect. Likewise, he reasoned, the natural world contains abundant evidence of a supernatural creator. The argument from design, as it is known, prevailed as an explanation of the natural world until the publication of the Origin of Species in 1859. The weight of the evidence that Darwin had patiently gathered swiftly convinced scientists that evolution by natural selection better explained life's complexity and diversity. "I cannot possibly believe," wrote Darwin in 1868, "that a false theory would explain so many classes of facts." |
For those who are still considering the debate on whether men prefer blondes, a study may have provided proof in favour of the flaxen-haired, if only because they appeal to the "caveman" within.
Academic researchers have discovered that women in northern Europe evolved with light hair and blue eyes at the end of the Ice Age to stand out from the crowd and lure men away from the far more common brunette.
read more
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article348012.ece
Science, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Creationism
"The Inquirer: Some have said your ruling wasn't about church and state but about whether intelligent design is science.
Jones: I think that the ruling followed precedent, both the Lemon test [a three-part test, based on Supreme Court rulings, of whether a government action violates the separation of church and state] and the establishment test [from the First Amendment of the Constitution, which forbids Congress from making any law "establishing religion"], and I'm reluctant to characterize what that "means." The controversial part of the ruling was whether intelligent design is in fact science. Lost in the post-decision debate was that both sides, plaintiffs and defense, asked me to rule on that issue. Clearly, that was resolved based on the scientific evidence presented at the trial. That portion of the opinion seems to have been scrutinized, and praised or criticized, more than the part of the decision grounded in the two tests."
The rest of the interview is also interesting. Well worth a read
Original article printed in New Scientist 19:00 23 February 2006
By Jeff Hecht
The discovery of a new, remarkably preserved fossil of a beaver-like mammal that lived 164 million years ago is shaking palaeontologists’ understanding of early mammals.
This makes it the largest mammal ever found in the Jurassic Period, from 200 million to 145 million years ago.
Palaeontologists had long thought the mammals living under the feet of the dinosaurs were tiny shrew-like animals. But recent discoveries have challenged this notion.
In 2005, Repenomamus giganticus from
But the newly found fossil reveals that early mammals were also far more diverse than thought. The discoveries "are completely reconfiguring our understanding of Mesozoic mammals," says Hans-Dieter Sues of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.
Castorocauda was preserved in exquisite detail, flattened in sediments at the bottom of an ancient lake. Hair impressions surround the body, which includes a 20-centimetre-long flat, beaver-like tail. Two slabs of sedimentary rock include most of the body and part of the skull.
The animal had "a full mammalian pelt, with guard hairs and under fur, and scales on the tail" like a modern beaver, says Zhe-Xi Luo of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in
It is the earliest mammal known to live partly in the water. The creature probably lived like a modern platypus, says Luo, "digging a tunnel to nest and lay eggs, and going from the tunnel into the water to feed".
Science, Education, Evolution
From the
Those who believe in creationism -- children and adults -- are being taught to challenge evolution's tenets in an in-your-face way.
"Boys and girls," Ham said. If a teacher so much as mentions evolution, or the Big Bang, or an era when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, "you put your hand up and you say, 'Excuse me, were you there?' Can you remember that?"
The children roared their assent.
"Sometimes people will answer, 'No, but you weren't there either,'" Ham told them. "Then you say, 'No, I wasn't, but I know someone who was, and I have his book about the history of the world.'" He waved his Bible in the air.
"Who's the only one who's always been there?" Ham asked.
"God!" the boys and girls shouted.
"Who's the only one who knows everything?"
"God!"
"So who should you always trust, God or the scientists?"
The children answered with a thundering: "God!"
A former high-school biology teacher, Ham travels the nation training children as young as 5 to challenge science orthodoxy. He doesn't engage in the political and legal fights that have erupted over the teaching of evolution. His strategy is more subtle: He aims to give people who trust the biblical account of creation the confidence to defend their views — aggressively.
He urges students to offer creationist critiques of their textbooks, parents to take on science museum docents, professionals to raise the subject with colleagues. If Ham has done his job well, his acolytes will ask enough pointed questions — and set forth enough persuasive arguments — to shake the doctrine of
John Bell
I met Lucien Zell the other day in a café in
It was the poet bit which interested me, the more so when I began to read some of his work and conjecture what was behind it.
There were various allusions to God - that fitted well with him being Jewish. Several poems concerned children - which was to be expected, given that he has three of them.
Travelling was another prevailing image. That could be explained by his itinerant lifestyle. And an unabashed sense of vulnerability pervaded his writing, which I attributed to him being born with only one hand.
So I developed theories about how his different attributes were responsible for Lucien Zell's poetry. And then I thought: but surely there are other disabled religious travellers in the world, yet they don't all write poetry. So my theorising had to be set aside. It was not the full story.
I was musing over this on the flight back to
The most rabid proponents of both Darwinism and Creationism tend to polarise their perspectives from each other, but need this be so?
For it seems to me that here we have two languages with different intentions. One is the language of science concerned with process. It's an ever-changing and intrinsically imprecise language because new discoveries can force established theories to be revisited.
And the other is the language of faith, primarily concerned not with process but with purpose and meaning. It is also an intrinsically imprecise language, for, as
Is it beyond the realms of possibility that these two ever-changing perspectives on life might complement rather than threaten each other?
Science, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Creationism
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) hit out at the "intelligent design" movement at its annual meeting in Missouri.
Teaching the idea threatens scientific literacy among schoolchildren, it said.
Its proponents argue life on Earth is too complex to have evolved on its own.
As the name suggests, intelligent design is a concept invoking the hand of a designer in nature.
There have been several attempts across the US by anti-evolutionists to get intelligent design taught in school science lessons.
At the meeting in St Louis, the AAAS issued a statement strongly condemning the moves.
"Such veiled attempts to wedge religion - actually just one kind of religion - into science classrooms is a disservice to students, parents, teachers and taxpayers," said AAAS president Gilbert Omenn.
"It's time to recognise that science and religion should never be pitted against each other.
"They can and do co-exist in the context of most people's lives. Just not in science classrooms, lest we confuse our children."