Some of the books I read about evolution:
Your Inner Fish - A Journey Into The 3.5-Billion-Year History Of The Human Body by Neil Shubin
Why Evolution Is True by Jerry Coyne
The Making of the Fittest - DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Evolution - The Triumph of an Idea by Carl Zimmer
The Greatest Show on Earth - The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins
God's Word or Human Reason? An Inside Perspective on Creationism" by Jonathan Kane, Emily Willoughby, and Michael Keesey.
Showing posts with label Sean B. Carroll. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sean B. Carroll. Show all posts
Thursday, April 15, 2021
Sunday, August 30, 2020
I wrote this for some stupid fucking assholes.
Christian creationists, does this quote help you understand why biologists don't like you?
"For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents."
-- Sean B. Carroll
Wikipedia - Sean B. Carroll is an American evolutionary developmental biologist, author, educator and executive producer. He is the Allan Wilson Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
"For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents."
-- Sean B. Carroll
Wikipedia - Sean B. Carroll is an American evolutionary developmental biologist, author, educator and executive producer. He is the Allan Wilson Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
I never a Christian who wasn't a stupid fucking asshole.
Christian creationist assholes, does this quote from Sean B. Carroll help you understand how much science you have to throw out to believe in your childish idiotic magical creationism?
"For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents."
"For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents."
Thursday, August 6, 2020
Several books and Wikipedia are my friends.
The books about evolution I have read:
Your Inner Fish - A Journey Into The 3.5-Billion-Year History Of The Human Body by Neil Shubin
Why Evolution Is True by Jerry Coyne
The Making of the Fittest - DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Evolution - The Triumph of an Idea by Carl Zimmer
The Greatest Show on Earth - The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins
"God's Word or Human Reason? An Inside Perspective on Creationism" by Jonathan Kane, Emily Willoughby, and Michael Keesey.
Your Inner Fish - A Journey Into The 3.5-Billion-Year History Of The Human Body by Neil Shubin
Why Evolution Is True by Jerry Coyne
The Making of the Fittest - DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Evolution - The Triumph of an Idea by Carl Zimmer
The Greatest Show on Earth - The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins
"God's Word or Human Reason? An Inside Perspective on Creationism" by Jonathan Kane, Emily Willoughby, and Michael Keesey.
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
The Making of the Fittest by Sean B. Carroll was published in 2006, 14 years ago, but most of it is probably still correct.
The Making of the Fittest, DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution
Sean B. Carroll
According to Amazon, I purchased this book on August 18, 2007.
immortal genes, 35-36, 69-89, 81, 186-87
Immortal genes are one of the most interesting things about evolution. There is too much to copy from the book, but these are the ideas.
Natural selection also acts to remove, in Darwin's words, "injurious change".
The survival of individual genes over vast geological periods provides more than unimpeachable evidence of the preservative force of natural selection. They are clues to the history of life's evolution from ancient ancestors, a new kind of evidence that Darwin could never have imagined. I will show how these immortal genes are powerful genealogical records that reflect the degree of relatedness among kingdoms and help us retrieve and reconstruct events in the history of life that are not visible in the fossil record.
Immortal genes have survived not because they avoid mutation--they are as vulnerable to mutation as all other genes. The genes are immortal in the sense that the gene as a unit endures; however not every letter of the gene's code endures. This fact can be seen upon more detailed inspection of their DNA sequences and of the sequences of the proteins they encode, and it is a key demonstration of one aspect of the process of natural selection.
Realize that an immortal letter in a protein sequence has experienced mutation again and again, in uncountable numbers of individuals, in millions of species, over billions of years, but that all these mutations have been purged by selection over and over again.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
This blog has 429 posts about the evidence for evolution at evidence for evolution.
Sean B. Carroll
According to Amazon, I purchased this book on August 18, 2007.
immortal genes, 35-36, 69-89, 81, 186-87
Immortal genes are one of the most interesting things about evolution. There is too much to copy from the book, but these are the ideas.
Natural selection also acts to remove, in Darwin's words, "injurious change".
The survival of individual genes over vast geological periods provides more than unimpeachable evidence of the preservative force of natural selection. They are clues to the history of life's evolution from ancient ancestors, a new kind of evidence that Darwin could never have imagined. I will show how these immortal genes are powerful genealogical records that reflect the degree of relatedness among kingdoms and help us retrieve and reconstruct events in the history of life that are not visible in the fossil record.
Immortal genes have survived not because they avoid mutation--they are as vulnerable to mutation as all other genes. The genes are immortal in the sense that the gene as a unit endures; however not every letter of the gene's code endures. This fact can be seen upon more detailed inspection of their DNA sequences and of the sequences of the proteins they encode, and it is a key demonstration of one aspect of the process of natural selection.
Realize that an immortal letter in a protein sequence has experienced mutation again and again, in uncountable numbers of individuals, in millions of species, over billions of years, but that all these mutations have been purged by selection over and over again.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
This blog has 429 posts about the evidence for evolution at evidence for evolution.
Monday, February 17, 2020
I bought this book from Amazon on August 18, 2007.
Amazon: "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll.
Now, nearly 150 years later, we can see. We no longer look at Nature's diversity "as a savage looks at a ship." From the new DNA record, the evidence of the workings of the evolutionary process abounds. But many people--a great many--either do not see what scientists see, or do not believe what scientists have concluded.
I have borrowed the title of this chapter from the wonderful book Seeing and Believing by Richard Panek, about the invention of the telescope and how it changed our perception of the sky and our place in the universe. Like Darwin, Galileo's observations and ideas were rejected by authorities who had no use for new evidence or ideas. But, eventually, the observable evidence overwhelmed ideological resistance. For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents.
With the facts on evolution's side, how can this doubt and denial persist, or even be growing, here at the outset of the twenty-first century?
Now, nearly 150 years later, we can see. We no longer look at Nature's diversity "as a savage looks at a ship." From the new DNA record, the evidence of the workings of the evolutionary process abounds. But many people--a great many--either do not see what scientists see, or do not believe what scientists have concluded.
I have borrowed the title of this chapter from the wonderful book Seeing and Believing by Richard Panek, about the invention of the telescope and how it changed our perception of the sky and our place in the universe. Like Darwin, Galileo's observations and ideas were rejected by authorities who had no use for new evidence or ideas. But, eventually, the observable evidence overwhelmed ideological resistance. For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents.
With the facts on evolution's side, how can this doubt and denial persist, or even be growing, here at the outset of the twenty-first century?
Thursday, May 2, 2019
Two quotes about evolution and the know-nothing fucktards who think evolution is wrong.
“If you believe in Creationism, I just want to open my heart to you and say that you’re a fucking moron.”
-- Marc Maron, comedian
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
From "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll:
Now, nearly 150 years later, we can see. We no longer look at Nature's diversity "as a savage looks at a ship." From the new DNA record, the evidence of the workings of the evolutionary process abounds. But many people--a great many--either do not see what scientists see, or do not believe what scientists have concluded.
I have borrowed the title of this chapter from the wonderful book Seeing and Believing by Richard Panek, about the invention of the telescope and how it changed our perception of the sky and our place in the universe. Like Darwin, Galileo's observations and ideas were rejected by authorities who had no use for new evidence or ideas. But, eventually, the observable evidence overwhelmed ideological resistance. For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents.
With the facts on evolution's side, how can this doubt and denial persist, or even be growing, here at the outset of the twenty-first century?
-- Marc Maron, comedian
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
From "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll:
Now, nearly 150 years later, we can see. We no longer look at Nature's diversity "as a savage looks at a ship." From the new DNA record, the evidence of the workings of the evolutionary process abounds. But many people--a great many--either do not see what scientists see, or do not believe what scientists have concluded.
I have borrowed the title of this chapter from the wonderful book Seeing and Believing by Richard Panek, about the invention of the telescope and how it changed our perception of the sky and our place in the universe. Like Darwin, Galileo's observations and ideas were rejected by authorities who had no use for new evidence or ideas. But, eventually, the observable evidence overwhelmed ideological resistance. For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents.
With the facts on evolution's side, how can this doubt and denial persist, or even be growing, here at the outset of the twenty-first century?
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Evolution deniers (aka creationist fucktards) are stupid fucking assholes.
"For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents."
-- The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
-- The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Sunday, February 24, 2019
After reading these 6 books about the evidence for evolution I couldn't be a creationist fucktard even if I wanted to believe that bullshit.
Your Inner Fish - A Journey Into The 3.5-Billion-Year History Of The Human Body by Neil Shubin
Why Evolution Is True by Jerry Coyne
The Making of the Fittest - DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Evolution - The Triumph of an Idea by Carl Zimmer
The Greatest Show on Earth - The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins
"God's Word or Human Reason? An Inside Perspective on Creationism" by Jonathan Kane, Emily Willoughby, and Michael Keesey.
Why Evolution Is True by Jerry Coyne
The Making of the Fittest - DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Evolution - The Triumph of an Idea by Carl Zimmer
The Greatest Show on Earth - The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins
"God's Word or Human Reason? An Inside Perspective on Creationism" by Jonathan Kane, Emily Willoughby, and Michael Keesey.
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
What a biologist wrote about Idiot America's stupid fucking assholes.
"For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents."
-- The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Wikipedia:
Sean B. Carroll (born September 17, 1960) is an American evolutionary developmental biologist, author, educator and executive producer. He is the Allan Wilson Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His studies focus on the evolution of cis-regulatory elements in the regulation of gene expression in the context of biological development, using Drosophila as a model system. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, of the American Philosophical Society (2007),[1] of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for Advancement of Science, as well as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
Wikipedia:
Evolutionary developmental biology
Evolutionary developmental biology (informally, evo-devo) is a field of biological research that compares the developmental processes of different organisms to infer the ancestral relationships between them and how developmental processes evolved.
The field grew from 19th-century beginnings, where embryology faced a mystery: zoologistsdid not know how embryonic development was controlled at the molecular level. Charles Darwin noted that having similar embryos implied common ancestry, but little progress was made until the 1970s. Then, recombinant DNA technology at last brought embryology together with molecular genetics. A key early discovery was of homeotic genes that regulate development in a wide range of eukaryotes.
The field is characterised by some key concepts, which took evolutionary biologists by surprise. One is deep homology, the finding that dissimilar organs such as the eyes of insects, vertebrates and cephalopod molluscs, long thought to have evolved separately, are controlled by similar genes such as pax-6, from the evo-devo gene toolkit. These genes are ancient, being highly conserved among phyla; they generate the patterns in time and space which shape the embryo, and ultimately form the body plan of the organism. Another is that species do not differ much in their structural genes, such as those coding for enzymes; what does differ is the way that gene expression is regulated by the toolkit genes. These genes are reused, unchanged, many times in different parts of the embryo and at different stages of development, forming a complex cascade of control, switching other regulatory genes as well as structural genes on and off in a precise pattern. This multiple pleiotropic reuse explains why these genes are highly conserved, as any change would have many adverse consequences which natural selection would oppose.
New morphological features and ultimately new species are produced by variations in the toolkit, either when genes are expressed in a new pattern, or when toolkit genes acquire additional functions. Another possibility is the Neo-Lamarckian theory that epigenetic changes are later consolidated at gene level, something that may have been important early in the history of multicellular life.
-- The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Wikipedia:
Sean B. Carroll (born September 17, 1960) is an American evolutionary developmental biologist, author, educator and executive producer. He is the Allan Wilson Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His studies focus on the evolution of cis-regulatory elements in the regulation of gene expression in the context of biological development, using Drosophila as a model system. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, of the American Philosophical Society (2007),[1] of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for Advancement of Science, as well as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
Wikipedia:
Evolutionary developmental biology
Evolutionary developmental biology (informally, evo-devo) is a field of biological research that compares the developmental processes of different organisms to infer the ancestral relationships between them and how developmental processes evolved.
The field grew from 19th-century beginnings, where embryology faced a mystery: zoologistsdid not know how embryonic development was controlled at the molecular level. Charles Darwin noted that having similar embryos implied common ancestry, but little progress was made until the 1970s. Then, recombinant DNA technology at last brought embryology together with molecular genetics. A key early discovery was of homeotic genes that regulate development in a wide range of eukaryotes.
The field is characterised by some key concepts, which took evolutionary biologists by surprise. One is deep homology, the finding that dissimilar organs such as the eyes of insects, vertebrates and cephalopod molluscs, long thought to have evolved separately, are controlled by similar genes such as pax-6, from the evo-devo gene toolkit. These genes are ancient, being highly conserved among phyla; they generate the patterns in time and space which shape the embryo, and ultimately form the body plan of the organism. Another is that species do not differ much in their structural genes, such as those coding for enzymes; what does differ is the way that gene expression is regulated by the toolkit genes. These genes are reused, unchanged, many times in different parts of the embryo and at different stages of development, forming a complex cascade of control, switching other regulatory genes as well as structural genes on and off in a precise pattern. This multiple pleiotropic reuse explains why these genes are highly conserved, as any change would have many adverse consequences which natural selection would oppose.
New morphological features and ultimately new species are produced by variations in the toolkit, either when genes are expressed in a new pattern, or when toolkit genes acquire additional functions. Another possibility is the Neo-Lamarckian theory that epigenetic changes are later consolidated at gene level, something that may have been important early in the history of multicellular life.
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Some quotes from Richard Feynman, Richard Dawkins, Ken Miller, Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia, Sean B. Carroll, Jerry Coyne, Sam Harris, Isaac Asimov, Charles Darwin, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Stephen Hawking, PZ Myers, Emmett F. Fields, David Horton, Bill Maher, Stephen Jay Gould, and some other people.
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it."
-- Upton Sinclair
I can't believe the special stories that have been made up about our relationship to the universe at large because they seem to be too simple, too local, too provincial. The earth, he came to the earth, one of the aspects of god came to the earth mind you, and look at what's out there. It isn't in proportion.
-- Richard Feyman
To accept evolution isn't just to acknowledge the obvious, that the evidence behind it is overwhelming. It is to open one's eyes to the endless beauty that life has generated and continues to produce. It is to become a knowing participant in the truest sense, in the living world of which we are all a part.
-- Ken Miller
There is probably no other notion in any field of science that has been as extensively tested and as thoroughly corroborated as the evolutionary origin of living organisms.
-- Encyclopedia Britannica
From the movie: You killed god sir. You have killed god.
THEORY: In science, a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses. The contention that evolution should be taught as a "theory, not as a fact" confuses the common use of these words with the scientific use. In science, theories do not turn into facts through the accumulation of evidence. Rather, theories are the end points of science. They are understandings that develop from extensive observation, experimentation, and creative reflection. They incorporate a large body of scientific facts, laws, tested hypotheses, and logical inferences. In this sense, evolution is one of the strongest and most useful scientific theories we have.
-- National Academy of Sciences
Evolution is God's redundancy notice, his pink slip.
-- Richard Dawkins
For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents.
-- The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Even without fossils, we have evidence of human evolution from comparative anatomy, embryology, our vestigial traits, and even biogeography. We've learned of our fishlike embryos, our dead genes, our transitory fetal coat of hair, and our poor design, all testifying to our origins. The fossil record is really the icing on the cake.
-- Jerry Coyne
Religion is a cruel hoax sustained by miracles, fear, superstition and ignorance. Evolution is a science sustained by proven facts. Take your pick.
-- Dean Carson
The first thing to notice is that Mooney and Kirshenbaum are confused about the nature of the problem. The goal is not to get more Americans to merely accept the truth of evolution (or any other scientific theory); the goal is to get them to value the principles of reasoning and educated discourse that now make a belief in evolution obligatory. Doubt about evolution is merely a symptom of an underlying problem; the problem is faith itself—conviction without sufficient reason, hope mistaken for knowledge, bad ideas protected from good ones, good ideas occluded by bad ones, wishful thinking elevated to a principle of salvation, etc. Mooney and Kirshenbaum seem to imagine that we can get people to value intellectual honesty by lying to them.
-- Sam Harris
Scientific education and religious education are incompatible. The clergy have ceased to interfere with education at the advanced state, with which I am directly concerned, but they have still got control of that of children. This means that the children have to learn about Adam and Noah instead of about Evolution; about David who killed Goliath, instead of Koch who killed cholera; about Christ's ascent into heaven instead of Montgolfier's and Wright's. Worse than that, they are taught that it is a virtue to accept statements without adequate evidence, which leaves them a prey to quacks of every kind in later life, and makes it very difficult for them to accept the methods of thought which are successful in science.
-- J.B.S. Haldane
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
Should Creationism be taught in public schools?
Oh God, no. Oh, Jesus. We thought we had made a big advance with the Scopes monkey trial….My God, evolution is a fact, and if these people are disturbed by being the descendants of monkeys and fishes, they’ve got a mental problem. We can’t afford the psychiatric bill for them. That ends the story as far as I’m concerned.
-- Mike Gravel, former Democratic United States Senator from Alaska, who served two terms from 1969 to 1981, and a former candidate in the 2008 presidential election.
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.
-- Charles Darwin
If the history of science teaches us anything, it is that what conquers our ignorance is research, not giving up and attributing our ignorance to the miraculous work of a creator.
-- Jerry Coyne
Science is a philosophy of discovery, intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance.
-- Neil deGrasse Tyson
Darwin knew a lot of biology: more than any of his contemporaries, more than a surprising number of his successors. From prolonged thought and study, he was able to intuit how evolution worked without having access to all the subsequent scientific knowledge that others required to be convinced of natural selection. He had the objectivity to put aside criteria with powerful emotional resonance, like the conviction that evolution should be purposeful. As a result, he saw deep into the strange workings of the evolutionary mechanism, an insight not really exceeded until a century after his great work of synthesis.
-- New York Times
Darwin’s theory of evolution has become the bedrock of modern biology. But for most of the theory’s existence since 1859, even biologists have ignored or vigorously opposed it, in whole or in part. It is a testament to Darwin’s extraordinary insight that it took almost a century for biologists to understand the essential correctness of his views.
-- New York Times
If the history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worse than ignorant, they are deluded to the point of perversity. They are denying not only the facts of biology but those of physics, geology, cosmology, archaeology, history and chemistry as well. This chapter is about how we know the ages of rocks and the fossils embedded in them. It presents evidence that the timescale on which life has operated on this planet is measured not in thousands of years but in thousands of millions of years.
-- "The Greatest Show on Earth, The Evidence for Evolution" by Richard Dawkins
ID creationism adherents believe in ID creationism because they haven't considered, or don't want to consider, the possibility that they're just retarded. Well, it's time for them to consider it.
-- Mike Toreno
It takes nothing more than a child of a few years to understand the incompatibility of understanding how the world works as opposed to essentially Santa Claus type thinking. It is a matter of honesty to admit that someone being raised from the dead is not a belief compatible with what we know of in science or that the myriad of religious beliefs from around the world are simply not square with the scientific knowledge of the day. It is rank dishonesty to pretend that science and religion are compatible while trying to backdoor tons of material as 'outside' the realm of science.
-- KevinB
To accept evolution isn't just to acknowledge the obvious, that the evidence behind it is overwhelming. It is to open one's eyes to the endless beauty that life has generated and continues to produce. It is to become a knowing participant in the truest sense, in the living world of which we are all a part.
-- Ken Miller
Your Discovery Institute is a horrific mistake, an epic intellectual tragedy that is degrading the minds of those who consume its products and bringing dishonor to you and to the church. It is for good reason that Casey Luskin is held in such extreme contempt by your movement's critics, and there's something truly sick about the pattern of attacks that your operatives launched in the weeks after the Biola event. It's clear that you have a cadre of attack dogs that do this work for you, and some of them seem unconstrained by standards of integrity. I can't state this strongly enough: the Discovery Institute is a dangerous cancer on the Christian intellect, both because of its unyielding commitment to dishonesty and because of its creepy mission to undermine science itself. I'd like to see you do better, but I have no such hope for your institute. It needs to be destroyed, and I will do what I can to bring that about.
http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2010/06/open-letter-to-stephen-meyer.html
There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, and science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works.
-- Stephen Hawking
But, as Lovan noted in his piece, “83 percent of home-schooling parents want to give their children ‘religious or moral instruction.’” I weep for those children. For many of them are simply being brainwashed by their parents. Yes, that’s what it is—brainwashing. For a parent to ignore 150 years of solid science, feeding their children lies based on theology, is to deprive those children of the wonder of the universe—a wonder based on truth rather than medieval superstition. It kills off the part of a child that most needs nurturing: her sense of wonder, and all the possibilities of life that are opened up by that wonder. How many budding biologists have been stifled by their parents’ willful ignorance of science, and on their insistence that the Bible is the real source of biological information? Generation after generation of ignorance and religious dogmatism, all perpetuated by religously based home-schooling.
-- Jerry Coyne http://tinyurl.com/yclezr6
Humans aren't high on the evolutionary scale…there is no evolutionary scale. We aren't the pinnacle of anything.
-- PZ Myers
You know, there’s this pervasive idea in biology that I think is wrong. It goes: we humans are at the pinnacle of the evolutionary tree, and as you get up that tree, brain size must get bigger. But a fly is just as evolved as a human. It’s just evolved to a different niche.
-- Jeremy Niven
It would be so nice if those who oppose evolution would take a tiny bit of trouble to learn the merest rudiments of what it is they are opposing.
-- Richard Dawkins
The field of molecular biology provides the most detailed and convincing evidence available for biological evolution. In its unveiling of the nature of DNA and the workings of organisms at the level of enzymes and other protein molecules, it has shown that these molecules hold information about an organism’s ancestry. This has made it possible to reconstruct evolutionary events that were previously unknown and to confirm and adjust the view of events already known. The precision with which these events can be reconstructed is one reason the evidence from molecular biology is so compelling.
-- Encyclopedia Britannica
Chance alone cannot explain the marvelous fit between individuals and their environment. And it doesn't. True, the raw materials for evolution--the variations between individuals--are indeed produced by chance mutations. These mutations occur willy-nilly, regardless of whether they are good or bad for the individual. But it is the filtering of that variation by natural selection that produces adaptations, and natural selection is manifestly not random. It is a powerful molding force, accumulating genes that have a greater chance of being passed on to others, and in so doing making individuals even better able to cope with their environment. It is, then, the unique combination of mutation and selection--chance and lawfulness--that tells us how organisms become adapted.
-- Jerry Coyne, Why Evolution is True
As man advances in civilization, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all the members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races. If, indeed, such men are separated from him by great differences in appearance or habits, experience unfortunately shows us how long it is, before we look at them as our fellow-creatures. ... This virtue, one of the noblest with which man is endowed, seems to arise incidentally from our sympathies becoming more tender and more widely diffused, until they are extended to all sentient beings. As soon as this virtue is honored and practiced by some few men, it spreads through instruction and example to the young, and eventually becomes incorporated in public opinion.
-- Charles Darwin; The Descent of Man, 1871
If anything is absolutely, rock-bottom true, it’s that life evolved, beginning about 4 billion years ago, and that the creation myth of Genesis is completely wrong.
-- Jerry Coyne
The plight of many science teachers today is not less dire. When they attempt to expound the central and guiding principle of biology; when they honestly place the living world in its historical context -- which means evolution; when they explore and explain the very nature of life itself, they are harried and stymied, hassled and bullied, even threatened with loss of their jobs. At the very least their time is wasted at every turn. They are likely to receive menacing letters from parents, and have to endure the sarcastic smirks and close-folded arms of brainwashed children. They are supplied with state-approved textbooks that have had the word 'evolution' systematically expunged, or bowdlerized into 'change over time'.
-- "The Greatest Show on Earth, The Evidence for Evolution" by Richard Dawkins
The Theologian is an owl, sitting on an old dead branch in the tree of human knowledge, and hooting the same old hoots that have been hooted for hundreds and thousands of years, but he has never given a hoot for progress.
-- Emmett F. Fields
Evolution is a fact. Beyond reasonable doubt, beyond serious doubt, beyond sane, informed, intelligent doubt, beyond doubt evolution is a fact. The evidence for evolution is at least as strong as the evidence for the Holocaust, even allowing for eye witnesses to the Holocaust. It is the plain truth that we are cousins of chimpanzees, somewhat more distant cousins of monkeys, more distant cousins still of aardvarks and mantenees, yet more distant cousins of bananas and turnips ... continue the list as long as long as desired. That didn't have to be true. It is not self-evidently, tautologically, obviously true, and there was a time when most people, even educated people, thought it wasn't. It didn't have to be true, but it is. We know this because a rising flood of evidence supports it. Evolution is a fact, and this book will demonstrate it. No reputable scientist disputes it, and no unbiased reader will close the book doubting it.
-- The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins
Your comments are evidence yet again, though it isn't needed, that religions only survive because of the invincible ignorance of their practitioners. Not just ignorance of biology, and physics, and geology, and cosmology, but ignorance of history, and of anthropology, and sociology and psychology. An ignorance that enables the individual member at one particluar time and place to imagine that they, uniquely, have the truth, and that all of the other billions of humans who live now, and lived in the past, didn't. What extraordinary arrogance and ignorance. Encouraged, indeed demanded, by the leaders of every religious cult, for various motives that have nothing to do with any supposed reality of an imaginary second life. And everything to do with power, and wealth, and misogyny, and xenophobia.
-- David Horton
Over the past quarter-century, poll after poll has revealed that nearly half of all Americans flatly reject evolution, many clinging to the ancient superstition that the earth was created only 6,000 years ago, complete with all existing species. But as Richard Dawkins shows in his splendid new book, The Greatest Show on Earth, the theory of evolution is supported by at least as much evidence as is the germ theory of disease--heaps of it, and from many areas of biology. So why is it contemptible to reject germ theory but socially acceptable to reject evolutionary theory?
One answer is religion. Unlike germ theory, the idea of evolution strikes at the heart of human ego, suggesting that we were not the special object of God's attention but were made by the same blind and mindless process of natural selection that also built ferns, fish and rabbits. Another answer is ignorance: most Americans are simply unaware of the multifarious evidence that makes evolution more than "just a theory," and don't even realize that a scientific theory is far more than idle speculation.
-- Jerry Coyne
Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution.
-- Theodosius Dobzhansky
Darwin matters because evolution matters. Evolution matters because science matters. Science matters because it is the preeminent story of our age, an epic saga about who we are, where we came from, and where we are going.
-- Michael Shermer
Evolution is God's redundancy notice, his pink slip.
-- Richard Dawkins http://tinyurl.com/l4n2ar
The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored. In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.
-- Richard Dawkins
I should love to have everybody taught about evolution from a fairly early age, because it is so important, so exciting. It answers so many questions and mysteries; it solves so many problems. Until you know about it, you're wandering around on this Earth looking at trees and birds and flowers, not knowing why any of them is there. Evolution is the answer to that riddle, so you're not really a whole person if you don't know where you come from and why you exist. And it's not difficult. It's not like relativity, it's not like quantum theory – it's something teachable to fairly young children.
-- Richard Dawkins
Darwin anticipated problems with his theory. Modern science has
answered them. Evolution by Natural Selection has been triumphantly
vindicated as fact.
-- Richard Dawkins
So the case is closed in a most beautiful way, and that is, the prediction of evolution of common ancestry is fulfilled by that lead-pipe evidence that you see here in terms of tying everything together, that our chromosome formed by the fusion from our common ancestor is Chromosome Number 2. Evolution has made a testable prediction and has passed.
-- Ken Miller at the Dover trial http://tinyurl.com/2llumn
In October 2008 a group of about sixty American high-school teachers met at the Center for Science Education of Emory University, in Atlanta. Some of the horror stories they had to tell deserve wide attention. One teacher reported that students 'burst into tears' when told they would be studying evolution. Another teacher described how students repeatedly screamed 'No!' when he began talking about evolution in class. Another reported that pupils demanded to know why they had to learn about evolution, given that it was 'only a theory'. Yet another teacher described how 'churches train students to come to school with specific questions to ask to sabotage my lessons'.
-- "The Greatest Show on Earth, The Evidence for Evolution" by Richard Dawkins
Now, nearly 150 years later, we can see. We no longer look at Nature's diversity "as a savage looks at a ship." From the new DNA record, the evidence of the workings of the evolutionary process abounds. But many people--a great many--either do not see what scientists see, or do not believe what scientists have concluded.
I have borrowed the title of this chapter from the wonderful book Seeing and Believing by Richard Panek, about the invention of the telescope and how it changed our perception of the sky and our place in the universe. Like Darwin, Galileo's observations and ideas were rejected by authorities who had no use for new evidence or ideas. But, eventually, the observable evidence overwhelmed ideological resistance. For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents.
With the facts on evolution's side, how can this doubt and denial persist, or even be growing, here at the outset of the twenty-first century?
-- "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll
The faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences is committed to the highest standards of scientific integrity and academic function. This commitment carries with it unwavering support for academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas. It also demands the utmost respect for the scientific method, integrity in the conduct of research, and recognition that the validity of any scientific model comes only as a result of rational hypothesis testing, sound experimentation, and findings that can be replicated by others.
The department faculty, then, are unequivocal in their support of evolutionary theory, which has its roots in the seminal work of Charles Darwin and has been supported by findings accumulated over 140 years. The sole dissenter from this position, Prof. Michael Behe, is a well-known proponent of "intelligent design." While we respect Prof. Behe's right to express his views, they are his alone and are in no way endorsed by the department. It is our collective position that intelligent design has no basis in science, has not been tested experimentally, and should not be regarded as scientific.
-- Lehigh University Department of Biological Sciences - Department Position on Evolution and "Intelligent Design"
Evolution is both a scientific fact and a scientific theory. Evolution is a fact in the sense that life has changed through time. In nature today, the characteristics of species are changing, and new species are arising. The fossil record is the primary factual evidence for evolution in times past, and evolution is well documented by further evidence from other scientific disciplines, including comparative anatomy, biogeography, genetics, molecular biology, and studies of viral and bacterial diseases. Evolution is also a theory – an explanation for the observed changes in life through Earth history that has been tested numerous times and repeatedly confirmed.
-- Paleontological Society
While modern biologists constantly study and deliberate the patterns, mechanisms, and pace of evolution, they agree that all living things share common ancestors. The fossil record and the diversity of extant organisms, combined with modern techniques of molecular biology, taxonomy, and geology, provide exhaustive examples of and powerful evidence for current evolutionary theory. Genetic variation, natural selection, speciation, and extinction are well-established components of modern evolutionary theory. Explanations are constantly modified and refined as warranted by new scientific evidence that accumulates over time, which demonstrates the integrity and validity of the field. Scientists have firmly established evolution as an important natural process.
-- National Association of Biology Teachers
It is our view that a reasonable, objective observer would, after reviewing both the voluminous record in this case, and our narrative, reach the inescapable conclusion that ID is an interesting theological argument, but that it is not science ... In summary, the [school board's] disclaimer singles out the theory of evolution for special treatment, misrepresents its status in the scientific community, causes students to doubt its validity without scientific justification, presents students with a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory, directs them to consult a creationist text [Of Pandas and People] as though it were a science resource, and instructs students to forego scientific inquiry in the public school classroom and instead to seek out religious instruction elsewhere.
-- Judge Jones' decision in the 2005 Dover trial
Fortunately, there is, however, an altogether new way of deciphering species' relationships. It also relies on DNA, but rather than being based on the degree of sequence similarity, it looks for the presence and absence of certain landmarks in specific places in species DNA. These landmarks are produced by accidental insertions of junk DNA sequences near genes. Particular chunks of junk DNA, call long interspersed elements (LINES) and short interspersed elements (SINES), are very easy to detect. Once a SINE or LINE is inserted, there is no active mechanism for removing it. The insertion of these elements marks a gene in a species, and is then inherited by all species descended from it. They are really perfect tracers of genealogy. These insertion events are very rare; therefore, their presence in the same place in the DNA of two species can be explained only by the species sharing a common ancestor. The inheritance of variable markers in DNA is the same principle applied to paternity testing in humans. By surveying the distribution of a number of elements that arose at different times in different ancestors, biologists have sufficient forensic evidence to determine species' kinship beyond any doubt.
-- "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll
My point here is that there is an incredible amount of evidence for evolution, far more than any one person can digest, and that it is a vital field, still growing and still producing new results. All those papers don't get published unless they contain some new observation, a new experiment, a new test of the idea…and evolution has weathered them all.
-- PZ Myers
The plain fact is, religion must die for mankind to live. The hour is getting very late to be able to indulge in having key decisions being made by religious people, by irrationalists, by those who would steer the ship of state not by a compass, but by the equivalent of reading the entrails of a chicken.
Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. It's nothing to brag about. And those who preach faith and enable and elevate it are our intellectual slave holders, keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction.
Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings who don't have all the answers to think that they do. Most people would think it's wonderful when someone says "I'm willing Lord, to do whatever you want me to do". But since there are no actual gods talking to us, that void is filled in by people with their own corruptions and limitations and agendas.
This is why rational people, anti-religionists, must end their timidity and come out of the closet and assert themselves. And those who consider themselves only moderately religious really need to look in the mirror and recognize that the solace and comfort that religion brings you actually comes at a terrible price.
If you belonged to a political party or a social club that was tied to as much bigotry, misogyny, violence, and sheer ignorance as religion is, you'd resign in protest. To do otherwise is to be an enabler, a mafia wife for the true devils of extremism that draw their legitimacy from the millions of their fellow followers.
-- Bill Maher
Q. So what you're testifying here is that modern genetics and molecular biology actually support evolutionary theory?
A. They support it in great detail. And the closer that we can get to looking at the details of the human genome, the more powerful the evidence has become.
-- Ken Miller at the Dover trial http://tinyurl.com/2llumn
An essential element in the teaching of science is the encouragement of students and teachers to critically appraise the evidence for notions being taught as science. The Society states unequivocally that the dogmatic teaching of notions such as Creationism within a science curriculum stifles the development of critical thinking patterns in the developing mind and seriously compromises the best interests of objective public education. This could eventually hamper the advancement of science and technology as students take their places as leaders of future generations.
— Geological Society of Australia
The Hominidae (anglicized hominids, also known as great apes) form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzee, gorillas, humans, and orangutans. -- Wikipedia
"Yet Darwin looked beyond the obvious, suggesting--and supporting with copious evidence--two ideas that forever dispelled the idea of deliberate design. Those ideas were evolution and natural selection. He was not the first to think of evolution--several before him, including his own grandfather Erasmus Darwin, floated the idea that life had evolved. But Darwin was the first to use data from nature to convince people that evolution is true, and his idea of natural selection was truly novel. It testifies to his genius that the concept of natural theology, accepted by most educated Westerners before 1859, was vanquished within only a few years by a single five-hundred-page book. On the Origin of Species turned the mysteries of life's diversity from mythology into genuine science."
-- Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne.
Creation science has not entered the curriculum for a reason so simple and so basic that we often forget to mention it: because it is false, and because good teachers understand exactly why it is false. What could be more destructive of that most fragile yet most precious commodity in our entire intellectual heritage -- good teaching -- than a bill forcing honorable teachers to sully their sacred trust by granting equal treatment to a doctrine not only known to be false, but calculated to undermine any general understanding of science as an enterprise?
-- Stephen Jay Gould
-- Upton Sinclair
I can't believe the special stories that have been made up about our relationship to the universe at large because they seem to be too simple, too local, too provincial. The earth, he came to the earth, one of the aspects of god came to the earth mind you, and look at what's out there. It isn't in proportion.
-- Richard Feyman
To accept evolution isn't just to acknowledge the obvious, that the evidence behind it is overwhelming. It is to open one's eyes to the endless beauty that life has generated and continues to produce. It is to become a knowing participant in the truest sense, in the living world of which we are all a part.
-- Ken Miller
There is probably no other notion in any field of science that has been as extensively tested and as thoroughly corroborated as the evolutionary origin of living organisms.
-- Encyclopedia Britannica
From the movie: You killed god sir. You have killed god.
THEORY: In science, a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses. The contention that evolution should be taught as a "theory, not as a fact" confuses the common use of these words with the scientific use. In science, theories do not turn into facts through the accumulation of evidence. Rather, theories are the end points of science. They are understandings that develop from extensive observation, experimentation, and creative reflection. They incorporate a large body of scientific facts, laws, tested hypotheses, and logical inferences. In this sense, evolution is one of the strongest and most useful scientific theories we have.
-- National Academy of Sciences
Evolution is God's redundancy notice, his pink slip.
-- Richard Dawkins
For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents.
-- The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Even without fossils, we have evidence of human evolution from comparative anatomy, embryology, our vestigial traits, and even biogeography. We've learned of our fishlike embryos, our dead genes, our transitory fetal coat of hair, and our poor design, all testifying to our origins. The fossil record is really the icing on the cake.
-- Jerry Coyne
Religion is a cruel hoax sustained by miracles, fear, superstition and ignorance. Evolution is a science sustained by proven facts. Take your pick.
-- Dean Carson
The first thing to notice is that Mooney and Kirshenbaum are confused about the nature of the problem. The goal is not to get more Americans to merely accept the truth of evolution (or any other scientific theory); the goal is to get them to value the principles of reasoning and educated discourse that now make a belief in evolution obligatory. Doubt about evolution is merely a symptom of an underlying problem; the problem is faith itself—conviction without sufficient reason, hope mistaken for knowledge, bad ideas protected from good ones, good ideas occluded by bad ones, wishful thinking elevated to a principle of salvation, etc. Mooney and Kirshenbaum seem to imagine that we can get people to value intellectual honesty by lying to them.
-- Sam Harris
Scientific education and religious education are incompatible. The clergy have ceased to interfere with education at the advanced state, with which I am directly concerned, but they have still got control of that of children. This means that the children have to learn about Adam and Noah instead of about Evolution; about David who killed Goliath, instead of Koch who killed cholera; about Christ's ascent into heaven instead of Montgolfier's and Wright's. Worse than that, they are taught that it is a virtue to accept statements without adequate evidence, which leaves them a prey to quacks of every kind in later life, and makes it very difficult for them to accept the methods of thought which are successful in science.
-- J.B.S. Haldane
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
Should Creationism be taught in public schools?
Oh God, no. Oh, Jesus. We thought we had made a big advance with the Scopes monkey trial….My God, evolution is a fact, and if these people are disturbed by being the descendants of monkeys and fishes, they’ve got a mental problem. We can’t afford the psychiatric bill for them. That ends the story as far as I’m concerned.
-- Mike Gravel, former Democratic United States Senator from Alaska, who served two terms from 1969 to 1981, and a former candidate in the 2008 presidential election.
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.
-- Charles Darwin
If the history of science teaches us anything, it is that what conquers our ignorance is research, not giving up and attributing our ignorance to the miraculous work of a creator.
-- Jerry Coyne
Science is a philosophy of discovery, intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance.
-- Neil deGrasse Tyson
Darwin knew a lot of biology: more than any of his contemporaries, more than a surprising number of his successors. From prolonged thought and study, he was able to intuit how evolution worked without having access to all the subsequent scientific knowledge that others required to be convinced of natural selection. He had the objectivity to put aside criteria with powerful emotional resonance, like the conviction that evolution should be purposeful. As a result, he saw deep into the strange workings of the evolutionary mechanism, an insight not really exceeded until a century after his great work of synthesis.
-- New York Times
Darwin’s theory of evolution has become the bedrock of modern biology. But for most of the theory’s existence since 1859, even biologists have ignored or vigorously opposed it, in whole or in part. It is a testament to Darwin’s extraordinary insight that it took almost a century for biologists to understand the essential correctness of his views.
-- New York Times
If the history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worse than ignorant, they are deluded to the point of perversity. They are denying not only the facts of biology but those of physics, geology, cosmology, archaeology, history and chemistry as well. This chapter is about how we know the ages of rocks and the fossils embedded in them. It presents evidence that the timescale on which life has operated on this planet is measured not in thousands of years but in thousands of millions of years.
-- "The Greatest Show on Earth, The Evidence for Evolution" by Richard Dawkins
ID creationism adherents believe in ID creationism because they haven't considered, or don't want to consider, the possibility that they're just retarded. Well, it's time for them to consider it.
-- Mike Toreno
It takes nothing more than a child of a few years to understand the incompatibility of understanding how the world works as opposed to essentially Santa Claus type thinking. It is a matter of honesty to admit that someone being raised from the dead is not a belief compatible with what we know of in science or that the myriad of religious beliefs from around the world are simply not square with the scientific knowledge of the day. It is rank dishonesty to pretend that science and religion are compatible while trying to backdoor tons of material as 'outside' the realm of science.
-- KevinB
To accept evolution isn't just to acknowledge the obvious, that the evidence behind it is overwhelming. It is to open one's eyes to the endless beauty that life has generated and continues to produce. It is to become a knowing participant in the truest sense, in the living world of which we are all a part.
-- Ken Miller
Your Discovery Institute is a horrific mistake, an epic intellectual tragedy that is degrading the minds of those who consume its products and bringing dishonor to you and to the church. It is for good reason that Casey Luskin is held in such extreme contempt by your movement's critics, and there's something truly sick about the pattern of attacks that your operatives launched in the weeks after the Biola event. It's clear that you have a cadre of attack dogs that do this work for you, and some of them seem unconstrained by standards of integrity. I can't state this strongly enough: the Discovery Institute is a dangerous cancer on the Christian intellect, both because of its unyielding commitment to dishonesty and because of its creepy mission to undermine science itself. I'd like to see you do better, but I have no such hope for your institute. It needs to be destroyed, and I will do what I can to bring that about.
http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2010/06/open-letter-to-stephen-meyer.html
There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, and science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works.
-- Stephen Hawking
But, as Lovan noted in his piece, “83 percent of home-schooling parents want to give their children ‘religious or moral instruction.’” I weep for those children. For many of them are simply being brainwashed by their parents. Yes, that’s what it is—brainwashing. For a parent to ignore 150 years of solid science, feeding their children lies based on theology, is to deprive those children of the wonder of the universe—a wonder based on truth rather than medieval superstition. It kills off the part of a child that most needs nurturing: her sense of wonder, and all the possibilities of life that are opened up by that wonder. How many budding biologists have been stifled by their parents’ willful ignorance of science, and on their insistence that the Bible is the real source of biological information? Generation after generation of ignorance and religious dogmatism, all perpetuated by religously based home-schooling.
-- Jerry Coyne http://tinyurl.com/yclezr6
Humans aren't high on the evolutionary scale…there is no evolutionary scale. We aren't the pinnacle of anything.
-- PZ Myers
You know, there’s this pervasive idea in biology that I think is wrong. It goes: we humans are at the pinnacle of the evolutionary tree, and as you get up that tree, brain size must get bigger. But a fly is just as evolved as a human. It’s just evolved to a different niche.
-- Jeremy Niven
It would be so nice if those who oppose evolution would take a tiny bit of trouble to learn the merest rudiments of what it is they are opposing.
-- Richard Dawkins
The field of molecular biology provides the most detailed and convincing evidence available for biological evolution. In its unveiling of the nature of DNA and the workings of organisms at the level of enzymes and other protein molecules, it has shown that these molecules hold information about an organism’s ancestry. This has made it possible to reconstruct evolutionary events that were previously unknown and to confirm and adjust the view of events already known. The precision with which these events can be reconstructed is one reason the evidence from molecular biology is so compelling.
-- Encyclopedia Britannica
Chance alone cannot explain the marvelous fit between individuals and their environment. And it doesn't. True, the raw materials for evolution--the variations between individuals--are indeed produced by chance mutations. These mutations occur willy-nilly, regardless of whether they are good or bad for the individual. But it is the filtering of that variation by natural selection that produces adaptations, and natural selection is manifestly not random. It is a powerful molding force, accumulating genes that have a greater chance of being passed on to others, and in so doing making individuals even better able to cope with their environment. It is, then, the unique combination of mutation and selection--chance and lawfulness--that tells us how organisms become adapted.
-- Jerry Coyne, Why Evolution is True
As man advances in civilization, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all the members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races. If, indeed, such men are separated from him by great differences in appearance or habits, experience unfortunately shows us how long it is, before we look at them as our fellow-creatures. ... This virtue, one of the noblest with which man is endowed, seems to arise incidentally from our sympathies becoming more tender and more widely diffused, until they are extended to all sentient beings. As soon as this virtue is honored and practiced by some few men, it spreads through instruction and example to the young, and eventually becomes incorporated in public opinion.
-- Charles Darwin; The Descent of Man, 1871
If anything is absolutely, rock-bottom true, it’s that life evolved, beginning about 4 billion years ago, and that the creation myth of Genesis is completely wrong.
-- Jerry Coyne
The plight of many science teachers today is not less dire. When they attempt to expound the central and guiding principle of biology; when they honestly place the living world in its historical context -- which means evolution; when they explore and explain the very nature of life itself, they are harried and stymied, hassled and bullied, even threatened with loss of their jobs. At the very least their time is wasted at every turn. They are likely to receive menacing letters from parents, and have to endure the sarcastic smirks and close-folded arms of brainwashed children. They are supplied with state-approved textbooks that have had the word 'evolution' systematically expunged, or bowdlerized into 'change over time'.
-- "The Greatest Show on Earth, The Evidence for Evolution" by Richard Dawkins
The Theologian is an owl, sitting on an old dead branch in the tree of human knowledge, and hooting the same old hoots that have been hooted for hundreds and thousands of years, but he has never given a hoot for progress.
-- Emmett F. Fields
Evolution is a fact. Beyond reasonable doubt, beyond serious doubt, beyond sane, informed, intelligent doubt, beyond doubt evolution is a fact. The evidence for evolution is at least as strong as the evidence for the Holocaust, even allowing for eye witnesses to the Holocaust. It is the plain truth that we are cousins of chimpanzees, somewhat more distant cousins of monkeys, more distant cousins still of aardvarks and mantenees, yet more distant cousins of bananas and turnips ... continue the list as long as long as desired. That didn't have to be true. It is not self-evidently, tautologically, obviously true, and there was a time when most people, even educated people, thought it wasn't. It didn't have to be true, but it is. We know this because a rising flood of evidence supports it. Evolution is a fact, and this book will demonstrate it. No reputable scientist disputes it, and no unbiased reader will close the book doubting it.
-- The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins
Your comments are evidence yet again, though it isn't needed, that religions only survive because of the invincible ignorance of their practitioners. Not just ignorance of biology, and physics, and geology, and cosmology, but ignorance of history, and of anthropology, and sociology and psychology. An ignorance that enables the individual member at one particluar time and place to imagine that they, uniquely, have the truth, and that all of the other billions of humans who live now, and lived in the past, didn't. What extraordinary arrogance and ignorance. Encouraged, indeed demanded, by the leaders of every religious cult, for various motives that have nothing to do with any supposed reality of an imaginary second life. And everything to do with power, and wealth, and misogyny, and xenophobia.
-- David Horton
Over the past quarter-century, poll after poll has revealed that nearly half of all Americans flatly reject evolution, many clinging to the ancient superstition that the earth was created only 6,000 years ago, complete with all existing species. But as Richard Dawkins shows in his splendid new book, The Greatest Show on Earth, the theory of evolution is supported by at least as much evidence as is the germ theory of disease--heaps of it, and from many areas of biology. So why is it contemptible to reject germ theory but socially acceptable to reject evolutionary theory?
One answer is religion. Unlike germ theory, the idea of evolution strikes at the heart of human ego, suggesting that we were not the special object of God's attention but were made by the same blind and mindless process of natural selection that also built ferns, fish and rabbits. Another answer is ignorance: most Americans are simply unaware of the multifarious evidence that makes evolution more than "just a theory," and don't even realize that a scientific theory is far more than idle speculation.
-- Jerry Coyne
Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution.
-- Theodosius Dobzhansky
Darwin matters because evolution matters. Evolution matters because science matters. Science matters because it is the preeminent story of our age, an epic saga about who we are, where we came from, and where we are going.
-- Michael Shermer
Evolution is God's redundancy notice, his pink slip.
-- Richard Dawkins http://tinyurl.com/l4n2ar
The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored. In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.
-- Richard Dawkins
I should love to have everybody taught about evolution from a fairly early age, because it is so important, so exciting. It answers so many questions and mysteries; it solves so many problems. Until you know about it, you're wandering around on this Earth looking at trees and birds and flowers, not knowing why any of them is there. Evolution is the answer to that riddle, so you're not really a whole person if you don't know where you come from and why you exist. And it's not difficult. It's not like relativity, it's not like quantum theory – it's something teachable to fairly young children.
-- Richard Dawkins
Darwin anticipated problems with his theory. Modern science has
answered them. Evolution by Natural Selection has been triumphantly
vindicated as fact.
-- Richard Dawkins
So the case is closed in a most beautiful way, and that is, the prediction of evolution of common ancestry is fulfilled by that lead-pipe evidence that you see here in terms of tying everything together, that our chromosome formed by the fusion from our common ancestor is Chromosome Number 2. Evolution has made a testable prediction and has passed.
-- Ken Miller at the Dover trial http://tinyurl.com/2llumn
In October 2008 a group of about sixty American high-school teachers met at the Center for Science Education of Emory University, in Atlanta. Some of the horror stories they had to tell deserve wide attention. One teacher reported that students 'burst into tears' when told they would be studying evolution. Another teacher described how students repeatedly screamed 'No!' when he began talking about evolution in class. Another reported that pupils demanded to know why they had to learn about evolution, given that it was 'only a theory'. Yet another teacher described how 'churches train students to come to school with specific questions to ask to sabotage my lessons'.
-- "The Greatest Show on Earth, The Evidence for Evolution" by Richard Dawkins
Now, nearly 150 years later, we can see. We no longer look at Nature's diversity "as a savage looks at a ship." From the new DNA record, the evidence of the workings of the evolutionary process abounds. But many people--a great many--either do not see what scientists see, or do not believe what scientists have concluded.
I have borrowed the title of this chapter from the wonderful book Seeing and Believing by Richard Panek, about the invention of the telescope and how it changed our perception of the sky and our place in the universe. Like Darwin, Galileo's observations and ideas were rejected by authorities who had no use for new evidence or ideas. But, eventually, the observable evidence overwhelmed ideological resistance. For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents.
With the facts on evolution's side, how can this doubt and denial persist, or even be growing, here at the outset of the twenty-first century?
-- "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll
The faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences is committed to the highest standards of scientific integrity and academic function. This commitment carries with it unwavering support for academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas. It also demands the utmost respect for the scientific method, integrity in the conduct of research, and recognition that the validity of any scientific model comes only as a result of rational hypothesis testing, sound experimentation, and findings that can be replicated by others.
The department faculty, then, are unequivocal in their support of evolutionary theory, which has its roots in the seminal work of Charles Darwin and has been supported by findings accumulated over 140 years. The sole dissenter from this position, Prof. Michael Behe, is a well-known proponent of "intelligent design." While we respect Prof. Behe's right to express his views, they are his alone and are in no way endorsed by the department. It is our collective position that intelligent design has no basis in science, has not been tested experimentally, and should not be regarded as scientific.
-- Lehigh University Department of Biological Sciences - Department Position on Evolution and "Intelligent Design"
Evolution is both a scientific fact and a scientific theory. Evolution is a fact in the sense that life has changed through time. In nature today, the characteristics of species are changing, and new species are arising. The fossil record is the primary factual evidence for evolution in times past, and evolution is well documented by further evidence from other scientific disciplines, including comparative anatomy, biogeography, genetics, molecular biology, and studies of viral and bacterial diseases. Evolution is also a theory – an explanation for the observed changes in life through Earth history that has been tested numerous times and repeatedly confirmed.
-- Paleontological Society
While modern biologists constantly study and deliberate the patterns, mechanisms, and pace of evolution, they agree that all living things share common ancestors. The fossil record and the diversity of extant organisms, combined with modern techniques of molecular biology, taxonomy, and geology, provide exhaustive examples of and powerful evidence for current evolutionary theory. Genetic variation, natural selection, speciation, and extinction are well-established components of modern evolutionary theory. Explanations are constantly modified and refined as warranted by new scientific evidence that accumulates over time, which demonstrates the integrity and validity of the field. Scientists have firmly established evolution as an important natural process.
-- National Association of Biology Teachers
It is our view that a reasonable, objective observer would, after reviewing both the voluminous record in this case, and our narrative, reach the inescapable conclusion that ID is an interesting theological argument, but that it is not science ... In summary, the [school board's] disclaimer singles out the theory of evolution for special treatment, misrepresents its status in the scientific community, causes students to doubt its validity without scientific justification, presents students with a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory, directs them to consult a creationist text [Of Pandas and People] as though it were a science resource, and instructs students to forego scientific inquiry in the public school classroom and instead to seek out religious instruction elsewhere.
-- Judge Jones' decision in the 2005 Dover trial
Fortunately, there is, however, an altogether new way of deciphering species' relationships. It also relies on DNA, but rather than being based on the degree of sequence similarity, it looks for the presence and absence of certain landmarks in specific places in species DNA. These landmarks are produced by accidental insertions of junk DNA sequences near genes. Particular chunks of junk DNA, call long interspersed elements (LINES) and short interspersed elements (SINES), are very easy to detect. Once a SINE or LINE is inserted, there is no active mechanism for removing it. The insertion of these elements marks a gene in a species, and is then inherited by all species descended from it. They are really perfect tracers of genealogy. These insertion events are very rare; therefore, their presence in the same place in the DNA of two species can be explained only by the species sharing a common ancestor. The inheritance of variable markers in DNA is the same principle applied to paternity testing in humans. By surveying the distribution of a number of elements that arose at different times in different ancestors, biologists have sufficient forensic evidence to determine species' kinship beyond any doubt.
-- "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll
My point here is that there is an incredible amount of evidence for evolution, far more than any one person can digest, and that it is a vital field, still growing and still producing new results. All those papers don't get published unless they contain some new observation, a new experiment, a new test of the idea…and evolution has weathered them all.
-- PZ Myers
The plain fact is, religion must die for mankind to live. The hour is getting very late to be able to indulge in having key decisions being made by religious people, by irrationalists, by those who would steer the ship of state not by a compass, but by the equivalent of reading the entrails of a chicken.
Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. It's nothing to brag about. And those who preach faith and enable and elevate it are our intellectual slave holders, keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction.
Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings who don't have all the answers to think that they do. Most people would think it's wonderful when someone says "I'm willing Lord, to do whatever you want me to do". But since there are no actual gods talking to us, that void is filled in by people with their own corruptions and limitations and agendas.
This is why rational people, anti-religionists, must end their timidity and come out of the closet and assert themselves. And those who consider themselves only moderately religious really need to look in the mirror and recognize that the solace and comfort that religion brings you actually comes at a terrible price.
If you belonged to a political party or a social club that was tied to as much bigotry, misogyny, violence, and sheer ignorance as religion is, you'd resign in protest. To do otherwise is to be an enabler, a mafia wife for the true devils of extremism that draw their legitimacy from the millions of their fellow followers.
-- Bill Maher
Q. So what you're testifying here is that modern genetics and molecular biology actually support evolutionary theory?
A. They support it in great detail. And the closer that we can get to looking at the details of the human genome, the more powerful the evidence has become.
-- Ken Miller at the Dover trial http://tinyurl.com/2llumn
An essential element in the teaching of science is the encouragement of students and teachers to critically appraise the evidence for notions being taught as science. The Society states unequivocally that the dogmatic teaching of notions such as Creationism within a science curriculum stifles the development of critical thinking patterns in the developing mind and seriously compromises the best interests of objective public education. This could eventually hamper the advancement of science and technology as students take their places as leaders of future generations.
— Geological Society of Australia
The Hominidae (anglicized hominids, also known as great apes) form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzee, gorillas, humans, and orangutans. -- Wikipedia
"Yet Darwin looked beyond the obvious, suggesting--and supporting with copious evidence--two ideas that forever dispelled the idea of deliberate design. Those ideas were evolution and natural selection. He was not the first to think of evolution--several before him, including his own grandfather Erasmus Darwin, floated the idea that life had evolved. But Darwin was the first to use data from nature to convince people that evolution is true, and his idea of natural selection was truly novel. It testifies to his genius that the concept of natural theology, accepted by most educated Westerners before 1859, was vanquished within only a few years by a single five-hundred-page book. On the Origin of Species turned the mysteries of life's diversity from mythology into genuine science."
-- Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne.
Creation science has not entered the curriculum for a reason so simple and so basic that we often forget to mention it: because it is false, and because good teachers understand exactly why it is false. What could be more destructive of that most fragile yet most precious commodity in our entire intellectual heritage -- good teaching -- than a bill forcing honorable teachers to sully their sacred trust by granting equal treatment to a doctrine not only known to be false, but calculated to undermine any general understanding of science as an enterprise?
-- Stephen Jay Gould
Saturday, February 9, 2019
Evolution deniers, also known as creationists because they think every species was magically created out of nothing, are stupid fucking assholes.
Like Darwin, Galileo's observations and ideas were rejected by authorities who had no use for new evidence or ideas. But, eventually, the observable evidence overwhelmed ideological resistance. For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents.
-- "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll
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This blog has 109 posts about books at BOOKS.
This blog has 409 posts about my favorite quotes at My favorite quotes.
This blog has 394 posts with music (mostly classical music) at music.
This blog has 337 posts about the evidence for evolution at evidence for evolution.
This blog has 22 posts about the Easter Bunny at Easter Bunny.
-- "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
This blog has 109 posts about books at BOOKS.
This blog has 409 posts about my favorite quotes at My favorite quotes.
This blog has 394 posts with music (mostly classical music) at music.
This blog has 337 posts about the evidence for evolution at evidence for evolution.
This blog has 22 posts about the Easter Bunny at Easter Bunny.
Monday, January 7, 2019
Some more of my favorite quotes about evolution
Now, nearly 150 years later, we can see. We no longer look at Nature's diversity "as a savage looks at a ship." From the new DNA record, the evidence of the workings of the evolutionary process abounds. But many people--a great many--either do not see what scientists see, or do not believe what scientists have concluded.
I have borrowed the title of this chapter from the wonderful book Seeing and Believing by Richard Panek, about the invention of the telescope and how it changed our perception of the sky and our place in the universe. Like Darwin, Galileo's observations and ideas were rejected by authorities who had no use for new evidence or ideas. But, eventually, the observable evidence overwhelmed ideological resistance. For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents.
-- "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll
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“If you believe in Creationism, I just want to open my heart to you and say that you’re a fucking moron.”
-- Marc Maron, comedian
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If there's a paper in one of the big journals that discusses more evidence for evolution, there is a creationist hack somewhere who'll quickly write it up and lie about it.
-- PZ Myers
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Darwin anticipated problems with his theory. Modern science has
answered them. Evolution by Natural Selection has been triumphantly vindicated as fact.
-- Richard Dawkins
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Darwin matters because evolution matters. Evolution matters because science matters. Science matters because it is the preeminent story of our age, an epic saga about who we are, where we came from, and where we are going.
-- Michael Shermer
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When we no longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as something wholly beyond his comprehension; when we regard every production of nature as one which has had a long history; when we contemplate every complex structure and instinct as the summing up of many contrivances, each useful to the possessor, in the same way as any great mechanical invention is the summing up of the labour, the experience, the reason, and even the blunders of numerous workmen; when we thus view each organic being, how far more interesting - I speak from experience - does the study of natural history become!
— Charles Darwin
I have borrowed the title of this chapter from the wonderful book Seeing and Believing by Richard Panek, about the invention of the telescope and how it changed our perception of the sky and our place in the universe. Like Darwin, Galileo's observations and ideas were rejected by authorities who had no use for new evidence or ideas. But, eventually, the observable evidence overwhelmed ideological resistance. For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents.
-- "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll
•••••••••••••••••••••••••
“If you believe in Creationism, I just want to open my heart to you and say that you’re a fucking moron.”
-- Marc Maron, comedian
•••••••••••••••••••••••••
If there's a paper in one of the big journals that discusses more evidence for evolution, there is a creationist hack somewhere who'll quickly write it up and lie about it.
-- PZ Myers
•••••••••••••••••••••••••
Darwin anticipated problems with his theory. Modern science has
answered them. Evolution by Natural Selection has been triumphantly vindicated as fact.
-- Richard Dawkins
•••••••••••••••••••••••••
Darwin matters because evolution matters. Evolution matters because science matters. Science matters because it is the preeminent story of our age, an epic saga about who we are, where we came from, and where we are going.
-- Michael Shermer
•••••••••••••••••••••••••
When we no longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as something wholly beyond his comprehension; when we regard every production of nature as one which has had a long history; when we contemplate every complex structure and instinct as the summing up of many contrivances, each useful to the possessor, in the same way as any great mechanical invention is the summing up of the labour, the experience, the reason, and even the blunders of numerous workmen; when we thus view each organic being, how far more interesting - I speak from experience - does the study of natural history become!
— Charles Darwin
Friday, August 31, 2018
This is for know-nothing creationist fucktards: You better think. More evidence for evolution. "The inheritance of variable markers in DNA is the same principle applied to paternity testing in humans."
Fortunately, there is, however, an altogether new way of deciphering species' relationships. It also relies on DNA, but rather than being based on the degree of sequence similarity, it looks for the presence and absence of certain landmarks in specific places in species DNA. These landmarks are produced by accidental insertions of junk DNA sequences near genes. Particular chunks of junk DNA, call long interspersed elements (LINES) and short interspersed elements (SINES), are very easy to detect. Once a SINE or LINE is inserted, there is no active mechanism for removing it. The insertion of these elements marks a gene in a species, and is then inherited by all species descended from it. They are really perfect tracers of genealogy. These insertion events are very rare; therefore, their presence in the same place in the DNA of two species can be explained only by the species sharing a common ancestor. The inheritance of variable markers in DNA is the same principle applied to paternity testing in humans. By surveying the distribution of a number of elements that arose at different times in different ancestors, biologists have sufficient forensic evidence to determine species' kinship beyond any doubt.
The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Friday, July 13, 2018
The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll.
In 2006 I read The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll. I'm reading it again. Even though it's now 12 years old it's still worth reading.
The book repeatedly nails down evolution as fact. The DNA evidence which grows everyday is way beyond overwhelming.
One chapter is about the fucking retards who want to throw out two centuries of scientific progress and replace this science with magical creation, a childish fantasy American morons share with Muslim terrorists.
"The denial of evolution requires the denial of the bedrock of two centuries of biology and geology. That is quite a feat."
"For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents."
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From a book review:
DNA is the genetic material that defines us as individuals. Over the last two decades, it has emerged as a powerful tool for solving crimes and determining guilt and innocence. But, very recently, an important new aspect of DNA has been revealed―it contains a detailed record of evolution. That is, DNA is a living chronicle of how the marvelous creatures that inhabit our planet have adapted to its many environments, from the freezing waters of the Antarctic to the lush canopy of the rain forest.
In the pages of this highly readable narrative, Sean Carroll guides the general reader on a tour of the massive DNA record of three billion years of evolution to see how the fittest are made. And what a eye-opening tour it is―one featuring immortal genes, fossil genes, and genes that bear the scars of past battles with horrible diseases. This book clinches the case for evolution, beyond any reasonable doubt.
The book repeatedly nails down evolution as fact. The DNA evidence which grows everyday is way beyond overwhelming.
One chapter is about the fucking retards who want to throw out two centuries of scientific progress and replace this science with magical creation, a childish fantasy American morons share with Muslim terrorists.
"The denial of evolution requires the denial of the bedrock of two centuries of biology and geology. That is quite a feat."
"For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents."
•••••••••••••••••••••••
From a book review:
DNA is the genetic material that defines us as individuals. Over the last two decades, it has emerged as a powerful tool for solving crimes and determining guilt and innocence. But, very recently, an important new aspect of DNA has been revealed―it contains a detailed record of evolution. That is, DNA is a living chronicle of how the marvelous creatures that inhabit our planet have adapted to its many environments, from the freezing waters of the Antarctic to the lush canopy of the rain forest.
In the pages of this highly readable narrative, Sean Carroll guides the general reader on a tour of the massive DNA record of three billion years of evolution to see how the fittest are made. And what a eye-opening tour it is―one featuring immortal genes, fossil genes, and genes that bear the scars of past battles with horrible diseases. This book clinches the case for evolution, beyond any reasonable doubt.
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
There is no debate about the established truth of evolution for the same reason there is no debate about whether or not the Earth is flat. America's bible-thumping anti-science morons are equal to flat-earthers, equally insane.
One of the many reasons the United States is called "Idiot America" is our millions of uneducated morons who want to throw out the foundation of biology, aka evolution by natural selection.
This is a religious problem and it's a stupidity problem. Their other problems include extreme laziness, zero curiosity, and a cowardly fear of reality.
I ask these assholes for Jeebus to educate themselves. Always, 100% of the time, they invent excuses to know nothing about the science that makes them cry.
On their side is the Islamic State terrorists and Alabama preachers. On the side of evolution we have thousands of evidences, evidence that grows everyday, evidence anyone can study if they grow up and fucking study it.
We have something called "Looking things up". This requires the ability to use Google search. Not difficult, a 4 year old could do it. Do these fucktards for Jeebus look things up? Of course not. There is no reason to learn anything because the bible says god did it. I can't imagine the stupidity required to be so fucking lazy.
Some links about the overwhelming and still growing evidence for evolution:
Google Search: wikipedia evidence for evolution
Wikipedia - Evidence of common descent This one has numerous links to more evidences for evolution, and those links have numerous more links to still more evidence for evolution. All this stuff would take several lifetimes to study.
There is more:
Encyclopedia Britannica - The Science Of Evolution Like wikipedia this also is huge and it also has numerous links to more evidences for evolution.
Encyclopedia Britannica - This about how evolution works and the history of this science. It's huge with more links.
There is more:
I have read these 5 books about evolution, they are all excellent and there is virtually no overlap. The books explain different evidences for evolution. And all this evidence is just a tiny fraction of the overwhelming evidence that grows every day.
"You Inner Fish" is the only book on this list that completely ignores the existence of creationist fucktards. That's the way it should be. The know-nothing bible-thumpers should be ignored because they're fucking insane.
Your Inner Fish - A Journey Into The 3.5-Billion-Year History Of The Human Body by Neil Shubin
Why Evolution Is True by Jerry Coyne
The Making of the Fittest - DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Evolution - The Triumph of an Idea by Carl Zimmer
The Greatest Show on Earth - The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins
There is a 6th book I'm reading now. The very knowledgeable authors of this book used to be god-soaked science-deniers. Because they were infected with the creationist stupidity they decided a book about this subject should suck up to religious morons. And wow do they suck up. They explain why all the creationist misconceptions are wrong and they go way out of their way to be nice about it, and then they politely explain the evidences that show why the creationists are wrong. Despite the sucking up the book is very well done.
Does their sucking up to morons accomplish anything? Probably not. In any case religious fucktards will never buy the book.
"God's Word or Human Reason? An inside Perspective on Creationism" by Jonathan Kane, Emily Willoughby, and Michael Keesey.
The idea is should people think or should they just praise the Magic Jeebus Man? The authors politely explain why thinking is a good thing.
Can a creationist fucktard learn how to think? I doubt it but these 3 authors figured it out.
The problem is not just the breathtaking stupidity of evolution deniers. The worst problem is the never ending Christian war against science education. Christian assholes are constantly trying to tell biology teachers how to do their jobs. They harass and threaten biology teachers. It's disgusting.
Other assholes for Jeebus don't let their children go to school because they're afraid they might learn something about how the world works, so they homeschool them. Their victims learn how to be stupid.
I never met a Christian who wasn't a stupid fucking asshole.
One more thing: This blog has 289 posts about the evidence for evolution at evidence for evolution.
This is a religious problem and it's a stupidity problem. Their other problems include extreme laziness, zero curiosity, and a cowardly fear of reality.
I ask these assholes for Jeebus to educate themselves. Always, 100% of the time, they invent excuses to know nothing about the science that makes them cry.
On their side is the Islamic State terrorists and Alabama preachers. On the side of evolution we have thousands of evidences, evidence that grows everyday, evidence anyone can study if they grow up and fucking study it.
We have something called "Looking things up". This requires the ability to use Google search. Not difficult, a 4 year old could do it. Do these fucktards for Jeebus look things up? Of course not. There is no reason to learn anything because the bible says god did it. I can't imagine the stupidity required to be so fucking lazy.
Some links about the overwhelming and still growing evidence for evolution:
Google Search: wikipedia evidence for evolution
Wikipedia - Evidence of common descent This one has numerous links to more evidences for evolution, and those links have numerous more links to still more evidence for evolution. All this stuff would take several lifetimes to study.
There is more:
Encyclopedia Britannica - The Science Of Evolution Like wikipedia this also is huge and it also has numerous links to more evidences for evolution.
Encyclopedia Britannica - This about how evolution works and the history of this science. It's huge with more links.
There is more:
I have read these 5 books about evolution, they are all excellent and there is virtually no overlap. The books explain different evidences for evolution. And all this evidence is just a tiny fraction of the overwhelming evidence that grows every day.
"You Inner Fish" is the only book on this list that completely ignores the existence of creationist fucktards. That's the way it should be. The know-nothing bible-thumpers should be ignored because they're fucking insane.
Your Inner Fish - A Journey Into The 3.5-Billion-Year History Of The Human Body by Neil Shubin
Why Evolution Is True by Jerry Coyne
The Making of the Fittest - DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Evolution - The Triumph of an Idea by Carl Zimmer
The Greatest Show on Earth - The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins
There is a 6th book I'm reading now. The very knowledgeable authors of this book used to be god-soaked science-deniers. Because they were infected with the creationist stupidity they decided a book about this subject should suck up to religious morons. And wow do they suck up. They explain why all the creationist misconceptions are wrong and they go way out of their way to be nice about it, and then they politely explain the evidences that show why the creationists are wrong. Despite the sucking up the book is very well done.
Does their sucking up to morons accomplish anything? Probably not. In any case religious fucktards will never buy the book.
"God's Word or Human Reason? An inside Perspective on Creationism" by Jonathan Kane, Emily Willoughby, and Michael Keesey.
The idea is should people think or should they just praise the Magic Jeebus Man? The authors politely explain why thinking is a good thing.
Can a creationist fucktard learn how to think? I doubt it but these 3 authors figured it out.
The problem is not just the breathtaking stupidity of evolution deniers. The worst problem is the never ending Christian war against science education. Christian assholes are constantly trying to tell biology teachers how to do their jobs. They harass and threaten biology teachers. It's disgusting.
Other assholes for Jeebus don't let their children go to school because they're afraid they might learn something about how the world works, so they homeschool them. Their victims learn how to be stupid.
I never met a Christian who wasn't a stupid fucking asshole.
One more thing: This blog has 289 posts about the evidence for evolution at evidence for evolution.
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Imagine the stupidity required to be an evolution denier in the 21st century.
"For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents."
From The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
From The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
I answered a question about the breathtaking stupidity of Christian fucktards.
"Why do most Christians refuse the fact of Evolution?"
Numerous reasons but mostly it's a stupidity problem.
Also they have no curiosity so they never bother to understand how evolution works and the countless thousands of evidences for it. A good example is know-nothing "Prince" who obviously knows nothing about evolution and he always will know nothing. He refuses to look things up. He gets all his information about science from crackpots. He will never study anything that real scientists explain. No curiosity at all. No desire to learn anything. It's a disease and it's incurable.
How hard is it to google "wikipedia evidence for evolution"? They would find thousands of evidences for evolution with numerous links to more evidence.
Prince is a typical know-nothing science denier. He think fossils are the only evidences for evolution. There are thousands of fossils of transitional species but we don't need any fossils. The evidence from DNA sequencing and numerous other branches of science is many times more powerful than the excellent and still growing fossil record we have.
The science deniers have no idea how much science they have to throw out to justify their childish ridiculous "The Magic Man did it" fantasy.
These sick people go out of their way to know nothing. They will never know what they are or how they got here. Nobody cares. It's their wasted life.
Another problem is they correctly think evolution kills their moronic god fantasy. That means no magical 2nd life in a magical paradise, a fantasy cowards don't want to throw out.
Science hard, hurts brain.
God easy, no think.
"For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents."
-- Sean B. Carroll
"The denial of evolution requires denial of the bedrock of two centuries of biology and geology. That is quite a feat."
-- Sean B. Carroll
Numerous reasons but mostly it's a stupidity problem.
Also they have no curiosity so they never bother to understand how evolution works and the countless thousands of evidences for it. A good example is know-nothing "Prince" who obviously knows nothing about evolution and he always will know nothing. He refuses to look things up. He gets all his information about science from crackpots. He will never study anything that real scientists explain. No curiosity at all. No desire to learn anything. It's a disease and it's incurable.
How hard is it to google "wikipedia evidence for evolution"? They would find thousands of evidences for evolution with numerous links to more evidence.
Prince is a typical know-nothing science denier. He think fossils are the only evidences for evolution. There are thousands of fossils of transitional species but we don't need any fossils. The evidence from DNA sequencing and numerous other branches of science is many times more powerful than the excellent and still growing fossil record we have.
The science deniers have no idea how much science they have to throw out to justify their childish ridiculous "The Magic Man did it" fantasy.
These sick people go out of their way to know nothing. They will never know what they are or how they got here. Nobody cares. It's their wasted life.
Another problem is they correctly think evolution kills their moronic god fantasy. That means no magical 2nd life in a magical paradise, a fantasy cowards don't want to throw out.
Science hard, hurts brain.
God easy, no think.
"For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents."
-- Sean B. Carroll
"The denial of evolution requires denial of the bedrock of two centuries of biology and geology. That is quite a feat."
-- Sean B. Carroll
Monday, January 29, 2018
The breathtaking stupidity of creationist assholes.
Evolution is the strongest fact of science, supported by countless thousands of evidences from numerous branches of science, evidences many times more powerful than Charles Darwin could have imagined possible. This evidence grows every day. Even the most experienced biologists could not keep up with it.
The evolution deniers want to throw out all this science, science they know nothing about, science they don't even know exists, and replace science with the most moronic and most ridiculous fantasy ever invented. A magical being with unlimited magical powers, a fairy who hides somewhere in the universe, somehow found this insignificant planet in the middle of nowhere and waved its magic wand to magically create millions of species out of nothing including 350,000 species of beetles.
I can't even imagine how much stupidity is required to believe this bullshit.
If you want to replace two centuries of scientific progress with your childish magical fantasies then you are a stupid fucking asshole. Get off my planet you worthless know-nothing dipshit.
"For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents."
-- Sean B. Carroll
"The denial of evolution requires denial of the bedrock of two centuries of biology and geology. That is quite a feat."
-- Sean B. Carroll
The evolution deniers want to throw out all this science, science they know nothing about, science they don't even know exists, and replace science with the most moronic and most ridiculous fantasy ever invented. A magical being with unlimited magical powers, a fairy who hides somewhere in the universe, somehow found this insignificant planet in the middle of nowhere and waved its magic wand to magically create millions of species out of nothing including 350,000 species of beetles.
I can't even imagine how much stupidity is required to believe this bullshit.
If you want to replace two centuries of scientific progress with your childish magical fantasies then you are a stupid fucking asshole. Get off my planet you worthless know-nothing dipshit.
"For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents."
-- Sean B. Carroll
"The denial of evolution requires denial of the bedrock of two centuries of biology and geology. That is quite a feat."
-- Sean B. Carroll
Saturday, January 6, 2018
Christian creationists are stupid fucking assholes.
"The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll
I have borrowed the title of this chapter from the wonderful book Seeing and Believing by Richard Panek, about the invention of the telescope and how it changed our perception of the sky and our place in the universe. Like Darwin, Galileo's observations and ideas were rejected by authorities who had no use for new evidence or ideas. But, eventually, the observable evidence overwhelmed ideological resistance. For all of those who do see the overwhelming evidence of natural selection and life's descent from ancestors, and the immense span of time over which the story of life unfolded, it is, to put it mildly, baffling how so many still do not. It is absolutely astonishing and often infuriating that some take it so far as to deny the immense foundation of evidence and to slander all the human achievement that foundation represents.
With the facts on evolution's side, how can this doubt and denial persist, or even be growing, here at the outset of the twenty-first century?
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