Life's a Beach. Order Emerging From Chaos.

Listen to any creationist pseudo-scientist and you be told that something can't come from nothing and that order can't come from chaos, because both of those violate the second law of thermodynamics.



What they really mean of course is that both of those show we can explain the Universe and life on Earth without invoking magic or magic designers, so they'd rather you didn't believe they can both happen by perfectly natural processes. That would dangerously undermine their claim to power and influence and, most importantly, damage their income stream and mean they would need to earn an honest living.



I've already dealt at length with the nonsensical notion that nothing ever existed before there was something in Much Ado About Nothing so I'll now look at the nonsensical claim that order can't emerges from chaos without a magic designer, which I've also touched on with Order From Chaos.



What creationist pseudo-scientists won't tell you of course is that you can observe for yourself order emerging from chaos in, for example, the sand on a beach, as this photograph I took yesterday on a beach in Portugal clearly shows. What can be seen is structure within the otherwise chaotic arrangement of grains of sand due to the action of chaotically arrange water molecules and suspension of sand grains.



One of the great things about being an atheist and knowing a little about science is that you can recognise examples of emergent order and don't need to dismiss them as impossible because you have a superstition which says they are impossible. Look at the photograph and you will see a pattern of diamond shapes on the surface of the sand as the seawater flows off following the breaking of a small wave on a gently-sloping beach.



What happens is that a larger grain of sand is heavy enough to resist the carrying power of the flowing water and settles out. Then small eddies form behind it as the water flows around it and the main flow is channeled into a widening fan shape. This allows more sand grains to settle out in the widening zone downstream of the original sand grain. Repeat this a thousand times over a small area and the resulting interference pattern creates the system of criss-crossing micro-channels and a diamond lattice of newly deposited sand. Structure and order has emerged from chaos and all in complete accord with the laws of thermodynamics.



The driving force which has produced this is of course gravity. Gravity produces the flow of water over the sand and gravity causes the sand grains to settle out when the water loses the power to carry them. Just as gravity can account for structure emerging from the chaos of sand and water so gravity can account for the formation of galaxies, stars and stellar planetary systems.



The analogous force to gravity in living systems is natural selection. Just as gravity causes order to emerge from chaos, so natural selection causes gradual change to emerge from the chaos of random change in genes to produce variation. Just as gravity caused order to emerge from the chaos of randomly distributed particles in the Universe, so natural selection caused diversification to emerge from the chaos of random mutations in DNA.



For reasons of selfishness and greed, creation pseudo-scientists would have you ignore the wonders such as this to be found all around in nature and to dismiss them all as the product of magic, just like Bronze-Age goat herders did.

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A Lot of Cock in Portugal

You see it everywhere; in every tourist shop on ceramics and tea-towels; on tee-shirts and aprons; on pendants and hair-slides and as stand-alone ornaments. You'd be amazed at the number of different ways the Portuguese have found to market the Cock of Barcelos (O Galo de Barcelos).



It has its origins in a Catholic 'miracle' - one of many that abound in this area of Europe from a time before the growth in science and education had made miracles, miracle-workers and prophets largely obsolete in most of the civilised world. The story is normally set in the 17th century and usually involved a young man on a pilgrimage from Galicia to Santiago de Compostela who happened to pass through Barcelos in North-Western Portugal where he was accused of the theft of some silver from a rich man in the town, arrested, tried and condemned to be hanged.



On the day of his execution he pleaded with the hangman to be allowed to speak to the judge who had condemned him. He was taken to the judge's house where the judge was about to entertain guests to dinner, the centrepiece of which was a roasted cockerell. The judge agreed to speak to the man but refused to reprieve him, whereupon the devout pilgrim swore that the cockerel would crow as he was being hanged to show he was innocent. How he managed to identify the roast fowl as male is not stated and would be a minor miracle in itself.



The young man was then taken to the gallows only for the roast cockerell to leap from the plate and crow, whereupon the judge ran to the gallows to reprieved the innocent man only to discover that the hanging had failed due to a faulty knot. Curiously, whichever underling was in charge of the cockerell miracle they had not had the full confidence of whoever was running the whole thing and another miracle had had to be performed just incase the cockerell one failed to work. It always pays to have a back-up plan even when you're inerrant, omniscient and can override the natural order at will it seems.



Anyway, in the best fairy-tale tradition, they all lived happily ever after. In fact, the legend has the young man returning to Barcelos some years later as an artist and sculpture to sculpt the Crucifix of the Lord of the Rooster to thank the Virgin Mary, who apparently organised the whole thing.



Now, if you're prepared to believe that a roast chicken can come back to life and crow you'll have no problem believing that a hangman would take a condemned man to chat with the judge before hanging him; that a judge would interrupt a banquet with friends to listen to him; that this audience would take place in front of the said judge's friends, and that the assembled dinner guests and the judge would neglect to eat the centrepiece of the dinner leaving intact and ready to spring back to life, you'll probably have no difficulty believing this tale.



Although a number of devout Portuguese seem to have difficulty believing parts of it as it exists in several different equally implausible versions:

• In one, the Galician was a guest of the rich man whose silver was stolen.


• In another he was falsely accused by the owner of an inn in which he was lodging.


• In a third, it was a father and son on a pilgrimage when the son was falsely accused. It was the father who called upon the rooster to crow.


• In a fourth, the judge is served the roast cock during the trial (as they do) and the trial is halted when the cock crows to order.


• And in yet another, the young man is not identified as travelling from Galicia.

One wonders what other miracles were dreamed up by local Catholic myth-makers before the supply of miracles, miracle-workers and prophets dried up. Noticeably, they still seem to be doing the same in some parts of the world, as we saw with the phoney Mother Theresa miracles. (See here and here)



Curiously, and against the trend, the number of miracles attributed to recent Popes seems to have increased at around the time they began to be accused of complicity in covering up stories of systematic child abuse by paedophile clerics. Of course, being declared a saint and miracle-worker by an inerrant Pope means that accusations of criminal conspiracy must be false because genuine saints wouldn't do that sort of thing.

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Evolution - Making a Difference In Portugal

The thing about evolution, in fact the main thing about evolution, is not how it leads to new species but how it accentuates small differences and so produces a whole range of variability below the species level - subspecies, regional varieties, races, etc, in different environments.



It does this of course because natural selection act as a filter letting through the 'fitter' alleles at each generation and so increasing the probability of them occurring in the next generation's gene pool. Provided it conveys an advantage a rare allele quickly becomes common, as I showed with a simple spreadsheet in Playing With Evolution.



This was highlighted for me today in Lisbon when I was sitting enjoying a refreshing água mineral com gás (that's a sparkling mineral water) and custard tarts in the grounds of the Castelo de Sao Jorge today. I saw a small bird which looked like a Great Tit (Parus major) only different. I'm familiar enough with British Great Tits to know when they don't look quite right.



The history of European birds, and especially those sedentary species like the titmouse family, is very interesting because it is intimately associated with the last Ice Age and is a wonderful example of how the environment drives evolution. A word of warning though! If you type "Great Tits in Portugal" into Google, be careful what you click on in the result list!



Portugal, as I'm sure you all know, lies on the western edge of the Iberian Peninsula which consists solely of Spain, Portugal and British-owned Gibraltar. The Iberian Peninsula is separated from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees Mountains which act as a barrier to the movement of all sorts of species, like butterflies, moths and small birds, who can only normally interact with other members of their species or genus via narrow coastal strips on the Atlantic or Mediterranean coast. In effect, the Iberian members of a species have a almost isolated gene pool and so would be expected to evolve in their own direction more or less regardless of what is happening in the rest of Euro-Asia.



And that is exactly what we find.



Iberia has an abundance of races, subspecies and varieties of very many European species, and all of these have come about since the last Ice Age, when Iberia, Italy and the Balkans acted as refuges for many European species as ice sheets covered Northern Europe. In effect, the rest of Europe was repopulated from these refuges as the ice retreated some 10,000 years ago and the differences we now see either arose during isolation in these southern refuges or has arisen since. For more on how this procees probably drove diversification in Europe, see Creationists' Macro-Evolution Lie.



So, although I couldn't find any particular references to a particular Iberian form of the Great Tit, and it may well have been just a juvenile, an atypical individual or one showing a seasonal colour variation, the chances are good that what I saw was a regional variety, produced by isolation and by change in the frequency of particular alleles due to the effect of natural selection on its ancestors. The probability is that I saw just another example of evolution in progress.

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Catholic Violence and the History of Japan

Japanese-Portuguese Christian Bell, 1570

Apparently, the reason Christians, mostly Catholic, were persecuted in Japan was because the authorities became alarmed at their intra-sectarian violence and feared it would destabilise peaceful Japanese society which was mostly Buddhist and Shintoist (it's quite possible to be both).



I got this little-known (in the West) snippet of information from one of my brothers in law yesterday evening. He is an acknowledged expert in Japanese art, being the head of Japanese conservation for a major art museum in Boston, MA, USA. He has worked and studied in Japan and speaks fluent Japanese. We had been talking about our impending trip to Lisbon, Portugal tomorrow and got on to discussing the influence of Portugal on Japan and vice versa. He has also worked and taught Japanese art and conservation in Lisbon.



Although some people believe Nestorian (i.e., Syriac or Eastern) Christianity had already been introduced to Japan earlier, the main systematic effort to introduce it came from the Portuguese, and later the Spanish, Catholics between about 1550 and 1600. These missionaries were sponsored by their respective governments and their main function was to act as the advanced guard for Western colonialism and open up Japan to Western Traders - Portuguese and Spanish, naturally - just as they had done and were to do in so much of the world. To that end the missionaries would 'convert' the local officials who would then be especially favoured by the traders. The Portuguese missionaries were exclusively Jesuite while the Spanish were mostly Franciscans and Dominicans.



Once trade was established the traders, backed by the odd warship, would 'negotiate' favourable trading terms, often including handing over the docks and the port towns to the traders to become, in effect, 'free' ports controlled by foreign powers and exempt from taxes and excise duties - a practice that would be called 'smuggling' unless backed by the threat of military intervention. Imagine Boston, San Francisco, Rotterdam or Bristol in foreign hands because it was considered necessary for free trade and the smugglers had got fed up with being arrested!



But apparently, it wasn't so much the creeping colonialism which alarmed the Japanese authorities. It soon became apparent that, whilst preaching peace and brotherly love for all mankind, and whilst professing love for the non-Christian Japanese, what the missionaries really detested were Christians of other sects and from other countries who were trying to muscle in on their racket, a rivalry which often erupted in violence, even between Catholics of different orders. The origins of this, of course, were back in Europe, in particular with different Popes blowing in the political wind and abandoning principles for short-term gain and plumping for whichever side was promising the biggest return:

...religion was also an integral part of the state and evangelization was seen as having both secular and spiritual benefits for both Portugal and Spain. Wherever these powers attempted to expand their territories or influence, missionaries would soon follow. By the Treaty of Tordesillas, the two powers divided the world between them into exclusive spheres of influence, trade and colonization. Although at the time of the demarcation, neither nation had any direct contact with Japan, that nation fell into the sphere of the Portuguese.



The countries disputed the attribution of Japan. Since neither could colonize it, the exclusive right to propagate Christianity in Japan meant the exclusive right to trade with Japan. Portuguese-sponsored Jesuits under Alessandro Valignano took the lead in proselytizing in Japan over the objection of the Spaniards. The fait accompli was approved in Pope Gregory XIII's papal bull of 1575, which decided that Japan belonged to the Portuguese diocese of Macau. In 1588, the diocese of Funai (Nagasaki) was founded under Portuguese protection.



In rivalry with the Jesuits, Spanish-sponsored mendicant orders entered into Japan via Manila. While criticizing Jesuit activities, they actively lobbied the Pope. Their campaigns resulted in Pope Clement VIII's decree of 1600, which allowed Spanish friars to enter Japan via Portuguese India, and Pope Paul V's decree of 1608, which abolished the restrictions on the route. The Portuguese accused Spanish Jesuits of working for their homeland instead of their patron. The power struggle between Jesuits and mendicant orders caused a schism within the diocese of Funai. Furthermore, mendicant orders tried in vain to establish a diocese on the Tohoku region that was to be independent from the Portuguese one.

Wikipedia - History of Roman Catholicism in Japan

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

So, the Japanese authorities acted to 'discourage' the growth of Christianity and prohibit the activities of the 'missionary' shock troops and so nip Western colonialism in the bud. The arrogance, racism, and casual brutality of the Catholic missionaries was to result in a disaster for Christianity in Japan from which it was not to recover until recent time:

By 1587, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had become alarmed, not because of too many converts but rather because the hegemon learned that Christian lords reportedly oversaw forced conversions of retainers and commoners, that they had garrisoned the city of Nagasaki, that they participated in the slave trade of other Japanese and, apparently offending Hideyoshi's Buddhist sentiments, that they allowed the slaughter of horses and oxen for food. He was concerned that divided loyalties might lead to dangerous rebels like the Ikkō-ikki Sect of earlier years and produced his edict expelling missionaries. However, this decree was not particularly enforced.



Toyotomi Hideyoshi promulgated a ban on Catholicism in form of the "Bateren-tsuiho-rei" (the Purge Directive Order to the Jesuits) on July 24, 1587. Hideyoshi put Nagasaki under his direct rule to control Portuguese trade.



When Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued the Bateren-tsuiho-rei, the Jesuits in Japan, led by Coelho, planned armed resistance. At first, they sought help from Kirishitan daimyo but the daimyo refused. Then they called for a deployment of reinforcements from their homeland and its colonies. But this plan was vetoed by Valignano. Like the Kirishitan daimyo, he realized that a military campaign against Japan's powerful ruler would bring catastrophe to Catholicism in Japan. Valignano survived the crisis by laying all the blame on Coelho. In 1590, the Jesuits decided to stop intervening in the struggles between the daimyo and to disarm themselves. They only gave secret shipments of food and financial aid to Kirishitan daimyo.



On February 5, 1597, twenty-six Christians – six European Franciscan missionaries, three Japanese Jesuits and seventeen Japanese laymen including three young boys – were executed by crucifixion in Nagasaki. These individuals were raised on crosses and then pierced through with spears. While there were many more martyrs, the first martyrs came to be especially revered, the most celebrated of which was Paul Miki. The Martyrs of Japan were canonized by the Roman Catholic Church on June 8, 1862 by Blessed Pius IX,[17] and are listed on the calendar as Sts. Paul Miki and his Companions, commemorated on February 6, February 5, the date of their death, being the feast of Saint Agatha.



Persecution continued sporadically, breaking out again in 1613 and 1630. On September 10, 1632, 55 Christians were martyred in Nagasaki in what became known as the Great Genna Martyrdom. At this time Catholicism was officially outlawed. The Church remained without clergy and theological teaching disintegrated until the arrival of Western missionaries in the 19th century.

Wikipedia - History of Roman Catholicism in Japan

Meanwhile, the Dutch, by assuring the Japanese authorities that the last thing they were bothered about was religion, and by sticking to their word, cornered the market in Japanese trade with the West.



Just another example of how religion poisons everything; in this case peaceful contact with, mutually beneficial trade with and culturally enriching contact with, newly-discovered people and societies in the early days of European exploration and the growth in world trade. A legacy of this first contact with the Christian West was a Japanese society deeply suspicious of Western imperialism, which in turn resulted in the Japanese 'preemptive' strike on Pearl Harbour in 1942 in response to a perceived penetration into South-East Asia and the Pacific which was becoming increasingly threatening to Japan.

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God Hates Frogs

The Invasive Chytrid Fungus of Amphibians Paralyzes Lymphocyte Responses



The problem with being an intelligent designer is that when you change your mind and decide your creation was a mistake it can be very difficult to kill just that creation off and not harm the others. Look what happened when it decided to correct its mistake with humans, for example. It ended up killing everything else off too when it used a sledgehammer to crack a nut.



So, when the Intelligent Designer decided it had made a mistake with all those frogs it had to come up with something really clever. It chose a fungus - Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis - to do the work but that wasn't as simple as it sounds. The problem was it had provided frogs with a way to fight fungal infections, what with them living in conditions normally conducive to fungal growth. It had provided them with a group of specialist body cells to cope with them, as well as bacteria. These cells normally crawl around looking for invading cells and ingesting them, then they program other cells to produce antibodies which quickly kill off any more cells if they get into the frog's body.



So, this was a problem for the Intelligent Designer's plan to kill of all the frogs with a fungus.



Luckily it thought up another brilliant plan and changed the fungus a little bit so it now turns off the frog's immune response and allows it to kill the frog and use its body to produce more fungi.

Abstract

The chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, causes chytridiomycosis and is a major contributor to global amphibian declines. Although amphibians have robust immune defenses, clearance of this pathogen is impaired. Because inhibition of host immunity is a common survival strategy of pathogenic fungi, we hypothesized that B. dendrobatidis evades clearance by inhibiting immune functions. We found that B. dendrobatidis cells and supernatants impaired lymphocyte proliferation and induced apoptosis; however, fungal recognition and phagocytosis by macrophages and neutrophils was not impaired. Fungal inhibitory factors were resistant to heat, acid, and protease. Their production was absent in zoospores and reduced by nikkomycin Z, suggesting that they may be components of the cell wall. Evasion of host immunity may explain why this pathogen has devastated amphibian populations worldwide.

The Invasive Chytrid Fungus of Amphibians Paralyzes Lymphocyte Responses

J. Scott Fites, Jeremy P. Ramsey, Whitney M. Holden, Sarah P. Collier, Danica M. Sutherland, Laura K. Reinert, A. Sophia Gayek,

Terence S. Dermody, Thomas M. Aune, Kyra Oswald-Richter, and Louise A. Rollins-Smith

Science 18 October 2013: 342 (6156), 366-369. [DOI:10.1126/science.1243316]

This, of course, looks just like the sort of destructive arms race that evolutionary biologists predict will happen frequently by Darwinian Evolution, and looks just like there is no intelligence behind it because what Intelligent Designer would have to be that creative to overcome a problem of its own creation because it wouldn't have created frogs in the first place if it was going to kill them all off. Nor would it have given them an immune system to overcome fungal infections it it planned all along to kill them all with a fungus, but I expect creationists, especially the professional frauds at the Discovery Institute can think up a good reason why the Intelligent Designer works this way.



Or maybe they'll just ignore the devastation in the frog population which is now occurring on a global scale and just hope their scientifically illiterate and environmentally unaware target audience won't be aware of it either.



Reference:

The Invasive Chytrid Fungus of Amphibians Paralyzes Lymphocyte Responses

J. Scott Fites, Jeremy P. Ramsey, Whitney M. Holden, Sarah P. Collier, Danica M. Sutherland, Laura K. Reinert, A. Sophia Gayek, Terence S. Dermody, Thomas M. Aune, Kyra Oswald-Richter, and Louise A. Rollins-Smith

Science 18 October 2013: 342 (6156), 366-369. [DOI:10.1126/science.1243316]. (Subscription required)

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Evolution in Georgia

Image: Guram Bumbiashvili, Georgian National Museum

Complete skull of 1.8-million-year-old hominin found - life - 17 October 2013 - New Scientist



We have a great example of how science handles new evidence and differing opinion in today's New Scientist. Contrast this to the way religions handle disagreement.



A 1.8 million year-old hominid skull is causing scientists to ask some fundamental questions about the widely accepted model for the human evolutionary tree, going right back to the ape-like australopithecines of East and South Africa and especially the East African group of what are thought to be a contemporaneous group of closely related members of the Homo genus, including one which is on our direct line of descent, H. erectus.



According to the standard model, it was in this East African group that the human brain began to become significantly larger than in the more ape-like australopithecus group. This in turn drove a diversification into three or more different species, H. erectus, H. rudolfensis and H. habilis all living in the same area at the same time. H. erectus later evolved into H. heidelbergensis which then spread out of Africa in the first wave of Homo radiation, giving rise to Neanderthals in Europe, Denisovans in Asia and possibly a third as yet unidentified species, and maybe H. florensis - the so-called 'hobbit'. Meanwhile, the H. heidelbergensis who remained in Africa evolved into modern H. sapiens, some of whom came out of Africa in one or more waves, interbred with Neanderthals and Denisovans to form a brief Homo ring complex in Euro-Asia before we exterminated the earlier species.



Now this has all been called into question by a team led by David Lordkipanidze of the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi who has examined this very well-preserved and complete skull which was recovered from a site at Dmanisi in Georgia, south of the Caucasus Mountains and formerly part of the Soviet Union. This is the fifth, and best preserved hominid skull to be found at Dmanisi which can't realistically be thought of as from different species, and already these skulls have revealed far more variability than we normally expect.



And that begs the question, if H. erectus displayed such a wide variability in Asia, why would we not expect it to have done in East Africa? So, are these assumed three or more different contemporaneous species in East Africa in fact different species, or just normal variations of H. erectus?



What now happens is that some people will come in with tentative opinions, some will question the findings which raise the questions and some will take a neutral stance, pointing out that we still need a lot more information and that all conclusions are provisional.



For example:

We are not against the idea that there might have been multiple species 2 million years ago, but we don't have sufficient fossil evidence to make the distinctions between species.

Christoph Zollikofer, The Anthropological Institute and Museum in Zurich, Switzerland

The specimens from Dmanisi are all H. erectus and the species was variable, but I don't believe all the African fossils belong to H. erectus. Lordkipanidze's analysis suggests even the much more ape-like hominins in the genus Australopithecus belong to the H. erectus group. It is not surprising, then, that the new analysis misses the more subtle shape differences between Homo species.

Fred Spoor, The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany (paraphrased)

I think they will be proved right that some of those early African fossils can reasonably join a variable H. erectus species, but Africa is a huge continent with a deep record of the earliest stages of human evolution, and there certainly seems to have been species-level diversity there prior to 2 million years ago. So I still doubt that all of the 'early Homo' fossils can reasonably be lumped into an evolving H. erectus lineage.

Chris Stringer, The Natural History Museum in London, UK

And that's about as acrimonious as it gets, because everyone recognises that what is important is not that your favourite notion wins but that the truth is eventually arrived at. Truth is the prize we are all seeking.



What a contrast between that and the way religions do it. Fortunately, we've managed to civilise most religions now so they can no longer settle these sorts of disputes with mass slaughter, burnings at the stake or by taking away the livelihood of anyone who dares to disagree or raise a voice of doubt or worse still, question the authority of the church and the privileges of the clerics. If only they weren't overwhelmed by the sheer volume of printed matter disagreeing with them nowadays, they would still be banning, burning and censoring books and scientific opinion too. Only a few hundred years ago publications like the New Scientist would very likely have been banned and the editor, together with the authors of papers such as this one on human evolution would have been prevented from publishing or working in their chosen professions even if they had been lucky enough not to be called before a clerical court, fighting for their lives against a charge of heresy.



Reference:

A Complete Skull from Dmanisi, Georgia, and the Evolutionary Biology of Early Homo

David Lordkipanidze, Marcia S. Ponce de León, Ann Margvelashvili, Yoel Rak, G. Philip Rightmire, Abesalom Vekua, and Christoph P. E. Zollikofer

Science 18 October 2013: 342 (6156), 326-331. [DOI:10.1126/science.1238484]

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Transitional Spiders and Nervous Scorpions

BBC News - Big clawed fossil had spider-like brain



Here's another one of those 'non-existent' intermediate fossils that creationists keep telling us about.



Admittedly, this isn't intermediate between a human and an ape or between one human species and another - which are what most creationists seem to think evolution is all about. This one is intermediate between two major divisions of the arachnida, the spiders or arachnids and the scorpions or dromopoda. This class also includes the horseshoe crabs, one of those 'living' fossils' creationists love because they imagine they prove evolution didn't happen.



Arthropods, or jointed legged, creatures include insects, crabs, shrimps, barnacles, lobsters, millipedes and several other marine and terrestrial invertebrates including the extinct trilobites. They all have a more-or-less hard exoskeleton composed of chitin and segmented bodies with pairs of appendages used for walking, swimming and, in the case of insects, flight. These appendages have also evolved to become mouthparts. This particular specimen is from 520 million years ago and is of one of an extinct group of arthropods known colloquially as the "great appendage" arthropods, which have large claw-like appendages on their heads. It was discovered in South China and is part of the segmented Alalcomenaeus genus.



The nervous systems of related phyla tend to be similar with the differences reflecting the divisions of the phylum into classes and orders, so studying the nervous systems of living creatures can help establish their evolutionary relationships. However, this method of classification is not normally available with fossils because nerve tissue, like all soft tissues, does not fossilise so readily as the hard body-parts.



But, using a new technique with a CT scanner and 3D software, researchers were able to see the basic structure of the nervous system and compare it to that of other arthropods. It was clear that this species was from a group that were ancestral to both the spiders and the scorpions and its nervous system also bore many similarities with the nervous system of larval forms of the horseshoe crabs.



It is hoped that this technique will now enable the evolutionary relationship of other arthropods to be worked out, so filling in another small area of the jigsaw puzzle of evolution.



And still no fossil has yet been found which is inconsistent with Darwin's and Wallace's theory of descent with modification or with the neo-Darwinian gene-based theory of evolution. Had one ever been found, I wonder how many creationists would suddenly have become convinced of the soundness of the scientific method and of the irrefutable nature of solid evidence.



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Not Yeti?

Gigantopithicus still alive?

Has the Yeti mystery been solved? New research finds 'Bigfoot' DNA matches rare polar bear - Science - News - The Independent



Has the yeti question been answered?



Like so much with science, it depends on what the question is. If the question is, "Is there a humanoid creature living in the Himalayas?" then Prof. Bryan Sykes findings don't actually refute the claim that there is, but they certainly don't support the claim either.



If the question is, "Is there a large, unidentified (until now) creature living in the Himalayas?" then these finding are a qualified "quite probably". What the team in Bryan Sykes's Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project have found is that the DNA from two samples of hair, allegedly from yetis, and collected from locations 800 miles apart, one in the Ladakh region, the other in Bhutan, is identical to that extracted from the jawbone of an ancient bear from northern Norway which lived between 40,000 and 120,000 years ago. This species of bear is believed to be ancestral to both polar bears and brown bears, which are known to be closely related, even interbreeding where they come into contact. The match was discovered when the DNA from the samples was compared with DNA held on an international DNA database.



In fact, this illustrates a point scientists keep having to make. It is technically impossible to prove a negative; the best one can do is to fail to falsify the positive claim. A determined critic, and especially one who isn't averse to using the absurd to support her claim, can always raise the "Ah! But..." objection to any evidence which fails to support her. For example, a die-hard yeti fan can always argue that the samples analysed weren't from yetis. And of course that's true - they were from bears.



So a devout Yetiist would probably feel vindicated, even more convinced in his own mind that yetis do exist - which is why someone has faked the evidence to try to disprove them. Why would they do that if there were no yetis? Just like a Millerite in the Great Disappointment when Jesus failed to materialise as prophesied. They decided God had postponed Judgement Day because he was so impressed with their piety and wanted to give them more time to convert those of us who just couldn't see the sense in that argument. They founded the Seventh Day Adventists.



What's probably more interesting to biologist, in addition to the possibility that a large unknown bear may well be alive at high altitude in the Himalayas, is that this bear seems to have once been widespread during the last Ice Age, and a remnant population may be hanging on at a high altitude in the Himalayas to where it may have taken refuge as the climate warmed up and the ice sheets retreated.



So, creationists, you can now go around trying to impress people by asking, "If polar bears evolved out of ancient bears, why are there still ancient bears?". You'll be told, of course, by those who bother to answer you, that it's because they both evolved out of genetically separated populations, just like humans and the other apes did.



Bryan Sykes is no stranger to exciting creationists and Bible literalists. He was the author of the 2002 book, The Seven Daughters of Eve, which showed, from an analysis of mitochondrial DNA, that all non-Africans are descended from just seven women, themselves descendants of a nominal single common ancestral female whom he termed 'mitochondrial Eve'. Hoards of delirious Bible literalists immediately swarmed onto the Compuserve Religion Forum and elsewhere in the early days of the Internet to announce that a 'brilliant scientist' had proved Adam and Eve existed and that the Bible story was a scientific fact - how they crave validation by science. Part of their 'evidence' was that this scientist had even worked out the names of Eve's seven daughters!



None of them had read the book, of course. Few of them had even seen it and even fewer knew what mDNA is. Like present day commenters on Reddit, they were simply reacting to the title and saw no reason to actually read what they were commenting authoritatively upon.



Sykes, of course, like any self-respecting scientist, is urging caution and says much more analysis is needed before any firm conclusions can be drawn from this (as yet unpublished) work.



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Unintelligently Designed Teeth Cause Ray Discomfort

I'm sure my fellow atheists and evolutionary biologists were as distressed as I was to learn that poor Ray Comfort, the renowned Young-Earth Creationist and Christian fundamentalist, was to undergo surgery to have an impacted wisdom tooth removed. One hopes his mouth has recovered and the pain and distress have subsided. One blessing is that there will now be room for more of Ray's feet, which is something we can all look forward to.



For those who haven't heard of Ray Comfort, who earns his living selling Christian fundamentalist tracts to other Christian fundamentalists, Ray leapt to fame when he declared that bananas were proof of intelligent design because they fit in the human hand so perfectly. He forgot to mention that their 'designer' neglected to give them any seeds, so they need humans to propagate them vegetatively.



Ray recently became incandescent with rage and banned several people from posting comments on his website when someone called him a bibliophile. Ray is definitely no bibliophile! Got that?



I wonder if Ray pondered on the delicious irony of a Bible-literalist creationist who rejects science and who believes the Universe was created just 6000 years ago by magic as somewhere for him to live, and that all animals were created just for his convenience in a single day and have remained unchanged ever since, having to turn to science to treat the effects of something so unintelligently designed as the human wisdom tooth.

Wisdom teeth are vestigial third molars that used to help human ancestors in grinding down plant tissue. The common postulation is that the skulls of human ancestors had larger jaws with more teeth, which were possibly used to help chew down foliage to compensate for a lack of ability to efficiently digest the cellulose that makes up a plant cell wall. As human diets changed, smaller jaws gradually evolved, yet the third molars, or "wisdom teeth", still commonly develop in human mouths.



Agenesis of wisdom teeth in human populations ranges from practically zero in Tasmanian Aborigines to nearly 100% in indigenous Mexicans. The difference is related to the PAX9 gene (and perhaps other genes).

Wikipedia - Wisdom tooth

Ray may be comforted to know that he was far from alone; impacted wisdom teeth are very common. The oldest known impacted wisdom tooth belonged to a European woman of the Magdalenian period (18,000–10,000 BCE). Admittedly, this was from some considerable time before there was a Universe, let alone people with impacted wisdom teeth according to Ray, but we must bear in mind that Ray is definitely not a bibliophile, so won't have read about this stuff.

"There is no refutation of Darwinian Evolution in existence. If a refutation ever were to come about it would come from a scientist, not an idiot."

Richard Dawkins

To understand how the problem with wisdom teeth in modern humans arose it helps to look at a modern human head in profile. Draw an imaginary line down the protruding nose and curve it from the tip of the nose down to and under the protruding chin. It will describe the profile of a typical simian head with a muzzle. As we evolved an upright gait our head rotated forwards and our facial bones rotated downwards, then our facial bones, including the maxilla and mandible, receded underneath our cranium.



At some time in our evolutionary history, as our faces grew it was an advantage to grow more teeth at the back as room for them developed, so, as we stopped growing somewhere between the ages of 16-20, we added more teeth.



The problem is, we still do, even though we have enough teeth without them and even though there is often not enough room for them, so they grow at odd angles or fail to erupt at all. Quite simply, the evolution of our facial skeleton and of our teeth are not synchronised because, whilst there is an advantage in having a modern human face, there is not a major disadvantage in having wisdom teeth, so, while genes for the modern face have been selected for, those for wisdom teeth have not been so strongly selected against. It's a bit like a modern motor car still having a dynamo fitted to spin away doing nothing useful but not doing any harm either, until, occasionally, it catches fire.



For people like Ray Comfort of course, the better explanation is that the problems with our wisdom teeth were the product of an inerrant, omniscient, benevolent, intelligent designer who intended us to have these problems and, for reason which remain poorly understood, decided to exempt some of his design from them, especially the indigenous Mexicans, who were specially favoured and never have any problem with them because they don't grow any. This just happens to coincide with these favoured people having a genetically modified PAX9 gene of course. No evidence for evolution there.

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God's Poachers

There is a lucrative market in religious memorabilia, statues of gods and saints, and dolls dressed up to look like someone's notion of what a first century Judean virgin would look like - a white European, obviously.



So when it comes to choosing a material to make these little baubles out of, naturally it has to be expensive, and white because spending a lot on them shows piety, and obviously gods and saints and Judean virgins were all white. So what better than ivory?



You can see lots of these beautiful religious artifacts photographed by the photojournalist Brent Stirton here and here. Brent has investigated the links between religion and the ivory trade. Don't worry, Christians! It's not just you. Buddhists, Hindus and Shintoists are equally guilty, and equally racist, it seems.



To get the ivory, poachers slaughter elephants in Africa, where it is illegal in most countries. They frequently slaughter game wardens and police too. You can contrast these beautiful religious carvings with the work done by those who supply that raw materials here. I've shown a small sample below.








It's nice to see that worshiping a creator god makes people keen to care for its creation... though not at the expense of ostentatious displays of piety, obviously.



Brent Stirton's photographs won him this year's Wildlife Photojournalist Award by Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Their exhibition can be seen in London's Natural History Museum, from 18 October 2013 until 23 March 2014.

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A Handy Piece Of Superstition

Witchcraft Trade, Skin Cancer Pose Serious Threats to Albinos in Tanzania: Scientific American



A charming account of the effects of religion, this time in Tanzania, is brought to us this week by Scientific American. As though being born with the genetic mutation which causes albinism wasn't bad enough, sufferers have to put up with living in a religious society where local superstitions hold that the body-parts of albinos have magical properties which can lead to power and wealth.



People born with albinism make little or no melanin - the pigment responsible for skin colour. This makes them especially susceptible to skin cancer from which melanin protects us by acting as a natural barrier to harmful solar radiation. Albinos frequently also have defective vision and hearing and most rarely live beyond the age of fifty, with skin cancer being the number one cause in Tanzania.



Another cause of early death is religious superstition. Since the year 2000 some seventy-two Tanzanian albinos have been murdered for their body-parts, many in childhood. Only five prosecutions for murder have been successful. Another superstition is that albinos don't die but simply disappear so the authorities often don't pay much attention when they do, in fact, disappear. I wonder which witch doctor invented that handy piece of superstition.



It is believed that the body-parts have much greater power if they are from children and especially if the person screams when their parts are being cut off, so many children are 'harvested' whilst still alive. A complete human being is said to be worth some $250,000 on the open market.

The situation remains particularly dire in part of the northern part of the country. Near Lake Victoria fishermen are known to weave albinos’ hair into their fishing nets in the hopes of improving their catches. Witchcraft beliefs are more entrenched in that part of the country, making individuals with albinism particularly susceptible to attacks. “When I was growing up it was not like this. It was just stigma, but not people coming to cut bodies,” says Zihada Msembo, 60, a leader of the Tanzania Albino Society, during an interview elsewhere in the country. In the past five years, she says, the attacks in Tanzania have gotten worse. But what has prompted the new attacks remains unknown. Whereas the attacks are most prevalent in the so-called “Lake Zone,” Nsebo says that “people travel to hunt for albinos” throughout the country.

Dina Fine Maron; Witchcraft Trade, Skin Cancer Pose Serious Threats to Albinos in Tanzania;

Scientific American 11 October 2013

Isn't it just great the way religion increases human kindness and fellowship and heightens sensitivity to suffering, whilst reducing greed and selfishness, unlike atheistic science.



And it's soo reassuring to know that a kindly and benevolent god is watching over humanity to make sure nothing like this happens, isn't it... well, at least making sure it only happens in far-away unimportant countries, to far-away unimportant people.



'via Blog this'

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Darwin Creationist Award 2013 - Voting Time!

Time to vote for this year's Darwin Creationist Award winner! A little later than planned due to unforeseen censorship of a Twittorial nature, but better late than never.



Just a reminder: the Darwin Creationist Award goes to a person who, by a creationist tweet, website or blog so unutterably cretinous has done most to improve the human memepool by helping to remove creationism from it. I appreciate this is often a difficult task as so many creationist tweets and articles are excellent candidates, as can be seen from over 100 nominations this year.



To simplify the task, I have autocratically selected just a small sample of what I consider to be the best. Congratulations to all those who failed to make the final shortlist but I should point out that you were all nominated by me, so your exclusion is more to do with my altruism than with your moronitude. Don't lose heart. Better luck next year.



The original list of nominations is still here to be enjoyed.



To vote, just state the number of your preference in the comments below. Voting will close at the end of October unless a playoff is called for.

Table of candidates - so far

Entry	Details	Candidate Tweet
1	Candidate: @WendyJoMason June 6, 2013 11:16 AM . @Yhwh_TheLord so then why do women have babies if we can just evolve fRom um whatever you think we evolved from? — WendyJoMason (@WendyJoMason) Submitted by: @Kaimatai Blog: Kaimatai	. @Yhwh_TheLord so then why do women have babies if we can just evolve fRom um whatever you think we evolved from? — WendyJoMason (@WendyJoMason) June 6, 2013
2	Candidate: @wimberlyOneTIME June 27, 2013 3:13 AM Stop believing stupid shit that people tell you with a straight face June 27, 2013 3:15 AM You to old to believe in evolution. If we came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys. are they the stupid that couldn't evolve? — Deezus (@wimberlyOneTIME) Submitted by: @WillChrisHughes Citation: The stupidity of these two tweets next to each other is hilarious (thanks to @BobbyOven for pointing it out): pic.twitter.com/RmVelGQshM	Stop believing stupid shit that people tell you with a straight face — Deezus (@wimberlyOneTIME) June 27, 2013 You to old to believe in evolution. If we came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys. are they the stupid that couldn't evolve? — Deezus (@wimberlyOneTIME) June 27, 2013
3	Candidate: @AtThyWord777 (Also posts as @ErrolSmythe777 April 18, 2013 7:15 AM @chriswalsh709 You are RIGHT. Evolution is a FAIRY TALE. -- Charles Perrault wrote about MICE turning into HORSES ; LIZARDS to Humans etc — BrotherErrolSmythe (@AtThyWord777) Submitted by: @chriswalsh709 Citation: Errol Smythe has apparently mistaken Cinderella, a fantasy fairy-tale written by Charles Perrault some 200 years before Darwin, and the theme of a popular children's pantomime, for a textbook on evolution.	@chriswalsh709 You are RIGHT. Evolution is a FAIRY TALE. -- Charles Perrault wrote about MICE turning into HORSES ; LIZARDS to Humans etc — BrotherErrolSmythe (@AtThyWord777) April 18, 2013
4	Candidate: @Mikexxxx1 June 27, 2013 6:08 PM @thenotimer Put 2 canines on an Island and come back after a few centuries U'll find all kinds of canines, but no cats — Mikexxxx (@Mikexxxx1) Submitted by: @thenotimer Citation: @Mikexxxx1 was so pleased with the brilliance of this insight that he RT'ed it himself a few minutes later.	@thenotimer Put 2 canines on an Island and come back after a few centuries U'll find all kinds of canines, but no cats — Mikexxxx (@Mikexxxx1) June 27, 2013
5	Candidate: @TroubledMan28 June 28, 2013 11:41 PM They try telling me im black cuz my ancestors been out in the sun for too long....I dont thnk so. #creation #evolution — Bugz (@TroubledMan28) Submitted by: Andrew Wilson	They try telling me im black cuz my ancestors been out in the sun for too long....I dont thnk so. #creation #evolution — Bugz (@TroubledMan28) June 28, 2013
6	Candidate: @TheSunriseMusic June 29, 2013 8:01 AM @OfficialKBunton @RobzGalaxy So you got your conscience from salamanders and slime? — The Sunrise (@TheSunriseMusic) Submitted by: @RosaResurrected Citation: Again the classic Dunning-Kruger Syndrome - confident dismissal of an entire body of science from a position of complete ignorance and no need to bother with any learning or fact-checking.	@OfficialKBunton @RobzGalaxy So you got your conscience from salamanders and slime? — The Sunrise (@TheSunriseMusic) June 29, 2013
7	Candidate: @JoeCienkowski June 30, 2013 01:05 PM Evolution is atheism. It's not science, but an impossible, unrealistic, unbiological, invented process in order to remove God from equation. — Joe Cienkowski (@JoeCienkowski) Submitted by: @RosaResurrected Citation: I believe this is Dopey Joe Cienkowski's first nomination for this coveted award. For those who haven't met Joe, he is a great admirer of Kent Hovind's persuasive arguments, especially the size of his bank balance, and the fact that, like Joe, he has done time in a state penitentiary for criminal activities.	Evolution is atheism. It's not science, but an impossible, unrealistic, unbiological, invented process in order to remove God from equation. — Joe Cienkowski (@JoeCienkowski) June 30, 2013
8	Candidate: @xCoveredInGoldx June 30, 2013 I've never seen an animal or a micro organism become a human. So that evolution shit is out the window for me. — ⚡Kid Flash⚡ (@xCoveredInGoldx) @AgAthUK does everything have to be proven? Why do we think and have cognitive perception? Because we evolved? I doubt it. — ⚡Kid Flash⚡ (@xCoveredInGoldx) @AgAthUK where did animals come from? Where did insects come from? You mean to tell me a bug started the same way I did? No — ⚡Kid Flash⚡ (@xCoveredInGoldx) @AgAthUK you mean to tell me some species still lay eggs and produce offspring and one day they will give birth like humans? I think not — ⚡Kid Flash⚡ (@xCoveredInGoldx) @theoyouknow smh, I mean it's dumb to think evolution is possible. Certain species lay eggs and have healthy offspring. — ⚡Kid Flash⚡ (@xCoveredInGoldx) Submitted by: @WillChrisHughes Citation: Difficult to pick the best from a veritable blizzard of pure gold Dunning-Kruger arrogant stupidity from this excellent candidate. Once again we see the traditional disregard for factuality and the assumption that the Universe has no option but to be exactly as they think it should be. No point in learning anything or checking any facts when knowledge can be plucked out of thin air or declared by fiat as and when the need arises - and how dare anyone be so impertinent as to disagree. When their pastors see the product of the superstition and pride in ignorance that they have inculcated these poor people with, they must be so proud of their achievements - and their income stream.	I've never seen an animal or a micro organism become a human. So that evolution shit is out the window for me. — ⚡Kid Flash⚡ (@xCoveredInGoldx) June 30, 2013 @AgAthUK does everything have to be proven? Why do we think and have cognitive perception? Because we evolved? I doubt it. — ⚡Kid Flash⚡ (@xCoveredInGoldx) June 30, 2013 @AgAthUK where did animals come from? Where did insects come from? You mean to tell me a bug started the same way I did? No — ⚡Kid Flash⚡ (@xCoveredInGoldx) June 30, 2013 @AgAthUK you mean to tell me some species still lay eggs and produce offspring and one day they will give birth like humans? I think not — ⚡Kid Flash⚡ (@xCoveredInGoldx) June 30, 2013 @theoyouknow smh, I mean it's dumb to think evolution is possible. Certain species lay eggs and have healthy offspring. — ⚡Kid Flash⚡ (@xCoveredInGoldx) June 30, 2013
9	Candidate: @roberickson3 July 2, 2013 4:31 AM @danarel @dhiggins63 @secularbloke @francosoup dear anti-theists; then use your secular science and create a replica of the earth right now! — rob erickson (@roberickson3) Submitted by: @ChrisWalsh709	@danarel @dhiggins63 @secularbloke @francosoup dear anti-theists; then use your secular science and create a replica of the earth right now! — rob erickson (@roberickson3) July 2, 2013
10	Candidate: @TrueStriver July 2, 2013 8:56 PM @NitinKapoor2020 @RichardDawkins @octotus @TakeThatDarwin Charles Darwin was tutored by satan pic.twitter.com/iKffdHFPwU — Jihadi™ (@TrueStriver) Submitted by: @RosaResurrected Citation: Remember when assessing the merits of this candidate; he actually went to the trouble of copying this picture and posted it proudly on line for the world to see, even copying Richard Dawkins in, presumably believing it would convince him. That takes a very special type of Dunning-Kruger moronitude.	@NitinKapoor2020 @RichardDawkins @octotus @TakeThatDarwin Charles Darwin was tutored by satan pic.twitter.com/iKffdHFPwU — Jihadi™ (@TrueStriver) July 2, 2013
11	Candidate: @justinn_way July 2, 2013 8:31 AM @GodfreyATheist @MatthiasBradfor @KelsTheSecular I'm supposed to believe because Darwin found some ape skull that dinosaurs "evolved" into — Justin. (@justinn_way) Submitted by: @AtomicDaytona Citation: Don't believe something? Not sure why? Just make something up! Isn't that what normal people do? Who needs education?	@GodfreyATheist @MatthiasBradfor @KelsTheSecular I'm supposed to believe because Darwin found some ape skull that dinosaurs "evolved" into — Justin. (@justinn_way) July 2, 2013
12	Candidate: @riverEu July 5, 2013 5:22 AM @RosaRubicondior the stupidity of atheism demonstrated: http://t.co/Yc0uXxglm8 - therefore no one invented or played the game. — jodi lauphlyn (@riverEu) July 5, 2013 3:27 AM @mhibrahimksa @RosaRubicondior a very intellectual view point and from one who beliefs are equally fucking ridiculous. darwin bear2whale lol — jodi lauphlyn (@riverEu) Submitted by: @TomCinmidlife Citation: Personal incredulity is such a convincing argument for a Creationist. If an uneducated idiot can't understand how it works then no-one can - so it must have been my imaginary friend. Link is to an article about the basic physics of hitting a baseball, by the way. Apparently, @riverEu found it too hard to understand and concluded no one could understand it therefore it proves his imaginary friend makes it work. Gods are, of course, mentioned nowhere in the explanation, which is complete without any, as are all scientific explanations of anything. Naturally, @riverEu ignored the question put to him. In second tweet claims Darwin said bears became whales. Illustrates how he's attacking something about which he has only the vaguest of notions. No point in wasting a whole lot of honesty and integrity when you have an imaginary thug in the sky waiting to be placated.	@RosaRubicondior the stupidity of atheism demonstrated: http://t.co/Yc0uXxglm8 - therefore no one invented or played the game. — jodi lauphlyn (@riverEu) July 5, 2013 @mhibrahimksa @RosaRubicondior a very intellectual view point and from one who beliefs are equally fucking ridiculous. darwin bear2whale lol — jodi lauphlyn (@riverEu) July 5, 2013
13	Candidate: Clay_T_Nate July 5, 2013 It makes me laugh so hard that atheists refuse to believe in Christ yet they believe Lincoln was a real person. Lol — נתנאל ✌ @John_of_Atheism you do realize there are 4 different Gettysburg address' written, all by different people and all with completely different — נתנאל ✌ @John_of_Atheism writings on them? Lol Abraham Lincoln is just a fairy tale created by the government. Shame on you for believing in it. — נתנאל ✌ Submitted by: Submitted by: @RosaResurrected Citation: He really did say that. No, honestly!	It makes me laugh so hard that atheists refuse to believe in Christ yet they believe Lincoln was a real person. Lol — נתנאל ✌ (@Clay_T_Nate) July 5, 2013 @John_of_Atheism you do realize there are 4 different Gettysburg address' written, all by different people and all with completely different — נתנאל ✌ (@Clay_T_Nate) July 5, 2013 @John_of_Atheism writings on them? Lol Abraham Lincoln is just a fairy tale created by the government. Shame on you for believing in it. — נתנאל ✌ (@Clay_T_Nate) July 5, 2013
14	Candidate: @LydiaApel July 6, 2013 5:56 AM It's time to stop believing in evolution. With yo stupid motha fuckin ass. Evolution says people came from monkeys. And the question is... — lydia apel (@LydiaApel) July 6, 2013 5:58 AM Why is there still monkeys, you dumb mother fucker you. Is these the retarded monkeys? They didn't turn into people yet? #kattwilliams — lydia apel (@LydiaApel) Submitted by: @RosaResurrected Citation: Well that's convinced me! We need more of these foul-mouthed, semi-literate Christians to tell us how the world works, I say. Who needs books and science and all that stuff when we have people who just know things? Thank God for Dunning & Kruger, I say!	It's time to stop believing in evolution. With yo stupid motha fuckin ass. Evolution says people came from monkeys. And the question is... — lydia apel (@LydiaApel) July 6, 2013 Why is there still monkeys, you dumb mother fucker you. Is these the retarded monkeys? They didn't turn into people yet? #kattwilliams — lydia apel (@LydiaApel) July 6, 2013
15	Candidate: @JoeCienkowski @AtrumAtheist @TomEcho6 evolution- a cell came to life; magically grows arms, legs, brain, blood, penis and vagina through 'natural' process — Joe Cienkowski (@JoeCienkowski) July 9, 2013 2:07 PM Submitted by: @RosaResurrected Citation: The second entry for this outstanding candidate. Many people have assumed that Joe, the 'conviction' Christian whose idol is the millionaire Creationist fraudster Kent Hovind, must be a parody or a fraud trying to imitate his idol, but it seems he really does believe he is attacking the scientific Theory of Evolution, which is whatever he says it is. He proudly boasts of having never read a science book so his inerrant knowledge doesn't get contaminated.	@AtrumAtheist @TomEcho6 evolution- a cell came to life; magically grows arms, legs, brain, blood, penis and vagina through 'natural' process — Joe Cienkowski (@JoeCienkowski) July 9, 2013
16	Candidate: @HJSoldier @_witty_n_wise_ read about what happened to the people of the time of Moses. Something about how they started worshipping cows & how God-- — Superman (@HJSoldier) July 10, 2013 10:26 AM @_witty_n_wise_ --Gods punishment to them was turning them into apes.-- which I think is where scientists got their idea of evolution — Superman (@HJSoldier) July 10, 2013 10:27 AM Atheists are gonna go to hell lol — Superman (@HJSoldier) July 10, 2013 10:29 AM Silly atheists 😛 I wanna stand at the gates of hell just to wave at the atheists when they're walking in lol — Superman (@HJSoldier) July 10, 2013 10:30 AM Submitted by: @RosaResurrected Citation: It's amazing what morbidly paranoid theophobia can do to a human mind. To think, it took 3.5 billion years to evolve and yet it still can be subverted by a psychiatric disorder caused by childhood mental abuse which itself relies on the evolved human characteristic of childhood gullibility.	@_witty_n_wise_ read about what happened to the people of the time of Moses. Something about how they started worshipping cows & how God-- — Superman (@HJSoldier) July 10, 2013 10:26 AM @_witty_n_wise_ --Gods punishment to them was turning them into apes.-- which I think is where scientists got their idea of evolution — Superman (@HJSoldier) July 10, 2013 10:27 AM Atheists are gonna go to hell lol — Superman (@HJSoldier) July 10, 2013 10:29 AM Silly atheists 😛 I wanna stand at the gates of hell just to wave at the atheists when they're walking in lol — Superman (@HJSoldier) July 10, 2013 10:30 AM
17	Candidate: @JeffJanssen Mutations and natural selection are not advantageous as intermediate stages are not beneficial but harmful to all organisms @TakeThatDarwin — Jeff Janssen (@JeffJanssen) July 12, 2013 2:43 AM Submitted by: @RosaResurrected Citation: Since this candidate hasn't even understood the false information he's been fed, and clearly has no idea about the subject he's assuring the world is all wrong, I feel this makes him an exceptional candidate for this award, and maybe for a Dunning-Kruger Outstanding Services to Psychology Medal too, if there is such a thing.	Mutations and natural selection are not advantageous as intermediate stages are not beneficial but harmful to all organisms @TakeThatDarwin — Jeff Janssen (@JeffJanssen) July 12, 2013
18	Candidate: @sanmiadenaiye If the theory of evolution is true- why is every girl still born a virgin? #justloudthoughts — The African Child (@sanmiadenaiye) July 12, 2013 12:53 AM Nominated by: @WillChrisHughes Citation:Just when you think you've seen them all, another Creationist comes by and restores your faith in Creationist moronitudes ability to have no lower boundary.	If the theory of evolution is true- why is every girl still born a virgin? #justloudthoughts — The African Child (@sanmiadenaiye) July 12, 2013
19	Candidate: Adnan Oktar Credit for discovery: @TakeThatDarwin Citation: Our first Turkish candidate and with video support. The Google Translate version from Turkish into English probably doesn't do justice to the full majesty of the argument he puts up against Evolution. Basically, it's the devastating argument that Evolution can't be true because Allah created everything. How can science compete with that, eh? No prizes for not giggling as you watch the video. Thankfully, it's not too long.	DARWINISM A BODY BLOW THE FIRST BOOKLET To that end, Adnan Oktar, primarily under the influence of over a hundred years time, people living away from religious moral values ​​to them and concentrated on proving the invalidity of this deception. Oktar has revealed the true face of the so-called science of Darwinism in the name of science itself is still believed that the most effective means. With this understanding, which is a summary of extensive research and studies had a booklet entitled The Theory of Evolution. All costs of this booklet by selling property inherited from his family. Then, as it began distributing free booklet university students. This booklet is not any scientific value and the theory of evolution is a lie that shows a comprehensive work. Mr. Adnan Oktar who reads this work and many people speak clearly understood that the scientific validity of the theory of evolution. As a result, there is no creature can not be the result of chance, Almighty Allah created the universe and all living things in science, was to prove a clear and understandable manner. Still, some students blindly devoted to materialist thought, to see a clear denial, despite the fact that clearly stated that determination. Moreover, some of the militant students at the university, if not stop the activities of Mr. Oktar, saying openly threatened his life would be in danger. All of these pressures and threats, Mr. Oktar has increased even more determination and devotion to God. The harsh reactions and concerns of the materialist and atheist circles, the most important part of the evidence that Mr. Adnan Oktar on the right track.
20	Candidate: @T_the_name_41 If you think we came from monkeys than your a idiot #Evolution smh — Travis selle (@T_the_name_41) July 15, 2013 11:55 PM Submitted by: @RosaResurrected Citation: Well, if you need me to explain why this is such an outstanding candidate, 'than your a idiot'.	If you think we came from monkeys than your a idiot #Evolution smh — Travis selle (@T_the_name_41) July 15, 2013
21	Candidate: @ToddKincannon Still waiting for "evolutionary biologist" @GodFreeWorld to tell us about what weird and fancy cretestures he done invented. — Todd Kincannon (@ToddKincannon) July 16, 2013 Submitted by: @2h_2n Citation: How can someone who apparently believes evolution means evolutionary biologists invent 'cretestures' fail to be a major contender?	Still waiting for "evolutionary biologist" @GodFreeWorld to tell us about what weird and fancy cretestures he done invented. — Todd Kincannon (@ToddKincannon) July 16, 2013
22	Candidate: @JoeCienkowski @numbdave you say NOTHING. You explain NOTHING. YES, YOU DO SUGGEST SINGLE CELLS HUMAN ANCESTRY, which is not possible, except to dolts. — Joe Cienkowski (@JoeCienkowski) July 17, 2013 1:25 PM Submitted by: @RosaResurrected Citation: Another entry from Dopey Joe. Joe often shouts aggressively when he feels threatened by a fact. He seems to believe that's scientific debate.	@numbdave you say NOTHING. You explain NOTHING. YES, YOU DO SUGGEST SINGLE CELLS HUMAN ANCESTRY, which is not possible, except to dolts. — Joe Cienkowski (@JoeCienkowski) July 17, 2013
23	Candidate: @OktarBabuna @jgbullseye @Stooshie corpus callosum which has connective function of the 2 halves of our brains. Disruption generates disease of one soul — Oktar Babuna (@OktarBabuna) July 17, 2013 10:23 PM Nominated by: @Stooshie Citation: Dr. Babuna says he is a neurosurgeon in his Bio and in this tweet is talking about the surgical procedure "corpus callosotomy" (splitting the corpus callosum which connects the two halves of the brain). This is done in severe cases of epilepsy and seems to be quite effective. He says it causes a disease of the soul. He's a neurosurgeon!!!	@jgbullseye @Stooshie corpus callosum which has connective function of the 2 halves of our brains. Disruption generates disease of one soul — Oktar Babuna (@OktarBabuna) July 17, 2013 10:23 PM
24	Candidate: @TheSunriseMusic @grenangle @Brew_BBQ Did the failure of natural selection, PROVED by the continuation of the black race, prove that Darwin was wrong? YES! — The Sunrise (@TheSunriseMusic) July 17, 2013 9:03 AM Submitted by: @RosaResurrected Citation: I wonder who fed this unfortunate candidate the idea that black people are failures of evolution. A nice example there of how ignorance is exploited for political gain by unscrupulous frauds. The irony is that it was the same Christian fascist right who perverted and misrepresented Darwinian evolution to claim it prove the slave races were inferior, and therefore slavery was justified biologically as well as biblically, who now using that lie to tell the American underclass that Darwinian evolution is wrong because it's racist, so they should vote for the fundy Christian white guy who would support the KKK if he could get away with it and still be elected. Strange how truth can change for the political convenience of the white supremacist Christian right, eh?	@grenangle @Brew_BBQ Did the failure of natural selection, PROVED by the continuation of the black race, prove that Darwin was wrong? YES! — The Sunrise (@TheSunriseMusic) July 17, 2013 9:03 AM
25	Candidate: @AtThyWord777 @chriswalsh709 The Fallacy of Evolution & the Cinderella Fallacy-Read carefully &DoNot MisQuote Me out of CONTEXT ! http://t.co/xwChe189nN — BrotherErrolSmythe (@AtThyWord777) July 21, 2013 4:10 PM Submitted by: @chriswalsh709 Citation: Worth the long read to appreciate the sheer idiocy of this worthy candidate who also posts on Twitter as @ErrolSmythe777. For some reason Errol, like several other fundamentalists, seems to believe saying the same thing with more than one account makes it more true. Once again Errol has apparently confused the Children's fairy story of Cinderella for a textbook on biology and has written a long essay about it complete with a 'bibliography' consisting of er... the Bible and Cinderella. A very strong contender amongst many, I feel.	@chriswalsh709 The Fallacy of Evolution & the Cinderella Fallacy-Read carefully &DoNot MisQuote Me out of CONTEXT ! http://t.co/xwChe189nN — BrotherErrolSmythe (@AtThyWord777) July 21, 2013 4:10 PM
26	Candidate: @C0ltharted @Bye_Dogma I was raised southern baptist, I'm not a southern baptist, Jewish, catholic, whatever. But while atheism is based on scientific — Shane (@C0ltharted) July 21, 2013 11:39 PM @Bye_Dogma theories based on fact, there are many people and scientists who would argue otherwise towards these "facts" — Shane (@C0ltharted) July 21, 2013 11:39 PM @Bye_Dogma there's no way to tell if evolution really happened, or if there is a god, but what you believe in can take you farther — Shane (@C0ltharted) July 21, 2013 11:40 PM Submitted by: @GodFreeWorld Citation: Well obviously, if atheism is based on scientific facts that's no reason to think it's factual! So, how can facts be used to prove the theory of evolution? Where did these mad scientists ever get the idea you can use facts to prove things? I mean, it's as stupid as measuring the height of a mountain and then using that to say how high the mountain is! Much better to look it up in a book written by Bronze-Age goat-herders who obviously knew everything.	@Bye_Dogma I was raised southern baptist, I'm not a southern baptist, Jewish, catholic, whatever. But while atheism is based on scientific — Shane (@C0ltharted) July 21, 2013 11:39 PM @Bye_Dogma theories based on fact, there are many people and scientists who would argue otherwise towards these "facts" — Shane (@C0ltharted) July 21, 2013 11:39 PM @Bye_Dogma there's no way to tell if evolution really happened, or if there is a god, but what you believe in can take you farther — Shane (@C0ltharted) July 21, 2013 11:40 PM
27	Candidate: @Gara_Dizaey @RosaRubicondior go fuck a monkey or something I'll bet you love those apes! — Gara Dizaey (@Gara_Dizaey) July 22, 2013 1:16 AM @RosaRubicondior do apes and pictures of monkeys get you horny you old fucker? — Gara Dizaey (@Gara_Dizaey) July 22, 2013 1:17 AM @RosaRubicondior your mums pussy is full of puss you old fuck #lmaoAtYourStupidity — Gara Dizaey (@Gara_Dizaey) July 22, 2013 1:20 AM Submitted by: @RosaResurrected Citation: After boasting that he could prove his god existed and that evolution was false, this is the best he could come up with when asked to produce it, apparently. A very worthy candidate.	@RosaRubicondior go fuck a monkey or something I'll bet you love those apes! — Gara Dizaey (@Gara_Dizaey) July 22, 2013 1:16 AM @RosaRubicondior do apes and pictures of monkeys get you horny you old fucker? — Gara Dizaey (@Gara_Dizaey) July 22, 2013 1:17 AM @RosaRubicondior your mums pussy is full of puss you old fuck #lmaoAtYourStupidity — Gara Dizaey (@Gara_Dizaey) July 22, 2013 1:20 AM
28	Candidate: @SWE_61 @mckinnleystokes how did science make the ocean? If we evolved from monkeys then all the monkeys should be gone — Zacn (@SWE_61) July 22, 2013 6:32 AM Submitted by: @neiljhenry Citation: It's not so much the routine ignorance and misinformation about monkeys and evolution which makes this an outstanding candidate as the belief that evolution has something to do with ocean formation. Guaranteed to have Creationists nodding in agreement and normal people laughing out loud.	@mckinnleystokes how did science make the ocean? If we evolved from monkeys then all the monkeys should be gone — Zacn (@SWE_61) July 22, 2013 6:32 AM
29	Candidate: @JoeCienkowski @tony_oliver @RosaRubicondior @TakeThatDarwin atheism teaches a cell grew legs, arms, penises and vaginas. In what way is this inaccurate? — Joe Cienkowski (@JoeCienkowski) July 18, 2013 @UC_george @tony_oliver @RosaRubicondior @TakeThatDarwin we observe fertilized eggs becoming organisms, but ONLY with human counterparts — Joe Cienkowski (@JoeCienkowski) July 18, 2013 Submitted by: @UC_george Citation: Another very worthy entry from 'conviction' Creationist, Joe Cienkowski. It's typical of Dopey Joe's invented gibberish, of course. He is still trying to push his brilliant new lie about what atheists claim - that cells sprout genitalia and limbs - and refuting it with his own invention that only humans develop from fertilized eggs. Joe tries to earn a living emulating his hero, the convicted fraudster Kent Hovind. Having dabbled in drug dealing, he now spends a great deal of his time making up things like this and claiming they're what science or evolution or Atheism say, and writing 'books' about it which he tries to hawk to anyone ignorant and credulous enough to give him money. When challenged he normally just repeats his claim, eventually becoming abusive and blocking his opponent. He also likes tweeting things about vaginas and penises, has a 'Levitican' approach to marriage, disciplining women and a husband's rights in a marriage, and feels exempt from the biblical laws concerning adultery, false witnessing and hypocrisy, which he tells everyone else they should observe. His tweets have become increasingly bizarre over the last year or so.	@tony_oliver @RosaRubicondior @TakeThatDarwin atheism teaches a cell grew legs, arms, penises and vaginas. In what way is this inaccurate? — Joe Cienkowski (@JoeCienkowski) July 18, 2013 @UC_george @tony_oliver @RosaRubicondior @TakeThatDarwin we observe fertilized eggs becoming organisms, but ONLY with human counterparts — Joe Cienkowski (@JoeCienkowski) July 18, 2013 @JoeCienkowski @tony_oliver @RosaRubicondior @TakeThatDarwin so you are saying that all other species don't reproduce sexually. — George_UCSB (@UC_george) July 18, 2013 @JoeCienkowski @tony_oliver @RosaRubicondior @TakeThatDarwin in ot words nospecies other then human reproduce by fer.egg (sexuall or asexual — George_UCSB (@UC_george) July 19, 2013
30	Candidate: @itsjoethejust @Capeheritjamie @AtomicD_ gravity is NOT a theory YOU STUPID FOOL!! — itsjoethejust (@itsjoethejust) July 23, 2013 Submitted by: @AtomicD_ Citation: The standard complete ignorance of a basic scientific term together with the use of the magic caps lock and abuse to force reality to conform, earns this candidate particularly consideration.	@Capeheritjamie @AtomicD_ gravity is NOT a theory YOU STUPID FOOL!! — itsjoethejust (@itsjoethejust) July 23, 2013
31	Candidate: @shemararae Wrong...not even a professor or scientist can show visible proof! Moron! Watch : evolution Vs The bible @ALAtheist — Republican Mom (@shemararae) August 14, 2013 Submitted by: @ALAtheist Citation: The secret of good science is to ignore the evidence and keep on asserting there isn't any. Easy-peasy. Second nomination for this very worthy candidate who specialises in ignoring the evidence and calling people names for not doing the same.	Wrong...not even a professor or scientist can show visible proof! Moron! Watch : evolution Vs The bible @ALAtheist — Republican Mom (@shemararae) August 14, 2013
32	Candidate: @TrueBibleAnswer (Errol Smythe wth a new ID) The flesh of humans is different to the flesh of fish & different to the flesh of reptiles & different to the flesh of birds. NO #Evolution — BrotherErrolSmythe (@TrueBibleAnswer) September 17, 2013 Submitted by: @Stooshie (Andrew Wilson) Citation: Well, obviously, diversity can only prove one thing - diversification doesn't happen. Why can biologists never see the obvious? Why does it take a scientifically illiterate creationist to point it out?	The flesh of humans is different to the flesh of fish & different to the flesh of reptiles & different to the flesh of birds. NO #Evolution — BrotherErrolSmythe (@TrueBibleAnswer) September 17, 2013

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