Creationism propaganda for children caught on camera

If someone taught children that the Holocaust didn't happen there would be uproar.

If someone taught children that contraception was evil and STIs were safer the media would have a field day.

If someone taught children that Gravity was a myth and jumping out of the window was safe, well...

So why are we letting these guys get away with this? It should be against the law to lie like this to children.

Just because something is easier to explain doesn't make it fact. Just because you don't understand something doesn't make the alternative true, and to piss all over your child's opportunity to understand something you were unable to do, well that just messed up.

Why are we in 2010 having to fight these people on something that has a proven, tried and tested answer time and time again?

Please someone, help me.

Human Chromosome 2 is a fusion of two ancestral chromosomes

I found an interesting article from Evolution Pages that explains not just the difference in the DNA string of a Human and that of a Chimpanzee, but also how that genetic string changed.

All great apes apart from human have 24 pairs of chromosomes.

There are 23 paired chromosomes in human DNA. A chromosome is a very long DNA molecule and associated proteins, that carry portions of the hereditary information of an organism.

There is therefore a hypothesis that the common ancestor of all great apes had 24 pairs of chromosomes and that the fusion of two of the ancestor's chromosomes created chromosome 2 in humans. The evidence for this hypothesis is very strong.

Not only is this strong evidence for a fusion event, but it is also strong evidence for common ancestry; in fact, it is hard to explain by any other mechanism.

Let us re-iterate what we find on human chromosome 2. Its centromere is at the same place as the chimpanzee chromosome 2p as determined by sequence similarity. Even more telling is the fact that on the 2q arm of the human chromosome 2 is the unmistakable remains of the original chromosome centromere of the common ancestor of human and chimp 2q chromosome, at the same position as the chimp 2q centromere (this structure in humans no longer acts as a centromere for chromosome 2.

Very cool stuff, but for more detailed information please read the full article.

Read the article

Do Wildlife documentaries infringe animals' privacy?

An interesting article by Ian Sample of the Guardian about how wildlife documentaries may be causing the animals unnecessary stress.

Wildlife documentary makers are infringing animals' rights to privacy by filming their most private and intimate moments, according to a new study.

Footage of animals giving birth in their burrows or mating crosses an ethical line that film-makers should respect, according to Brett Mills, a lecturer in film studies at the University of East Anglia.

Mills compiled a report on animals' rights to privacy after reviewing scenes from the BBC's 2009 wildlife series "Nature's Great Events". Among the offending footage was film of a narwhal whale that appeared to have retreated from view beneath the Arctic ice sheet.

"Instead of thinking we'll leave it alone, film-makers decide the only solution is to develop new technology so they can film it," Mills said.

"We have an assumption that humans have some right to privacy, so why do we not assume that for other species, particularly when they are engaging in behaviour that suggests they don't want to be seen?"

In the BBC's Planet Earth they used high definition high zoom lenses from hot air balloons to ensure that they filmed a lot of their work from a distance that didn't disturb the animals.

It also meant that they saw the creatures at their most natural.

Maybe we should change some of our methods of observation when it comes to the Natural World, however, if we are to ensure that the next generation feel connected to the natural world we need to educate them about as many of the natural wonders as possible.

Once you feel connected to something, you want to ensure its protection and survival.

Read the Article

How Zoo heir is reintroducing gorillas into the wild

When your father is a millionaire eccentric, with a vision of creating some sort of equatorial rainforest in your back garden in Kent, your childhood is never exactly going to be 'normal'. Still, Damian Aspinall's earliest memories take some beating. One involves him climbing a tree, as six-year-olds do, and getting stuck. His father, 'being my father', reacted in a rather peculiar way.

'He just walked off, saying something like, "Oh, Damian, you'll figure it out". 'That's what he was like. Strict. Harsh. He thought things like that would toughen me up. Anyway, I remember crying my eyes out, for what seemed like ages. Eventually, one of our female gorillas climbed up and carried me down in her arms. She spent the rest of the day comforting me. I've never forgotten that feeling.'

Read the Article

Never Trust Anyone Whose Only Got One Book

To continue my fun Saturday I thought I'd share my favourite comic of all times views on my favourite subject:

Come Here...

After my last rant, I need something to lighten up my Saturday:

Atheists' musings on morality lightweight

I've taken a section of interesting article on Atheist Morales by a Mark Milke of the Calgary Herald for you to read.

Religion by its nature asserts the existence of another realm beyond our physical world.

Dawkins would argue this belief, this imagining of another reality, is what lands us in trouble, and not just for understanding evolution but for life. Insofar as men and women try to live up to a code they think delivered by God, they might ignore the world they can see -- the real and only one according to the atheist.

But Dawkins creates a trap on another level. Atheist disbelief in another realm doesn't help defend morality in general or give atheists or anyone else a clue as to how to determine wrong and right.

I certainly don't agree that without a belief in the reward of heaven that I cannot stop myself from being a better person, but can we explain morals and how did we obtain them?

From an evolutionary stand point, human beings were able to overcome all the obstacles that occurred as the landscape changed between 1,000,000 years ago and modern day not just because our brain got bigger, but in those bigger brains, our emotional kinship with our fellow man had to heighten and flourish.

Those who didn't have our genetically enforced sense of morality or camaraderie to look after one another would surely have perished when humans moved through Africa, the Middle East, and Ice Aged Asia, Europe and Northern America, or over seas into Oceania and Australasia, and so wouldn't have passed on our their genes to another generation.

That's not to say that we should be perfect now because of genetics and natural selection should have removed any "selfish" genes, but it does allow us to understand why we are charitable to people we don't know, why we want to help when we see people suffering or that we do not need God to be good.

The use of fear in a mystical overlord works well when trying to get kids to behave quickly for personal reasons, but educating kids, and people, to be good for the good of humanity, society and the planet is ultimately going to make for a better society in the future.

In my humble opinion.

Anyway, the article is pretty good reading anyway, and I recommend taking a look at the full thing.

I'm not claiming atheists cannot be moral. Or that one should believe in God, or because without that, our moral language is unsupportable. Or even that atheists shouldn't use such language.

My observation is simply that despite his other insights, when Dawkins uses the language of morality, it carries little weight.

The language of morality used by an atheist is as artificial as the very realm which Dawkins claims is only in our imagination.

Read the Article