Majoring in evolutionary biology is a "waste of time". WTF!?!?!?

A lesser known creationist on the Youtube's posted a vid saying that he was going to make a Q&A vid. Wondering what he might say I put, "Is me majoring in evolutionary biology a waste of time?" I wasn't sure what kind of reaction I would get, but I think I got my hope's up.

He read my question near the end and then very nonchalantly "yes I think so" and moved on to the next one

He didn't thump his fist and get all fundie on me. He didn't squirm in his chair say "Well you be careful because your professors might indoctrinate you with Neo Darwinist thinking.... " He just said eh...yeah and casually tossed ALL the research and potential discovery in one of the most prominent fields of biology today in the trash.

Quick Lesson on History: When Darwin first published the Origin of Species, he pointed to the fossil record for evidence. The fossil record was weak but just a year after Darwin published his most famous book, one of the most well known transitional fossils was discovered; Archaeopteryx. However, Darwin was very up front up about the problems with his theory (including about the fossil record which was actually strong enough to convince even the causal naturalist of the power of Darwin's idea) and that our knowledge on how traits were passed down through generation and the laws of variations was very limited. It wouldn't be until the early 20th century that the field of genetics took off and paleontologists were pushed in the background. As Richard Dawkins puts it,

"If every fossil were magicked away, the comparative study of modern organisms, of how their patterns of resemblances, especially of their genetic sequences, are distributed among species, and of how species are distributed among continents and islands, would still demonstrate, beyond all sane doubt, that our history is evolutionary, and that all living creatures are cousins. Fossils are a bonus. A welcome bonus, to be sure, but not an essential one. It is worth remembering this when creationists go on (as they tediously do) about "gaps" in the fossil record. The fossil record could be one big gap, and the evidence for evolution would still be overwhelmingly strong. At the same time, if we had only fossils and no other evidence, the fact of evolution would again be overwhelmingly supported. As things stand, we are blessed with both."- "The Ancestor's Tale"

Anyway, it's an understatement that the evidence for evolution is overwhelming. It's old hat to quote Theodosius Dobzhansky ("Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" ). And it's also a waste of time to try and educate creationists on the knowledge that they've gone out of their way to ignore (seriously I don't know how they can use the SAME arguments over and over AGAIN.) These people couldn't care less about science. If I had asked if majoring in biology a waste of time, he would probably have said that he had no comment or something. If I had said that I'm majoring in cosmology (which completely refutes ANY scientific standing for a literal interpretation of the Bible also), he wouldn't have cared. It's just that I happened to mention evolution.....

One of the reason's why I'm a science major is because I'm tired of this. I'm sick and tired of letting creationists get away with being willfully ignorant of science and pushing that ignorance onto other people. There's no way to say this grace fully: I hate it and I want to educate myself to the point where I should be able to convince anyone no matter how fundamental that evolutionary biology is ANYTHING BUT A WASTE OF TIME.

WOW!

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Family/public_schools_are_evil.htm

All I did was type evolution into Google and then as a joke I typed in "evil" and I get the above website.

OMG, We share the country with these people? These people are actually alive in the 21st century? I'm kinda rattled by this stuff but right now all I can do is at least try to have some fun with it
From the above website:

"The Bible teaches that humanity is sinful, prone to evil and self-destruction. History itself proves this. Look at all the hundreds of millions of people who have been killed over the centuries in bloody war" yeah I wonder how many of those wars have been fought for purely religious reasons...........

"The teaching of evolution is evil, it is a deliberate attempt to shake the faith of young people in a Living and Holy God. Teaching young people that they are animals (mammals) is evil. The Bible teaches that we are not animals, we are human beings (1st Corinthians 15:39). Deliberately educating young people without including God is evil. This is what is so wrong with the public school system...it's what they don't teach." uhhhhhhhhhhhhh so accepting the mere facts of nature is evil? I guess the germ theory of disease is evil too because it's really God punishing us for our sins, either that or it's the Devil and his witches hiding under your bed, waiting to get you sick right?

"Children are robbed of faith in God in public schools. Instead, children are taught that they evolved from "stardust" which somehow formed into a planet, and then life just happened." yeah and the poor kids aren being also taught that gravity is a FACT TOO. THIS HAS NEVER BE PROVEN, IT'S JUST A THEORY! BUT IT HAS BEEN SHOWN THAT GODLESS SCIENTISTS ARE CENSORING THE HOLD THEORY, that merely advocates that life is simply too complex to held down by materialistic gravity alone and wishes to say that an "intelligent holder" is keeping us from floating into space!! (and for the record "evolved from stardust" (complete bastardization of cosmology and biology btw) is closer to what the Bible actually does say, you know the part where man was created directly from dirt......)

"Public schools will show a Harry Potter movie, but never anything about Jesus. How wicked! How evil!" errrr, I actually read the Bible in my public school, we spent alot of time on it............oh yeah BURN HARRY POTTER, HE"S WORKIN FOR THE DEVIL, he may be fictional now, but you just wait, one day when GAWD judges all the heathens, he'll force J.K. Rowling to admit that she wrote Harry Potter to makes kids lose their faith and tolerate each other........and to make kids GAY!

One could go on and on about how incredibly stupid whoever wrote this site is but I think I'll finish up with
"Every child should be taught the Ten Commandments. Every child should be taught faith in God............"
and then a little later...............
"The best education is SELF EDUCATION. Do your own homework and THINK FOR YOURSELF! "

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Talk orgins is down.........never fear!

Probably one of best resources on the Interwebs for qulaity info about the theory of evolution is having some technically difficulties at the moment.

However, I dug up some websites that are also very helpful

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/

http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/

http://www.biologycorner.com/quests/evolquest/index.html

They aren't much but they should be enough till talk origins comes back!

Dennis vanEngelsdorp: Where have the bees gone?

Finally TED comes through for me! Usually the vids are interesting but a little out there but this one really hit home for me!

A odd twist on the wheel of fortune!

Okays, so if you know me then you that I ride me little bike everywhere (aka chick magnet). But today, I walk out in the backyard where I keep it to find that it has been thrown against the back fence. The kick stand was broken off, the handle bars were bent, the chain was dislocated, and in it was generally beaten up.

I call my dad to inquire as to why this happened, and he tells me that he did it because I forgot to take out the trash again. He then tells me he has to go. I'm standing there completely shocked and sad that this has happened. I mean, I've been having a really lousy week (been sick, problems with my bank, unable to pick up some meds I need to function) and now this happens! The worst part is part is I'm thinking to myself that I'll have to ask my dad to fix my bike because he's been telling me all my life that I'm "mechanically inept" and that I suck at fixing anything. I'm really upset for a while now, when suddenly it occurs to me, wait a minute, why can't I fix my own bike? Why can't I figure it out? WHY!? So, I diagnose all the problems my bike has (hopefully anyway lol) and I log online to see what I can. It turns out that ALL of THEM are within my capabilities of repair. I find the right tools, I'm keep a cool head, I remain focused, and I stick to it and within no time, I'm ready to go! THANK YOU SCIENCE!

I know a large part in this story is my change in attitude towards myself and my outlook. The more and more science I read, the more I want to learn, the more I want to be able to figure things out. Now six months or a year ago, it would probably be alot different. I probably would gotten really upset, and I would have cried and moped for a while. But I'm better than that now. If I can fix my bike (yeah yeah yeah those are simple problems but maybe I can fix now the even harder ones!!) who knows what I can do?! Honestly I haven't felt this optimistic in a very long time. YAY FOR SCIENCE AND FREE INQUIRY!

Darwin's Rottweiler ;)

I was an atheist before I read Richard Dawkins' book "The God Delusion", but Dawkins was the one who first got me interested in science. His love of scientific inquiry and his desire to understand and view the world as it really is rubbed off on me, particularly his passion for biology, the science of life. It's because of great men like Dawkins and Carl Sagan and Charles Darwin that I'm dedicating my life to science, who showed me that science can be inspiring and that I'm very lucky to have been born in this time, a time where knowledge and scientific achievement are taking off as never before. And the more we know, the more awesome reality becomes. Science is indeed the poetry of reality. :)

Stepping down for a semester

Okays, so I've talked with my friends and we've decided that I should step down from my VP position in the Secular Student Alliance for the next semester. I've got some personal junk that's getting in the way of me doing my best to help move the clubs agenda along and until I get it under control, I'll be taking a less prominent roll in the club.

I'm kinda sad about this, but I know it's for the best.

New Planet Discovered by some kids my age!!!!

A couple of kids in the Netherlands discovered a new planet and its about five times as huge as Jupiter. Now to get an idea of how huge that is, Jupiter has about 2 and half times the mass of ALL the other planets in the solar system combined and this new planet makes Jupiter pale in comparison. AWESOME!

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=7711

A more eloquent view of the situation on YouTube

YAY for FREE SPEECH!

Youtube's censorship and the douchebags who support it

So, as of the second of December 2008, YouTube will be "algorithmically demoting" videos that contain swear words and sexually suggestive content (aka women without burkas). No matter how they dress it up, YouTube will now be picking and choosing what videos get the top rated and favorited slots, despite the combined votes of the viewers. With these policies we might as well not vote at all now and just let YouTube tell us what to watch and what to shun.

A marketplace of ideas needs a free and open forum in which to operate in so the opinions in question can be properly examined and critiqued as the people see fit. If this means putting up with annoying illiterate people who swear too much or showing too much skin so be it (mature people shouldn't care about these things anyway). A democratic system is dead if an invisible hand begins to even slightly subvert the voice of the people and in this case, it's dead on YouTube.

There are a few people who are applauding this move such as the person in the vid. Personally, I believe any person who doesn't voice concern about YouTube's censorship is taking their own freedom of speech for granted and is a complete and total fool. But I gave this fool a slightly larger forum for him to voice his stupidity by posting his vid on my little blog, so more people can be thankful they have some more sense than the drooling little muppet above and also to outrage them that this kind of foolishness actually exists and needs to be fought against. (I usually try to not be as crude as this but this seems like a no brainer to me)

SPEAK OUT AGANIST CENSORSHIP! TELL YouTube: http:http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=AEX3_7h40mk

CNN=FAIL

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/cnn/miles_obrien_to_leave_cnn_network_shutters_science_space_and_tech_unit_102312.asp

As if news media in the US wasn't bad enough, CNN is now beginning to rival FOXNEWS in stupidity with it's great decision to shut down it's science, space, environment and technology unit.

The US is not only one of the most industrialized nations in the world but its also one of the most scientifically illiterate countries in the world. Yeah that's right, fewer than half of Americans know what DNA is, accept the theory of evolution by natural selection, and know how long it takes the Earth to go around the Sun.

(Don't believe me? http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/duncan/17535/
http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/back-to-reality/?scp=4&sq=science%20knowledge%20statistics&st=cse
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070218134322.htm)

You'd think that CNN would want to throw MORE effort into science reporting rather than decrease it! Grrrrrrrrrrrr..........................................



Thanks to PZ Myers for first posting this!

Lousy $

My doc doesn't want me taking a full load of classes next semester which means that my dad will have to pay more for my health coverage and since we don't have that kinda $ right now, I'll have to pay about $200 a month for it...............:( Oh well it could be worse

John Muir House WOOT!

I lived fairly near his house for about ten years and I've never gone so, I finally decide to go and I had a great time.

I took a bunch of photos which I put on my myspace (WARNING: they aren't very good ;) and I'm trying to find a cheap DV cable so I can upload the video.

http://www.nps.gov/jomu/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir

If you don't know much about Muir, you really should check him out. He's considered to be the Father of the National Park service and one of the great naturalists of all time. And he has a SUPER NICE HOUSE!

It was a really great trip, I can't really describe the house because there's just so much stuff there to look at so I'll limit myself to my favorite spot; his study (better known as his "scribble den") where he did a ton of reading and writing. Its probably more accurate to call the woods themselves his office but still it felt really cozy being in his little study. The only original furniture in the house is his bed and his desk, so being close to the very same desk that he owned, I could picture Muir leaning back and looking out the window, or with his head bent and passionately jotting down an observation on a leaf sample etc. I bought a little book containing some of his writings about nature and his walks etc and they are just overflowing with the details of the flowers or the sky or the way he feels......It reminds me a lot of how I feel when I go outside, yet I barely know anything about rocks or plant types etc. I can't wait to start studying them in more detail.

YAY I haz a blog!

Okays, so welcome and thank you for checking out my blog! I'm new to the blogsphere but I'm going to try and post cool stuff daily. I have to go to work soon, so it'll be a little while before I finish my profile etc...anyways, I'll be back soon!