www.jeffthefish.com

There is a lot of creationist confusion about transitional forms. And by “confusion” I mean lies invented by the people who make their living selling books debunking evolution.

The most famous example of a transitional form is, of course, Archaeopteryx. Let’s check in with Answers in Genesis to see what they have to say about Archaeopteryx:

“It seems to have been suited to a lifestyle of short flights and agile crawling in trees, and those features which make it unquestionably a bird for classification purposes are uniquely and completely present and perfect.”

Right…I think they’ve answered their own question with the caveat “for classification purposes.” Would you say that a pug is a dog “for classification purposes”? Of course not. A pug is unambiguously a dog. The only reason to add that tagline is that, well, you gotta put it somewhere, and birds is as good a place as any.

The truth is that Archaeopteryx is not a bird in the way that a pigeon or a British girl is a bird. In fact, if you’re looking at just its skeleton sans feathers, you’d be justified in thinking you were looking at a dinosaur. To illustrate this, I have yet another quiz that no one will respond to!

One of the animals below is Archaeopteryx. The other is a small dinosaur called Compsognathus. Without using Google, please try to tell me which is a dinosaur and which is a bird.

The other quiz that no one responded is here.

[James] Randi has recently converted to being a muslim.Peace upon you brother [Source]

Well….ok.  Thanks grandmastaaa!

I found this on a message board I recently discovered.  The quote is in response to the claim that rock layers are dated according to the fossils they contain, and fossils are dated according to the rock layers they are found in, as made famous by Kent Hovind and “Dr.” Ron Carlson. This claim, as you may have guessed, is simply false. Theology Web user JonF explains how fossils are actually dated:

Strata are dated relative to each other by the principle of superposition and the principle of cross-cutting (I may have that name wrong); unless there is evidence to the contrary, the deeper layers are older, and layers that intrude into other layers are newer than the layers into which they intrude. Strata are dated absolutely by radiometric methods and a few non-radiometric methods.

Index fossils are used to correlate strata between different locations. Index fossils are those that appear in many places across the globe, and appear in relatively thin sections of the geologic column.

A made-up but realistic example may make this clearer. We find a layer of lava, which dates to 77 million years ago by several independent methods. Under that layer we find a layer of sedimentary rock. In that layer of sedimentary rock we find a dinosaur fossil and a foraminifera fossil, and the foraminifera fossil is a well-known index fossil. We know from the principle of superposition that the dinosaur fossil is older than the lava, and is therefore older than 77 million years.

Somewhere far away we find a layer of sedimentary rock containing the same foraminifera fossil, and below that sedimentary rock is a layer of lava. The lava dates to 79 million years ago by several independent methods.

So, with absolutely no reference to fossils we know that the dinosaur fossil is more than 77 million years. But we can do better. We use the index fossil that is found in the two places to correlate the two sedimentary layers; they must be approximately the same age. Therefore the dinosaur fossil is also less than 79 million years old.

Good work! This is a very good explanation of the process, written for someone who does not really seem to understand how science works.

Last Wednesday, the Tile For Less truck showed up again to block some more traffic and create general mayhem.

Bill and I decided it was time to do something, so we grabbed a parking flier and ran down there.

After gingerly placing it in his passenger window, we ran back upstairs so we could see our driver friend’s reaction when he returned from his coffee break.

It was interesting. He took scarcely a glance at the flier, crumpled it, and threw it into the back of his truck.

But we think we reached him. If he doesn’t show up today that’ll be a whole week in which he hasn’t shown up, and he usually comes nearly everyday. I wonder what it was that got to him. After being approached by Bill a couple weeks ago, was the flier the last straw? Did he consider it not worth it? Or did he really come to understand that he’s being inconsiderate? I hope it’s the latter. DRUM SOLO!!!

Special thanks to Phyllis for taking the photos! 

Today’s quote comes from Comfort Food / Soapbox / Atheist Central reader verandoug, responding to my explanation that blind cave salamanders still have the genes to create functional eyes:

I also wonder if some of the things we do do not directly effect our genome especially sin. It will be interesting as scientific evidence unfolds. [Source]

WHAT????????

I had just started cooking dinner, not ten minutes ago, when we heard a LOUD SQUEALING ALARM go off in our apartment building.  Jen grabbed the rats and our box of important documents, and I grabbed the laptop and the rabbit, and we headed down to the sidewalk. It was cute, and all our neighbors cuted out at our animals.

But everything’s fine. Looks like some kid just pulled the fire alarm.

WHO WANTS TO JOIN ME IN THE PUB CRAWL TO CELEBRATE ST. VIANNEY DAY!! WOOO HOOO DRINKING FUN TIME!!!!

If science and nature is truth and evolution is the opposite then evolution is a fraud or a lie. I rest my case. [Source]

I highly recommend checking out the source of this one.  The accompanying article is the same old recycled Creationist logical fallacies, but the discussion at the end (to which I contributed a few humorous remarks) is incredible, and, thanks to a scientist / blogger named Clostridium, highly educational.

I work on the second floor. My desk is by the window. The window overlooks a street. Across the street is a Starbucks. Frequently, things happen in the street or at Starbucks. Here’s what happened a few minutes ago:

Yes, that’s right. It’s a Tile for Less truck, parked in the middle of the street while the driver goes inside to get his coffee.

Here’s what you need to understand: a few days ago, we saw a minivan parked in the same spot, with the driver doing the same thing. Bill happened to be out there when the driver came out, and we watched from the second floor as Bill explained that what he was doing is rude. What was the man’s justification? “I do this everyday, ” he told Bill. Right. And Ken Ham rapes piglets everyday. Does that make it right?

So I watched and waited for the Tile For Less driver to come back to his truck.

HOLY COWS!! It’s the same guy!

Unfortunately, the Tile For Less website doesn’t appear to have any sort of email address listed, so I can’t send them these photos. They do have a staff page for the Washington division, and I was able to find out the guy’s name. I won’t reveal it here because that would be mean.

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UPDATE! Coworker Christopher Giddens called Tile For Less to ask if they had an email address, and they said they don’t!  Who has a website but no email address!!