Christian Worldview Thought of the Day: Wednesday

A friend of mine posted a thoughtful question about abortion on his facebook status earlier today.  But that wasn’t what caught my interesting in particular, it was someone who commented on his status that had me thinking about the abortion issue in a different way.

Of course, the question of whether or not the fetus is a human life is the most important one in the debate.  However, what about the rights of the father?  All we hear is “It’s the woman’s body so she gets to choose.”  Really?  That’s not even biological correct.  The baby (or fetus, however you prefer to think about it, because that’s all it is, a preference) has half the fathers DNA and literally part of the father’s body entered the mother’s and became a part of the baby (and I’m not talking about the penis you sickos).

So it is also the father’s body that is a part of the growing baby.  I’ll ask again.  What about the rights of the father?  Doesn’t he have a say in what happens to his half of the DNA?  Isn’t this country all about equal rights for everyone?  So what about the rights of the father?

Christian Worldview Thought of the Day: Thursday

I am truly more saddened by the death of Steve McNair than Michael Jackson.  “Air McNair” was killed last weekend, in his sleep, by his girlfriend.  Steve was married.  His girlfriend, Sahel Kazemi, then turned the gun on herself.

Steve McNair was a great football player.  I truly enjoyed watching him play for years.  He embodied toughness and professionalism, and from all accounts of those around him, he was a good man who loved his family and gave back to his community. 

I’m not going to jump onto the “Steve McNair deserved to die because he was cheating on his wife” bandwagon.  However, this brings a sober reminder to any of us who are paying attention that being a “good man” is not enough.  Temptation comes to all of us, and we must be diligent in the Word and in our relationship with Christ or His protection over us may be lifted.

I don’t know if Steve McNair was a Christian, even though he did go to church in Nashville, and I don’t know if he deserved to die the way he did.  But I do know that if Steve wasn’t violating the sanctity of his marriage, I’d have a different “thought of the day”.

Christian Worldview Thought of the Day

The next time the liberal media tells you that they are concerned about the kids, please think of the hero worship that Michael Jackson has received upon his death.  Since when does the entertainment value of an individual outweigh pedophilia?

Ida: A Missing Link to Human Evolution?

Only if you want it to be.

Much as been made of the discovery of this “Ida”, given the Latin name Darwinius masillae, as a solid missing link between other mammals and humans.  Alex Watts from Sky News Online exclaimed, “The search for a direct connection between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom has taken 200 years—but it was presented to the world today at a special news conference in New York.”

Based upon glowing reports of the finding, we should expect to see an ape-like fossil.  Instead, what we see is this:

 

 

So, contrary to what some media outlets are reporting, this fossil is not ape-like in any way.  Looking more like a modern day lemur. 

The actual claims of the authors of the study is that Ida is a precursor to the ape. 

The truth is that the evidence is quite underwhelming.  It’s not that big of deal.  But why are the media outlets and scientists making such a fuss over Ida?

• It’s 95% preserved, which is unheard of as far as fossils go.  Let’s face it, it just looks really good.  It’s about the size of a racoon and even includes fossilized fur! 
• Ida has opposable thumbs which an ABC news article stated are “similar to humans and unlike those found on other mammals.”
• The talus bone is described as “the same shape as a humans’ “
• It’s teeth are more similar to a monkey’s than the modern day lemur.

Is Evolution the Only Explanation?

The part that the media nor the scientists don’t want to talk about is that it looks like a modern day lemur.  The only way you conclude that a lemur-like creature is a missing link to humanity is if you first assume that humans came from lemur-like creatures. 

Ida has opposable thumbs more like humans than other mammals  . . . OK, Ida also has a tail more like other mammals than humans, walks on all fours like other mammals, is the size of a raccoon like other mammals and unlike humans.  The point is that all they want to do is talk about the similarities to humans and monkeys, but not the dis-similar characteristics including the difference in the ankle structure in Ida than in monkeys and humans (J. L. Franzen, et al., “Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology,”).

Similarities are only evidence that two species are similar, not that one evolved from another.  That similarities are evidence of evolution is an unscientific conclusion because we cannot test or falsify that conclusion.  Similarities can be just as accounted for by a Creator who makes certain species similar and Ida’s differences from modern day lemurs can be just as easily accounted for by variation within a created kind.

The Problem with Ida is . . .

The science isn’t very sound.  Let’s forget the unscientific conclusions made by assuming evolution to give evidence of evolution.  Even the evidence that Ida is a evolutionary link to humans is disputed within the scientific community.

You don’t have to listen to me, just other news outlets that are more honestly reporting the story of Ida.

University of Michigan paleontologist Philip Gingerich told the Wall Street Journal: “There was a TV company involved and time pressure. We’ve been pushed to finish the study. It’s not how I like to do science.”

Responding to Professor Gingrich’s comments . . .

“That rings all sorts of warning bells,” University of New England paleoanthropologist Peter Brown cautioned “It’s nice it has fingernails, something we have, as do most primates . . . but they’ve cherry-picked particular character[istics] and they’ve been criticized (by other scientists) for doing that.” (The Australian)

“On the whole I think the evidence is less than convincing,” said Chris Gilbert, a paleoanthropologist at Yale University. “They make an intriguing argument but I would definitely say that the consensus is not in favor of the hypothesis they’re proposing.”

“The PR campaign on this fossil is I think more of a story than the fossil itself,” said anthropologist Matt Cartmill of Duke University in North Carolina. “It’s a very beautiful fossil, but I didn’t see anything in this paper that told me anything decisive that was new.”

“It’s not a missing link, it’s not even a terribly close relative to monkeys, apes and humans, which is the point they’re trying to make,” [Carnegie Museum of Natural History curator of vertebrate paleontology Chris] Beard said.

Those three quotes are from a LiveScience article.

“There is no phylogenetic analysis to support the claims, and the data is cherry-picked,” says paleontologist Richard Kay . . . of Duke University. Callum Ross, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago in Illinois agrees: “Their claim that this specimen should be classified as haplorhine is unsupportable in light of modern methods of classification.” (ScienceNOW)

In another article by BBC News Chris Beard said:  “I would be absolutely dumbfounded if it turns out to be a potential ancestor to humans.”

Conclusion

It’s clear that even within the scientific community the more sober-minded scientists, unphased by the media hype, remain skeptical and critical of the claims of Ida and the science behind it.  We must also remain skeptical of the arguments employed, assuming evolution to prove evolution, and the unscientific methods of exploring only one option to explain similarities.

Critical Thinking

I’ve been out of the battle of worldviews for awhile, but I just couldn’t resist after reading this gem. 

In fact, I have no idea why I was reading “Proud Atheists” again.  Truth be told I don’t find Mark to be intelligent and unique.  He’s just very good at condescending sarcasm and ignorant sensationalism which fills his blog stats.  Indeed, I wouldn’t even be writing this here if I was able to comment on his site (that’s right, I asked him a few tough questions and he banned me back in January). 

OK on to the point.  Mark wrote a post called Let’s Set the Record Straight, and I couldn’t help but smile triumphantly.  The purpose of the post was to . . . set the record straight . . . about how he feels about his atheism.  Some of the points aren’t worth discussing, but others are very telling. 

Part of this first point reads:

 I do not believe in gods, devils, demons, spirits, ghosts, souls, angels or any other being that controls humans.

This begs the question of free will.  Since God doesn’t exist then man is nothing but biochemistry (to say otherwise is just plain ignorance of biochemistry).  So instead of God “controlling us”, as Mark puts it, it is DNA and the chemical interactions controlled by that DNA that controls us.  Mark would call it “What I decided to do at the time” or “I do what I think is right”, but it’s all the same, brain activity controlled by biochemical interactions. 

So, Mark is right, he doesn’t believe in a being that controls humans, and neither do I (for if God really controlled us than atheism wouldn’t exist), but he believes in a worldview that makes the idea of “free will” nothing more than a created self-delusion.  Just as Mark sees those who believe in a deity as delusional, Mark has deluded himself that he has “free will” absent of God.   

Mark’s second point is:

As an atheist, I do not accept prayers, spells, curses, invitations to your theistic site for debate, scriptures, books, videos and other “God” media as proof of “existence of God”. Although you may find them inspirational, they are man made and only support a belief, not proof.

OK, so Mark has proof, while Christians only believe.  Got it.  Also, Mark will not engage in any debate and will not read any evidence for Christianity or against atheism.  Got it.  Take note of these two, they’ll become important in about two seconds.

He continues on with:

It is not my responsibility as an atheist to provide proof for my non-belief in your God or gods. However, if you claim to believe that elves and other supernatural phenomena exist, the burden of proof is on you. Without proof, you will be deemed as deluded in my view.

Wait. wait…wait.  I thought Mark had all the proof and us Christians didn’t?  I find it pretty selfish of Mark to keep all this “proof” to himself.  So, Mark won’t discuss any evidence for any opposite position and he won’t provide any evidence for his position.  Now that’s what I call a rational worldview!

I am not obligated to respect your religion, as most religions do not respect atheism or critical thought for that matter.

If “critical thought” is refusing to discuss an issue and provide evidence for your own opinion then I’ve been doing it all wrong!

Now you see why reading this had me all smiles.  No matter how loud or often Mark calls Christians irrational, his own words betray that he is just as dogmatic as any true believer that I know.