Archive for the 'Creationism/ID' Category

Oct 24 2023

Age of the Moon Revised

There are a few interesting stories lurking in this news item, but lets start with the top level – a new study revises the minimum age of the Moon to 4.46 billion years, 40 million years older than the previous estimate. That in itself is interesting, but not game-changing. It’s really a tweak, an incremental increase in precision. How scientists made this calculation, however, is more interesting.

The researchers studied zircon crystals brought back from Apollo 17. Zircon is a crystal silicate that often contains some uranium. These crystals would have formed when the magma surface of the Moon cooled. The current dominant theory is that a Mars-sized planet slammed into the proto-Earth about four and a half billion years ago, creating the Earth as we know it. The collision also threw up a tremendous amount of material, with the bulk of it coalescing into our Moon. The surface of both worlds would have been molten from the heat of the collision, but it is easier to date the Moon because the surface is better preserved. The surface of the Earth undergoes constant turnover of one type or another, while the lunar surface is ancient. So dating the Moon tells us something about the age of the Earth also.

The method of dating employed in this latest study is called atom probe tomography. First they use an ion beam microscope to carve the tip of a crystal to a sharp point. Then they use UV lasers to evaporate atoms off the tip of the crystal. These atoms pass through a mass spectrometer, which uses the time it takes to pass through as a measure of mass, which identifies the element. The researchers are interested in the proportion of uranium to lead. Uranium is a common element found in zircon, and it also undergoes radioactive decay into lead at a known rate. In any sample you can therefore use the ratio of uranium to lead to calculate the age of that sample. Doing so yielded an age of 4.46 billion years old – the new minimum age of the Moon. It’s possible the Moon could be older than this, but it can’t be any younger.

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Aug 30 2021

Four-Legged Whale Described

In 1985 Michael Denton, arguing against the fact of evolution, made the following observation:

“…to postulate a large number of entirely extinct hypothetical species starting from a small, relatively unspecialized land mammal and leading successively through an otter-like state, seal-like stage, sirenian-like stage and finally to a putative organism which could serve as the ancestor of the modern whales. Even from the hypothetical whale ancestor stage we need to postulate many hypothetical primitive whales to bridge the not inconsiderable gaps which separate the modern filter feeders (baleen whales) and the toothed whales.”
Denton (1985) Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, Adler & Adler Publishers:Chevy Chase, MD. p. 174

In 1992 creationist Duane Gish made an even more bold statement:

“The marine mammals abruptly appear in the fossil record as whales, dolphins, sea-cows, etc. There simply are no transitional forms in the fossil record between the marine mammals and their supposed land mammal ancestors.”
Duane Gish (1992), Evolution: The Challenge of the Fossil Record. Creation-Life Publishers: El Cajon, CA. p. 79

This remains a common strategy for creationists – point to current gaps in the fossil record and then pretend this is a problem for evolutionary theory. The unstated major premise here is that if evolution were true, we would by necessity already possess a fairly complete fossil record for the evolution of every single extant species, or at least (arbitrarily defined) major group. This premise is simply false. We have fossil windows into a process that occurred over 600 million years (if we talk only about multicellular creatures), all over the world, involving an estimated 5 billion species. There are gaps and always will be gaps.

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Aug 26 2021

Evolution Denial Survey

The idea that all life on Earth is related through a nested hierarchy of branching evolution, occurring over billions of years through entirely natural processes, is one of the biggest ideas ever to emerge from human science. It did not just emerge whole cloth from the brain of Charles Darwin, it had been percolating in the scientific community for decades. Darwin, however, put it all together in one long compelling argument. Alfred Wallace independently came up with essentially the same conclusion, although did not develop it as far as Darwin.

On the Origin of Species was published in 1859, and it quickly won over the scientific community, with natural selection acting on variation becoming the dominant working hypothesis. But that, of course, was not the end of the story, only the beginning. If Darwin’s ideas were wrong, they would have slowly withered from lack of confirming evidence. But they were largely correct, even insightful. The last 162 years of research and observation have confirmed to an extraordinary degree the core ideas that life is related through branching connections, and that natural selection is a primary driving force of evolution. The theory has also evolved quite a bit, and is now a mature and complex scientific discipline sitting on top of mountains of evidence, including fossils, genetics, comparative anatomy, developmental biology, and direct observation. The basic fact of evolution could have been falsified thousands of times over, but it has survived every time – because it is essentially true.

Acceptance of the basic tenets of evolutionary theory, therefore, is a good litmus test for any modern society. Of what, exactly, is another question, but certainly something is going wrong if the population does not accept this overwhelming scientific consensus. The US ranks second from the bottom (only Turkey is worse) in terms of accepting evolutionary theory. Researchers have been tracking the statistics for decades, and now some of the lead researchers in this field have published data from 1985 to 2020 (sorry it’s behind a paywall). There are some interesting details to pull from the numbers.

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Oct 04 2018

Evolution Under Attack

As an American it’s very easy to look at issues from a narrow American-centric view (we have a well-earned reputation for this). I am often reminded of this by my many international SGU listeners, and I have had to discipline myself to keep this in mind.

For example, when it comes to teaching science in public schools, I do, of course, feel the most responsibility for my own backyard, but this is an important issue everywhere. But this is an issue in many countries, not just the US. Recent reports indicate that the teaching of evolution is under attack in Israel and Turkey. The Guardian also reports:

This news follows the astonishing statements made by India’s minister for higher education earlier this year. Satyapal Singh claimed Darwin was “scientifically wrong”, and is demanding that the theory of evolution be removed from school curriculums because no one “ever saw an ape turning into a human being”.

India has 1.35 billion people, which is 17.7% of the world population. (China is 1.4 billion, 18.5% – so India and China combined have 36.2% of the world population). I think it’s reasonable to say that it matters what happens in these countries, especially with our increasingly globalized world. Our efforts to curb climate change depend on cooperation from China and India, and having a scientifically literate population will help these efforts.

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Aug 24 2018

Transitional Turtles

Facts matter. While that should be obvious, and skeptics have been pushing that world view for decades, it seems that the central importance of objective facts to both democracy and any intellectual pursuit might be more apparent recently. You tend to notice the importance of something more when you lose it, and the recently popular political tactics of “fake news,” “alternative facts,” and “truth isn’t truth,” have certainly focused attention.

But attacking objective reality in order to promote an ideology or preferred belief system is nothing new, even if it has become more obvious and odorous. Sure, everyone has their narrative and philosophy by which they organize their understanding of reality. This narrative influences how we perceive reality, which facts we accept and remember, and which ones we find reasons to dismiss. The question is a matter of degree – how much do we allow facts to influence our beliefs vs our beliefs to influence the perception of facts?

The main virtue of science is that it systematically puts facts above beliefs, and constantly hits beliefs over the head with facts. Other contexts, not so much. And there are times when ideology becomes so dominant that facts become irrelevant. Belief in creationism is one of those contexts – the creationist culture traffics almost entirely in “alternative facts.” People consuming the creationist literature and culture are effectively being gaslighted – presented with an alternate reality as if it is true. There are countless examples of this, but one of my favorites is the creationist claim that there are no transitional fossils. For example:

Contrary to the impression given by evolutionary books and magazines, evidence of transition is rare and limited to variation within kinds. Sensationalistic claims of ‘evolutionary ancestors’ make it into the newspapers; retractions and more sober evaluations of new fossils do not.

Add some outdated or out-of-context quotes, and a complete misinterpretation of evolutionary theory and the fossil record, and you create an alternate reality. The real reality, as I have discussed many times before, is that there are tons of transitional fossils, supporting the fact that life on earth has changed over time through a pattern of common descent. Here is one more to throw onto the pile – the evolution of the turtle.

Turtles are reptiles, but they have some unique features as a group. They have a beaky mouth with no teeth, a top shell made from fused ribs and vertebra, and a bottom shell. They also lack holes above their eyes used for the insertion of jaw muscles. So – common descent predicts that turtles must be related to other reptiles, which means we should find fossils of turtle ancestors that have some turtle features but not all – a transitional turtle.

But keep in mind, evolution is not a ladder but a bush. There will not be a straight line from the last common ancestor between turtles and other reptiles and modern turtles. There will be a bush of diversity, with different features appearing at different times, and even disappearing, and individual groups with relatively primitive features surviving late in the fossil record. As scientists discover a puzzle piece here and there, a confusing picture will emerge in terms of the specific details of evolutionary history. But the big picture will be clear – a transition over evolutionary time from the common ancestor to modern turtles.

So – in 2008 scientists discovered several turtle fossils 220 million years old that only have a shell on the bottom, not the top, and a beaky mouth. They had some but not all of the turtle unique features. Then, in 2015, they discovered a 240 million year old turtle (Pappochelys rosinae) with just the beginnings of a bottom shell. And now, in 2018, scientists report the finding of an older turtle ancestor, 230 million years old (Eorhynchochelys sinensis), that has no shell but still has the beaky mouth. The ribs are starting to expand into the upper shell or carapace, but only partly. These latter two specimens also still have the skull holes of other reptiles, showing their relationship to other modern reptiles.

The presence of the beaky jaw is early for the turtle line, showing that some later turtle species may have lost the beak. We are looking at a diverse group, only one line of which lead to modern turtles.

These fossils do not represent a straight line, as I said, but they show the existence of turtle relatives over evolutionary time progressively acquiring the classic turtle features. These are stunning transitional fossils that absolutely confirm the predictions of the common descent part of evolutionary theory. The fiction that there are few or no transitional fossils is demonstrable nonsense, but that will not stop creationists in their alternative universe from continuing to make this false claim.

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May 22 2018

Alien Cephalopods and Panspermia

A recent paper in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Cause of Cambrian Explosion – Terrestrial or Cosmic?, has caused quite a stir. I think that was the intention, and the majority of journalists ate it up, either not caring if the science was good, or not able to tell.

One main point of the paper is that the Cambrian Explosion – the geologically rapid event about 550 million years ago in which multicellular life appears in the fossil record – was so rapid because it may have been the result of alien genetic information. The authors further argue cephalopods, especially the octopus, are so amazing because they either incorporated alien genes into their makeup, or they are completely alien, coming to earth as cryopreserved eggs inside comets. The third leg of their alleged evidence for panspermia is microfossils found in meteorites.

All three arguments are utter crap. The underlying claim of panspermia – that life has seeded the galaxy from one or a limited number of initial sources – is highly problematic but perhaps not 100% nonsense.

The Three Lines of Evidence

Many science bloggers have trashed this article, doing damage control for the irresponsible journalists who probably should not be covering science stories. I will only quickly summarize here.

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May 11 2018

The Evolution of Baleen Whales

A recent survey finds that knowledge of evolution correlates with acceptance of evolution. This was widely reported as suggesting that educating the public about evolution could lead to higher rates of acceptance. Sure, but to be clear the survey does not actually show this. We can also interpret the same data to suggest that acceptance of evolution leads to greater knowledge of it.

This latter interpretation makes sense in light of the fact that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation about evolution from creationist sources. If you are anti-evolution for ideological reasons, you are likely to be highly misinformed about the science because your rely on secondary hostile creationist sources for your information. If you accept the scientific consensus on evolution, you may be more likely to avail yourself of legitimate scientific sources of information.

But probably both factors are at play, and we certainly should strive to improve public education about evolutionary science. It is a complex and subtle science that is poorly understood by the public. The survey also found that 68% of those surveyed failed to demonstrate a basic knowledge of evolutionary theory. And it is certainly easier to spread misinformation about a science the public generally does not understand. In this case knowledge would be a good defense against propaganda.

It is also true that the evidence for the basic fact that life on Earth is the result of evolutionary processes is a scientific home run. It is a phenomenally well-established fact, with no viable competing theory. This often creates the naive belief among those with a solid understanding of evolution and the evidence for it that if they could only explain that evidence to a typical creationist, they will win them over with the massive force of that evidence. That does sometimes happen, but more often evidence is no match for motivated reasoning.

With all that said, I am still going to write about the evidence for evolution in the hopes of nudging public acceptance even a little.

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Nov 27 2017

Renewed Antiscience Legislation

The fight over science in public education continues, and if anything picked up considerably in 2017. Earlier in the year Nature reported on various state laws designed to water down science education or allow for equal time to be given to unscientific views. They report:

Florida’s legislature approved a bill on 5 May that would enable residents to challenge what educators teach students. And two other states have already approved non-binding legislation this year urging teachers to embrace ‘academic freedom’ and present the full spectrum of views on evolution and climate change. This would give educators license to treat evolution and intelligent design as equally valid theories, or to present climate change as scientifically contentious.

New Mexico took a more direct approach – simply scrubbing “controversial” ideas from the state’s science standards. The standards no longer mention “evolution”, human contributions to climate change, or even mentioning the age of the Earth. This is not a back door approach – this is straight-up censorship of accepted scientific facts.

A new Florida bill also includes this problematic language:

Controversial theories and concepts must be taught in a factual, objective, and balanced manner.

This is part of the latest strategy. First, don’t mention any one theory (like evolution) by name. That is likely to trigger a constitutional challenge. Second, make the bill sound like it is promoting something positive, like academic freedom, democracy, or just being fair and balanced.

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Jul 03 2017

Eroding Science Education in Florida

periodicFlorida just passed a bill designed to challenge the teaching of evolution, climate change, and other “controversial” science in the classroom. This represents the evolution of such laws promoted by those opposed to the teaching of evolution.

In the past century there have been a number of such state laws passed in the US, most of which have been struck down by Federal courts, including The Supreme Court, as a violation of the separation of church and state. These including banning the teaching of evolution, requiring the teaching of “creation science”, teaching the controversy, and teaching creationism’s alter-ego, Intelligent Design.

Essentially these are all attempts to force or allow schools to determine what is taught in the public school science classroom not by the current scientific consensus but by the prevailing religious beliefs of the community. The string of legal defeats has not stopped efforts to oppose the teaching of evolution. Rather deniers have simply tried to craft laws to get around the pesky first amendment.

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May 19 2017

Young Earth Creationists and the Grand Canyon

Andrew Snelling is a young-earth creationist with a PhD in geology who wants to study the Grand Canyon. The National Park Service (NPS), which regulated who gets to do science in Grand Canyon National Park, turned down his application. You can probably guess what happened next.

Snelling is now suing the NPS and the Department of Interior for religious discrimination. He claims his application was turned down because of his religious views. That does not seem to be the case. The NPS had experts review his application. They determined that his science was not valid, and that the rocks he wanted to remove from the park could be found elsewhere. The NPS is particularly careful about any research that involves removing material from parks.

It seems clear to me that the NPS is on solid ground (heh). They already have a process in place to determine if scientific applications are for worthy science and if they justify the removal of material from a park. They did proper peer-review and abided by the recommendations of their experts. This does not appear to have anything to do with what Snelling believes, but the quality of his science.  Snelling is now being a whiny b**ch. He also appears to be using this for propaganda purposes, which may have been the whole idea from the beginning.

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