Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

So mriff, do you think that he truly believes that or is he pandering to his intellectually challenged base of voters?

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Sadly, I think it's both.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

I am now dealing with an uncle with dementia. If this is Intelligent Design then I want to protest. My mother died last year in September with dementia and I question the sanity of someone who claims that humans are the result of Intelligent Design.

I think either the person in question needs to have a piss test for drugs or a complete mental exam. Something is seriously wrong with him. There is a place in Austin for people with severe mental disorders and it ain't the capital building.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Well said TBOLT.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

On the other hand I can sing the Aggie War Hymn in Donald Duck. Great way of getting free booze and food while I was at Aggieland.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Gasp! A GOP candidate who 'believes' in evolution. Not quite stated correctly but a start nonetheless.

Jon Huntsman: Does a "center right" presidential candidate have a prayer? - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

I saw that, and was pleased as well as stunned.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Nice article.

Attention Governor Perry: Evolution is a fact - Richard Dawkins - Washington Post On Faith - RichardDawkins.net

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Here is an interesting thought:

As the east coast recently had an earthquake and now is facing Irene is it possible that God hates the Tea Party and their recent actions? Seems logical to me.

I wonder why Pat Robertson has not prophetsized this.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Ohh you didn't know?

Rabbi Yehuda Levin Blames Washington, DC Earthquake On Gay Marriage (VIDEO)

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

I will blame the Tea Party. Seems logical to me. There was no earthquake until their power structure appeared.

On the other hand it could be caused by the American Idiot TV show. :razz:

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Some tough words on Perry from Richard Dawkins.

Attention Governor Perry: Evolution is a fact - On Faith - The Washington Post

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Hey mriff,

I've got to bust your chops, 'cause I know that Florida would bust MN chops in college football.:razz: Check out post 1008 my friend.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Dang! How did I miss that?! It was a take down of epic proportions. To draw Dawkins' ire is to suffer greatly. Consider my chops busted. :oops:

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

A little off topic, but a good read.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...rth-who-knows/

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Bad link?

You have reached this page due to an error.

Please try refreshing the page or visiting our home page at Science News, Articles and Information | Scientific American. If you continue to experience this problem, please contact

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

More directly relevant:

Fossil Trove Sheds Light - WSJ.com

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

It appears that Sci American is all screwed up right now. I can find the post by searching on 'guest post, age of the earth', but clicking on the article gets nothing. Oh well. It was a good read. I'll try to find it again later.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

I've been reading up on that the last few days. It hit the mainstream press in a big way. Looks like a nice transitional form. Fits the evolutionary model like another piece of the puzzle. There are already some who are saying 'see, Darwin was wrong'. Of course they haven't bothered to read ANY of the new information and consider it in the body of existing science.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

The problem with reading about it in the mainstream press as opposed to Science (I allowed my membership to lapse some time ago) is that you get the information so intertwined with the politics and theology of the matter that there are too many distractions.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Here's another couple links about the new find.

Hominid fossils may shake up theories on human evolution | | The Bulletin

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/sc...09fossils.html

Edit: The NYT article is actually quite good. Check it out.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

True. But I've trained myself to skip over the dumb sh*t that dumb sh*t reporters say. It doesn't even phase me anymore which is kind of sad.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

And I let my membership lapse a while ago too. I miss getting the journal/magazine. I really should get signed up again.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Ok, the Science article describing the new species can be had for free. All you have to do is register on the site. I've got it printed out and ready for the next plane trip.

You can find it here:

Science Magazine: Sign In

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

You mean there is ANOTHER place that isn't the capitol building... ;-)

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Got this article printed and ready to read on the plane next week.

The Missing Link Fallacy

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Some interesting reading here:

Your thoughts on evolution xxx8211; Light Years - CNN.com Blogs

This is one of the comments.

Bernhardt - Evolution is crap. Random processes NEVER result in the formation of genetic 'upgrades'. Does your computer upgrade itself from a random number generator ? I think not. ALL genetic upgrades in any species are the result of the active spiritual mentation of the GODHEAD. Your computer is only upgraded when you link to a site that does it or install it via a flashdrive, cd-rom etc. Why is this so hard to understand ? Why try to degrade God by calling him ' an intelligent adaptive force called evolution '. What a crock. Science is only a description of lab results documented by arrogant humanoids. It is incomplete and never will embrace the whole of life as it is and its spiritual reality. A society led by Godless 'scientists' is the blind leading the blind. A useless pile of crap. Useless eaters consuming their environment. I chose God and Life. So can you.

With a very simple, very common sense reply:

NJBob - If you understood how evolution works, you'd realize that random mutations do not result in genetic "upgrades", but selection does. Selection is not random!

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

The state mental hospital is a bit north of UT Austin. By the way my uncle died from his dementia a week ago. Even in his worst moments I think he was more with it than RP.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Well, check out what our lamebrain Lt. Governor says about evolution in this recent speech. Hit it about minute 4:30.

Jennifer Carroll's fire and brimstone - YouTube

[Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer] Carroll, in her fire-and-brimstone speech on Thursday, spoke disparagingly of how “some of our political leaders bow down to scientists and let them have the stage to push their evolution.” She made it plenty clear that the coming Republican revolution would no longer allow “the minority to poison the minds of the majority.”

(n)

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Nice piece from Mr. Grimm -- thanks for posting the link.

Straw poll in FL was a bit of an upset.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

I thoroughly enjoyed that very practical look at science and politics.

And yes, quite the upset. Ironic that it was a straw poll for craziness. The most crazy got the most votes. Not sure about how Perry is going to do going forward. He's taking some hits lately. He's vulnerable.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

What makes you think the GOP at this point is going forward? That, my friend, is a bad assumption.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Good point TBOLT! I think regressing is a better world. Unfortunately.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

I think de-evolving is a better term. Another couple of months and we will find the missing links.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

hahaha!

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

More on the psychological side of the world, but with some interesting implications relevant to evolutionary science.

Helping your fellow rat: Rodents show empathy-driven behavior, evidence suggests

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

I love reading about these kinds of experiments. It must be pretty cool as a grad student, to sit around and design this stuff. And I guess I'm not at all surprised by the results. Showing empathy is a very basic behavior that has clear benefits of aiding survival of a population. Distress in an individual quickly disperses among a group of subjects. Like what happens when my wife is not happy, then none of the rest of us around the house are. :smile:

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Isn't that the truth -- SWMBO kind of rules the roost in that regard!

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

No doubt about that!

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

We are seeing a strong push toward pushing the existance of God out of everywhere and the perfect place to start is in schools. This is why the we have conflicts in these areas. They are riding under the freedom of religion umbrella for now till most of the Country is infected with this venom then you will see freedom of religion disappear all of a sudden. Then the State will dictate what you should believe. For most people this will work because they don't know any better but for those who do we will just have to ride out the storm till one day the Creator does show up. What then?

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

So you're saying that we should just ignore what we know to be true?

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

I propose to debate the issue of Dogma study vs. Bible study. If you don't understand the difference I will be more than glad to share an apple, orange, fig, or the fruit of the particular region or religion to start things off.

I have found that quite a bit of the more religious people I know promote the dogma that they have been taught as to what is actually written.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

He got owned. Though to be fair, he did 'certify and seal his convictions'. The whole macro vs. micro evolution thing just kills me. Evolutionary biologists don't use such terms because they are meaningless.

The Evolving Scientist: Someone got ahold of Line's full letter!

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Looking forward to this one.

NOVA | What Darwin Never Knew

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Bachmann: Teaching Only Evolution Is xxx039;Censorshipxxx039; | ThinkProgress

Her statement just boggles the mind. It's a mish-mash of all the ID arguments rolled up into one tidy statement. How misinformed can one be on basic science.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Belief and truth are not the same thing.

I believe politicians are smart, truthful, honest and trustworthy.

See what I mean.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

For many of us in MN, we are hopeful that the national exposure of her idiocy will lead to her failure to be re-elected in this coming election. Note how I assume -- perhaps erroneously -- that she will not be the GOP standard bearer in the Presidential election.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

For those of us in Texas we are suffering from the exposure of Perry. We are also suffering from the cost of Perry exposing himself. He is now drawing both retirement and his salary. In addition the people of Texas are footing part of the bill for his campaign.

I do wonder if Paul will end up as the VP candidate as he seems to have a core of people that believe in him. Romney/Paul anyone?

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Precisely why I don't say I believe in evolution. I do say that I understand and support the basic science on which the Theory of Evolution is based.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

I think it's safe to say that MB will not be the nominee. And RP's path looks a little tough too. I believe neither will be prominent on the national scene anytime soon.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Realistically the Republicans have not fielded a viable candidate so far. All the ones in the limelight have major issue either with previous criminal behavior, inability to understand reality, or have questionable motions.

On the other hand they make up a great group for a game of "Spot the Loony." It is hard to lose no matter who you pick.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

I wonder when the democrats will? Maybe they will keep the current "" if they can find out when he will be back from vacation(s).

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

I understand your point. My point is that the Republicans seem to have a problem finding someone who is marketable to the majority of the voters. They all seem to have previous issues hanging over them.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

And they all seem to disregard basic science in ways that make them seem loony (which is one of my litmus tests). Except for a couple of them.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Not too surprising I guess.

Survey: U.S. Protestant pastors reject evolution, split on Earthxxx039;s age xxx8211; CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Especially not too surprising given the sponsor and the folks who carried out the research.

However, assuming that biases were not deliberately introduced via the study design, there is one aspect that is potentially troubling. The sample design started by sampling churches, and then sampling "the pastor" within that church. On the face of it a reasonable decision.

But note that they did not randomly sample clergy, where a larger (urban) church might have several clergy serving the parishioners. By doing this, they effectively weighted the sample toward rural parsihes, which I would guess would be more fundamentalist.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

I would guess that you would be right about that. Especially in southern states.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

What an IDiot. Quite a smack down he received in the comments.

Marty Rowley: The Evolution Revolution

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Pastifarians Unite!

Hallowed be thy pasta | HeraldTribune.com

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Ramen to that!

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Got it !!
The blackberry evolved from a pager that evolved from pasta. Now it's all clear.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Shouldn't that be Pastafarians?

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Only if it's semolina not wheat

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

You mean there are more than one sect? Oh dear, sounds like the start of another religious war. Does each sect claim one meatball?

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

As Rick Perry might say, Oops. :oops:

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Plenty of differents sects.

1. ITALIAN MEATBALLS
2. MEATBALL NOODLE SOUP
3. SWEDISH MEATBALLS
4. MEATBALL SUBS
5. HAWAIIAN xxxxTAIL meatballs
6.CHINESE MEATBALL SOUP
7. SWEET AND SOUR MEATBALLS
8. TERIYAKI MEATBALLS
9. SWEET & SOUR MEATBALLS
10.NEW ENGLAND STYLE
11. SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Does all these sects lead to violence or do they just eat each other?

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

This should be interesting. I don't think he was fired for what he was doing, I think he was fired for being a dick.

David Coppedge, Ex-NASA Worker, Claims In Lawsuit That Agency Axed Him For 'Intelligent Design' Views

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Pretty funny. I especially like this line:

Here we see the carnivorous Ceratosaurus, Deinonychus and Carnotaurus munching on some lemons and bananas, as they were prone to do, leaving Adam and Eve free to get their naked frolic on without disruption.

Louisville Zoo shaking its fist at God with new saddle-less dinosaur exhibit – FatLip

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Mriff, that is good humor -- except for the fact that so many in this society believe it!

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

That IS the very scary part. Shocking, at least to me. I can't fathom being that dependent on others to guide my thoughts.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Perhaps that is the key....You actually have thoughts....

Just sayin'

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

In order to have a "religious" nation you have to destroy the education system and replace it with one that teaches dogma.

Reality and truth have nothing to do with it.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Maybe. But you know, it just isn't that hard. This is all built around common sense. One doesn't have to be a scientist to understand the concepts. I tell people all the time just walk outside and open your eyes. You'll see the results of evolution in the natural world all around you. It just makes sense. But maybe I should modify that to say walk outside and open your eyes and your mind.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

This is exactly what one of the current GOP candidates would say. He wouldn't put it quite that way, but this is what he is saying. That universities have one purpose and that is 'indoctrination'. And that they 'steal' your religion from you. Which is preposterous of course. But he doesn't deal in facts very well.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

This has been my concern for a while. It is rather scary.

I would like to nominate Pat Robinson for the "Captain Wrongway Peachfuzz" award for accurate predictions.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

SBOE Candidate: Veronica Anzaldua « Texas Freedom Network

Oh yeah TBOLT. You have a real winner here. I'd be voting for her for sure. She's all about teaching the Theory of Intelligent Design. I personally didn't know that ID had been elevated to theory status.

I AM SOCIALLY CONSERVATIVE
1. I believe LIBERAL influence should be kept to a minimum. What does this mean? I want curriculum for students to reflect actual facts about history, science, economics etc. and not one modified to suit political correctness and liberal bias.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Eviscerated. And the dumb ass didn't even know it.

Video: McLeroy on The Colbert Report — State Board of Education | The Texas Tribune

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

It's becoming clear why Obama was elected.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Science education still lagging in the US.

Survey: Nearly half of Americans subscribe to creationist view of human origins xxx8211; CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

A well informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will – Pharyngula

That 46% of our citizens graduate with a complete denial of a most basic, fundamental fact about our world — that all of the sciences, not just biology, but physics, geology, chemistry, and astronomy concur that the planet is billions of years old — represents a massive failure of our educational system. In itself, it’s a small problem — it’s knowledge of one small detail. But as a symptom, it indicates a nation-wide problem.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

That pretty much sums it up right there. It is a huge failure, with even many 3rd world nations performing much better. Quite sad, really.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Sad, because it's so simple and so easily understood. It's pure common sense.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

There's no such thing as "common" sense any more, as your previous post points out. There's good sense, but too bad it isn't common.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Yep, can't argue with that js. All one has to do is look at the daily news to know that good ol' common sense is a rare commodity these days.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

That's a really funny article js. Especially number 5! Ouch.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

I suppose it was only a matter of time.

Fischer Blames Colorado Shootings on Teaching Evolution, Ending State-Sponsored School Prayer | TFN Insider

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Incomprehensible. This one really sticks out there.

"The theory of evolution is a theory, and essentially the theory of evolution is not science -- Darwin made it up," state Sen. Ben Waide (R) said. "My objection is they should ensure whatever scientific material is being put forth as a standard should at least stand up to scientific method. Under the most rudimentary, basic scientific examination, the theory of evolution has never stood up to scientific scrutiny."

Kentucky Evolution Fight: GOP Lawmakers Upset State Exams Test Students On 'Made Up' Theory

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Clown College Castoffs.

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Bill Nye, the Science Guy. Well put.

Bill Nye: Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children - YouTube

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

This video is pretty neat, they take Creationism and Evolution and completely swap them.

https://vimeo.com/7090969

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Really cool. And funny. And hard to keep up with!

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Congressman draws fire for calling evolution, Big Bang

“All that stuff I was taught about evolution, embryology, the Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell,” U.S Rep. Paul Broun said in an address last month at a banquet organized by Liberty Baptist Church in Hartwell, Georgia. “And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior.”

Broun, a medical doctor by training, serves on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Yes, he serves on a House committee that concerns Science. :?

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Re: President Obama and Evolution
 

Well, I imagine that he became a politician because most of his patients "went on to a better place" due to his unique skills.