Stick A Fork In "Intelligent Design" – She’s Done

A major evolutionary innovation has unfurled right in front of researchers’ eyes. It’s the first time evolution has been caught in the act of making such a rare and complex new trait.

You’ve all heard it before, the Intelligent Design argument that life can’t change and adapt “randomly.” Life couldn’t have come about by “random chance.” Or, even better, that evolution is completely random, and therefore, could not result in the life we have on the planet as it is today… something about a tornado making a 747 jet in a junkyard? Well, stick a fork in that argument… she’s done.

Evolution has been observed in the laboratory. That’s right, a completely random genetic mutation has occurred which provides a benefit to a species – specifically the E. coli bacteria.

The E. coli bacteria had previously not been able to metabolize citrate (citric acid). But, through a random evolutionary mutation, this particular strand now has that capability.

This is no small change, either. This inability for E. coli to metabolize citrate is actually how scientists distinguish E. coli from different species of bacteria. This is direct evidence that random genetic mutations can absolutely result in new species. The article from New Scientist says…

Lenski’s experiment is also yet another poke in the eye for anti-evolutionists, notes Jerry Coyne, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago. “The thing I like most is it says you can get these complex traits evolving by a combination of unlikely events,” he says. “That’s just what creationists say can’t happen.”

It’s not like evolution was ever in question before, but this is one key piece of evidence that really wasn’t seen up until now. Most macro-evolution takes place on such a large scale that our life-spans are simply too short to witness it take place… things that occur over thousands or even millions of years.

Now the only way that I.D.’ers can really refute this evidence is through pure denialism, or pulling the Conspiracy Theory card. You know… more bad logic and whatnot. Or they’ll just say it contradicts the Bible, so it didn’t really happen. You know the deal.

What Are The Implications Of This?

Direct physical evidence of the mechanism of evolution is devastating not only to the Intelligent Design proponents, but also devastating to the Christian religion as a whole. Why is this?

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is based on the fact that Adam and Eve committed the first (original) sin in the Garden of Eden. According to the Bible, there was no death, no suffering and no sin prior to Adam and Eve eating of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Genesis 1:29-30 says…

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

But since we’ve physically witnessed the process of evolution taking place, this totally negates the need for a crucifixion. Since evolution is true, that means there was suffering and death (animals feeding upon each other) on the planet before the existence of the alleged “Adam and Eve.” Everything was not so good as the Bible claims.

And if there is no need for a crucifixion, then Christianity is rendered invalid at its source. That is why this discovery is so important.

Again, I’ll just say that this will obviously be overlooked by the Intelligent Design proponents, refuted with bad logic and denialism.

Read a book. It’s good for you.

More Lying For Jesus [The "Bait And Switch" Bible]

What does this look like to you? Some type of sports memorabilia? An inspirational story about your favorite basketball players? Some type of “self-help” book?

No, it’s a stupid Bible. The New Testament to be exact…

“A Sports New Testament.”

I found this little jewel on one of the tables in the break room at work the other night. And I have to say, I was a little surprised – and pissed off.

There are a lot of sports fans that work at McLane’s. So, I figured it was probably some type of sports statistics book, or maybe some kind of inspirational book – like a Chicken Soup For The Soul type of thing. I figured someone probably forgot it on the table when they left.

No. It’s Bible propaganda. And what strikes me about this is how much of a lie the whole concept really is. The entire purpose of this cover, the sports theme, is to trick the unsuspecting reader into thinking it’s got something to do with sports. Its purpose is to lie to the unsuspecting reader. (Doesn’t that violate one of the Ten Commandments? Lying? Bearing false witness?)

Exodus 20:16: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”

Now, what’s wrong with this “Sports New Testament,” besides the fact that it violates the 9th commandment? What would anger me about this? Well first off, the reason anyone would pick up this book would be based on a lie. The unsuspecting reader is expecting to find information about sports. Possibly they recognize the player on the cover? And even the little subtitle on the bottom, “A Sports New Testament” doesn’t truly let one in on what the real content of this book is. It might simply be construed as a player’s philosophy of the game.

I guess my main beef with this book is that if the Bible is so believable, and it’s supposedly so obvious that the Bible is “God’s Word,” then why would you have to lie and deceive people in order to get them to read it? This approach reminds me of what a sleazy car salesman would do. The old bait and switch technique.

Here’s an example of the bait and switch technique used on car lots all across the country. This is from an interview with a man only known as “Joey” on Edmunds.com.

Edmunds: How does the bait and switch work?

Joey: What they do is select the cheapest and the most stripped-down version of a model. That’s the car they advertise. Then they calculate the payments with the assumption that people have an A+ credit history for the longest finance or lease term possible. Once the customer is on the lot, they switch them to a different vehicle.

Edmunds: Can you give me an example?

Joey: You see an ad in the paper for your favorite SUV showing a monthly payment of $299 a month. It looks like a great deal, since, either according to simple math or someone you know who recently got this vehicle, the payment should be more like $500 a month. Keep in mind, people never read the fine print. You are very excited to get your new SUV for this low, low payment and show up on the lot. You mention the ad you saw in the paper. Lo and behold, the salesman regretfully informs you that the particular car has already been sold —

And this is exactly what this Christian did with this book. They got the potential reader interested in reading a sports book, only to find out that, unfortunately, that information isn’t available – but hey, wouldn’t they rather read the Bible instead?

As for me, no! I would not rather read the Bible instead. If I wanted to read the Bible, I would have looked for a book that said Holy Bible on the cover.

To conclude, I would just say that I took this book home with me. I’ve prevented anyone else from experiencing the deceit imposed on the people at my place of employment by this wretched Christian. This person is obviously willing to lie and, to say the least, be dishonest in order to recruit more people into his religion. And I don’t think that lying is a good way to spread the “Word of God.”

What would this person say at the Pearly Gates after he died?

Lord, I tricked a whole bunch of people into reading the Bible by putting totally irrelevant pictures on the cover of it. These were pictures of things that had absolutely nothing to do with your message – but pictures which I knew would lure people into reading it. I know that I’m a liar, but at least I got people to read the Bible.

What exactly is this person expecting to get out of leaving this book out for people to see? That someone would stumble upon it, take a quick look and decide that it really is God’s Word, take it home and force Christianity on their family? Have a modern-day version of the Crusades?

To be honest, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Christians started making pornographic videos which had intermittent Bible verses inserted into them, and began uploading them on the internet. You know… in order to spread the gospel.

Anyway, read a book. It’s good for you.