Pharyngula posted this amusing illustration this week, very funny! But what's really cool is the arrival of a new feathered dinosaur called Xiaotingia.
Now what's cool about Xiaotingia is that when placed into a cladistic matrix it groups together with Archeopteryx, what was considered the first bird awhile ago (and for awhile the only bird before the end of the Cretaceous.) BUT grouping them together pushes both of them OUT of the bird group and into the 'raptor' group of dinosaurs. So it turns out the great conundrum of paleontology has been solved! We now know Archeopteryx is a dinosaur, not a bird, something that was predicted in the early 80's by the great Gregory S. Paul. Paul, using our knowledge of evolution, made a prediction that later turned out to be true, SCIENCE WIN!
So are you asking yourself why is this in a Sunday Blasphemy post and NOT you dinosaur blog? Well, it turns out that the Creationists seem to think that this invalidates evolution! Ignore the fact that Archeopteryx has been considered a sister taxon to birds for quite a number of years, because science changed to fit the evidence that makes it false to the Creationists... My head it hurting just trying to attempt the mental gymnastics... Science is self correcting, when new evidence turns up and is proven to be true, we have to re-evaluate and incorporate that new knowledge into current thinking, something creationists refuse to do. We know the earth isn't 6,000 years old, we have trees older than that. We have evidence that Egypt was already a great city WITH writing about 100-180 years AFTER creation... I'm not sure if that would be possible to go from basically nothing to a fully civilized nation that fast... Adam and Eve would still be alive if you go by Creation science! Some other new thinking, is that the Big Bang wasn't the 'beginning' of the universe, it's just the last point we can go back to because the explosion obscures everything before it! Science Channel has some good shows on Wednesday!
And finally, we have this great webpage about God destroying the dinosaurs! It's a bit old, 1995, but since Creation science hasn't actually done anything except repeat verses from a 2,000 year old book this would be very modern thinking indeed! Enjoy as I did!
A few more tidbits to look over:
Taking down some IDiocy!
Why a crazy sect of Jews thinks it's OK to kill babies. Relax they used to do it all the time, Old Testament style!
And you may have noticed I haven't commented on the Norwegian Nut, I'm still not really sure if that was religiously motivated or rightwingish, or just plain crazy. It seems xenophobic so since I can't make up my mind I'm not going to play the blame game, Fox News can do that;) (Sarcastic yes?!)
Best!
Brett
