Well, I think I have finally some time to write here again.. bet you all couldn't wait (considering I have 2 followers.. not quite enough to start a gov't takeover)
I've been playing nine man football, and it's been a blast. I enjoy being around people who enjoy the competition as much as I do. I hate to lose, and so do they. Although there are periods after a tough practice of a game when I feel my body rejecting my fun. My bones ache and my muscles scream, informing me of my torment for asking so much from them.
A few things have happened among friends, changes, that have made me take a deep introspective look at my life and my situation. I think I'll talk about this later on.
I'm getting ready to start my MCAT studying and medical school application process rolling. I'm already anxious about the money it is going to cost me. I'm not even in med school and it's already raping money from me.
Alas I am here supposedly studying for my physics exam in a couple of days. It's really quiet in the house because D and bigguy went to see a movie with Kev and Krista. So my girlfriend and my roommate left me to enjoy Coulomb's law and circuits.
It's very quiet here now, and it is reminding me of my place in Corvallis. I can hear the faint sounds of water going through the neighbors pipes and the soft rumbling of the fridge. I remember how in Corvallis I would feel alone, not emotionally, just by myself. It's been so long since I have had this feeling.. just a bit of deja vu I suppose.
Be well, all of you.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Educating the Atheist?
So I have recently came across a "youtuber" named Educating the Atheist. This man claims to debunk atheistic arguments using a "common sense approach." One of such arguments arises from a video of a child... yes child evangelical preacher who says, "monkeys make monkeys, fish make fish.. etc." As Educating the Atheist puts it, "they come from the same kind."
But what exactly is a kind..?
Since "Educating the Atheist" does not allow comments on his videos (why?), I have some questions. And please, anyone.. define what "kind" is. (I have heard variations of "kind" from entire kingdoms to species.)
Second question, there is an organism, Helacyton gartleri that is a lab made species made from a line of human cells that contained HPV that evolved from a carcinoma that spreads by taking over other laboratory cell cultures. It is self replicating, and finds ways to survive on its own. What "kind" does one define Helacyton gartleri?
As well, monkeys make monkeys.. I'm assuming that Mr EtA is speaking of our distant primate ancestors.
To clarify, our species, Homo sapiens is a type of primate. We knew this before Darwin published "The Origins of Species" or "Descent of Man." We are in the Great Apes category, shared with chimps, gorillas and orangutans.
As it is know to scientists* our closest relative in the evolutionary web (or tree if you're and old timer) is the chimpanzee. A common, yet fallacious argument I often hear is, "If we came from chimps, why are there still chimps?" In fact, we did not come from chimps, we simply share a common ancestor with chimpanzees.
Humans, along with chimpanzees and banobos; share a common ancestor Orrorin tugenensis (~6 million years ago) which split into the Pan, and Homo hominid line. Humans and chimpanzees are cousins.. humans ARE NOT descendants of chimpanzees. Chimps, humans, and gorillas (Pan, Homo and Gorillini genus', respectively) share a common ancestor, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, which lived about 7 million years ago.
Humans, banobos, chimps and gorillas are all common of one ancestor and such in academia referred to as the African apes.
All the African apes share a common ancestor with orangutans, thought to be Ouranopithecus macedoniensis.
Another interesting fact, humans and chimps share 98.5 percent of our DNA with each species. However, it is interesting to note that all the great apes besides humans have 48 chromosomes. Humans have 46.. meaning we have 23 pairs of chromosomes: 23 from mom and 23 from dad. All the other great apes have 48, 24 from each parent.
Evolution predicts that somewhere in our (human's) ancestry, when we diverged from our chimp and human ancestor, one of our chromosomes fused. We couldn't have
"lost" this chromosome because that would validate the creationist claim of 'same genes, same designer.' Meaning the designer (god) just simply recycled the already made genes to make humans. We would have had to have a fusion of two chromosomes and show evidence of this phenomena that chimp and humans share a common ancestor and we diverged with the fusion of chromosomes.
However, in 2005 when the genome of the Chimpanzee was sequenced and compared to the sequenced human genome, scientists* found something very similar..
Human chromosome 2 is the result of the fusion of two primate chromosomes. It is the result of head to head fusion (meaning telomere to telomere connection) of two primate chromosomes. As well, this match is within 15 base pair error (out of millions of base pairs, mind you) and corresponds to chimp chromosome 13.
Note that even an error rate of 15 out of a million is 0.0000015 percent.
Any rebuttals are encouraged and greatly appreciated.
Reed
*Note that when I say scientists, I am referring to specialists in their field of study and more often than not, people who find fact from evidence, as any good scientist should do.
Like any good "scientist" I believe in citing my sources of evidence. Below you will find links to peer reviewed journal publications as well as some wikipedia links. Note that all wiki links have sources cited on them.. and if you doubt the validity of these sources, I will find the original source and send it to you. Occasionally, I will post YouTube links to videos (mind the titles) of scientists who explain the literature and my points. As well, if you doubt the vid or wiki source.. I'll find it and send it to you.
The origin of man; a pictorial legacy
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/215/4539/1525
This article speaks of the common ancestor of the great apes and the divergence of species.
Initial sequence of the chimpanzee genome and comparison with the human genome
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v437/n7055/full/nature04072.html
This article is the scientific findings on human evolution and the chromosomal evidence of the argument of human and chimpanzee relationships.
Human's Closet Living Relative
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/fitch/resources/student_papers/silver.pdf
This is a student dissertation of the relationship of humans to the other great apes.
Ken Miller on Intelligent Design
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVRsWAjvQSg
This is Ken Miller's talk about his arguments against intelligent design, and essentially creationism and how the evidence points to evolution. A highly recommended watch.
Henrietta Lacks, HeLa Cells, and Cell Culture Contamination
http://www.archivesofpathology.org/doi/pdf/10.1043/1543-2165-133.9.1463
This paper talks about the origins of the HeLa cells and the Helacyton gartleri cell line.
But what exactly is a kind..?
Since "Educating the Atheist" does not allow comments on his videos (why?), I have some questions. And please, anyone.. define what "kind" is. (I have heard variations of "kind" from entire kingdoms to species.)
Second question, there is an organism, Helacyton gartleri that is a lab made species made from a line of human cells that contained HPV that evolved from a carcinoma that spreads by taking over other laboratory cell cultures. It is self replicating, and finds ways to survive on its own. What "kind" does one define Helacyton gartleri?
As well, monkeys make monkeys.. I'm assuming that Mr EtA is speaking of our distant primate ancestors.
To clarify, our species, Homo sapiens is a type of primate. We knew this before Darwin published "The Origins of Species" or "Descent of Man." We are in the Great Apes category, shared with chimps, gorillas and orangutans.
As it is know to scientists* our closest relative in the evolutionary web (or tree if you're and old timer) is the chimpanzee. A common, yet fallacious argument I often hear is, "If we came from chimps, why are there still chimps?" In fact, we did not come from chimps, we simply share a common ancestor with chimpanzees.
Humans, along with chimpanzees and banobos; share a common ancestor Orrorin tugenensis (~6 million years ago) which split into the Pan, and Homo hominid line. Humans and chimpanzees are cousins.. humans ARE NOT descendants of chimpanzees. Chimps, humans, and gorillas (Pan, Homo and Gorillini genus', respectively) share a common ancestor, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, which lived about 7 million years ago.
Humans, banobos, chimps and gorillas are all common of one ancestor and such in academia referred to as the African apes.
All the African apes share a common ancestor with orangutans, thought to be Ouranopithecus macedoniensis.
Another interesting fact, humans and chimps share 98.5 percent of our DNA with each species. However, it is interesting to note that all the great apes besides humans have 48 chromosomes. Humans have 46.. meaning we have 23 pairs of chromosomes: 23 from mom and 23 from dad. All the other great apes have 48, 24 from each parent.
Evolution predicts that somewhere in our (human's) ancestry, when we diverged from our chimp and human ancestor, one of our chromosomes fused. We couldn't have
"lost" this chromosome because that would validate the creationist claim of 'same genes, same designer.' Meaning the designer (god) just simply recycled the already made genes to make humans. We would have had to have a fusion of two chromosomes and show evidence of this phenomena that chimp and humans share a common ancestor and we diverged with the fusion of chromosomes.
However, in 2005 when the genome of the Chimpanzee was sequenced and compared to the sequenced human genome, scientists* found something very similar..
Human chromosome 2 is the result of the fusion of two primate chromosomes. It is the result of head to head fusion (meaning telomere to telomere connection) of two primate chromosomes. As well, this match is within 15 base pair error (out of millions of base pairs, mind you) and corresponds to chimp chromosome 13.
Note that even an error rate of 15 out of a million is 0.0000015 percent.
Any rebuttals are encouraged and greatly appreciated.
Reed
*Note that when I say scientists, I am referring to specialists in their field of study and more often than not, people who find fact from evidence, as any good scientist should do.
Like any good "scientist" I believe in citing my sources of evidence. Below you will find links to peer reviewed journal publications as well as some wikipedia links. Note that all wiki links have sources cited on them.. and if you doubt the validity of these sources, I will find the original source and send it to you. Occasionally, I will post YouTube links to videos (mind the titles) of scientists who explain the literature and my points. As well, if you doubt the vid or wiki source.. I'll find it and send it to you.
The origin of man; a pictorial legacy
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/215/4539/1525
This article speaks of the common ancestor of the great apes and the divergence of species.
Initial sequence of the chimpanzee genome and comparison with the human genome
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v437/n7055/full/nature04072.html
This article is the scientific findings on human evolution and the chromosomal evidence of the argument of human and chimpanzee relationships.
Human's Closet Living Relative
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/fitch/resources/student_papers/silver.pdf
This is a student dissertation of the relationship of humans to the other great apes.
Ken Miller on Intelligent Design
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVRsWAjvQSg
This is Ken Miller's talk about his arguments against intelligent design, and essentially creationism and how the evidence points to evolution. A highly recommended watch.
Henrietta Lacks, HeLa Cells, and Cell Culture Contamination
http://www.archivesofpathology.org/doi/pdf/10.1043/1543-2165-133.9.1463
This paper talks about the origins of the HeLa cells and the Helacyton gartleri cell line.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Evolution and such
I am continually fascinated by the number of people I meet who routinely and systematically deny evolution. This subject came to mind today while I was at work and talking with a fellow employee about religion, etc when he said, "I can understand where a lot of atheists are coming from on god, but I just don't think we came from monkeys."
I guess I'm not sure how some people can believe that there's a man in the sky, who can't be seen, heard, or touched. Yet he knows all about you, even before you know it yourself. As well, he sent his son, born of a VIRGIN to die for us. BUT.. he came back from the dead after a few days, so he never really died. As well, if you believe this, you will live forever high in the sky with the invisible man and his son, and the holy spirit. Oh did forget? See, there's this ghost, who travels along with the father and son. However, these are not three separate entities.. no. They are all one being. Yep, there is a father, son, and holy spirit, three for the price of one.
This passes for logic in the christian community...
Yet, when present with all the evidence; fossil records, observations of natural selection occurring in nature and in the laboratory, DNA analysis, mitochondrial DNA analysis, etc.. there are those who still hold that evolution does not, and has never occurred.
But why?
So I ask you that come along and read this blog: "Why, if presented with this evidence, deny it?"
I am planning on posting more entries to come about various creationist claims on the world and the cosmos. But as for now, I want to start a dialogue.
So please, don't be shy. I will shy away from ad hominem attacks and only stick to the scientific evidence for any (if any) rebuttals.
I look forward to your thoughts.
Cheers,
Reed
I guess I'm not sure how some people can believe that there's a man in the sky, who can't be seen, heard, or touched. Yet he knows all about you, even before you know it yourself. As well, he sent his son, born of a VIRGIN to die for us. BUT.. he came back from the dead after a few days, so he never really died. As well, if you believe this, you will live forever high in the sky with the invisible man and his son, and the holy spirit. Oh did forget? See, there's this ghost, who travels along with the father and son. However, these are not three separate entities.. no. They are all one being. Yep, there is a father, son, and holy spirit, three for the price of one.
This passes for logic in the christian community...
Yet, when present with all the evidence; fossil records, observations of natural selection occurring in nature and in the laboratory, DNA analysis, mitochondrial DNA analysis, etc.. there are those who still hold that evolution does not, and has never occurred.
But why?
So I ask you that come along and read this blog: "Why, if presented with this evidence, deny it?"
I am planning on posting more entries to come about various creationist claims on the world and the cosmos. But as for now, I want to start a dialogue.
So please, don't be shy. I will shy away from ad hominem attacks and only stick to the scientific evidence for any (if any) rebuttals.
I look forward to your thoughts.
Cheers,
Reed
First Ever
Hej, hola, hello, bonjour, etc...
Welcome to the blog world of yours, moi. Here shall reside my ramblings on culture, religion, science, my future plans as a doctor, my views on the world, my views on my education, and lots of other random things.
I have spent, who knows, a year or so of reading blogs from around the globe. I have found the majority of them to be absolutely fascinating. Some may ask, "Why have a blog?" Well, in the words of Patrick Bateman.. "I want, to fit in..."
Regards,
d
Welcome to the blog world of yours, moi. Here shall reside my ramblings on culture, religion, science, my future plans as a doctor, my views on the world, my views on my education, and lots of other random things.
I have spent, who knows, a year or so of reading blogs from around the globe. I have found the majority of them to be absolutely fascinating. Some may ask, "Why have a blog?" Well, in the words of Patrick Bateman.. "I want, to fit in..."
Regards,
d
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