Origami octopus by Joseph Wu

Octopus (hunting) take 5, originally uploaded by Joseph Wu Origami.

If anyone has a paper anniversary coming up, such as a year of blogging or a year since a creationist promised to “get back to you” about their debunked claim, one of Joseph Wu’s origami octopods might be the perfect gift—to themselves.

Michael Ruse does some special pleading

On the opening night of the CFI World Conference, Michael Ruse gave a presentation in which he stated that teaching evolution in schools is unconstitutional in the U.S. because it implies that the biblical creation story isn’t true. Law FAIL!

Kristine at Amused Muse was there… He refused to answer her pointed and lucid question about what that means for teaching other sciences.

The comments are worth reading, too.

Why do people laugh at creationists, part 19: “Evilution”

This is Thunderfoot’s favourite video in his series, “Why do people laugh as creationists?”

Take that, creationists!

Troy Britain has responded to a “Creation Research” article with a beautiful technical knock-out. The article, “Evolution’s Biggest Hurdles,” states, as usual, that scientists are baffled by the origin of multicellular animals.

Troy takes the author, Dr. Morris, by the hand and gently leads him through a summary of the evolutionary evidence in “You can tune a piano, but you can’t tunicate…” Troy includes pictures and references. The real mystery is why Dr. Morris can’t look up this stuff for himself. It’s public, readily available knowledge.

Image: myxobacteria

Whose books did Hitler burn?

Here you see Nazis confiscating the library of the Institute for Sexual Research:

They appear to be trampling on the books while looking for the ones with the good pictures.

Far from being inspired by evolutionary theory, in fact, Hitler burned Charles Darwin’s books:

Books to be burned, in German:

6. Schriften weltanschaulichen und lebenskundlichen Charakters, deren Inhalt die falsche naturwissenschaftliche Aufklärung eines primitiven Darwinismus und Monismus ist (Häckel). (Guidelines from Die Bücherei 2:6 (1935), p. 279)

In English:

6. Writings of a philosophical and social nature whose content deals with the false scientific enlightenment of primitive Darwinism and Monism (Häckel).

As noted before, Hitler believed in the creationist theory of “kinds”:

“Whence do we get the right to believe, that from the very beginning Man was not what he is today? Looking at Nature tells us, that in the realm of plants and animals changes and developments happen. But nowhere inside a kind shows such a development as the breadth of the jump, as Man must supposedly have made, if he has developed from an ape-like state to what he is today.” (Hitler’s Table Talk)

Expelled the movie seeks to blame the Holocaust on Hitler’s version of the Origin of the Species. If that’s what caused it, you have to blame the Bible and Creationism!