Chickenasaurus attacks! Genesis Week, episode 2, season 1
In this episode we discuss Dr. Jack Horner’s “chickenasaurus,” more teaching of creation in public schools, and we cover emails received containing some mysterious white powder.
Don’t matter – it proves evolution! This is Genesis Week, Season 1, Episode 1
In this episode:
Armpit hair and bedbugs prove evolution, Potholer needs to be filled in on thermodynamics, and we open a few letter bombs from our viewers:
Ian responds to “8th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism” by AronRa
This is the script for my video response to AronRa’s “8th foundational falsehood of creationism” video on youtube.
The video is here, and this is the script.
Ian Juby replies to “8th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism” by AronRa:
Hello everyone, sorry about the paucity of videos – been on the road for several months, so obviously production comes to a grinding halt. I’m presently working on three rants -two of which are going to require an enormous amount of work, plus my “Persuaded by the evidence” movie, plus I’m involved in a holywood production of a movie on Noah’s Flood, not to mention trying to get my portable museum built on the side. It’s been rather intense.
I recently was given a link to a youtube video by AronRa entitled “The 8th foundational falsehood of Creationism: Mutations are rare, harmful decreases in genetic information.”
Now until a couple of weeks ago, I’d never even heard of AronRa, and suddenly had a rash of people handing me his videos. I will say this one was well presented, I especially liked the fact that he put the script on line, so kudos to him for that – I will, in fact, do the same with this video; I will post the transcript to my blog, which will also contain hyperlinks to the references I provide here. This is the address for the blog entry:
Part 1: crash course in genetics
I’m afraid though, AronRa’s video did not live up to his claims, and in fact was full of flagrant errors and blunders, from beginning to end, and I feel compelled to produce this video in response.
To explain to the layman first though, your DNA holds the genetic code, or program, which is the blueprints or instructions on how to build you and every single cell and part in your body. Changes to this DNA – be they programmed or accidental (like radiation damage for example), is referred to as a “mutation.”
The first major error AronRa made is in the title of the video and in his first statements in the video: “Mutations are rare” and “Creationists insist that mutations are rare”
Says who? I certainly do not claim they are rare, and every creationary geneticist that I know of emphasizes the great number of mutations that happen in our short lifetimes, and even the great number of mutations passed on generation to generation! In fact, that was the whole point of my CrEvo Rant #78: Genetic entropy – a point with which I will close out this video because AronRa inadvertantly brought it up, and skirted around the issue. This was the whole point of geneticist Dr. Jonathan Sanford’s book “Genetic entropy and the mystery of the genome.” The high frequency of mutations was the subject of many of the biology papers at the last International Conference on Creationism.
So, his reasons aside, let’s cut to the chase: the title and entire first part of AronRa’s video is in flagrant, gross error! It is completely untrue! We creationists do not claim mutations are rare, the exact opposite is true – we claim there are many, many mutations – in fact, we would say there are even more mutations than AronRa claimed in his video.
More on the genealogies of Christ
Y’all may remember the hub-bub I stirred up with my previous newsletter where I attempted to deal with the supposed inconsistencies in the genealogies of Christ listed in Matthew and Luke. There was a flurry of responses and comments, and a further one was brought to my attention today.
My newsletter and ministry is specifically devoted to creation, not Biblical apologetics. There are many fine Biblical apologeticists out there, so I’m not interested in re-inventing the wheel. So I dropped this issue from my newsletters (with the exception of the follow-up newsletter where I posted the responses I received), but I figured I’d post it here to my blog.
Sean O’Brien did an interesting write-up on the subject of the supposed errors and inconsistencies in the genealogies of Christ – enjoy!
http://seanpatrickobrien.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/420/
Excellent article on evolution
Excellent introduction to Evolution:
I was forwarded a link to an excellent article on evolution. It’s on conservapedia, and it’s a great introduction to the whole debate and the main issues at hand.
http://conservapedia.com/Evolution
Not only does it provide a nice introduction, it provides a considerable amount of ammunition in a short amount of space for those who are arguing against evolution. Drop on by, and spread the word!
MIPspace blocking my newsletter
Welp, it looks like MIPspace has angered another person – me!
Yup, apparently MIPspace likes to add newsletters and legitimate emails to their “block” list, and many folks out there who signed up for my newsletter are not receiving it because of them.
What is MIPspace?
MIPspace provides Internet Service Providers with a supposed list of “email abusers.” Apparently I’ve been labeled as an abuser of emails – with no explanation, and no option for appeal. They specifically do not provide contact information on their website, except for a form for those like myself who have been falsely labeled as email abusers – where they specifically say they probably won’t respond to your email, or remove you from their list.
So I thought I’d post a notice here that if you signed up for my newsletter, but aren’t receiving it, MIPspace is probably the problem, and I’m sorry, there’s apparently not a whole heck of a lot that either you or I can do about it, seeing as how the folks at MIPspace don’t really care about how legitimate their list is.
I aint the only one complaining about them – check out Scott Hendison’s perfectly justified rant about email fascism:
I’d suggest IP’s steer way clear of MIPspace; the system they are running apparently allows anyone to simply “complain,” and so in my case, dealing with a controversial subject like creation and evolution, I get enemies who simply wish to cause me problems.
These enemies then “complain” and get my IP’s blacklisted with MIPspace. I have no appeal method other than to ask MIPspace to remove it, but they refuse to give any reasons as to why I was added in the first place, and we’ll see if they actually remove me from their list (I doubt it, judging by posts on other blogs that I’m seeing).
MIPspace does not require a legitimate complaint either – just someone who accuses someone like me of sending out “commercial emails” than they don’t want to receive, and blammo – any subscriber who’s ISP references their list no longer receives my newsletters.
Obviously, this is very much “guilty until proven innocent.”
As anybody who has signed up for my newsletter knows, my newsletters are double opt-in. So the only people who get it are those who confirmed that they wish to get it. I also track the IP’s of all subscribers, to demonstrate and verify that the subscriptions are legitimate.
As my subscribers know, anybody who receives my newsletters can also be removed at any time by either an automated link, or replying and simply asking me to remove them.
Because I have no recourse for this unjust accusation and labeling by a rogue company, I am resorting to blog posts to add to the din of complaints on the internet against this company.
ISP’s: Please don’t use MIPspace; they are obviously a poorly run organization that unfairly labels and blocks legitimate emails, and apparently they really don’t care. I don’t like spam or aggressive email marketers any more than the next guy, but this is ridiculous, and unfair. They are blocking legitimate email without any recourse for the sender, and without the knowledge or approval of the intended recipients.
Subscribers: For those who attempted to sign up for my newsletter, please send a letter of complaint to your ISP regarding MIPspace’s protocols and practices, and explain to them that you attempted to sign up for my newsletter, which was blocked by MIPspace’s bad practices.
I normally never ask for trackbacks, etc…, but please get the word out and spread the word for this blog post.
Thanks for your support.
