Irreducibly Awesome

  As part of its Expelled Exposed project, the National Center for Science Education tackles that tired creationist argument, irreducible complexity. If you're not familiar with this line of reasoning, it basically goes like this:

"I can't imagine how [COMPLEX ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE] could possibly have evolved from simpler structures, without any deliberate guidance. Therefore, relying only on my own ignorance as evidence, I conclude that [COMPLEX ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE] must have been conjured up fully formed by a benevolent sky-grandpa."

  Luckily for the poor, misguided creationist, there are plenty of scientists who can imagine, and describe in great detail, the intermediate stages and slow development that led to the current version of [COMPLEX ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE]. In the video below, they demystify the development of perhaps the favorite target of the irreducible complexity argument, the eye. Enjoy.

Inelegant, Inefficient, Intelligent?

  If you've ever suspected that the complexity and perfection of the human body are evidence that it must have been deliberately sculpted by an intelligent hand, I'd like to introduce you to the epiglottis. It's a small flap of cartilage in the back of your throat, that hangs out just behind your tongue. When you swallow, it lays down to block off the opening to your larynx, directing food and liquids into your esophagus, and away from the "gas only" zone that is your lungs.

  If something did deliberately design human anatomy, it made the choice to channel all the normal states of matter through a single space, with only a small flap of mucous-covered cartilage to play traffic cop between the lungs and the stomach. It's both needlessly complex and downright dangerous. Building separate, dedicated pathways for breathing and swallowing would have been simpler, and far less prone to catastrophic failure.

  If the human body were intelligently designed, Dr. Heimlich would have died in obscurity.

Expelled Exposed Live and in Color

  For those of you keeping track, the National Center for Science Education's Expelled Exposed up and running. It digs into the lies and misrepresentations of the upcoming creationist propaganda film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.

  Expelled Exposed thoroughly explores the film's junk science, and the mendacity (and laughable incompetence) of its producers. It refutes the conflation of Darwin with the Holocaust, and presents the laughable truth about the scientists who claim they've been punished for believing in "Intelligent" Design.

  If you're curious just how hard the believers are willing to lie as they try to prop their fairy tales up against real science, check out Expelled Exposed. Then, keep a close eye on your local school board.


via Pharyngula

Necessary Linkage

  Expelled Exposed, a website set up by the National Center for Science Education to counter the lies in the creationist propaganda film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.

  I'll be haranguing you about this more thoroughly in the near future. In the meantime, check out Expelled Exposed, and you'll know why I'm foaming at the mouth and biting chunks out of the walls.

Novelist Worries About Florida's Reputation

  On Sunday, Carl Hiaasen waded into the argument over science education standards in Florida with a great editorial warning about the damage that the teaching of evolution could do to the state's reputation.

  Unfortunately, it looks like the state school board didn't take Mr. Hiaasen's recommendation seriously. Four of the seven board members voted to include the word "evolution" in public schools science standards for the first time.

  After much wrangling, The board approved the use of the term "scientific theory of evolution," so as to placate the anti-science crowd, who still seem to think that tossing the word "theory" about somehow weakens evolution. It's so sad that, in the 21st century, it still takes this kind of pandering to get real science in front public school children. Somebody call Spain and ask if they'll take the peninsula back.