My favorite excerpt from the “no God” Twitter war
A few nice examples of the proper Christian response to a few words on Twitter.
Beware the language.
I have no idea who posted those comments or what their religious views are. But these are still funny.
Hey, look, evolution in a bottle
If you’re tired of people saying that we can’t observe evolution in action, take a look at this 21-year study of 40,000 generations of E. coli.
I first read something about this study about a year ago when it marked its 20th year, but I still don’t see it widely talked about. Which is a shame, because it’s a great example of actual observed data on accumulated mutations in a population. (And even better because it uses the bacteria’s genome, and not just physiology.) The researchers were able to test that certain mutations provided a reproductive advantage, illustrating natural selection in action. And, though I am not a biologist and in no way qualified to interpret the study, the persistence of neutral mutations across generations seems illustrative of genetic drift, one of evolution’s other mechanisms.
As an added benefit, the researchers say there are some lessons that can be applied to research on cancer and other diseases. Sounds like a winner to me.
Of course, I don’t have any illusions that doubters who read this won’t just say, “We still haven’t seen one species evolve into another.” When we show tiny, incremental changes leading toward that, they say “Show me the fossils connecting the two species.” When we show them transitional fossils linking two species, they say, “Show me the tiny, incremental changes leading toward that.”
New Recommended Books page
I’ve added a new page to the site for books I recommend. In general, these were books that were memorable enough for me to put in a list. I’m sure I’ll add more soon, and of course the list will be updated if I read anything good.
I’m currently reading the final book of Morgan Howell’s Queen of the Orcs trilogy. I’ll probably post a review when I’m finished.
OK, maybe it’s debatable about those dogs…
The other day I facetiously titled a post about animals rescuing other animals or humans “These dogs go to heaven.” Alas, I discovered on Snopes that there’s still some debate on that topic. See these pictures created on the Church Sign Generator for the in-depth theological debate:
No, these aren't real. But you may still laugh.
Prominent Pharyngulation: They should have seen this coming
Word to the wise: If you’re going to put a “Do you believe in God?” poll in a very prominent spot, you’re going to get Pharyngulated. (Definition)
If you didn't know about Pharyngula, what would your reaction to this be?
The God Debate in 17 Syllables: A Haiku
You say there is God,
and that I can’t prove you wrong;
Well then, prove you’re right.
That’s the debate over the existence of a deity in a nutshell. Believers say we cannot prove there are no gods. They say that because science can’t explain with 100 certainty how and why the universe began, then “God did it” by default.
No hypothesis gets a free pass. Don’t tell me a god created everything — show me evidence one did it.
The Onion gets theology all too well
The Onion, my favorite fake news source, has a column in Tuesday’s edition that shows a shrewd understanding of theology. The fictional author writes:
At the end of the day, I’m just trying to lead a good Christian life. That means going to church on Sunday, following the Ten Commandments, and fighting what I believe to be a sexual abomination through a series of petty actions and bitter comments made under my breath. Sure, I sometimes wish God would just reach into my heart and give me the ability to treat all people with, at the very least, the decency and respect they deserve as human beings. But unfortunately for that new couple who moved in three houses down, He hasn’t yet.
Must be nice to be able to blame all your shortcomings and vices on a greater power.
You’ve got to appreciate the view
Completely unrelated to anything I normally write about, but check out these HDR photographs by Ann Teliczan of Michigan barns. From a quick look at her Web site, photography isn’t Ann’s only artistic talent.
In case you’re not familiar with HDR photography, see the Wikipedia entry here. Essentially, high dynamic range images combine multiple images into a composite image that can display a more vibrant range of color intensity than a normal photo.
More (quite striking) examples of such images can be found here.
It’s hard out here for a perfectionist
I’m not a particularly good Rock Band 2 player. I play bass almost exclusively, and have about a half-dozen songs I know I can play on expert. So last night, when turning the game on for the first time in a few weeks, I was rather disappointed when I did an almost flawless performance of Modest Mouse‘s “Float On,” my best song. I missed one note in the whole song, in a random spot somewhere in the middle. So close.
Tonight I came back for a rematch. After warming up on a few other songs, I played “Float On” once more, and nailed it: I hit every single note, and managed to get a five gold star rating instead of just five normal stars. I was the monkey who typed Shakespeare.
Afterward, I checked the online leaderboard for the song … and I’m ranked 11,073rd. Nearly 10,000 points lower than the No. 1 score for a solo bass performance.
Guess I won’t be quitting my day job.
