Piltdown Superman

That title got your attention. While it is provocative and possibly emotive to use the word conspiracy , it is not done casually in this case. People who are attracted to the history of science (and a bit about the culture of Victorian England) should be interested in what follows. The Huxley name was held by several noteworthy individuals, especially Thomas Henry and his son Julian. T.H. was considered Darwin's Bulldog  because of his aggressive promotion of evolution, and Julian carried on the activities in many ways. There were many factors that made Darwin's story successful, including Victorian society and how people supported each other. The Huxleys were instrumental in bringing Darwin to the fore and keeping evolution going. Something very interesting is how that sidewinder T.H. didn't really believe in Darwinism, but something more akin to Gould's punctuated equilibrium . He used Darwin and evolution as a means to distance science from God. Both Thomas and Julia

A few days ago, my prospector friend Stormie Waters and her friend Ruby Slippers stopped at my place. (They were taking a break from wedding plans for Stormie and Roland Meadows.) Ruby tried her hand at panning for gold but instead found a nice stone. I have reference material. This was a peridot, and I suggested to Ruby that if it was cut and polished, it might be turned into a fine piece of jewelry. Then I told them that secular scientists have a mistaken notion that it takes huge amounts of time for them to form. Assorted gemstones in a spiral, Unsplash / Edz Norton We talked for a while about how Ruby shares a name with a pricey gemstone, what makes some valuable and others affordable, things like supply and demand, luster, superstitions of powers, and all that good stuff. In the last part of the book of Revelation, God uses gold and precious stones as building materials. Many gemstones are found in granite. The formation involves molten rock, cooling, and crystals. Secular scienti

An intriguing creature of tropical and subtropical waters is called the Portuguese Man-of-War (some render it Man o' War or similar), but has been found in colder waters on occasion. Is it an attempt by Portugal to rule the waves? No, it is not from there. The Man-of-War has a floating part that remains above the water, the rest is submerged. This critter is similar to a jellyfish in some ways, especially those very long venomous tentacles that easily fire off painful stings. It's not so much an it , but more of a they . View from above,  Physalia physalis , Flickr /  Bengt Nyman ( CC BY 2.0 ) Okay, so it's not from Portugal. What about the other part of its handle? It is thought that it has a resemblance to the sails of heavily-armed warships (probably frigates, not galleons) of yesteryear. The upper part acts like a sail, so wind and ocean currents tell it where it's going to go. Although rather small body wise, a flotilla of a thousand of these things cruising along

If you took a notion to visit Mackinac Island State Park way up yonder between the peninsulas of Michigan, it would be a hefty drive. Using I-75 from the state capital of Lansing and going in almost a straight line by the map, count on driving 3-1/2 hours one way. You would probably find it worthwhile. Despite spelling discrepancies with -nac and -naw, it is pronounced MACK-i-naw. The island is in view of the huge suspension bridge. A creation geologist can use the physical features to describe stages in the Genesis Flood as well as the Ice Age. Old Fort Mackinac from the pasture (cropped), ca. 1900, Library of Congress People who read biblical creation science material are likely to learn some things about the Genesis Flood, especially since it was not simply rain and the fountains of the great deep. As is observed, there are many megasequences laid down by water, and these span continents. Depositions occurred in stages. At Mackinac Island, some of the first laid down by the Flood w

As we have discussed numerous times, people think that if a paper has passed the peer review process, it is a guarantee of truth (an appeal to authority). They use that idea as a weapon to promote evolution and atheism. Of course, most people do not actually read peer-reviewed scientific papers. They are often behind an expensive paywall, too. Most of the time papers are submitted from scientists and academics working for well-heeled organizations that pay the expensive review fees. However, it gets difficult finding an actual peer to review submissions from specialists. Reviewing, Pexels / Vanessa Garcia There are many reasons for bad papers getting accepted, such as the large number of submissions, lackadaisical attitudes and lack of qualifications of reviewers, and more. Corruption exists because academics and scientists are just as prone to unethical behavior as everyone else. Indeed, some folks submitted computer-generated papers and outright hoaxes to show that the process has pr

Extrasolar planets are not a problem in and of themselves, but they have been recalcitrant toward the rules of cosmic evolution. They are also none too friendly to the hopes of secular scientists in finding places where aliens may live. Oversimplifying the most popular idea of the formation of solar systems is swirling gasses forming a star, then planets and moons are made from what is left. Therefore, everything should be turning and orbiting in a uniform manner. Not so with some exoplanets. Artist's concept of hot Jupiter-class HAT-P-7b, NASA , ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI) (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) All of our planets have  prograde orbits, meaning that their motion is in agreement with the sun's rotation. Venus has a retrograde  orbit, meaning it doesn't see fit to rotate like all of the others — except Uranus, of course. That bad boy is tilted so much, it's been described as practically rolling in its orbit — and  is retrograde. When one examin

This time, I am going to take you along a different trail. It is a series of articles from an Intelligent Design site worth considering. The ID movement has some serious limitations , but they do some good work in showing design   (obviously)  and flaws in evolution. When talking to typical evolution supporters, they often repeat material from secular news releases. We have seen that the press is often disingenuous and exceeds what evolutionary scientists actually claim. Darwin's acolytes claim to have mountains of evidence, but evolutionary scientists know otherwise. Ardipithecus ramidus , Wikimedia Commons / Sailko ( CC BY 3.0 ) One sidewinder actually said that human evolution is complete and has no gaps. That's the guy who gets quoted by evolution supporters who deny the Creator, but he's at odds with the majority of experts. That's right, there are disputes about evolution and major flaws in candidates for our ancestors are known. Unfortunately, people are impress

Charlie Darwin believed evolution by blind faith. His followers past and present accept it despite lack of strong evidence, hoping that their beliefs would be justified later. That is the opposite of science, old son. They have problems with living fossils that, in and of themselves, falsify evolution. Living fossils are creatures that were thought to be extinct but later found doing well, or that have gone mostly unchanged over alleged millions of years, such as sea lilies and feather stars. Darwin knew about them . Now someone is stepping up to evosplain the problem away. Sea lily (crinoid), Wikimedia Commons / Alexander Vasenin ( CC BY-SA 3.0 ) People who know evolutionary concepts can see through attempts at rescuing Papa Darwin. F'rinstance, evolution is presented as almost an irrevocable force in nature; things must  evolve over millions of years. There are "evolutionary pressures" that force them to change — except when they do not  change, and that is called stas

Something other biblical creationists and I emphasize is the importance of definitions. Despite our efforts, the corral gate is occasionally left open, a pony wanders through, and clarification is needed. Some of the difficulty is because of assumptions by readers. For example, I was using the phrase special creation  and assuming that the definition was clear to everyone. Since I had that wrong, I wrote an article specifying which meaning I use . The concern about wording this time involves reports of soft tissues and fossils. Aerodactylus scolopaciceps with soft tissue, Wikimedia Commons / Steven U. Vidovic, David M. Martill ( CC BY 2.5 ) This is not the same as complaining about someone referring to pterosaurs and ichthyosaurs as dinosaurs (even though they were contemporaries and their names ended in -saur). Such brabbling can be waved off. The problem occurs when reports and other things refer to soft tissues . Those words make creationists prick up our ears like a Scottish terr

Things get interesting when scientists do sciency stuff and we hear about technology that made detailed research possible, but they spoil things by pretending to have evolutionary offerings presentable to the Bearded Buddha. A fossil from 1907 was analyzed and out popped an alleged pterosaur ancestor. You know, those winged lizards that lived at the time of dinosaurs. To quote Smudge the Cat from a previous post, " Show me the science ." The boring fossil was debated all along, but interesting new technology let researchers find bones hidden inside the rock. The pterosaur ancestor is seen through a passel of imagination and more of that evolutionary faith. Cast of Scleromochlus taylori , Flickr / Tim Evanson ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ) Reports have a wagon train-load of weasel words to build up the Just-So Story. Many assumptions stated instead of evidence, Darwinspeak presupposing evolution, and more. Russel Watchtower of the Ministry of Truth at the Darwin Ranch (over by Deception Pa