Facts Of Evolution: Universal Common Descent

Facts Of Evolution: Universal Common Descent.

Inside Darwin's Mind

The oddity of flightless birds leads Darwin to question the intentions of the Creator.

'Why Evolution Is True' by Jerry Coyne, AAI 2009

Jerry Coyne explains 'Why Evolution is True' (also the title of his excellent new book) at the Atheist Alliance International 2009 conference, sponsored by The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.



Jerry Coyne's is the author of "Why Evolution Is True".

Jerry Coyne's Blog: http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com

Download Quicktime version:
Small: http://c0116791.cdn.cloudfiles.racksp...
720p HD: http://c0116791.cdn.cloudfiles.racksp...

http://richarddawkinsfoundation.org
http://atheistalliance.org

Filmed by
JOSH TIMONEN

'There is grandeur in this view of life' by Richard Dawkins, AAI 2009

Richard Dawkins' talk at the 2009 Atheist Alliance International Conference in Burbank, California. He expands the last paragraph of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" as a framework for the talk. This is also the framework for the last chapter of Dawkins' new book "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution".



See more about "The Greatest Show on Earth" at:
http://richarddawkins.net/thegreatest...

Download Quicktime
Web: http://c0116791.cdn.cloudfiles.racksp...
720p HD: http://c0116791.cdn.cloudfiles.racksp...

Filmed by
JOSH TIMONEN
Edited by
JOEL PASHBY

Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor: The Link Human Evolution

Scientists have unveiled a 47-million-year-old fossilized skeleton of a monkey hailed as the missing link in human evolution.

The search for a direct connection between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom has taken 200 years - but it was presented to the world today at a special news conference in New York.

The discovery of the 95%-complete 'lemur monkey' - dubbed Ida - is described by experts as the "eighth wonder of the world".

They say its impact on the world of Paleontology will be "somewhat like an asteroid falling down to Earth".

Researchers say proof of this transitional species finally confirms Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and the then radical, outlandish ideas he came up with during his time aboard the Beagle.

Sir David Attenborough said Darwin "would have been thrilled" to have seen the fossil - and says it tells us who we are and where we came from.

"This little creature is going to show us our connection with the rest of the mammals," he said.
"This is the one that connects us directly with them.
"Now people can say 'okay we are primates, show us the link'.
"The link they would have said up to now is missing - well it's no longer missing."

A team of the world's leading fossil experts, led by Professor Jorn Hurum, of Norway's National History Museum, have been secretly researching the 1ft 9in-tall young female monkey for the past two years.

This little creature is going to show us our connection with the rest of the mammals. This is the one that connects us directly with them.

Richard Dawkins: An atheist's call to arms

http://www.ted.com The session was titled "The Design of Life," and the TED audience was probably expecting remarks about evolution's role in our history from biologist Richard Dawkins. Instead, he launched into a full-on appeal for atheists to make public their beliefs and to aggressively fight the incursion of religion into politics and education (quoting Douglas Adams in the bargain). Scientists and intellectuals hold very different beliefs about God from the American public, he says, yet they are cowed by the overall political environment. Dawkins' scornful tone drew strongly mixed reactions from the audience; some stood and applauded his courage. Dawkins went on to publish The God Delusion and become perhaps the world's best-known atheist.

Evolution vs. Creationism: Listen to the Scientists

1st Foundational Falsehood of Creationism

The 1st Falsehood of Creationism:
“evolution = atheism”

The U.S. population seems pretty evenly divided over whether the human species is biologically related to other animals or whether we were “specially-created” as part of a flurry of miracles. Even our collective politicians -seemingly all of them- are wrapped up in this controversy. Yet its hard to find even one of them who knows what its about. Why is it that there is such concern in so many grade schools (K thru 12) about teaching evolution, yet there is still a complete consensus among scientists all over America and the rest of the world -that evolution is the backbone of modern biology, and a demonstrable reality historically as well?



Most people really don’t understand science; what it is, how it works, what hypotheses and theories are, or even the purpose behind it. Sadly even those on your school faculty or state Board of Education often need an education themselves before they can be trusted to govern how or what our kids will be taught, and that’s why I thought I should speak up and do what I can to help.

To adequately understand evolution, you not only have to understand how to be scientific, (which is the real trick for most people) but you also have to know something about cellular biology, genetics, and anatomy, geology, particularly paleontology, as well as environmental systems, tectonics, atomic chemistry, and especially taxonomy, which most people don’t know squat about at all. Most people who accept evolution also tend to know a whole lot about cosmology, geography, history, sociology, politics, and of course, religion.

But to believe in creationism, you don’t have to know anything about anything, and its better if you don’t! Because creationism relies on ignorance. It is not honest research! It is a scam, a con job exploiting the common folk, and preying on their deepest beliefs and fears. Creationist apologetics depends on misrepresented data and misquoted authorities, out-of-date and out-of-context, and uses distorted definitions if it uses definitions at all.



There are basically two types of creationists; the professional or political creationists; these are the activists who lead the movement and who will regularly deliberately lie to promote their propaganda; and the second type which are the innocently-deceived followers commonly known as “sheep”. I know lots of intellectual Christians, but I can’t get any of them to actually watch the tele-evangelists, because they either already know how phony they are, or they don’t want to find out. But that only allows a radical fringe to claim support from they masses they now also claim to represent. So there’s nothing to stop them. Professional creationists are making money hand over fist with faith-healing scams or bilking little old ladies out of prayer donations, or selling books and videos at their circus-like seminars where they have undeserved respect as powerful leaders. All of them feign knowledge they can’t really possess, and some of them claim degrees they’ve never actually earned.

"You are a scientist, correct?"

"That's right; I have a PhD in truthology from Christian Tech."

Were it not for this con, they’d have to go back to selling used cars, wonder drugs, and multi-level marketing schemes. They will never change their minds no matter what it costs anyone else. So it is obviously the “sheep” whom I’m attempting to reach with this speech –so that they might not be sheep anymore, and will stop feeding fuel into that manipulative movement. Because its one thing to believe in something that might be true (like God in general or Christianity specifically) even though neither can be substantiated or tested in any objective way. But it is a whole other matter to willfully deceive others into believing things which are definitely not true -like creationism, especially when we can also prove that those doing this know their assorted arguments are bogus, and know they’re lying to our children, and that they hope to continue doing so under the guise of “education”.



Creationism extorts support through peer-pressure, prejudice, and paranoid propaganda, and sells itself with short, simplistic slogans which appeal to those who don’t want to think too much, or are afraid to question their own beliefs. Worst of all, it actually forbids critical inquiry, and promotes anti-intellectualism, and it is based on at least a dozen foundational falsehoods. First and foremost among them is the idea that accepting evolution requires the rejection of theism, if not all other religious or spiritual beliefs as well.



For decades those behind the creationism movement have tried very hard to portray the illusion that one cannot accept evolution and still believe in God. They know better, but they still want you to believe that evolution is atheist, and that it is either evolution without God, or God creating without evolution. That’s been their central claim since the creationism movement began. But this supposed controversy never was about whether or not there is a god. Most people believe there is a god, and they believe he is in control of all the seemingly-random events of our lives. This is true of most of the people who accept evolution also. Most of them believe in God as well, and they believe that God is in control of evolution; that evolution, like every other system in nature, is part of God’s design.



Of the couple hundred different, and often violently-conflicting denominations of Christianity, the largest of them by far is Catholicism followed by Orthodoxy. Both of these have stated support of evolution and denounced creationism. Pope Benedict recently described evolution as an “enriching reality” and described creationist contests against it as “absurd”. Both of the popes before him advised Christians ‘round the world to consider evolution to be “more than an hypothesis” and not to fear acceptance of that as being any challenge to their faith in Christ.



The early pioneers of evolutionary science were all initially Christian, (including Darwin) and many leading proponents of modern evolutionary science are still Christian today. For example, microbiologist Dr. Ken Miller, (who testified against intelligent design creationism in Kitzmiller v. Dover) -is a Catholic. Another outspoken proponent of evolution, Dr. Robert T. Bakker, (who has PhDs from both Harvard and Yale) is not only one of the leading, and most recognizable paleontologists in the world today, but he also happens to be a Bible-believing Pentecostal preacher; though he interprets Genesis differently than literalists would. In his book, Bones, Bibles and Creation, he says that to treat the Bible as though it were common history is to degrade its eternal meaning. One of the earliest geneticists, Theodosius Dobzhansky was an Orthodox Christian who many times professed his belief that life was created by God, but that nothing in biology made sense except in light of evolution. All these men agree that even if there really is a god, and even if that god is the Christian god, and even if that god created the universe and everything in it, =which they all believe- evolution would still be at least mostly true, and creationism would still be completely wrong.



Of all the developed nations throughout Christendom, only the United States has a significant number of creationists, and they’re the minority even here! Every other predominantly-Christian country tends to regard creationism as an incredulous, (if not insane) radical fringe movement which is an almost exclusively American phenomenon, and not taken seriously anywhere else. Poll after poll continues to reveal that, around the world, most “evolutionists” are Christian, and most Christians are evolutionists. So evolution is not synonymous with atheism, and creationism isn’t synonymous with Christianity either. Most creationists aren’t even Christians! There are millions more Muslim and Hindu creationists than Christian ones.



Regardless which religion they claim, creationism can be collectively defined as the fraction of religious believers who reject science, not just the conclusions of science, but its methods as well, and I mean all of them, from uniformitarianism and methodological naturalism to the peer review process and requirement that all positive claims be based on testable evidence. These people rely instead on blind faith in the assumed authority of their favored fables. In all cases, creationism is an obstinate and dogmatic superstitious belief which holds that members of most seemingly-related taxonomic groups did not evolve naturally, but were created magically, -that plants and animals were literally poofed out of nothing fully-formed, in their current state, unrelated to anything else –despite all indications to the contrary.



Creationists may side with western Abrahamic religions, (being the Judeo-Christian/Islamic mythos) in which there are conflicting versions of the same tales. Or creationists may belong to one of many eastern religions where the sacred stories of creation are much older, completely different, and dedicated to other gods and pantheons. But in every case, the proposed "creator" is supernatural, meaning that it is not a part of perceptible reality. Therefore it is undetectable by any testable means, and can only be assumed to exist for subjective emotional reasons, or as a result of cultural indoctrination, rather than because of any measurable evidence or logical rationale. In other words, there’s no way to say if its really there. Worst of all, there’s also no way to distinguish anyone’s gods or ghosts from the imaginary beings some primitive folks just made up either. This doesn’t mean no god exists. But it does mean that science can’t say anything about them. Because even if gods are real, they still don't appear to be, and apparently don't want to –since all the holy books demand they be believed on faith alone. As there is nothing anyone can verify and thus actually know to be correct about gods, then science is unable to make any comment about them at all. Because science can only ever investigate things with demonstrable evidence can be tested or measured.



From the creationist’s perspective, the method or mechanism of creation which these mystical beings use is nothing more than a golem spell where clay statues are animated with an enchantment. Or its an incantation in which complex modern plants and animals are "spoken" into being. That’s right, magic words which cause fully-developed adult animals to be conjured out of thin air. Or a god simply wishes them to exist; so they do. That’s it! There really is nothing more to it than that; pure freakin’ magic –by definition. Remember that the next time you hear anything from a creation “scientist”.



So for those who believe in God, the question really is how God created, and whether it was by one of many inextricably integrated natural systems he seemingly designed, or whether he simply blinked, wiggled his nose, wished upon a star and said "abra-cadabera".

This is Why Every Scientist Accepts Evolution

READ DESCRIPTION: Please watch the video in its entirety. Ignorance is no longer an excuse.



Sources: Gilbert, S. F. (1997) Developmental Biology. Fifth edition. Sinauer Associates.
Carroll, R. L. (1988) Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. New York, W. H. Freeman and Co.
Futuyma, D. (1998) Evolutionary Biology. Third edition. Sunderland, Mass., Sinauer Associates.
Gould, S. J. (1990) "An earful of jaw." Natural History 3: 12-23.
Kardong, K. V. (2002) Vertebrates: Comparative Anatomy, Function, Evolution. Third ed. New York: McGraw Hill.
Rubin, G. M. et al. (2000) "Comparative Genomics of the Eukaryotes." Science 287: 2204-2218. [PubMed]
Schmid, K. J., and Tautz, D. (1997) "A screen for fast evolving genes from Drosophila." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 94: 9746-9750. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/...
Sereno, P. C. (1999) "The Evolution of Dinosaurs." Science 284: 2137-2147. [PubMed]
Smit, A. F. A. (1996) "The origin of interspersed repeats in the human genome." Current Opinion in Genetics and Development 6: 743-748. [PubMed]
Thornhill, R. H., and Ussery, D. W. (2000) "A classification of possible routes of Darwinian evolution." Journal of Theoretical Biology 203: 111-116. [PubMed]
Voet, D., and Voet, J. (1995) Biochemistry. New York, John Wiley and Sons.
Williams, G. C. (1992) Natural Selection: Domains, Levels, and Challenges. New York, Oxford University Press.
Scarpulla, R. C., and Nye, S. H. (1986) "Functional expression of rat cytochrome c in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae." Proc Natl Acad Sci 83: 6352-6. [PubMed]
Shimamura, M., et al. (1997) "Molecular evidence from retroposons that whales form a clade within even-toed ungulates." Nature 388: 666. [PubMed]
Smit, A. F. A. (1996) "The origin of interspersed repeats in the human genome." Current Opinion in Genetics and Development 6: 743-748. [PubMed]
Stewart, C. B. and Disotell, T. R. (1998) "Primate evolution - in and out of Africa." Current Biology 8: R582-588. [PubMed]
Svensson, A. C., N. Setterblad, et al. (1995) "Primate DRB genes from the DR3 and DR8 haplotypes contain ERV9 LTR elements at identical positions." Immunogenetics 41: 74. [PubMed]
Sverdlov, E. D. (2000) "Retroviruses and primate evolution." BioEssays 22: 161-171. [PubMed]

Richard Dawkins on The Greatest Show on Earth

Richard Dawkins talks about why it's time for a book setting out the evidence for evolution, when calling someone ignorant isn't an insult, and how the media have made him into a militant atheist.

Hitchens - The Morals of an Atheist

THE MORALS OF AN ATHEIST Christopher Hitchens Christopher Hitchens is the author of more than ten books, including, most recently, God...alles » THE MORALS OF AN ATHEIST Christopher Hitchens Christopher Hitchens is the author of more than ten books, including, most recently, God Is Not Great -- How Religion Poisons Everything. He is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and has written prolifically for American and English periodicals, including the Nation, the London Review of Books, Granta, Harper's, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, New Left Review, Slate, the New York Review of Books, Newsweek International, the Times Literary Supplement, the Atlantic and the Washington Post. He is also a regular television and radio commentator. If there is no God—no ground of being—if human beings represent nothing more than temporary swarms of atoms, then what sense does it make even to speak of "right" and "wrong"?" Where does morality come from? Reflecting on what he calls "the appalling insinuation that I would not know right from wrong if I was not supernaturally guided,...." Christopher Hitchens takes on the likes of Jonathan Swift, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Darwin in making his case for atheism.

A Lesson for All Christians (by Dawkins) part 1&2

Here is a free lesson from Professor Richard Dawkins.

Richard Dawkins on Militant Atheism

Richard Dawkins urges all atheists to openly state their position -- and to fight the incursion of the church into politics and science. A fiery, funny, powerful talk.

Oxford professor Richard Dawkins has helped steer evolutionary science into the 21st century, and his concept of the "meme" contextualized the spread of ideas in the information age.