Wed, 24 Oct 2007

St. Bernard study casts doubt on creationism

If all it took to cast doubt on the spurious notion of "creationism" was an examination of animal breeding, these folks could've saved themselves a lot of time and trouble by asking any farmer. Not only is this a Study in Stupidity, but it's one with a sensation seeking headline to boot.

Come to think of it, a lot of these studies have headlines like that.

The St. Bernard dog -- named after the 11th century priest Bernard of Menthon -- may have ironically challenged the theory of creationism, say scientists.

(link) [EurekAlert! - Breaking News]

/Home | 3 writebacks | permanent link

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On 10/24/2007 11:38:12
Thorolf wrote

On the plus side, the money came from a private foundation funding basic research, which this certainly qualifies as. Being able to quantify something that 'everyone knows' and demonstrate exactly by how much and over what period of time evolutionary changes take place is what evolutionary biology is all about. Farmers (and any dog breeder worthy of the title) may know this stuff first hand, but we've got a lot of people out there who don't - and the wackjobs promoting Creationism are certainly not providing basic biology to their home-schooled charges. We've got a local bunch called B.C. Tours that offers "Biblically Correct" field trips to the zoo and the museum - here's a blurb from our local newspaper about one such trip: "... hundreds of Christian home-schooled children in town for the CHEC events were herded around in tours led by men in white coats. They stopped outside the glass-enclosed Paleontology Laboratory, where lab workers inside were painstakingly cleaning recently unearthed dinosaur fossils. The unofficial tour guides informed their young charges that the men and women laboring with tiny brushes and picks were doing the Devil's work, by constructing fake fossils that they would then bury and direct scientists to falsely discover in order to perpetuate the myth of evolution." - Westword, April 15, 2004 (http://www.westword.com/2004-04-15/news/off-limits/full) In short, basic science needs all the help it can get to let people know what they should already be aware of... so my hat's off to the guys repeating basic research into evolutionary biology and getting it into the mass media.

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On 10/25/2007 06:45:14
Dave H wrote

OK, OK

I'll concede your point, Thorolf - I'm still not sure that the people you're talking about would pay any more attention to this than to the truly massive amount of evidence already out there, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt. I guess I just find it absolutely incredible that there are still people who think this way - and were I a farmer a thousand years ago I would've found it equally incredible then as well. Thanks for the comment and Be well, Dave H

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On 10/25/2007 10:38:40
Thorolf wrote

The more sophisticated "Intelligent Design" folks actually recognize that 'micro-evolution' takes place, and then go on at length about 'macro-evolution' and speciation, at which point you need to have been paying attention in biology class to confront their pseudo-science. But I was gratified to see that the research funding for this one was private. We need the public funding for the museums... :)

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