Yahya's Minion

I've posted recently about the infamous Harun Yahya, and now it seems that one of his worshippers is following this blog and leaving comments in defense of his idol. Jamshed Kunnoth is his name, and here is his blog, which is essentially a Harun Yahya link farm. I've no problem with creationists leaving spam in the comments section (see these other examples). This actually helps me out by increasing the amount of creationist idiocy on the site. So thanks Jamshed.

Anyways, I was checking out Jamshed's blog and, as you'd expect, it has some truly nutty content. Take this post for example, classic creationist paranoia about a worldwide "Darwinist conspiracy" and the "intellectual mafia". This part caught my eye:

[This global Darwinist mafia] bans books opposed to evolution

Well they're not doing a very good job of it! The last time I went to a bookstore, the science section had a frustratingly large number of books on intelligent design, like Darwin's Black Box by Michael Behe and Icons of Evolution by Jonathan Wells. I know that, technically, the subject of these books is evolution, but they are pure creationist propaganda masquerading as bona fide science. The only thing that stopped me from complaining to the store manager (aside from my wife) was the fact that the bibles and korans in the neighboring aisle were sharing shelf space with books on the occult, astrology, mysticism and witchcraft. At least they got something right.

And while we're on the subject of bannings, guess who persuaded the Turkish government to block access to Richard Dawkins' website?

Strangely, Jamshed's blog has links to Creationist Idiocy, as well as to other anti-creationism blogs like Pharyngula and The Sensuous Curmudgeon. Is this purely in the spirit of fairness and debate, or is Jamshed in fact a spoof? Jamshed?

UPDATE: As you can see, he's already replied below (ALL CAPS). And he's just put up a new post on his blog, which is his funniest ever. I still can't tell if he's the real deal or not. Go read his new post, decide for yourself, and vote in the poll at the top right.

UPDATE 2: Here's how people voted:

Jamshed: Real or Spoof?

Real - 1 (Is this you, Jamshed?)
Spoof - 3
I can't tell - 6

Harun Yahya's Dream Recording Device

Harun Yahya, author of the lengthy creationist tome The Atlas of Creation, is starting to seem like a parody of a creationist with his vilification of Richard Dawkins, but even I admit that this is pretty funny.

Jesus and his Pet Dinosaur

Via LOL god.

Competition Time!

Come up with a punchline for the following joke. The wittiest answer will win a mystery prize!*

How many creationists does it take to change a light bulb?

*Prize may disappoint.

The Theroy of Evilution

Time for another terrible creationist video. In this one, you can easily lose count of the fallacies, bad logic, misunderstandings and outright untruths, but the "revelation" at around the 1:10 mark (cued nicely to the music) and the, frankly, disturbing animation at the end elevate this video to so-bad-it's-good territory:



And if this video wasn't dumb enough for you, check out some of the comments left underneath it. CAUTION: The quotes below will likely knock your IQ down by several points. Please read them responsibly and in moderation.

Evolution IS EVIL!!! Evolution calls God and His Inspired Word liars!Evolution say's that we are nothing but an accident and that there is no real purpose to life,eat,drink and be merry for tomorrow we die, it goes against everything the Inspired Scriptures teaches us.Evolution is responsible for six million jews being m#acred in nazi Germany,seventy-four million people in China,thirty million in the USSR and untold millions in Cambodia,Vietnam,Uganda and other parts of the world!

for those of you who believe we evolved from apes 1 question. Why are there no more human lines walking out of the jungle evolving from current lines of the ape species.

Its amazing that christians are a threat to atheism . If they dont beleive in God why are we a threat ? Because deep down in there heart they are afraid that God is not a fairy tale . Evolution will always be a fairy tale and God is real . I hit two rocks together the other day and could not make a human , go figure .

Evolution is so absurd that it is widely accepted by absurdity proponents. Like I stated before, evolution is just a side-stepping mechanism to accountability.

I don't care if 100% of the biological community accept it. If you purposely take God out of the equation you are being *dumb on purpose*.

evolution is not a fact. It is a theroy. The reason it is called a theroy is that it can't be proved.

Finally, here's my favourite:

Science is catching up with and confirming the Bible. Not to mention that the Bible also foretold vast communications technology such as television and satellites. When in Matthew 24:30 it says everyone will see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds. Revelations says every eye will see him. This given at the time in which none of this was possible.

That's right, you heard it here first. The second coming of Jesus Christ will be seen across the globe: live via satellite, on pay-per-view!

A Fundamental Difference in Method

This cartoon from Answers in Genesis illustrates the creationist argument that science and creationism are just two different ways of interpreting evidence; that since both approaches start with ad hoc presuppositions, they are equally valid. Which is, of course, nonsense. Science makes no assumptions, it simply follows wherever the evidence leads. In reality, the difference between science and creationism is more like the cartoon below:

Unintelligent Design III: Whale Leg Bones

This image shows leg bones removed from a humpback whale captured off the coast of Britih Columbia in 1919, including femur, tibia, tarsus and metatarsal. The whale had two symmetrical hind legs, which were over four feet long and covered in normal blubber and skin. There's no doubt that this whale was a rare anomaly, and that its legs were a mutation, but why would a whale possess the genes for making hind legs in the first place? It seems that either whales evolved from four-legged land-dwelling animals, or that God was, let's say, a little sloppy when he magicked them out of thin air.

You can read more about vestigial organs here.

The Vatican Embarassment Continues...

Just days after the Pope warned against "superstitious religions" (!!!), Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno describes creationism as:

a "kind of paganism" because it harks back to the days of "nature gods" who were responsible for natural events.

He's wrong, most creationists don't claim that God is responsible for natural events. Rather, they claim that events like the creation of man are entirely God's work, with no natural explanation at all.

And is the Vatican now admitting that God isn't responsible for natural events? Sounds like deism to me...

Finally, about the Pope, he says:

It's not like he has a magic power, that God whispers the truth in his ear.

Bill Jack's Freudian Slip

That Washington Post article that I posted about a few days ago has a brilliant Freudian slip that I somehow missed the first time I read it. It's from Bill Jack, a Christian leadership instructor who works for a company called Biblically Correct Tours:

Why should we be afraid to test our worldview against reality?

Bill Jack

Michael Shermer: The Patience of a Saint

I have no idea how Shermer keeps such a cool head in this interview with God-fearing creationist Georgia Purdom. What a guy:



If you couldn't stomach the video in its entirety, the following quote is a good summary of Georgia's position:

I have a five year old daughter. She's a guilty sinner.

Georgia Purdom

Via PZ.

Creationists That Look Like Apes: The Duggars

The Four Components of Creation Science

Pharyngula's PZ Myers just posted another classic gaffe from a creationist blog, and this one made me laugh out loud:

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I break down creationist biology into four main components: design, natural evil, systematics, speciation, and biogeography.

Todd Wood

DeWitt-less Fool

There's an article in the Washington Post describing Liberty "University" Professor David DeWitt's creationism-themed tours around the Smithsonian. Here's what he has to say about the museum:

There's nothing balanced here. It's completely, 100 percent evolution-based.

I think he means: "There's nothing supernatural here. It's completely, 100 percent evidence-based."

This man is shamelessly indoctrinating students with archaic and long-disproven theories. Like the tale of a 6000-year-old Earth that was somehow magically constructed by a mysterious entity that exists outside of physical space. And he calls himself a Professor? Let's hear about his institution, from a proper scientist:

God Tube is now "Tangle"

Here's another creationist video from "Tangle" (I guess "God Tube" exposed their intentions a little too clearly) that dredges up some of the more naive creationist arguments:



They're correct that evolution is not repeatable in the sense that we can watch humans evolve from fish again, but it is observable. Check out Richard Lenski's Long Term Evolution Experiment for a great example of this.

And Darwin was concerned about the lack of transitional fossils in the geological record, but that was well over a century ago. Since then, hundreds have been discovered, including transitional forms between fish and reptiles, reptiles and birds, and apes and humans.

This page goes into fascinating detail about the evolution of whales from land-dwelling quadrupeds, with half a dozen transitional forms described. This evidence alone is utterly convincing, and it's just a fraction of what we have.

It would be nice if creationists could present just a single piece of evidence for their own theories beyond a 2000 year old book.

More laughably inept creationist propaganda from "Tangle" in future posts.

Moron of the Month: Jonathan Sarfati

Australian-born creationist and chess chimp Jonathan Sarfati helps to run Creation Ministries International, an organization that while openly founded on biblical literalism, pushes the "creation science" angle and attempts to refute real science such as evolution and the big bang theory using scientific-sounding ideas.

One of the ways this organization tries to make its theories sound more credible is to constantly remind people that many of its contributors have PhDs obtained from "secular" (i.e. genuine) scientific institutions. This is a very common creationist tactic which I've written about before, and Jonathan Sarfati is one of the worst offenders I know of. Sarfati has a PhD in physical chemistry, and recently I've been trawling through creation.com's feedback section and counting the number of times he's drawn attention to this fact. I've found so many instances of this, I've had to cut my search short, so the following list is far from comprehensive:

I speak as one with a Ph.D. in physical chemistry

Dr Sarfati is a Ph.D. physical chemist

(Dr) Jonathan Sarfati

I have a Ph.D. in physical chemistry as well as being trained in formal logic,

As a Ph.D. physical chemist, needing no instruction in thermodynamics,

I’m a Ph.D. scientist

I’m one of many creationist Ph.D. scientists

I’m a Ph.D. physical chemist

Dr Jonathan Sarfati, whose Ph.D. is in physical chemistry, of which thermodynamics is an important part.

Ph.D. physical chemist Dr Jonathan Sarfati

Since my speciality for my Ph.D. thesis and the incorporated published papers was vibrational spectroscopy, I'm extremely familiar with harmonic oscillator wavefunctions.

one does cover such things in a chemistry Ph.D as one of us (JS) has earned

Which particular parts of human knowledge are we supposedly ignorant of? Perhaps chemistry, although I have a doctorate in it?

Ph.D. chemist Dr Jonathan Sarfati

Nice to meet a fellow Ph.D. chemist :)

I actually wonder whether Miller or this critic actually understand quantum physics (an important part of my own Ph.D. research).

I myself have an earned doctorate in science, and co-authored a paper in Nature on high-Tc superconductors when only 22.

Jonathan Sarfati, Ph.D. (which included papers involving NMR spectroscopy published in secular journals, incidentally)

He does indeed have his name on a 1987 Nature paper, although his exact contribution to the paper is not clear. As well as this he has five other papers published in scientific journals, but he hasn't published outside of creationist literature since 1995 and his h-index currently stands at a lowly 3, with several of his papers having never received a single citation.

As well as responding to criticism from christians and non-christians alike with a sneering and condescending tone, Sarfati is also keen on quoting scripture, so I'll finish by doing the same:

When pride comes, then comes disgrace; but with the humble is wisdom.

Proverbs 11:2

Ray Comfort at Yale?

I'm trying not to post too much about Ray Comfort because, since rising to notoriety after his banana video, he seems to have embraced his reputation as "that dumb creationist" all too readily, and is unashamedly milking this persona to gain publicity. But this article on WND about his amusingly-titled new book has a quote too good not to mention:

...if I can convince myself that there is no God, it means I am not morally accountable, and evolution opens the door to a whole lot of sinful delicacies such as pornography, fornication, lying, theft, and of course writing bad reviews for a book I haven't read.

Porn is a "sinful delicacy"? How repressed can he get?

The article also states that Ray "has argued against atheism at Yale University". This is exactly why Richard Dawkins is reluctant to debate him. Allowing the guy to participate in a debate at Yale only lets him boast of this fact, even if he performed terribly and lost the debate (and does anyone doubt that this was the case?). He's using this to create an illusion of academic respectability that he hasn't earned and doesn't deserve.

At the end of the article it says that he's been "snubbed" by Dawkins. No, Ray. People of importance, people that matter, are snubbed. People like you are simply ignored.

Conscious Atoms, Confused Bees and the Evil Face of Richard Dawkins

I've quit my other blog to concentrate on this one, partly because there is just so much creationist stupidity out there. Take this page for example. It's by creationism's Turkish Titan Harun Yahya, and there's enough comedy gold on this single webpage alone to keep this blog going for the rest of the year. The theme is "What Darwinists Never Realize", and you often really have to wonder what point he's trying to make. Example:

Darwinists never realize that the atoms they claim gave rise to all life on Earth are in fact unconscious entities.

What, he thinks that evolution requires atoms to talk to each other and to organize themselves into DNA via a little committee meeting?

Darwinists never realize that the theory of evolution, a fictitious hypothesis put forward under the primitive 19th-century understanding of science, has not been confirmed by any scientific findings or experiments so far.

Fictitious hypothesis? And the 19th century's understanding of science was at least more advanced than the Koran.

In claiming that life emerged as the result of blind chance, Darwinists never realize that the odds of a single, average-sized protein molecule forming by chance are 1 in 10300.

Uh-oh, I think he missed a superscript somewhere...

Darwinists never realize how it is possible for the queen bee, whose brain is just a few cubic millimeters in size and consists of very simple nerve nodes, to understand of her own will and with her own intelligence for what purpose the comb cells are built and to lay the appropriate eggs, with no confusion ever arising.

Lack of confusion in bees = death of darwinism? Seriously?

Elsewhere on the site he's posted some scary looking photos of Richard Dawkins in what appears to be an effort to demonize the guy. But what looks scarier? This:



Or this:


Cast your vote in the poll on the right!

EDIT: In a remarkably close contest, Harun Yahya's spooky visage wins by 16 votes to 11.

The Crocoduck Exists!

(via The Friendly Atheist)

A new specimin of Cameron and Comfort's required proof for evolution, the Crocoduck, has been found:


Pelagornithid

The unusually intact fossilized skull of a giant, bony-toothed seabird that lived up to 10 million years ago was found on Peru's arid southern coast, researchers said Friday.

With fossils discovered in North America, North Africa and even Antarctica, the birds were ubiquitous only a few million years before humans evolved and scientists puzzle over why they died out. Some believe they are related to gannets and pelicans, while other say they are related to ducks.

Let's keep an eye on Ray Comfort's blog to see his response.