Thursday, June 02, 2011

Pesky evolution again..


This story is filling our news channels at the moment, it's about the new strain of E. Coli bacteria that has infected more than 1,500 people of which 18 have died: 17 in Germany and one in Sweden. Note the word "new", this literally means that a strain of the old E. Coli bacteria has EVOLVED to become a new strain with a different, slightly modified genetic code which no longer replicates to produce the old strain. If this new animal is successful (unfortunately that may mean it infects millions of people) then it will replicate itself to become perhaps a dominant population from which new animals will also evolve.

Amazingly there are still people who deny that evolution occurs even though this kind of thing is happening around them all the time, how they intellectualise outbreaks like this we can only speculate on but suffice to say what they think is unlikely to be rational or true. Unfortunately for our society such people seem overly keen to inflict their ignorant, head in the sand views on the rest of us, particularly children. Clearly such proselytising has the aim of indoctrinating whoever will listen into the same deluded and brain washed state of religiously inspired denial as themselves. Even now, in enlightened Europe in the 21st century we have people who wish to spread such lies and ignorance to our very own school kids.

Think I'm exaggerating? take a look at the picture above it shows a wooden boat made by a Dutch creationist Johan Huibers and is supposed to be a replica of the ark from the Bible story of Noah. Mr Huibers is seeking permission to have his monument to stupidity moored on the Thames during the London 2012 Olympics. In a statement about his plans he says that "It will be nice for British schoolchildren to visit." This "attraction" is obviously a work of great commitment and skill and no doubt it will be full of fluffy, furry animals designed expressly to appeal to young children but beware, be skeptical, stealing from another ancient myth this wooden vessel is also a Trojan horse, one full of toxic ideas that are designed to ensnare and which need to be opposed at every turn.

As you would expect Huibers has a strange, warped kind of logic, when asked about his monument he is quoted as saying,

"This will speak very much to children, because it will give them something tangible to see that Noah's Ark really existed"

So, (using Huibers logic) just by building a model of something from a story in a book it means that it really existed, I wonder if Huibers has seen the  huge elaborate models of Ganesha the elephant God, does this mean our kids should accept that Hindu deities also existed too? Just for a laugh, I'd love to hear him explain how millions of different species of animals would fit into his boat (including dinosaurs) Given the puny dimensions of the ark you couldn't even liquidise that many animals and still fit them in!

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