Günter Bechly

Günter Bechly is a creationist, but he is unusual in having some real science credentials. It could be argued that that means he knows what realise science is and should know better, but religion somehow blinds people to the faults in their own arguments.

Like all creationists he prefers to use podcasts and videos to promote his nonsense, but here is one paper that got offered to my by a guy on a forum as though it makes a good argument.

New Fossil Human Species Thwarts Core Darwinian Predictions


Science is Tentative​

The first paragraph is about how human evolutionary history is being re-written as new evidence comes to light. Bechly seems to think this somehow invalidates evolution. It does not. This is how science is done. Right from the start he shows us he prefers the certainty of never-changing dogma to the tentative and changeable world of science.

"I can hardly resist the temptation to say “I told you so,” or to jokingly remark, “Oops, they did it again.” "​

I can predict that human evolutionary history will be re-written again. And again and again. That does not make me a prophet or an anti-Darwinism. It just means I understand how science works. I guess Bechly does not.


Apples and Oranges​

"They also do not fall into a temporal cline from older primitive to younger derived forms. Some early australopithecines not only exhibit the expected ape-like features but also some very modern human characters, while some late representatives of Homo (e.g., Homo naledi) still have very primitive characters. Thus fossil humans do not form a transitional series like the famous horse series. They are a frustrating mess for evolutionists, and the new species from Luzon makes the situation even worse."​


Bechly compares the horse series, of which Wiki says: "The evolution of the horse, a mammal of the family Equidae, occurred over a geologic time scale of 50 million years, transforming the small, dog-sized, forest-dwelling Eohippus into the modern horse." In contrast, the evolution of man is over a much shorter timeframe, just 2 million years. A fairer comparison would be human evolution from the basal primate that exists about 66 million years ago. Over that timeframe, we do indeed have a pretty good evolutionary history.

Conversely, we could look at the evolution of horses in the last 2 million years. How well defined is that? Zebras diverged from horses 4 million years ago. How well is horse evolution after that point established?

The problem here is that the shorter the time period, the more the noise becomes a problem (in part because breeding between lineages is still possible).

And the question here is: Does Bechly not realise that? Or does he just ignore it?


Creationism Predicts...​

So where is Bechly's explanation? How does this fossil fit his hypothesis? He does not say. The title of the article is "New Fossil Human Species Thwarts Core Darwinian Predictions". How do the creationist predictions fit? He does not say. Why not?

Because this is pseudo-science.

Like all creationists, his strategy is to rubbish "Darwinism", and imagine his creationism will win by default. Science does not work like that. He has a Ph.D. in science; he should know this. Real science makes predictions.

Evolution is real science; it makes predictions as Bechly tacitly concedes in the title of the article. Creationism, not so much.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Southern Baptist Convention Position on Abortion

Evangelical Christians in the US are very strongly anti-abortion. However, it was not always so. As recently as 1970 the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) - the largest Protestant denomination in the US - advocated for legalising abortion. A Complete Reversal The landmark law case in the US was Roe v. Wade, in 1973, and abortion has been legal since that time. Jane Roe was the pseudonym of the woman wanting the abortion; Henry Wade the district attorney who stood for the state, prohibiting it. Roe was represented by two attorneys; one was Linda Coffee, a member of the SBC. The Baptist Press interviewed her after the successful conclusion of the trial. The decision of Roe v Wade was generally regarded as a good one by the SBC. To evangelicals of that time abortion was seen as a Catholic issue. You can find a list of abortion-related resolutions made by the SBC from 1971 onwards  here . It is clear that in 1971 they saw abortion - quite reasonably - as undesirable, but it ...
Read more

Hinman's "Argument From Transcendental Signifier"

ETA (23/Jun/20): I have just heard Joe is in hospital. I wish him a speedy recovery. All the best, Joe. This is an argument for God that Joe Hinman has presented several times on various of his sites: http://www.doxa.ws/Ontological/TS2.html https://christiancadre.blogspot.com/2020/05/transcendental-signifier-argument.html http://religiousapriori.blogspot.com/2011/06/transcendental-signifier-argument.html http://metacrock.blogspot.com/2018/01/premises-4-7-ts-argumet.html The argument is a seven step syllogism: 1. Any rational, coherent, and meaningful view of the universe must of necessity presuppose organizing principles (Ops) 2. OP's summed up in TS 3. Modern Thought rejects TS outright or takes out all aspects of mind. 4. Therefore, Modern thought fails to provide a rational, coherent, and meaningful view of the universe. 5. minds organize and communicate meaning 6. Therefore universal mind, offers the best understanding of TS 7. Concept of God unites TS with universal m...
Read more

Kent Hovind: Third wife in three years?

Kent Hovind is, perhaps the very worst of the creationists, so it is with some interest I note that he is now on this third wife in three years. For many years he was married to Jo Hovind, who ended up going to prison for a year due to her involvement in tax fraud. Once Kent got released from his rather longer prison sentence, it was not long before Jo filed for divorce (early 2016) - possibly to distance himself from any further gaol sentences. A few months later, 24th Sptember 2016, and he married Mary Tocco - not a full marriage, but a covenant before God. It looks like she got various assurances that Kent's new business was entirely honest before she got married. However, she later cam to realise that that was not really the case, and, again to avoid ending up in prison , she left him in November 2017. http://kehvrlb.com/mary-tocco-on-leaving-kent-hovind Less than a year later and he has a new wife, Cindi Lincoln, a former friend of Mary's. It is not clear if they ...
Read more