It’s so darned cold — -30°C, with windchills that make me want to switch to Kelvin — that my university has closed, as well as all the local schools. But I still have to trek in to feed the fish at my lab, and this time I thought I’d record my whole journey on ShiverCam (I’m holding my iPhone while crunching through the thin snow and blowing winds). It’s less than 3 minutes.

I survived. But then…layers, lots of layers, and the only exposed skin was around my eyes, and I’m still trying to recover the feeling in my toes and fingertips. So not too bad.

American Atheists mocks Mormon message with anti-religion billboard
Washington Times
American Atheists in Utah has kicked off a new billboard campaign that plays on the pro-Mormon message of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, asking those with spiritual doubts to consider a new life path — but in a mocking manner.
Atheist Billboard Gets Attention In UtahMyFox Philadelphia

all 3 news articles »

But then, if you want to repel nuisances, I guess being disgusting is a good strategy.

Six Seriously Strange Animal Adaptations

The regulars here may recall John A. Davison, who died in 2012. He was notoriously persistent and repetitive, and rather clueless: he was the guy who started a blog with one article, never wrote another one, and just made new comments. He later announced that it was full, and so…he started a brand new blog, one article, and posted more comments to himself on it. It was rather sad.

Less well known is that he was actually a biologist, had a Ph.D. in zoology, and taught at the University of Vermont. He had a “scientific” theory, which was his, which he thought explained all that evolutionary change while refuting those silly scientists who believed that mutations occurred. No! Evolution was all due to chromosome rearrangements, which somehow are not mutations, and he also somehow ignored the existence of allelic differences between species:

In 1940 Richard B. Goldschmidt [1940] presented the evidence that it is the chromosome, not the gene that is the unit of evolutionary change. While this was not then accepted by the evolutionary establishment, recent karyological studies fully support his perspective. The primary demonstrable differences that distinguish us from our closest primate relatives are revealed in the structure of our chromosomes. They consist of several reorganizations of homologous chromosome segments in the form of translocations, pericentric and paracentric inversions and a single fusion which result in the human complement of 46 chromosomes while the Chimpanzee, Gorilla and Orang each have 48 (Yunis and Prakash [1982]). The important point is that there is no evidence that such transformations involved in any way the introduction of species specific information into the genome. This is further reinforced by the demonstration that we are nearly identical at the DNA level with our close relatives. The simplest explanation is that the information was present in a latent state and simply revealed or derepressed when the chromosome segments were placed in a new configuration (Davison [1993]).

Yet when you read what he had to say about it, what was striking was the complete failure to read and understand the scientific literature — he had come up with his scientific theory, by God, and he didn’t have to address it critically, ever. All he had to do was go on blogs and internet forums and write the same pretentious catchphrases over and over again. And that was the saddest thing of all, that a mind could become so calcified and bitter and obsessed.

So he died, but you knew another had to emerge, and he has come. I was asked to look at a string of comments left on a science article by a fellow going by the pseudonym JVK, and all the Davison traits were there. Pretentious phrasing. Repetition: if the audience didn’t get it the first time, just say the same thing again, twice. A kind of sneering anger that people don’t understand how smart he is. An obsession with one narrow idea, which is his, which explains all of evolution and proves that everyone else is wrong.

Behold James Vaughn Kohl.

Ecological adaptation occurs via the epigenetic effects of nutrients on alternative splicings of pre-mRNA which result in amino acid substitutions that differentiate all cell types of all individuals of all species. The control of the differences in cell types occurs via the metabolism of the nutrients to chemical signals that control the physiology of reproduction.

These facts do not refute evolution; they simply refute the ridiculous theory of mutation-initiated natural selection that most people here were taught to believe is the theory of evolution.

That theory is far too ridiculous to be anything but a joke in the context of biological-based increasing organismal complexity. But here, we have lots of jokers, don’t we? The proof of ecological variation that appears to refute the theory of evolution, which actually refutes itself, is that ecological adaptations occur too fast for mutations to compete with them as a source of anything but diseases and disorders.

Basically what he’s saying in the first couple of sentences is that the environment induces variations in gene expression that are responsible for the differentiation of the various cell types. This is partly true; environmental influences certainly do contribute to cells developing in different directions. However, there are many examples of patterns that resist environmental influences, or in which maternal factors shelter the embryo from the environment. Fertilized human eggs, for instance, acquire polarity information when they implant in the uterus, but are largely insulated from temperature and nutrient stress.

Then there are other things that are just too narrow. Is alternative splicing the only mechanism to create variants in cells? No, of course not. External signals cause changes in the phosphorylation state of proteins in the cytoplasm, for example, that can affect metabolic activity; no alternative splicing involved. Signals can also switch on and switch off specific genes, again, no alternative splicing needed.

Then there are bits that are just plain weird. He gives the impression that what we eat dictates what signals we can generate. Do you get Sonic Hedgehog in your diet? No. It’s a protein synthesized by your cells.

The primary patterning elements in multicellular organisms are produced by networks of interacting genes; major body plan features might be initiated by environmental or maternal signals (which then begin a series of gene-regulated processes that produce the details), but the environment is primarily going to be an important modulator. Need I point out as well that what Kohl has described is a limited subset of the processes in development and that no one in their right mind thinks that development somehow refutes the contribution of other sources of variation to evolution? It was Van Valen who said in 1973 that “Evolution is the control of development by ecology…” That’s pretty much the mainstream view, so there’s nothing novel in what Kohl wrote.

Further, what he writes is a particularly pretentious, obfuscatory way of saying what he means — he’s trying to obscure rather than explain.

But then, that’s what he does. He crashes into a thread full of lay people and then lords it over them with his abuse of jargon. And he does it over and over again, and you can see the responses: most of the other commenters are more or less stunned, they don’t know how to deal with all the specific buzzwords he throws at them, and they have these doubts…maybe he’s saying something I should know about. No, he’s not. He’s babbling in scientese.

And he just keeps hammering away with his pseudo-scientific pronouncements.

Nutrient stress and social stress force organisms to adapt via seemingly futile cycles of protein biosynthesis and degradation that either result in amino acid substitutions that stabilize organism-level thermoregulation or the organism dies. It does not mutate into another species, which is why that cannot be explained to a high school freshman.

The point of this article was to show people that high school freshman have already been taught to believe in a ridiculous theory of mutation-initiated natural selection. Thus, they think everything that happens to DNA must be a mutation and there is plenty of extant literature that supports that idea. All of it is wrong in the context of ecological adaptations.

Based on Darwin’s ‘conditions of life’ ecological adaptations are nutrient-dependent and pheromone-controlled. The adaptations can be viewed as amino acid substitutions.

96 of them differentiate our cell types from those of most recent extinct ancestor.

He’s also obsessed with human pheromones. He has written a book, The Scent of Eros, about the physiological responses to pheromones — speaking of murky, difficult, ephemeral phenomena, I think the human dependence on pheromones is probably real, but only one tiny part of our behavioral repertoire, and almost certainly not a major influence on development. Kohl also sells a line of beauty products: for example, Scent of Eros With Musk Fragrance – Pheromones For Men To Attract Women.

Maybe he thinks belligerent pomposity is the way to attract the attention of investors from Axe.

TheBlaze.com
Atheist Church Movement Shake Up: Ideological Battle Leads to Secular ...
TheBlaze.com
Atheist churches have made a splash over the past year, with The Sunday Assembly, an international coalition of secular houses of worship, taking the lead in celebrating non-belief. But it seems there's been a rift — a chasm that has led to a ...
Atheist Church Split: Sunday Assembly And Godless Revival's 'Denominational ...Huffington Post UK
Bitter Split Riles Atheist ChurchNewser
Schism in the atheist church, alreadyPatheos (blog)

all 57 news articles »

Schism in the atheist church, already
Patheos (blog)
Moore alleges that, among other things, Jones advised the NYC group to “boycott the word atheism” and “not to have speakers from the atheist community.” It also wanted the New York branch to host Assembly services in a churchlike setting, instead of ...

Wise Men Say: Time For A Truce Between Atheists And Believers (And More Toys)
WLRN
The believer-atheist dispute was once a half-way civil argument about God's existence. (Memo to both sides: even that seems a pointless debate since said existence can't be proven or disproven.) But in recent decades it has degenerated into a caustic ...

Irish Independent
'Inappropriate' to ask President if he is an atheist
Irish Independent
Photo: Arthur Carron/Collins. Michael Brennan Deputy Political Editor – 06 January 2014. PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins's office is insisting that it is "inappropriate" to ask if he is an atheist -- even though he had to swear a religious oath upon taking ...

Be scared of hell teens! Just like God wants you too! And don’t trust people like Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking and me and Charles Darwin who try to tell you the devil doesn’t exist.

The whole damn site looks like that, with random blocks in random colors and lots of caps and exclamation points. It hurts just to look at that thing.

The Hindu
Religion divides, say atheists
Deccan Chronicle
Vijayawada: Stating that it was a movement for social and economic equality and restoration of human dignity and freedom, Atheist Centre chairperson Mythri welcomed the gathering to the international conference to mark the 75th formation day of the ...
'Show constructive alternatives to youth'The Hindu

all 2 news articles »

Bill Nye vs. creationist Ken Ham, defending science from theology
ChicagoNow (blog)
I would expect the goal to be the promotion of scientifically minded Christians rather than engaging in atheist vs. theist dialog. In other words, I would expect this to be different than the Sam Harris vs. William Lane Craig debate which was atheist ...

and more »

Now some Utah sheriffs are calling for an uprising against gay marriage.

The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association on Saturday organized a meeting in Highland, Utah to call for an uprising and to express their opposition to same-sex marriage in Utah, Fox 13 Now Salt Lake City reported.

"The people of Utah have rights, too, not just the homosexuals. The homosexuals are shoving their agenda down our throats," Former Graham County, Ariz., Sheriff Richard Mack said at the meeting.

1) Have they forgotten that there are homosexuals who are people of Utah? 2) The non-homosexual people of Utah have not lost any rights, so they have no grounds for complaint. 3) Could all the homophobes please avoid that phrase “shoving…down our throats” from now on? Save it for the day that there is a law passed that compels all men to have oral sex with another man. That day has not come.

It’s called Irreplaceable and it’s about…the traditional family. The only allowable kind of family. The family you must have, or face an eternity in Hell after the bigots make your live miserable now.

Watch the trailer and cringe. They start of with a cute little kid talking about the importance of love, and then they start talking about the horrors of modern life: divorce, gay marriage, temporary marriage, single parents, out-of-wedlock births, and they counter it with how much they love the traditional family.

Hey, I grew up in a traditional family, and I have a traditional family — there’s nothing wrong with that. But somehow I can be happy with my lifestyle without insisting that everyone else must live exactly the same way.

One unusual thing here though: yes, go ahead and read the youtube comments. Everyone is calling them out on Focus on the Patriarchy’s hypocrisy. I predict this movie will bomb spectacularly. FotF is one of the most hated organizations around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Written by Johnny O’Coileain (Add him on Facebook)

Editor, One Nation Under Nothing

In Western Culture, prior to the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, Abrahamic theism was the chief monopolist of information. With this religion’s reign over all aspects of education and available knowledge, the range of human thought existed narrowly. As a matter of fact, any attempt to express competing ideas, or discover something in contrast to the party line, meant you had an all expense paid trip to the bonfire.

Once the bubonic plague blasted through Europe and scores of people dropped dead, the churches were devoid of real answers. This likely brought about a mass philosophical epiphany, which is often the first logical challenge to theism: The Question of Evil. If God is all loving, how could he allow for evil to happen? With a popular reluctance to digest bullshit religious answers, I’d argue that this burst of free thinking helped lay down the Renaissance foundations. People looked to non-religious answers on a greater scale. Public health standards certainly took a great leap forward.

As philosophy and science gradually prevailed, the monopoly on answers, especially “scientific” answers, was slowly pried from the sickly claws of theism. Questions about how life arose; the origins of the cosmos; a worldly flood; supposed historical Biblical events and genealogies; all fell into their respective scientific domains.

Religion’s answers to scientific questions failed to satisfy; and the inherent flaw is the nature of dogmatism itself. Dogmatic answers are unchanging when juxtaposed against evidence. When reality contradicts dogma, facts must be discarded. Being intrinsically backwards, the validity of Abrahamic theism vanished like flies when shit is cleaned up. We can see the innate wrongness. But, what if the ideology of Abraham was correct, either on one thing or many things? Is it vindicated as a belief system? Not quite.

If the claims of Abrahamic theism were correct, it wouldn’t be a religion; it would be science. Its incorrectness about reality is the heart of what keeps it a religion. If the dogma was universally true, there would be no such thing as religious distinctions. It would simply be a fact of reality. Here’s a hypothetical example. Let’s pretend the Bible claims life on earth is carbon-based. Later on, scientific analysis demonstrates this fact. If a Jew, a Muslim, a Christian, and a Hindu stood around the results, no one would dispute the finding.

They wouldn’t say absurd things like, “Life on earth is Christian carbon-based.” The claim would lose all relevance as dogma, because it’s universally true. It doesn’t need to be accepted on faith, and falls in line with gravity and germ theory. Theistic differences arise because of dogmatic differences. If a religion becomes so correct about reality, these distinctions are lost. They become universal truth in the way science describes. The same holds true for morality. A moral idea can function perfectly well without theology. The talking snake and virgin birth are not prerequisites for doing good deeds. 

It’s only the incorrect parts that keep religious distinctions alive; the parts that require “faith”. No one uses the word ‘faith’ when describing knowledge, because no one needs faith in DNA, or heliocentrism. As for morality, the last strand of relevance religion clings to, philosophy is gradually taking it back. The idea of “Being good for goodness sake” is rising. Once we conclude, en masse, that ideas on morality and science function perfectly well without fairytales, the gleaming blade of Occam’s Razor will level the weeds of religious distinctions.   

This Pope Makes Me Want to be an Atheist
OpEdNews
The arguments about the current pope's interpretations of Jesus' true teachings is convincing me that an atheist has a better chance of hearing him with clarity. The question is why. Why do I come to this conclusion? I think it's because when I apply ...

and more »

Crossmap
Atheist Eve Brannon Agrees to Attend Church of Highest Bidder in Online Auction
Crossmap
... (Christian News Network) On January 5, 2014. Text size: Small · Medium · Large. Email; Share; Print; Comment. Tweet. The president of a South Carolina-based atheist organization is auctioning off the chance for her to attend church with her daughter.
New Atheist Billboards Take Aim at Mormons, Encourage 'Pride' in Non-BeliefChristian Post
Atheist Agrees to Attend Church of Highest Bidder in Online AuctionChristian News Network
Upstate SC Atheist leader auctioning off chance to go to churchKSLA-TV

all 15 news articles »

Atheist billboard in SLC draws attention
fox13now.com
SALT LAKE CITY — You may have seen a new billboard along I-15 at 3300 South. American Atheists have placed the billboard promoting their national convention scheduled for Salt Lake City in April, but some consider the billboard offensive, especially ...

After a schism, a question: Can atheist churches last?
CNN (blog)
The world's most voguish - though not its only - atheist church opened last year in London, to global attention and abundant acclaim. So popular was the premise, so bright the promise, that soon the Sunday Assembly was ready to franchise, branching out ...
Without a prayer: Politicians of no faith afraid to say soThe State Journal-Register

all 6 news articles »

After a schism, a question: Can atheist churches last?
CNN (blog)
The world's most voguish - though not its only - atheist church opened last year in London, to global attention and abundant acclaim. So popular was the premise, so bright the promise, that soon the Sunday Assembly was ready to franchise, branching out ...
Schism in the atheist church, alreadyPatheos (blog)
Without a prayer: Politicians of no faith afraid to say soThe State Journal-Register

all 32 news articles »

The billboard American Atheists have put up in Salt Lake City is…nice. Not very aggressive at all. I don’t know about this — I rather like them being a bit in-your-face.

Of course, even with a gentle sign, the Salt Lake Tribune seems a little weirded out. First they express mild surprise that atheists are normal people, they report on the mother of one of the people in the picture who is not very happy, because what he and these atheist groups espouse can be “hurtful stuff,” and they just have to try and shoehorn atheism into a familiar pattern.

University of Utah professor of religious studies Colleen McDannell says it’s a quintessential human attribute, evidenced throughout our nation’s history, to want to be a part of something.

"It doesn’t do in America just to be an individual nonbeliever," she says. "We’re a country of joiners."

In other words, organized nonreligion. American Atheists President David Silverman explained in a news release, "Our message is this: If you don’t believe anymore, don’t continue to base your identity in Mormonism. You’re so much more than an ‘ex-Mormon’; you’re an atheist."

Oh, well. I’m tempted to do a fierce atheist talk at the convention, but I was planning to do something sciencey instead.