Creationist Wisdom #876: Genius in Ghana

Today’s letter-to-the-editor (they call it a “Feature Article”) appears at the website Modern Ghana, located in Accra. the capital of Ghana. They say they’re “Ghana’s leader in general news and information destination online.” The letter is titled Evolutionists, Check These, and they have a comments section.

Unless the letter-writer is a politician, preacher, or other public figure, we won’t embarrass or promote him by using his full name — but today we’ve got an author of some distinction. The letter is from Kwabena Ofori-Panin. We Googled around and found that he’s Executive Director of something called Living Education Aid, which is good enough for full name treatment. We’ll give you some excerpts from his letter, with bold font added by us for emphasis, and occasional Curmudgeonly interjections that look [like this]. Here we go!

The evolution theory claims that a particular organism/creature could be affected by mutation (a beneficial deformity of sorts) setting them apart from their peers. This mutated one would outlive their peers till their peers are even exterminated, owing to the survival advantage of the mutation. That is how the simple life forms have developed from a simple ameba-like form through fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, apes, Neanderthals, to the now near-perfect human beings over billions of years!

That’s a poor description of natural selection, but let’s see where Ofori-Panin is going with this. He says:

If the mutations guaranteed the survival of the particular specie [sic], then it means the un-mutated ones of the group will be exterminated eventually. This also means that all earlier forms of life might either have mutated on to another advanced form or died off.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! That’s not how it works at all! If it did, there would be no Tree of life — just a long thin vine with a flower on top. But you know that, so let’s see what else he tells us:

If this is the case then ameba, the star-fish and all would not be found in existence now. They are however very much around healthily living on like no man’s business, with the humans that they should have mutated and evolved into. Why is this so, Atheist/Evolutionists?

Ah yes, the appearance of a favorable mutation demands that all members of the species that don’t have it must immediately die. This is the kind of thinking that leads creationists to ask “Why are there still monkeys?” And in extreme cases, such as today’s letter, the question is “Why is there anything on Earth other than humans?” The letter continues:

On the claim of time/periods/epochs, how can billions of years be quoted with certainty? Is it not more a guess work or at best an estimation whose credibility is even less acceptable than historical facts (genealogy, places, events/festivals) that continues to date! Is the Middle East (where the creation account and the follow-ups happened) not exhibiting enough of these FACTS, to those who are genuinely seeking the TRUTH on Creation.

Ofori-Panin knows how to learn The Truth™. Let’s read on:

What have been the mutations for evolution in our recent millennium? Albinism or humans with tails, one of which was removed from a teenager in India in 2016 or which? Or this generation will not be lucky to observe any if these are not examples of mutation for evolution? Or possibly the pigmies and giants among us could be taken as examples!

Ofori-Panin is in a big hurry to see significant mutations. He doesn’t realize that every act of conception involves numerous mutations — most of them of no consequence. Here’s his final paragraph:

Seriously speaking [Hee hee!], these anti-creation non-religious groups looking at the beauty, intelligence and design-appropriate aspects of the human being and other creatures, and are boldly saying that these happened by the “BANG” chance/accident! Or could it be that this chance/accident process is what some of you apply in your research, inventions and manufacturing now? If not, why not?

Wow! That was an ark-load of criticism. We don’t know about you, dear reader, but we’ve learned that creationism in Ghana is every bit as sophisticated as it is in the good ol’ USA.

Copyright © 2018. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

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The Enlightenment as the Sixth Estate

This is difficult for an American to write because it involves concepts from another time and place, but we’ll give it a try. Historically there have been three Estates of the realm. Wikipedia says:

[They] were the broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christendom (Christian Europe) from the medieval period to early modern Europe. Different systems for dividing society members into estates developed and evolved over time. The best known system is the French Ancien Régime (Old Regime), a three-estate system used until the French Revolution (1789–1799). Monarchy was for the king and the queen and this system was made up of clergy (the First Estate), nobles (the Second Estate), and peasants and bourgeoisie (the Third Estate).

In some regions, notably Scandinavia and Russia, burghers (the urban merchant class) and rural commoners were split into separate estates, creating a four-estate system with rural commoners ranking the lowest as the Fourth Estate. Furthermore, the non-landowning poor could be left outside the estates, leaving them without political rights.

For those who live in what we call Western civilization, that describes a creepy, alien kind of society. But the concepts linger. We now have people who refer to themselves as the Fourth Estate, about which Wikipedia says:

The Fourth Estate (or fourth power) is a segment of society that wields an indirect but significant influence on society even though it is not a formally recognized part of the political system. The most commonly recognized part of the fourth estate is the news media, or press.

[…]

Thomas Carlyle attributed the origin of the term to Edmund Burke … . [They quote Carlyle:] “Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all.”

[…]

Oscar Wilde wrote: “In old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press. That is an improvement certainly. But still it is very bad, and wrong, and demoralizing.”

And that’s not the end of it. Wikipedia also describes the Fifth Estate as “a socio-cultural reference to groupings of outlier viewpoints in contemporary society, and is most associated with bloggers, journalists publishing in non-mainstream media outlets, and the social media …:”

The “Fifth Estate” includes all kinds of economic, political, and supernatural craziness, including creationists, who dream of their glory days when they were the First Estate and literally wielded the power of life and death.

So why do we bother discussing these shadowy concepts today? It’s because we humbly suggest the existence of what could be described as a Sixth Estate — the only one that really matters. And what would that be? Isn’t it obvious? It’s science — recognized and liberated by the Enlightenment, which doomed the traditional estates to utter insignificance. What we’re describing isn’t really an “estate” in the traditional sense, because those who comprise it wield no actual power — except over their own minds.

The Enlightenment has been a constant theme of this humble blog since its earliest days — see, for example: Discovery Institute: Enemies of the Enlightenment. As we said there:

The Scottish Enlightenment achieved advances in numerous fields, including, e.g., philosophy (David Hume, one of the greatest philosophers, an empiricist, skeptic, and advocate of separation of powers and decentralized government), economics (Adam Smith, intellectual founding father of the free enterprise system), and geology (James Hutton, father of modern geology, and discoverer of “deep time” which contradicts the brief Genesis chronology of creation). Almost a century later, that continuing outburst of rationality resulted in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Additionally, due to trans-Atlantic travel and correspondence (Benjamin Franklin knew David Hume, for example) the Scottish Enlightenment inspired the American Revolution, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. It created an intellectual climate of reason and progress that powers our civilization to this day.

Reason, liberty, science, free enterprise — splendid results for an intellectual movement. Not even Athens at the height of its glory enjoyed such a philosophical foundation. We experience more freedom, health, and prosperity than any age ever dreamed of, and we have more knowledge of the universe than was ever believed possible. But not everyone is delighted with those magnificent accomplishments. Would-be tyrants, theocrats, Grand Inquisitors, Marxists, fascists, and other assorted despots are nostalgic for the pre-Enlightenment days when men lived in ignorance and unthinkingly obeyed authority. They hope for a restoration of those sordid centuries, imagining that in such a nightmare world they would be our masters.

Okay, now how can we bring this rambling discussion to a close? We suggest that it’s of vital importance to recognize — and teach! — what drives the age in which we live, and what lurks in the darkness that would bring our civilization to an end. It’s not enough to enjoy the life that we have. We need to know how it happened, what a difficult struggle it was — and how important it is to defend what we have against those who want to drag us backward.

So there you are, dear reader. Make of it what you will, but we think this is one of our best posts ever.

Copyright © 2018. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

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Ken Ham and Owl Pellets

Here’s something interesting for you to munch on from Ken Ham (ol’ Hambo), the ayatollah of Appalachia, the world’s holiest man who knows more about religion and science than everyone else. It’s at the website of Answers in Genesis (AIG), his creationist ministry: What Do Owl Pellets Have to Do with the Creation Museum?

That’s a thought-provoking question, and we’ll give you our own answer at the end. Until then, here are some excerpts, with bold font added by us for emphasis, and occasional Curmudgeonly interjections that look [like this]:

At 59 plus 7 years old (that helps me feel younger), I just did something for the very first time — I dissected my first, yes, owl pellet. Now, if you’re not familiar with owl pellets, they’re mostly composed, as you would imagine, of the remains of animals the owl ate. They can’t digest fur, bones, or teeth, so they regurgitate a mass of all these indigestible parts. Sound gross? It is! But it’s also really interesting to pick the pellets apart and figure out which animals the owl ate.

Would you believe it — Wikipedia has an article on Pellet (ornithology), which informs us:

A pellet, in ornithology, is the mass of undigested parts of a bird’s food that some bird species occasionally regurgitate. The contents of a bird’s pellet depend on its diet, but can include the exoskeletons of insects, indigestible plant matter, bones, fur, feathers, bills, claws, and teeth. In falconry, the pellet is called a casting.

The passing of pellets allows a bird to remove indigestible material from its proventriculus, or glandular stomach. In birds of prey, the regurgitation of pellets serves the bird’s health in another way, by “scouring” parts of the digestive tract, including the gullet. Pellets are formed within six to ten hours of a meal in the bird’s gizzard (muscular stomach).

Don’t try to deny it — we know you’re interested. Hambo says:

So why was I dissecting owl pellets? Well, this summer we’re hosting our first Explore Camp. This five-day camp for young people here at the Creation Museum features 20 different hands-on science workshops as well as other fun activities. Each day of camp features a different science theme such as forensics, astronomy, genetics, geology, or zoology. And one day of camp featured an owl pellet dissection workshop, so I decided to join in on the fun.

We’ve written about Hambo’s Explore Camp before — see 5 Days of Hambo’s Creation Science. He continues:

I encourage you to watch this live video [link omitted] I did to learn more about owl pellets and our fantastic Explore Camp.

Go ahead, watch the video and see ol’ Hambo chopping up those tasty pellets. If you do, please let us know what we missed. Here’s one last excerpt:

We have one more week of day camp this summer, July 23–27, 2018. If you have a child (or children) who love science — this is the place for them! [Oh yeah!] They’ll love the hands-on workshops and the biblical worldview teaching from various experts. They’ll even get to spend one night at the Creation Museum studying astronomy in our top-notch observatory and sleeping among the exhibits.

That’s the end of it — except for a link to where you can go to sign up for the next thrilling camp. But wait — we promised that we’d give you our Curmudgeonly answer to Hambo’s title question: “What Do Owl Pellets Have to Do with the Creation Museum?” Okay, here it is: They’re both an indigestible mass of regurgitated material, useful only for fertilizer.

Copyright © 2018. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

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Creationist Wisdom #875: Genius in Scotland

We were informed about today’s letter-to-the-editor by Paul Braterman, who has become our chief operative in Scotland. It appears at the website of something called Hebrides News, located in Stornoway, the largest town (population 8,000) in the Outer Hebrides, an island chain off the west coast of Scotland. The letter is titled Evolution theory is “all gobbledygook”, and they don’t have a comments feature.

Unless the letter-writer is a politician, preacher, or other public figure, we won’t embarrass or promote him by using his full name — but today we’ve got some kind of preacher. The letter is from Donald J Morrison, a Home Mission Worker for the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), about which see Wikipedia’s write-up: Free Church of Scotland (since 1900). We’ll give you some excerpts from Morrison’s letter, with bold font added by us for emphasis, and occasional Curmudgeonly interjections that look [like this]. Here we go!

Truth is not something the evolutionary theorist is particularly interested in, they would rather believe a lie. There are many undeniable proofs against evolution to show that it is nothing but a hoax, a delusion and a very big lie. [Hee hee!] One strand of evidence is found when considering languages. [Huh?] If, as evolutionists claim, all of mankind evolved from the same primitive life-source, then how did we end up with 7,000 different languages?

Good question! Morrison’s answer should be interesting. He informs us:

The Bible teaches in Genesis 11: 7,9 that God created all the different languages at Babel. It is far more reasonable to accept the Biblical claim that God created all of mankind’s different languages; than it is to believe that some space-dust from a massive chaotic explosion somehow became life, and then took on intelligence, and then from the same evolutionary process ended up with 7,000 different languages. That makes no sense whatsoever; it is all gobbledygook.

That was an interesting answer. And it’s one we haven’t seen before. After that he tells us:

There are no ‘primitive’ languages. All languages have a system of sounds, words, and sentences that can adequately communicate the content of culture; so no language is degenerate in that sense. This is undeniable evidence of a divine Creator. Man was created with language.

Undeniable! He continues:

If mankind had advanced through a so-called evolutionary process, then there should still be developing languages today. [Right!] However, the stark fact is mankind’s languages are vanishing from civilization at an alarming rate – thus proving that evolution is a lie. And if evolution were true, then the process by which mankind has obtained 7,000 languages would be continuing today. Has the evolutionary process ceased? According to the Bible it never happened in the first place.

You probably think that’s the only evidence this guy has, but now he presents a whole new argument:

Let me forward further evidence. [Okay, “forward” it.] There is no record of a cataclysmic event that destroyed mankind (or mass extinction as evolutionists call it) prior to 4,000 B.C. [He’s right!] And if there were, surely some of the survivors would have passed this information down to generations to follow. The Bible dates creation, as we know it today, at approximately 4,000 B.C. So it was approximately 6,000 years ago that God, Jesus Christ, created the heavens and the earth in six days. It was 6,000 years ago that Jesus Christ spoke the stars into existence. It was 6,000 years ago that Jesus spoke animals, fish, plants, and land into existence. And it was 6,000 years ago that God formed man out of the dust of the earth.

Did you follow that argument? Great, wasn’t it? Okay, let’s read on:

Such Biblical claims seem absurd to evolutionists, who have convinced themselves that the earth is billions of years old. Ironically, they have absolutely no evidence of such longevity. [No evidence!] Evolutionists have sought out dishonest scientists, who distort the facts, use faulty testing methods, and make erroneous assumptions (unethically stating such assumptions as if they were facts). Yes, evolution is at best only a theory, a ridiculous one at that, although it is falsely presented and swallowed, by the gullible, as if it were a fact.

Are you one of those gullible evolutionists? Then pay close attention to the final paragraph:

It’s amazing how people continually place God and the Bible on trial; yet unquestioningly accept the theories of evolution. This only confirms how the unbelieving heart of sinful man fervently opposes the truth of God’s Word, which declares very clearly that God created the world. How true the words of an honest man who said, ‘Truth is truth even if no one believes it; a lie is a lie even if everyone believes it.’

Okay! That’s it from the Hebrides. We’ve found the perfect place for our next vacation.

Copyright © 2018. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

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