Hurricane Ian Free Fire Zone

Most of you are aware that a potentially powerful hurricane is brewing in the Caribbean, and it will soon be impacting Florida. And you are probably also aware that your Curmudgeon’s vast underground facilities — including our top-secret la-BOR-a-tories — are located in that state.

A hurricane won’t interrupt our clandestine activities, but we don’t control the internet, so it may prevent us from blogging. Therefore we’re declaring another Intellectual Free-Fire Zone. Wanna talk about the British monarchy? The Ukrainian war? US politics? Something else? Go right ahead!

You know the rules. Feel free to use the comments for the discussion of pretty much anything — science, politics, economics, whatever — as long as it’s tasteful and interesting. Banter, babble, bicker, bluster, blubber, blather, blab, blurt, burble, boast — say what you will. But avoid flame-wars and beware of the profanity filters.

We now throw open the comments to you, dear reader. Have at it!

Copyright © 2022. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

Self-Published Genius #133: Proof of Creationism!

Today we have a new addition to our series about Self-Published Geniuses. This is where we bring you news of authors with a vanity press book in which the author claims to have made paradigm-shattering discoveries, and announces his work by hiring a press release service. We learned about today’s book from one of our clandestine operatives. This one is so well-placed and valuable that he doesn’t even have a code name.

The title of today’s press release — they all have huge titles — is Author Gerald L. Goodwin’s New Book ‘The Twilight of Creation’ is a Faith-Based Read That Tackles the Debate of the Start of Life via Evolution Versus Creationism, and it was issued by Newswire. Here are some excerpts from the press release, with bold font added by us for emphasis, and occasional Curmudgeonly interjections that look [like this]:

Recent release ‘The Twilight of Creation’ from Covenant Books [Ding Ding!] author Gerald L. Goodwin provides a thought-provoking exploration of the debate revolving around the theory of evolution and the theory of creationism.

We’ve encountered that publisher before. Their website, Covenant Books, says:

Our business model is quite simple – if your manuscript is accepted for publication, we can publish it and bring it to the world-wide market for a relatively inexpensive initial investment [Hee hee!] because we receive a small portion of the royalties you earn.

Okay, they’re a vanity publisher, so the book belongs in our collection! Moving along, the press release says:

Exploring the proof needed to prove creationism, Goodwin provides examples of evidence that lead to the realization that creationism might not be a far-fetched theory after all.

Gasp! This is exciting! After that, the press release tells us:

Gerald L. Goodwin, a graduate of Lamar University with a BBA in accounting [Ooooooooooooh! An accounting major!] and a successful career in sales, has completed his new book, “The Twilight of Creation”: an eye-opening look at the arguments surrounding the theory of creationism, and evidence that it may in fact be correct and supported by history.

Wowie — Creationism may be correct and supported by history! The press release continues, with a quote from the author:

“It is a marvel to this layman how and why most scientists, biologists, and others accept the theory (of evolution) without real challenges or proof,” writes Goodwin. “Science continues to try to prove the theory of evolution year after year, decade after decade to make it more palatable.”

Yeah — but scientists never prove anything! The quote from the author goes on:

Now, why do you suppose, as Christians, we must be able to prove how a God started it all and keeps it going? [Good point!] Again, it is like a sporting event that has one team play without rules and the other compete with the referee challenging every play. So to win this one, we creationists must fight with one hand tied behind our backs. After our preliminary ideas listed, I must now study the creation side, the God side, and offer proof of these ideas.”

It’s not fair! Why should only creationists have to prove stuff? Here’s another quote from the author:

“To begin with, I must define ‘creationism by God.’ Wow, I quickly realized that I must study, identify, and prove that my idea is more valid than that of Mr. Darwin. I must be able to review and refute what all these folks, much more learned than myself, use as proof of creation’s beginning. I found this would require more knowledge than I possessed at that time, but in the following pages, I will present my opinion on this great debate.”

Creationism is a lot of work, but the author did it and it’s all in his book! Here’s more from the author:

“This review of Darwin’s theory and God’s record will be presented from the standpoint of a Christian layman. The text will attempt to outline the pros and cons of each argument, letting you, the reader, to be the final judge. As you may have surmised by now, my aim is to prevail on God’s side. You will be the final judge.”

This book sounds like it’s absolutely wonderful! But that’s enough from the press release. We looked for the book at Amazon, and we found it!

Wowie — it has 99 pages and costs only $13.44 in paperback. What a deal! And yes, Amazon has a “Look inside” feature. Hey — there aren’t any ratings yet. You can be the first!

Okay, dear reader, we’ve given you all the information we can find, and it looks great. Go ahead and buy the thing — and tell ’em the Curmudgeon sent ya!

Copyright © 2022. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

Hambo Says A Dinosaur Fossil Proves Noah’s Flood

Here’s another goodie from the website of Answers in Genesis (AIG), the creationist ministry of 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 titled Duck-billed Dinosaur Skin Preserved in Alberta, Canada, and it was written by Hambo himself. Here are some excerpts, with bold font added by us for emphasis, and occasional Curmudgeonly interjections that look [like this]:

Drumheller, Alberta, Canada is considered the “dinosaur capital of the world” because of the number and variety of dinosaur fossils uncovered in this unique site. Well, this site is in the news again — and it’s not just due to the discovery of a near-complete skeleton of a hadrosaur (a “duck-billed dinosaur”), but because the of the presence of fossilized soft tissue [Gasp!], including tendons and “dark, scaly skin” with a pebbly texture (like the surface of a basketball).

Wowie — a dinosaur fossil with soft tissue! This is like the old days, when creationists were running wild claiming that the work of Mary Schweitzer was evidence for a young Earth. We haven’t written much about that since this from ten years ago: Dinosaur Fossils Found with Hot Red Meat? But maybe Hambo’s actually got something. Let’s find out. He says:

This incredible find shows the creature had to be buried very quickly, even before the skin could decay! The scientist who discovered the specimen says:

[Hambo quotes the scientist:] I think [the specimen] was covered quite quickly, otherwise it wouldn’t be this well preserved . . . You can see some of its vertebrae and tendons, and once you get closer, you can see some of its scales. The dark, scaly skin has a basketball-like texture. This is something really special; you don’t find things like this very often out in the field.

Hambo adds his own views to the fossil discovery and tells us:

Now, what could cover a 13-foot-long dinosaur that quickly (and that deep) for it to be preserved with soft tissue (like skin) still intact? [What could it be?] Certainly not the “complex river system” they imagine buried this creature in silt and sandstone millions of years ago. After all, rivers in the present are not constantly burying and fossilizing creatures! So how do they know that must have happened in the past?

Hambo uses his unique understanding of things and explains it to us:

They don’t! [Gasp!] That’s a worldview interpretation based on their starting point of evolution and millions of years of slow and gradual processes. But this find makes much more sense in a biblical worldview.

Isn’t Hambo wonderful? He continues:

We understand that this hadrosaur was rapidly and catastrophically buried during the global flood of Noah’s day. [Yes!] It wasn’t sitting around on a riverbank waiting to be buried! It was submerged in a deluge of muddy water and buried by silt and sand, quickly becoming a fossil. (And this wasn’t millions of years ago — it was just around 4,350 years ago.)

Isn’t Hambo wonderful? The conclusion of his blog post is absolutely thrilling:

Science — including the study of dinosaurs — continues to confirm the history in God’s Word again and again.

Hambo is the greatest! Don’t you agree, dear reader?

Copyright © 2022. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

Can Life Start Without a Designer?

This one is really bizarre. We found it (where else?) at the creationist website of the Discovery Institute. The thing is titled Energy Harnessing: Achilles Heel for the Origin of Life, and it has no author’s by-line. Why do we say it’s bizarre? Stay with us; you’ll soon find out. Here are some excerpts, with bold font added by us for emphasis, and occasional Curmudgeonly interjections that look [like this]:

Origin-of-life specialist [What?] Rob Stadler [Who?] joins a new ID the Future episode [Ooooooooooooh! A Discoveroid podcast!] to discuss the latest Long Story Short science video.

They say Stadler is an “origin-of-life specialist,” so maybe this will be interesting. Oh, wait — the word “specialist” before his name is a link to his book at Amazon: The Stairway To Life: An Origin-Of-Life Reality Check. We’ll get back to that later. Meanwhile, the Discoveroids tell us:

The cheeky video (below) investigates a problem that faces all materialist origin-of-life scenarios: To be viable, a cell must have sophisticated machinery, including ATP synthase, to turn raw energy into constructive energy.

That’s a problem of materialist origin-of-life scenarios. Obviously, supernatural scenarios don’t have those problems. Let’s see how the Discoveroids handle the situation. Their blog post continues:

But how could prebiotic chemicals harness raw energy on the way to evolving into a viable self-reproducing cell without first having the sophisticated machinery to harness raw energy and convert it to useful work? [Huh?] Are the energy sources that have been proposed for chemical evolution realistic?

They seem to be telling us that nothing could ever happen in Darwin’s “warm little pond.” Let’s read on:

In his conversation with host Eric Anderson, Dr. Stadler argues that, no, they aren’t. [Egad!] This isn’t the sort of hurdle that mindless natural processes can overcome, but it is precisely the sort of problem that a designing mind could solve.

Ah yes, a “designing mind” — that’s the answer! Or is it? Anyway, their post ends with this:

Download the podcast or listen to it here. [Link omitted!]

That was certainly thrilling, but now let’s get back to Stadler’s book. Hey — we blogged about it two years ago — see There Is No Stairway to Life. The publisher is something called Evorevo Books. We couldn’t locate them then, and we still can’t. All Google hits on that name refer to this book and nothing else. Draw your own conclusions.

Okay, dear reader, we’re done here. Go ahead and watch the video. Then tell us all about it. We’ll be waiting.

Copyright © 2022. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.