Category Archives: Critters

Ayn Rand, Evolutionism, Fish, Intelligent Design, King James Bible, Matthew, New Testament, Semantics

You’re no fun(ction) any more

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dawkins_blind_spot

This post continues the discussion on Tim’s post The Ludicrous Claims of Evolution! Why not ESP?

In comments on Tim’s post, Terry (who is both an Evolutionist and an Objectivist) says

a camera is NOT an eye (nor is an audio recorder an ear, etc). A camera is a piece of equipment used to record images, whereas an eye is an organ of sight. The former mimics the functions of the latter, but apart from that they are worlds apart.

simply because human technology [has] been built so as to mimic certain biological functions does not justify grounds for claiming that the reverse applies and that biology can therefore ‘possibly’ mimic human inventions via the process of evolution. … Evolution is not a creative process – it is an entirely responsive process, which means that new functionality only develops and is maintained in response to the need to survive.

Terry has just committed Objectivism’s “stolen concept” fallacy and violated a fundamental tenet of Evolutionism! Doubleplusungood!

According to Evolutionism, there are no biological functions. The eye, for example, is an organ of sight, but the eye has no purpose. Its function is not to see. It has no function.

According to Evolutionism, there are no biological malfunctions, either. A blind eye, by definition, is not an organ of sight. A blind eye has not malfunctioned, because there is nothing it is supposed to do. An eye has no purpose to be fit for.

If it’s the case that the eye was designed for a purpose, as Creationists claim, then we can say that the function of the eye is to see, and that there is something wrong with an eye that does not see. It ain’t doing what it’s supposed to do, and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. But Evolutionism is quite explicit that no biological organ is designed for any purpose. As Dawkins says

Biology is the study of complicated things which give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose

and, as Terry himself puts it, “Evolution is not a creative process – it is an entirely responsive process.”

Evolution according to Evolutionists is a blind, stochastic process. Any appearance of design, purpose or function is just an appearance. The reason that we have eyes that see is simply because having eyes that see helped our ancestors to survive. But eyes do not, in virtue of their evolutionary history, ever acquire a purpose or a proper function.

All talk of biological functions is pre-Darwinian. Consistent Evolutionists should not talk of biological functions. If they do, they must explain that their use of the word ‘function’ is just shorthand for facts about an organism’s evolutionary history. If they don’t, they are guilty of Ayn Rand’s stolen concept fallacy.

The “stolen concept” fallacy, first identified by Ayn Rand, is the fallacy of using a concept while denying the validity of its genetic roots, i.e., of an earlier concept(s) on which it logically depends.

The concepts of ‘function’ and ‘purpose’ logically depend on the concept of a Creator. They are pre-Darwinian. Evolutionists have no right to use them.

Evolutionism, Fish, Kingdom of Heaven, Matthew, New Testament, Parables

Casting the Net

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matthew.13.47

I find this passage curious.

[47] “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. [48] When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. [49] This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous [50] and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (NIV)

Verse 47 is about selection. It is about a net. A net selects fish on the basis of size. Fish smaller in size than the apertures in the net pass through it. Fish larger in size than the apertures in the net do not.

Verse 48 is also about selection. The fishermen collect the good fish in baskets, but throw the bad away.

Verse 49 too is about selection. The angels separate the wicked from the righteous and (in verse 50) destroy the wicked by throwing them into the blazing furnace.

I can’t help but think that Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection has precedents in Scripture.

“Have you understood all these things?” Jesus asked.

“Yes,” they replied.

He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” (NIV)

Birds, Bugs, Cats, Dinosaurs, Dogs, Evolutionism, Fish, Fruit, Muppets

Why can’t you show me evidence?

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549948_435392059882913_384210036_n

This is the very latest meme from an Evolutionist friend on Facebook.

It seems to me that both Dawkins and his interlocutor miss the point entirely.

Yes, DNA and fossils are evidence for the theory of evolution! But …

According to Creationism

(1) All living things are DNA-based. We’re carbon-based life-forms. One theoretical reason for this is that we’re all creatures of the same Creator. One practical reason for this is that predators need nutritious prey. Silicon-based prey, say, would be indigestible to a carbon-based predator.

(2) When living things die, their remains (or the remains of the thing that ate them and then later died) end up in the ground, to be dug up millennia later by archaeologists.

JesusFishEatingDarwinFish

So, there is an astonishing amount of evidence for Creationism. You can see it in the DNA and fossils that we found which are in the museums right now …

In one sense, DNA and fossils are evidence for both Evolutionism and Creationism. In another sense, DNA and fossils are evidence for neither, since their mere existence does not help us to determine which is the correct explanation for life on Earth as we know it.

What Dawkins interlocutor seeks is that which Dawkins fails to show, viz., evidence that militates in favour of Evolutionism over Creationism.

Alcohol, Democracy, Fish, Labour Party, Peter Dunne, Tax, Tobacco, Tyranny, Vote 2014

Unionists 1, Lawyers 0

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ohariu-beaumont

Labour List MP Charles Chauvel (pictured top right) has resigned from Parliament (effective 11 March). He’s going to a job at the United Nations where he’ll join his former boss, former Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark (pictured bottom left).

The United Nations is a common penultimate destination for Labour’s troughed-out ex-MPs. (When they die, they go to the great trough in the sky.)

Former Labour List MP Carol Beaumont (pictured top left) is set to return to Parliament as Chauvel’s replacement. We’ll be up a trade unionist abortionist and down a gay lawyer. This minor opposition reshuffle is interesting (to me) for two reasons.

Firstly, Chauvel sponsored a Member’s bill, the Credit Reforms (Responsible Lending) Bill, which would have dealt to scum-of-the-earth usurers.

Ever since I became an MP, an issue that I have supported is the regulation of so called “loan sharks”. Loan sharks prey on the vulnerable with unscrupulous rates of interest and this includes many of our Pacific people. They are the scourge of our community and instead of lending a helping hand keep borrowers in poverty. It is common for payday lenders to charge interest at rates between “only” 8% and 15% per week, compounding well into four figures at a time when mainstream rates have declined.

Chauvel’s Credit Reforms (Responsible Lending) Bill was drawn from the ballot in 2009. In early 2010 Beaumont took over responsibility for Chauvel’s bill, which was subsequently defeated at its first reading in July 2010. So, a common interest there, and with Beaumont back in Parliament perhaps we’ll still see some action on loan sharks.

Secondly, three elections in a row Chauvel failed to unseat United Future MP Peter Dunne (pictured bottom right) in the Ōhariu electorate. Dunne gloated tweeted from Dubai airport

Ready to board Melb/Auck flight. After what’s been happening in NZ today certainly seems time to come home and join the fun.

Chauvel did succeed in reducing Dunne’s majority from 12,534 (in 2002) to 7,702 (in 2005) and 1006 (in 2008) but 1392 (in 2011) was a miss as good as a mile. I hope Labour puts up a strong candidate to contest the Ōhariu electorate in 2014. It’s way way wayyyy past time to flush the Dunney!

Fish

Indigenous extortionists execute dolphins in revenge for aid default. Solomon Islands.

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dolphins
Photo: NZ Herald.

I must have successfully purged my Facebook friends list of the most Rabid of Green peace supporters!
When I read about this atrosity in the NZ Herald I was expecting my page to be Bombed with outrage!
Yet nothing… not a fart.

It’s ironic that I must post it to facebook myself!
This truely is a henious moral outrage… over stolen loot.
The dolphins are the loosers.
I assume the Facebook Greenies are thwarted by their own contradictions… Indigenous Rights vs Free Willy!
The Islanders have gotta eat.
Dolphin may indeed be an important resourse to them… yet killing 900+ seems like foolishness!
They are depleating their own resourse, and from the story I gather the extent of the slaughter was Pure Politics.

The Love of money is indeed the root of all evil.

I have not been able to descover whether or not The Earth Island Institute gets funds from the UN or other governments, yet I would suspect so. If it is a private and absolutely voluntarily funded organistaion I will eat my Hat!
If they are fully legit… ie fully private and voluntarily funded, then why did they default on their deal with the Natives? They have made a grievious error of judgement and goes to show just how good intensions can result in unexpected evils… at least this is the terrible message the islanders are communicating.

Solomon Islands villagers kill 900 dolphins in conservation disputeIslanders claim Berkely-based Earth Island Institute failed to fulfill deal to pay $400,000 to stop hunt

Bugs, Joel, Keep it Metal!, Neurosis, Old Testament

Locust Star

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Hear this, you elders;
   listen, all who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
   or in the days of your ancestors?
Tell it to your children,
   and let your children tell it to their children,
   and their children to the next generation.
What the locust swarm has left
   the great locusts have eaten;
what the great locusts have left
   the young locusts have eaten;
what the young locusts have left
   other locusts have eaten.

Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
   Wail, all you drinkers of wine;
wail because of the new wine,
   for it has been snatched from your lips.
A nation has invaded my land,
   a mighty army without number;
it has the teeth of a lion,
   the fangs of a lioness.
It has laid waste my vines
   and ruined my fig trees.
It has stripped off their bark
   and thrown it away,
   leaving their branches white.

Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth
   grieving for the betrothed of her youth.
Grain offerings and drink offerings
   are cut off from the house of the Lord.
The priests are in mourning,
   those who minister before the Lord.
The fields are ruined,
   the ground is dried up;
the grain is destroyed,
   the new wine is dried up,
   the olive oil fails.

Despair, you farmers,
   wail, you vine growers;
grieve for the wheat and the barley,
   because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
The vine is dried up
   and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree—
   all the trees of the field—are dried up.
Surely the people’s joy
   is withered away.

Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn;
   wail, you who minister before the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
   you who minister before my God;
for the grain offerings and drink offerings
   are withheld from the house of your God.
Declare a holy fast;
   call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders
   and all who live in the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
   and cry out to the Lord.

Alas for that day!
   For the day of the Lord is near;
   it will come like destruction from the Almighty.

Has not the food been cut off
   before our very eyes—
joy and gladness
   from the house of our God?
The seeds are shriveled
   beneath the clods.
The storehouses are in ruins,
   the granaries have been broken down,
   for the grain has dried up.
How the cattle moan!
   The herds mill about
because they have no pasture;
   even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

To you, Lord, I call,
   for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness
   and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.
Even the wild animals pant for you;
   the streams of water have dried up
   and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness. (NIV)