Rosa Rubicondior: 2025

Tuesday, 22 April 2025

Refutiing Creationism - How Environmental Variability in Africa Produced Co-operative, Intelligent Humans

Between 300,000 and 30,000 years ago, Africa experienced intense, local environmental variation.

Environmental Variability Promotes the Evolution of Cooperation Among Humans: A Simulation-Based Analysis | Research News - University of Tsukuba

In a compelling example of how environmental change can drive evolutionary development, two researchers, Masaaki Inaba and Eizo Akiyama, of the University of Tsukuba, Japan, have used computer simulations grounded in evolutionary game theory to demonstrate how intensified environmental variability in Africa during the Middle Stone Age may have promoted the evolution of cooperative behaviour and enhanced cognitive abilities in archaic hominins.

Fundamental to this research is the scientific consensus that Darwinian evolution is the only credible framework for explaining the patterns observed in the fossil record and the genomic evidence for natural selection.

The study also directly challenges a common creationist misrepresentation: that Richard Dawkins’ metaphor of the “selfish gene” implies that evolution inherently favours selfishness and therefore cannot account for altruism or cooperation. This flawed interpretation ignores the fact that evolutionary processes often favour cooperative strategies—especially in complex, fluctuating environments—without invoking supernatural causes.

Severe environmental change can fragment populations into small, isolated groups, where genetic drift plays a significant role in evolution. In such settings, beneficial mutations can rapidly drift to fixation, potentially giving the group a competitive advantage over neighbouring populations when contact is re-established. This process can produce a pattern in the fossil record that resembles 'punctuated equilibrium', with the apparent 'sudden' appearance of a major innovation.

Unintelligent Design - Stupidly Doing The Same Thing In Two Different Ways

Timema cristinae (striped morph)

Credit: Bart Zijlstra www.bartzijlstra.com

USU Evolutionary Biologist Says Study Reveals Complex Chromosomal Rearrangements in a Stick Insect

The wingless, plant-feeding stick insect, Timema cristinae, occurs in two different cryptic colour morphs. One has longitudinal white stripes along its back on an otherwise green body, while the second is a uniform plain green.

The striped morph is found on Adenostoma fasciculatum, a plant with long, needle-like leaves, where the stripes help break up the outline of the insect’s body, making it resemble a cluster of green needles. In contrast, the plain green morph is found on Ceanothus spinosus, which has broader, more tree-like leaves on which conspicuous white stripes would be maladaptive.

This seems entirely sensible and, from the perspective of an intelligent designer, a perfectly reasonable way to protect stick insects from predation — setting aside, for the sake of argument, the questionable logic of designing predators to eat stick insects and then designing stick insects to avoid being eaten.

However, the means by which this cryptic colouration was achieved in populations of Timema cristinae on two different mountains, where the respective host plants grow, is more typical of the behaviour of creationism’s putative designer. In each case, the same camouflage was achieved through entirely different genetic mechanisms. This tendency to reinvent the metaphorical wheel appears to be a hallmark of creationism’s “intelligent” designer — seen, for example, in the development of different wing structures in birds and bats, different forms of insulation in mammalian fur and bird feathers, and several distinct designs for eyes.

Of course, there is no reason to expect a mindless natural process such as evolution by natural selection to respond to identical environmental pressures in precisely the same way in two geographically isolated populations. All that matters is whether the eventual adaptation — in this case, effective camouflage — is functionally comparable.

Trump's Chickens May Be Coming Home to Roost - Carrying H5N1 Bird Flu

Americans don’t think bird flu is a threat, study suggests - CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy

Elephant seals, killed by H5N1 'bird flu' on an Argentine beach.

Ralph Vanstreels, (UC Davis).

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Donald Trump panicked when he realised that, in his eagerness to undo everything associated with Barack Obama, he had dismantled critical contingency plans for dealing with pandemics and allowed the national stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE) to fall into disrepair. These actions left the United States ill-prepared for a public health crisis of such magnitude. Trump and his cronies promptly went into damage-limitation mode, i.e., blame everyone else (the buck stops over there!)

Rather than accepting responsibility, Trump—seemingly incapable of admitting error—chose to downplay the severity of the virus, which he referred to as the "Chaynees Vayrus". He repeatedly told Americans that COVID-19 was a mild illness that would "disappear" with the arrival of warmer weather in April (New York Times, 2020; Washington Post, 2020.1), ignoring both scientific advice and the obvious fact that seasonal changes vary globally, and that high temperatures do not neutralise the SARS-CoV-2 virus (WHO, 2020.2).

Having politicised the pandemic from the outset, Trump targeted public health officials such as Dr Anthony Fauci, whose science-based guidance often contradicted the president’s misleading statements (Science, 2020.3). Trump further encouraged scepticism toward basic mitigation measures such as social distancing, avoiding large gatherings, and wearing face masks. As a result, the wearing of masks was quickly stigmatised by many on the political right in the United States as a symbol of liberal or left-wing allegiance (Nature Human Behaviour, 2021). The consequences were stark: the White House itself became a hotspot for infections (BBC, 2020.4), and Trump’s campaign rallies became notorious super-spreader events (CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 2021.1).
And the death toll in the USA was the highest by far of any developed nation, and higher than almost all under-developed economies with rudimentary health services¹.

This cultivated scepticism was eagerly adopted and amplified by conspiracy theorists within the Trump-supporting QAnon movement. A flood of increasingly absurd claims followed, including that the pandemic was a hoax, that vaccines contained nanotechnology to allow government tracking via Bill Gates, and even that the vaccines could alter DNA to change an individual’s sexual orientation (MIT Technology Review, 2021.2; Pew Research Center, 2020.5).

Underlying this environment of mistrust was a population that had, for decades, been influenced by creationist front groups such as the Discovery Institute. These organisations have consistently worked to undermine public confidence in science, promoting the narrative that science is a conspiracy by a secretive elite seeking to destroy spiritual values and replace "Christian America" with a secular, left-leaning "Darwinist" society (Forrest & Gross, Creationism's Trojan Horse, 2004; Branch & Scott, National Center for Science Education, 2009).

A freshly eclosed S. curiosolus on silvery lupine (Lupinus argenteus).

Curious isolation: new butterfly species discovered | Blog

If creationists had even a basic understanding of scientific evidence, they could hardly fail to recognise how thoroughly it refutes creationism. This may help explain why creationist advocates work so hard to ensure their followers remain ignorant of that evidence—or only encounter a distorted version of it. It's also why many creationists willingly participate in their own deception by avoiding fact-checking and reading genuine scientific literature, preferring instead to consume misinformation circulated within their echo chambers.

Foremost among the misconceptions is the claim that mainstream biologists are increasingly finding evolutionary theory inadequate and are therefore turning to Intelligent Design (ID) creationism as a superior alternative.

A close second is the notion that there is no evidence to support the scientific view that species have diverged from common ancestors through evolutionary processes. These processes include environmental selection acting on genetic variation—differentially favouring some alleles while eliminating others—thereby shifting the gene pool over time towards greater reproductive fitness in a given environment.

If they were able to comprehend this, and if they had the intellectual honesty to accept it, creationists would realise that recent findings—such as the discovery of a new butterfly species that appears to have been isolated in a small region of the Canadian Rockies for around 40,000 years—completely undermine these two core dogmas.

Unintelligent Design - The Design Defect That Can Cause a Cleft Palate - Incompetence, Malevolence or Evolution?

Medical science corrects a design defect.

Source

New study reveals how cleft lip and cleft palate can arise | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In my book, The Body of Evidence: How the Human Body Refutes Intelligent Design, I present numerous examples demonstrating that the human body is not the product of intelligent design, but rather the outcome of an evolutionary process characterised by compromises and suboptimal solutions. Evolution is constrained by what it has to work with and must continually balance competing demands—for instance, short-term reproductive success versus long-term health and well-being, which often contribute little or nothing to the long-term propagation of genes.

The result is an error-prone and overly complex system built upon earlier suboptimal compromises. This complexity gives rise to the many defects and medical problems to which humans are prone—problems that would not exist if the human body were the creation of an intelligent and benevolent designer, such as the deity posited by creationist belief systems. Such a deity would surely have designed a body so robust that there would be little need for a medical profession, save perhaps for treating accidental trauma. The very existence of hospitals and medical science stands as a testament to the failure of the human body's design to approach anything resembling the perfection many creationists claim.

Now, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have identified yet another example of this flawed complexity: a defect in transfer RNA (tRNA) linked to babies being born with a cleft lip and palate. The defect lies in the DDX1 gene, which is essential for proper tRNA function. Without it, tRNA cannot deliver amino acids to ribosomes to synthesise proteins. In the absence of this crucial process, the cells that form the upper lip and the roof of the mouth cannot fuse correctly during development.

The findings, by a team led by Michaela Bartusel, are published in The American Journal of Human Genetics.

Creationism Refuted - Science Has Found Evidence of Life On A Planet Outside the Solar System

Artists light-hearted impression of life on K2-18b.

AI-generated image

Strongest hints yet of biological activity outside the solar system

The day long anticipated by those who understand both science and theology may finally have arrived. Scientists have detected—with a 99.7% probability—the unmistakable signs of life on the distant exoplanet K2-18b.

Although this degree of certainty doesn't yet satisfy the rigorous standards of science, which typically require a confidence level of greater than 99.99994%, researchers anticipate surpassing that threshold within the next 16 to 24 hours (as of this article's publication).

The theological implications of this discovery are profound. If confirmed, as now seems highly likely, it would indicate that Earth is not unique as a cradle of life, directly challenging biblical narratives which position Earth exclusively as the divinely chosen habitat for humanity. The Bible remains thoroughly anthropocentric and geocentric, offering no indication that life or divine creation occurred elsewhere in the comparatively small and flat universe it describes.

For creationists, this finding significantly undermines their long-standing argument—summarised by the simplistic slogan, "You can't get life from non-life"—which claims life could only arise through divine intervention. The presence of life on K2-18b demonstrates that life can indeed emerge naturally under the right conditions, suggesting such events may be far more common across the universe than creationist arguments would allow. Indeed, with potentially trillions of planets sharing Earth-like conditions, life may not only be possible but prevalent.

This discovery also challenges creationist claims about Earth's position in the so-called 'Goldilocks zone'. Creationists frequently argue that Earth's precise placement around the Sun proves divine intent. However, the existence of life-supporting conditions on K2-18b shows that such habitable zones are not rare, singular phenomena but commonplace, existing around countless other stars across the cosmos.

The discovery, by astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is the subject of an open access paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and is described in a Cambridge University press release by Sarah Collins:

Malevolent Design - Why Did Bats Get a Better Immune System Than We Did?

Seba's short-tailed bat, Carollia perspicillata

By Desmodus - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Bat cells could aid in fighting humans’ most deadly diseases | WSU Insider | Washington State University

Creationists assert that humans are the special creation of their designer god, placing humanity at the pinnacle of 'creation'. Even those theists who accept the Theory of Evolution but believe it was guided by God with humans as the intended ultimate outcome, regard humanity as their deity's supreme achievement.

If this claim were accurate, it would be reasonable to expect humans to possess the optimal anatomical and physiological characteristics across all biological systems. In reality, numerous species exhibit superior traits and abilities compared to humans—traits which, had they been bestowed upon humans, would have significantly improved our wellbeing and survival capabilities.

For instance, birds have a respiratory system far superior to mammals, including humans, enabling efficient oxygen exchange during flight. Raptors possess remarkable eyesight, allowing them precise vision at speeds that would render nearby objects a mere blur to human vision. Elephants, sharks, and naked mole rats exhibit extraordinary resistance to cancer. Furthermore, many mammals experience lower perinatal mortality rates than humans even with modern medical intervention.

As highlighted in a recent study published in PLOS Biology, bats tolerate viral infections that are often fatal to humans, so they can harbour evolving viruses that, when they find their way into humans, can result in serious pandemics such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

If we entertain the creationist argument, their purported intelligent designer had already perfected these advantageous traits in other species. Yet, paradoxically, humans were deprived of these beneficial adaptations. This scenario suggests a designer whose decisions could only be interpreted as either incompetent or malevolent. It is the equivalent of a car manufacturer having designed a super-efficient, low-emission and cheap engine in one of its models, continuing to fit an old, expensive, wasteful and polluting engine to its top of the range model.

However, the evolutionary explanation — that different species evolved distinct traits adapted specifically to their environmental pressures — fully clarifies why humans possess adequate but not necessarily optimal traits. Unfortunately for creationists, adherence to their dogma forces them to dismiss this rational explanation, instead endorsing a narrative that inadvertently portrays their intelligent designer as either incompetent, malevolent, or potentially both.

That bats have superior immune system to humans has long been known, but why that is in terms of their cell physiology is still something of a mystery. Now, however, a team of researchers led by Washington State University molecular virologist Michael Letko has developed two lines of bat cell cultures which can be used to study how their immune system responds to different viruses, for example, the ebola virus, with a view to utilising that information to treat infections in humans.

Their findings are the subject of a research paper in PLOS Biology and are explained in a Washington State University (WSU) news item:

Masked Shrew, Sorex cinereus

Photo © P. Myers,
Mammal Images Library of the American Society of Mammalogists.

New UNCG Research Shows Southern Shrews Shrink in Winter | College of Arts & Sciences

The already peculiar beliefs that creationists must entertain about their supposed creator deity have become even stranger with the discovery that North America's masked shrew actually shrinks as part of its winter survival strategy.

Imagine you're designing a small mammal intended to survive in an environment where food becomes scarce, and temperatures fall too low for typical warm-blooded activity during winter. You've already solved this issue effectively with hibernation — a successful strategy employed by numerous animals, even large ones like bears. Yet, apparently deeming hibernation alone insufficiently complex for the masked shrew, your design involves the creature further reducing its energy needs by physically shrinking, despite the fact that its small size was already a significant part of the survival challenge.

Nevertheless, this is precisely the type of scenario a creationist must accept if they reject evolution as an explanation. Evolution, as a blind, pragmatic process working without foresight, readily generates such unlikely and counterintuitive adaptations through trial and error.

Yet prominent creationist advocates continue to assert that their supposed intelligent designer deliberately creates these seemingly nonsensical adaptations—ironically claiming these designs are beyond the capability of natural evolutionary processes.

This example of Dehnel's phenomenon is the subject of a recent research paper in The American Naturalist by researchers based at the University of North Caroline Greensboro (UNC Greensboro). It is described in a UNC Greensboro press release:

Refuting Creationism - Humans All Fired Up - Tens Of Thousands of Years Before 'Creation Week'

Section through the large fireplace 1.

Credit: Philip R. Nigst.

Excavation site Korman' 9 located at the shore of the Dnister river in Ukraine.

Credit: Philip R. Nigst.

Sophisticated pyrotechnology in the Ice Age: This is how humans made fire tens of thousands of years ago

In a discovery that defies any literalist interpretation of the Bible's creation narrative—where humans were fashioned ex nihilo only a few thousand years ago—archaeologists have uncovered compelling evidence that Ice Age humans in Eurasia had not only mastered fire but employed it in remarkably sophisticated ways. Far beyond simple warmth and cooking, fire appears to have served as a focal point for social gatherings and perhaps even ritual activity.

What remains puzzling, however, is the relative scarcity of well-preserved hearths from the coldest phases of the Ice Age—precisely when one would expect fire to have been most vital for survival.

Nonetheless, the sites that have been identified reveal an advanced command of pyrotechnology. These early humans used wood, and possibly bone and animal fat, as fuel—achieving temperatures exceeding 600 degrees Celsius.

Life in Ice Age Ukraine: The Last Glacial Maximum. Around 20,000 years ago, during the height of the Last Glacial Maximum, the region now known as Ukraine was part of a vast and frigid steppe-tundra ecosystem. Although glaciers did not cover most of Ukraine itself, the climate was bitterly cold, dry, and windy, with temperatures far below freezing for much of the year. Forests had retreated, leaving open plains dotted with hardy grasses, mosses, and shrubs.

Despite the harshness, this landscape teemed with Ice Age megafauna. Woolly mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, reindeer, steppe bison, and wild horses roamed the steppes, hunted by highly mobile bands of Homo sapiens. These human groups were well-adapted to the extreme environment, using sophisticated stone tools, tailored clothing made from hides, and complex hunting strategies.

People likely lived in semi-permanent shelters—possibly built from mammoth bones and covered with hides—situated in areas with access to water, game, and fuel. Fire was not merely a tool for survival; it was a vital element of daily life, essential for heat, cooking, tool-making, and perhaps social cohesion and ritual.

Picture the scene. This is how our Eurasian ancestors would have lived:

Refuting Creationism - More on Stone Tool Manufacture in China - 50,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Quina tools from Longtan

Stone tool discovery in China shows people in East Asia were innovating during the Middle Paleolithic, like in Europe and Middle East

I wrote about the find recently, but this version incorporates the article in The Conversation by Professor Ben Marwick.

The recent unearthing of Quina-style stone tools in southwest China has sparked significant interest in the archaeological community, as detailed in a recent article from The Conversation by Professor Ben Marwick, Professor of Archaeology, University of Washington.

These tools, previously associated predominantly with Neanderthal populations in Europe, were discovered at the Longtan site and have been dated to approximately 50,000 to 60,000 years ago. Their presence in East Asia challenges longstanding assumptions about the technological development of early human populations in this region.

Traditionally, the Middle Paleolithic period in East Asia was thought to lack the technological innovations seen in contemporaneous European and Middle Eastern contexts. The discovery of these sophisticated tools suggests that early human groups in East Asia were engaging in complex tool-making practices similar to those of their western counterparts. This finding not only broadens our understanding of human technological evolution but also indicates a more interconnected prehistoric world than previously believed.

From a scientific perspective, such discoveries are invaluable in piecing together the mosaic of human history. However, they also pose challenges to certain interpretative frameworks, particularly those rooted in a literalist reading of religious texts. The existence of advanced tool-making practices tens of thousands of years ago stands in contrast to timelines proposed by young-Earth creationist views, which assert a much more recent origin of humanity.

In light of this, the Longtan findings serve as a compelling reminder of the importance of evidence-based inquiry in our quest to understand human origins. They underscore the dynamic and multifaceted nature of our past, inviting us to reconsider and refine our narratives in the face of new evidence.

Professor Marwick's article is reprinted here under a Creative Commons license, reformatted for stylistic consistency:

Malevolent Design - How Dembski's 'Complex Specified Information' Causes Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Rapid growth of blood cancer driven by a single genetic ‘hit’

William A. Dembski’s concept of complex specified information (CSI) remains ambiguous—arguably by design. His use of the word specified is particularly opaque: is he referring to information that produces outcomes he wishes his readers to believe are purposeful and intelligently designed by a particular deity, or is the term intended to encompass any genetic information that results in any outcome—beneficial, neutral, or harmful?

Taken at face value, and in the absence of a clear, testable definition, there appears to be no reason Dembski’s concept could not apply to information that is ultimately detrimental, either to the organism itself, or to another organism in the case of parasites or cancer. Why, for instance, should we conclude that the complex information in a gene enabling the expansion of the human brain and the enhancement of cognitive function was specified, but that the equally complex genetic information enabling a cell to become a malignant cancer, or allowing the Plasmodium falciparum parasite to evade anti-malarial drugs, was not also specified by the same intelligent designer?

Given that Dembski is a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute — an organisation notorious for its Wedge Strategy, which seeks to undermine public trust in science through disinformation and misrepresentation while promoting creationism under the guise of scientific legitimacy — it is unsurprising that complex specified information remains a nebulous and ill-defined term. The strategy’s aim has never been to engage in genuine scientific discourse or subject its claims to critical scrutiny, but rather to advance a religious agenda while avoiding the accountability that comes with reasoned analysis and empirical testing. A cynic might conclude that the leading ID advocates know their claim has no scientific basis but want their target audience to believe otherwise.

So, I invite Intelligent Design creationists to explain why the recent discovery of a gene that promotes the rapid early development of acute myeloid leukaemia should not be an example of Dembski's 'complex specified information' and so evidence that Dembski's intelligent designer designed acute myeloid leukaemia, or whether Dembski's term is deliberately vague so as to appeal to people looking for confirmation of existing bias.

Left: Prehistoric stone tools, specifically the “cores” used to create smaller blades.

Photo by Sara Watson.

Right: Archaeological team excavating in the seaside cave.

Photo by Sara Watson.

Ancient tools from a South African cave reveal connections between prehistoric people - Field Museum

It's a telling example of how creationists can ignore substantial evidence when it conflicts with their belief that the Earth was created from nothing between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. Among the evidence they dismiss are stone tools made by humans in South Africa at least 20,000 years ago — well over 10,000 years before their proposed timeline even begins. These tools reflect not only human ingenuity, but also the sharing of technology between different groups across southern Africa.

The tools, associated with what archaeologists term the Robberg technocomplex, were likely used in hunting the large game that roamed the vast coastal plains during the Last Glacial Maximum—land that is now submerged following post-Ice Age sea level rise. Evidence for their manufacture and use has been found in sites such as Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1, which now overlooks the coast but would have stood further inland around 20,000 years ago.

In a recent paper published in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, a research team led by Dr Sara Watson of the Field Museum’s Negaunee Integrative Research Center describes these lithic assemblages in detail. Their analysis of stone tool-making techniques offers insights into the ways prehistoric people moved through the landscape, interacted with one another, and transmitted their technological knowledge.

The team's research is explained in a press release from the Field Museum, Chicago, IL, USA:

Refuting Creationism - Filling The Gaps and Shrinking That Ever-Shrinking Little God

Holotype of Helmetia expansa USNM 83952, dorsal view.

Jean-Bernard Caron and Sarah Losso.

Ancient fossil sheds big light on evolution mystery: solving a 100-year arthropod mystery | Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

Creationist apologetics often involve attributing phenomena that science cannot yet explain to divine intervention, relying on the assumption that gaps in scientific knowledge serve as evidence for the existence of a deity. This approach frequently employs the false dichotomy fallacy, suggesting that if science lacks an explanation, then "God did it" by default. Such reasoning does not establish the existence of a god capable of addressing these gaps; instead, it often depends on the cultural biases of the audience to support this conclusion.

However, science continually seeks to fill these gaps with evidence-based explanations. A recent example is the formal description of the Cambrian fossil Helmetia expansa, which provides insights into arthropod evolution during the Cambrian Period. This period is often mischaracterized by creationist narratives as a time when multiple distinct body plans appeared suddenly without ancestral forms, purportedly indicating a single act of creation.

The study, published in the *Journal of Systematic Palaeontology* by Professor Sarah R. Losso and Javier Ortega-Hernández of Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, along with Jean-Bernard Caron of the Royal Ontario Museum's Department of Natural History (Palaeobiology Section) in Toronto, Canada, offers a comprehensive analysis of Helmetia expansa. Their research reveals that Helmetia expansa is an arthropod related to trilobites, shedding light on the evolutionary diversification of this group during the Cambrian. This finding provides evidence of gradual evolutionary processes, countering claims of abrupt appearance without ancestral lineage.

The study is further explained in a press release from Harvard University, which details how this research resolves a 100-year-old mystery surrounding this Cambrian arthropod.

AI-generated impression of a Denisovan male.

ChatGPT4o

Fossil jawbone reveals mysterious Denisovans lived in ancient Taiwan | Science | AAAS

The Denisovans—an enigmatic group of archaic humans known mostly through ancient DNA—just became a little less mysterious. In a groundbreaking discovery announced this month, researchers have confirmed that a robust fossilised jawbone recovered from the seabed near Taiwan belongs to a Denisovan.

While no recoverable DNA remained, scientists used protein analysis—specifically paleoproteomics—to identify the jaw as Denisovan, marking the most southerly and eastern confirmed presence of these ancient humans to date.

This discovery not only expands the known geographic range of Denisovans dramatically but also sheds light on their adaptability, dietary ecology, and evolutionary identity. It may even help pave the way for giving them an official scientific name.

Refuting Creationism - How Large Herds Of Rhino Roamed North America - 12 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'.

Ash from the eruption of a volcano in Yellowstone preserved more than 100 specimens of a prehistoric rhino at Nebraska's Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park.

Photo/John Haxby/The University of Nebraska State Museum

UC study finds evidence that prehistoric rhinos lived in huge herds | University of Cincinnati

Recent research has presented yet another problem for young-Earth creationism, which asserts that the Earth is only a few thousand years old, and that all existing species were created simultaneously without ancestors.

A study conducted by paleontologists from the University of Cincinnati provides compelling evidence that large herds of the extinct rhinoceros species, Teleoceras major, inhabited North America approximately 12 million years before creationism's mythical 'Creation Week'.

This conclusion is derived from isotopic analyses performed on fossils of these rhinos, which were preserved in volcanic ash at the Ashfall Fossil Beds in Nebraska. The fossils represent individuals that perished together at a waterhole, suggesting herd behavior. The study, titled "Enamel carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotopes reveal limited mobility in an extinct rhinoceros at Ashfall Fossil Beds, Nebraska, USA," was published in the journal Scientific Reports on April 4, 2025.

The University of Cincinnati further elaborated on these findings in a news release by Michael Miller, highlighting the evidence that prehistoric rhinos lived in substantial herds.

Treatment for mitochondrial diseases within reach | University of Gothenburg

If the human body had truly been intelligently designed by an omnibenevolent, omniscient deity, it would operate flawlessly under all conditions, free from the compromises and constraints inherent in evolutionary history.

Were this the case, much of modern medicine would be unnecessary, limited perhaps to the management and repair of traumatic injuries. Parasites, should they exist at all, would be effortlessly repelled by a perfect immune system. Genetic and structural defects, such as hernias, atherosclerosis, autoimmune disorders, blindness, deafness, neurodegenerative diseases, and complications in childbirth would simply not occur.

However, as I showed in my book, The Body of Evidence: How the Human Body Refutes Intelligent Design, the human body is not the product of intelligent design; it has evolved through a process marked by trial and error, adaptation to existing structures, and the utilitarian pressures of survival and reproduction. This explains the vast array of medical conditions that keep healthcare systems busy, often stretched to their limits. It also drives the extensive scientific research dedicated to discovering the causes and developing cures for various illnesses—achievements that an omnipotent and omnibenevolent creator, if one existed, presumably would have provided already.

Recent news highlights this contrast starkly. Scientists may have discovered a groundbreaking cure for a rare mitochondrial disease caused by mutations in the POLG gene, a condition that leads to severe disability or even early death. This advancement prompts a critical question for creationists: If human scientists can find solutions to such devastating genetic problems, why can't—or won't—your purported intelligent designer? And perhaps, more to the point, why was this defect designed in the first place?

Refuting Creationism - How Sealife Recovered From Disaster - 66 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Life Recovered Rapidly at Site of Dino-Killing Asteroid. A Hydrothermal System May Have Helped. | Jackson School of Geosciences | The University of Texas at Austin

A figure showing a hypothesized semi-enclosed environment created by post-impact hydrothermal activity.

Credit: Sato et al.

A recurring point in this blog is that 99.9975% of Earth's history occurred before the time creationists claim the Earth was magically created out of nothing by an immaterial deity. It is strange how, despite the overwhelming evidence contradicting their viewpoint and a notable absence of credible supporting evidence, creationism endures as a belief system.

This requires either a profound lack of scientific knowledge and understanding, or extraordinary mental gymnastics, to cope with the cognitive dissonance and dismiss the abundant contrary evidence. Advocates of creationism frequently attempt to rationalise away this evidence, attributing it to errors, falsifications, or even alleging a global conspiracy within the scientific community.

Recently, another piece of evidence undermining creationist claims emerged with the publication of a study in Nature Communications. The paper documents how marine life rapidly recovered at the site of the dinosaur-killing Chicxulub asteroid impact in the Gulf of Mexico, 66 million years before creationism's mythical 'Creation Week'.

This rapid recovery was facilitated by nutrient-rich waters resulting from hydrothermal activity triggered by the asteroid collision.

Creationists might not want to hear this because they have well-rehearsed excuses for dismissing radiometric dating, but the study depended on analyzing the ratios of stable osmium isotopes in sediments at the Chicxulub impact site. This analysis is not a form of radiometric dating; rather, it involves comparing the naturally occurring ratios of these isotopes from terrestrial and meteoritic sources to trace their origin. By correlating these isotopic variations with sediment depth, researchers have inferred the contribution of meteoritic material over time.

The timing of the Chicxulub impact has been corroborated through multiple independent methods, including high-precision uranium-lead (U-Pb) dating of zircon crystals. These zircons, found in impact-related deposits, provide robust age constraints that align with the established date of the event.

Refuting Creationism - How We Know The Bible Was Made Up By Ignorant People

The lush past of the world’s largest desert - Medias - UNIGE

The brown traces represent the beds of ancient streams, organized in dendritic drainage networks that are now abandoned.

While the biblical authors drew heavily from earlier Mesopotamian myths — most notably adapting the flood narrative from the Epic of Gilgamesh — they appear to have had little understanding of the broader historical and environmental context of the region. Recent research highlights a striking omission: the rich prehistoric past of the Arabian Peninsula, just to the south of Mesopotamia.

Far from being an eternal wasteland, the Arabian Peninsula was once a verdant, fertile region. Between approximately 11,000 and 5,500 years ago, it featured extensive river systems, lush vegetation, and a large freshwater lake. This environment supported human settlement and migration, acting as a corridor out of Africa rather than the barrier it is today.

The biblical narrative, especially in Genesis, reflects a parochial worldview, lacking any apparent awareness of the dramatic environmental transformations that shaped the region. The latest findings, published by an international team including researchers from the University of Geneva, show that around 8,000 years ago, a gradual shift in Earth’s orbit triggered a weakening of the monsoon systems. This climatic change led to severe aridification, culminating in the desertification of the region and the disappearance of the once 42-metre-deep lake.

What was once a cradle of biodiversity and human migration is now the Rub’ al-Khali or "Empty Quarter"—one of the most inhospitable deserts on the planet. The contrast between this rich prehistoric reality and the narrow scope of the biblical texts speaks volumes about the limited horizons and historical understanding of their authors.

Unintelligent Design - Another Failure By Creationism's Blundering Designer

The graphic shows images of a cell under mtDNA replication stress made using so-called Correlative Light and Electron Microscopy (for short: CLEM). The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA, green) is ejected from the mitochondria (magenta) and taken up by a lysosome, which contains the retromer (cyan). The highlighted section was also analysed using 3D-CLEM to obtain volumetric information.

Fig.: HHU/David Pla-Martín.

Medicine: Publication in Science Advances

Yet Another Workaround for a Flawed Design.

Researchers led by Professor Dr David Pla-Martín of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, alongside colleagues from the University of Cologne, have uncovered yet another complex but error-prone workaround—this time, to fix a problem that stems from an earlier design flaw.

They have identified a mechanism used to repair mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) when it breaks. From an intelligent design perspective, mitochondria — once free-living bacteria—were supposedly the 'quick fix' to give eukaryotic cells the ability to efficiently convert glucose into adenosine triphosphate (ATP) using oxygen. ATP is the primary energy currency used in metabolic reactions, formed from adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and phosphate.

A truly intelligent designer, however, could have simply endowed cells with this biochemical machinery from the start—no need to incorporate foreign bacteria complete with their own DNA. But apparently, that would have been too simple.

This convoluted solution, predictably, comes with problems. Mitochondria often replicate their DNA imperfectly, or the DNA becomes damaged, leading to mitochondrial failure and a range of diseases. So, yet another layer of biological complexity has evolved to patch up the broken mtDNA. And, in classic Heath Robinson fashion, this repair mechanism is itself error-prone.

Refuting Creationism - The Long Pre-'Creation Week' Evolutionary History of Bacteria

Machine learning helps construct an evolutionary timeline of bacteria - UQ News - The University of Queensland, Australia

A helpful analogy employed by Richard Dawkins in Unweaving the Rainbow illustrates the vastness of evolutionary time:

Fling your arms wide in an expansive gesture to span all of evolution from its origins at your left fingertip to today at your right fingertip. All the way across your midline to well past your right shoulder, life consisted of nothing but bacteria. Multi-celled invertebrate life flowers somewhere around your right elbow. The dinosaurs originate in the middle of your right palm and go extinct around your last finger joint. The whole story of Homo sapiens and our predecessor Homo erectus is contained in the thickness of one nail-clipping.

We can construct such a timeline because, although microbial life leaves few conventional fossils, it does leave behind chemical signatures in ancient rocks—clues to how bacteria lived, metabolised, and evolved.

By correlating this geochemical record with genomic data, a multinational collaboration – led by researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan, the University of Bristol, UK, Queensland University of Technology, Australia and the University of Queensland, Australia, has used machine learning to reconstructed an evolutionary tree of bacterial lineages. This allows us to trace how different taxa adapted to major environmental changes, such as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). Remarkably, this study suggest that some microbes had already evolved the capacity to utilise oxygen even before it became abundant during the GOE.

The disturbing fact for creationists is not the evidence of common origins and descent with modification that this study reveals, but the fact that it all happened billions of years before their mythical 'Creation Week' when their god allegedly created a small flat planet with a dome over it in the Middle East. But then this is hardly surprising, since 99.9975% of the history of life on Earth happened before that alleged act of magic.

How the team of scientists conducted this study, and their conclusions are the subject of a research paper in Science and a news item from the University of Queensland, Australia:

Nitzschia sing1 lives on the alginate in the cell walls of decaying brown algae.

A borrowed bacterial gene allowed some marine diatoms to live on a seaweed diet | PRESS-NEWS.org

A fundamental axiom of creationism is the claim that any loss of genetic information is invariably detrimental—so much so that any mutation resulting in such a loss would be fatal and could therefore play no role in evolution. A second axiom asserts that new genetic information cannot arise naturally and must instead be supplied by a supernatural intelligent designer.

Both of these assertions are demonstrably false. Nevertheless, they continue to feature in creationist apologetics, relying on the audience's ignorance and incredulity to pass as justification for belief in an intelligent creator.

To add further difficulty for creationist claims, scientists have now identified a marine diatom, Nitzschia sing1, that has not only lost the genes and organelles required for photosynthesis — present in its photosynthetic relatives — but has also adapted successfully without them. It achieved this by acquiring new genetic information through horizontal gene transfer from a marine bacterium. The transferred gene subsequently underwent extensive duplication and diversification into three gene families, each with complementary functions. Together, these 91 versions of the acquired gene enable N. sing1 to metabolise alginate, a carbohydrate found in the cell walls of brown algae such as kelp.

Unintelligent Design - Why Humans Are Not Intelligently Designed for Modern life

"Now look what you've done! The place is not fit to live in anymore!"

Humanity's Real Problem: Accelerating Evolutionary Mismatch | Psychology Today

A sure sign of unintelligent design is one that completely fails to anticipate the future. Biologically speaking, poor design occurs when an organism is adapted to an environment at a specific moment but becomes increasingly maladapted as the environment evolves. This happens either because the organism fails to adapt quickly enough or because it was never designed with future changes in mind in the first place.

A good, intelligent designer, especially one equipped with the power of foresight, would not just design for today but for tomorrow, next year and for the foreseeable future. Failure to do so is incompetence, indolence or sheer malevolence in putting its design on course for ultimate disaster.

In my book, The Body of Evidence: How the Human Body Refutes Creationism, I highlight numerous examples where the human body evolved for past environments — previous diets, predators, and social pressures — leaving us today with various vulnerabilities and compromises.

Human evolution moves at a glacial pace, barely noticeable even over many generations, while our environment has dramatically transformed within just a few decades.

Consider the technology available to our parents and grandparents compared to what we now take for granted—steam trains, landline telephones, no internet or colour TV, no central heating or air conditioning beyond an open fire or window, no satellite navigation, and no instant global communication. Further back, major societal shifts arose from mechanised farming, factory work, innovations in textile manufacturing, and even improvements in wheat milling for bread. Later still came automobiles and mass transit.

Yet, genetically speaking, our recent ancestors who navigated these revolutionary changes remain nearly identical to us today.

Now, we stand on the threshold of another seismic shift: artificial intelligence. Just a decade ago, writing this introduction would have involved considerable time researching, fact-checking, and carefully drafting paragraphs that still might not have fully conveyed my intended message. Today, I can draft my thoughts, then leverage the vast processing power of AI (like ChatGPT-4.5) to refine and clarify my ideas effortlessly. These introductory paragraphs are precisely the outcome of such a collaboration.

The core issue, however, remains that human culture is evolving at a rate several orders of magnitude faster than our biological capacity to adapt, creating an ever-widening gap between how we need to respond to new challenges and how we're inherently equipped to do so.

The consequences of this accelerating mismatch are thoughtfully explored in an article by Mike Brooks, Ph.D., in Psychology Today, Humanity's Real Problem: Accelerating Evolutionary Mismatch.

View from the Takarkori rock shelter in Southern Libya.

First ancient genomes from the Green Sahara deciphered

According to literal interpretations of biblical creationism, the first two humans were created approximately 6,000 years ago without any ancestors. Subsequently, around 4,000 years ago, the Earth was supposedly submerged by a global flood. According to this narrative, all present-day humans descended from the eight survivors who endured a year-long voyage in a large vessel accompanied by two (or, in some accounts, seven) individuals of each animal species. After the flood receded, these survivors are said to have repopulated a barren and sterile world in which all previously existing life had been destroyed.

In contrast, scientific evidence indicates that more than 7,000 years ago, human populations inhabited a Sahara region that was markedly different from today's desert. At the time, a wetter climate supported forests, grasslands, lakes, and rivers. These Saharan people were only distantly related to other non-African populations, as they had diverged from East and South African Homo sapiens around the same period—approximately 50,000 years ago—that modern non-African populations migrated out of Africa into Eurasia. Subsequently, the Saharan population remained largely isolated from both sub-Saharan African and Eurasian populations.

The critical distinction between these two accounts lies in their evidence base. Creationism relies solely on written narratives from a text of uncertain historical authenticity, whereas science relies upon verifiable, physical evidence, in this case DNA extracted from two mummified Saharan individuals discovered in Algeria.

This fundamental difference exemplifies the contrast between religion and science: religion typically relies on tradition, superstition, and narratives lacking empirical support, whereas science is grounded in observable evidence and logical deduction.

The evidence for the existence and origin of this Saharan population comes from the work of researchers at the Dept. of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. It's significance is that it argues against the green Sahara being one of the migration routes for modern humans out of Africa and a return migration back into Africa because the Saharan population were genetically distinct and have a very low level of Neanderthal DNA unlike the western Eurasian Homo sapiens.

The findings of the group are published open access in Nature. The research is described in a Max Planck Institute News release:

Malevolent Designer News - How Monkeypox Is Being Redesigned to Infect More People

Mpox could become a serious global threat, scientists warn | University of Surrey

Science has just dealt creationism another body blow.

Researchers from the University of Surrey, UK, have demonstrated that the monkeypox virus has undergone a mutation that enhances its ability to spread more readily from person to person through direct contact. This increased transmissibility raises the concern of a potential global pandemic.

Since this mutation confers a benefit to the virus, it aligns with William A. Dembski's concept of 'specified complexity', which he uses to argue for intelligent design. By extension, Dembski’s argument suggests evidence of an intelligent designer, whom his intended audience typically identifies as the Christian God.

However, because the mutation has resulted in a greater prevalence of the mutated form of the virus compared to non-mutated forms, this clearly demonstrates evolution through natural selection. Consequently, it contradicts the notion of 'devolution' proposed by Michael J. Behe, who suggests that parasites and pathogens represent biological deterioration rather than adaptive evolution.

Therefore, the new variant of the monkeypox virus presents either evidence supporting creationism's deity — which would imply intentional creation of viruses specifically designed to cause illness—or clear evidence supporting evolution through natural selection.

Unintelligent Design - The Heath-Robinson Machine That Keeps Rogue DNA Under Control

How a critical enzyme keeps potentially dangerous genes in check – lji.org

The human body, like those of most multicellular organisms, exhibits numerous instances of suboptimal design. These imperfections arise from evolutionary processes that balance competing demands, often prioritizing immediate reproductive success over long-term well-being and efficiency. As a result, many biological structures and functions are prone to errors, which tend to accumulate and manifest more prominently with age.

These inherent imperfections have driven the evolution of additional layers of complexity aimed at mitigating potential failures. Such complexity would likely be unnecessary if these biological systems had been optimally designed from the outset. Therefore, the presence of intricate mechanisms to counteract inherent errors serves as compelling evidence for evolution and challenges the notion of intelligent design. Examples of these compensatory complexities are abundant across all multicellular organisms.

A pertinent example involves the regulation of transposable elements (TEs), often referred to as "jumping genes." These DNA sequences can move within the genome, potentially causing significant disruptions if not properly controlled. In healthy cells, TEs are kept in check within heterochromatin — a tightly packed form of DNA that serves as a "prison" for these elements. Recent research led by Professor Anjana Rao, Ph.D., at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, has shed light on this control mechanism. The study reveals that the enzyme O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) plays a crucial role in suppressing TE activity by restraining TET enzymes, thereby maintaining genomic stability.

This intricate system of checks and balances underscores the evolutionary arms race within our genomes, highlighting the complexity that arises from natural selection's ongoing efforts to mitigate the potential harms posed by transposable elements.

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