E. coli are common in the gut – and in scientific experiments.
Credit: Maurizio de Angelis/Science Photo Library/Getty Images
UZH - Natural Selection also Increases the Adaptability of Organism
Not that it will bother them because truth is the least of their concerns, but from today, Creationists who claim there are no observed instances of evolution in progress, are either knowingly lying or repeating lies they have been fooled with, because here we have another instance of as clear and unambiguous an example of it as you could wish for.
Amusingly, Creationists have already tried hard to dismiss it with typically childish responses such as:
Aha! But can you prove it will become a horse? Didn't think so.
It hasn't all been boredom and worry during the coronavirus lockdown, when we were confined to our homes for most of the day for several weeks during Spring this year! I spent most of it getting a suntan in my garden and writing a book!
This book, with a close look at the realities of nature, shows why any creative entity who designed much of nature could not honestly be regarded as resembling the notional Abrahamic god, whom we are expected to believe, despite the evidence of its resemblance to an irascible Bronze Age Middle-Eastern tribal warlord in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, and the fear, amounting to a psychotic phobia, it evokes in the minds of devotees, is nevertheless an all-loving, maximally good god.
The book takes the reader through a whole range of parasite-host relationships, from the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) to parasitic plants, explaining how parasites are often equipped with mechanism to make them more effective at making their hosts sick and finding their way into new victims. The concluding chapter looks at ways in which any such designer has already given some species a much superior system such as the immune system of sharks, the cancer-avoiding system in elephants and the superior eyes and respiratory systems of birds, yet neglected to give other species those same systems, instead handicapping them with inferior 'designs'.
True to form, Evangelical Christian lunatics are coming out in strength for Donald Trump, that most un-Christian of American presidents.
Here we have a clutch of such fruitloops. The first is one is self-styled "prophetess" Kat Kerr, whom readers of my blog will remember from when she had ordered 100 million angels to guard the GOP National Congress and announced that her personal friend, Jesus, was a Trump supporter.
She has now announced that she can draw God from memory, because she has met him, touched his 'living' hair and has a photographic memory.
The results of an Indiana University poll, published today, show how successful the disinformation and fake news campaigns by the Trump camp have been in fooling Americans into believing falsehoods.
Indiana University have set up a media monitoring team to fact-check narratives widely-circulating in the social media. This report is Wave 1 conducted between 20th Aug- 7th Sep 2020.
Figure 2. A significan number of Americans believe the false stories
Narratives
For the first wave, we selected five narratives through a deliberative process of monitoring issues that were becoming relevant in the weeks leading up to data collection and using tools developed by OSoMe to look at the diffusion of narratives across social media.
We showed respondents a screenshot from social media that represented a trending narrative. We asked: “Have you encountered this, or similar stories about this issue, on social media or the internet?” In addition to asking whether respondents had seen the story, we asked, about each story: “To what extent do you believe the following statement is true?”
The statements were:
Joe Biden is not mentally fit to be President.1
Kamala Harris is not a natural-born US citizen.2
Dr. Anthony Fauci funded a lab in Wuhan to develop the coronavirus.3
Joe Biden’s family has illegal business ties with China.4
Mail-in ballots cause election fraud.5
Results
Our results show that large segments of the population have encountered these narratives through media exposure, and find them plausible. For example, 78.9% of participants in our survey were aware of at least one of these five stories, whereas only 21.1% had not heard about any of them. It is also worth noting that a majority (61.1%) believe at least one of the five narratives; 38.9% do not believe any of them
[...]
The five stories were not equally known or believed among the participants. Figure 2 shows that the Kamala Harris birther narrative was one of the two most widely known (54.7% aware), having been frequently covered during the survey period, but also the least believed (27.7%). Mail-in votes causing voter fraud was the most believed narrative (46.4%), and was as widely known as the Harris narrative. In two of the five narratives, the number of participants who believed the stories was more than the number who reported to have encountered them online. For example, 46.1% of participants believed that Joe Biden is cognitively compromised, whereas 43.1% reported that they had seen the story.
The report includes the following links to fact-checking sources which debunked these claims.
Having lied his way to power and lied about almost everything while in office, is it any surprise that this most dishonest of people will try the same again to get re-elected? With a large nunmber of predominantly white, evangelical Christians now unable to admit they backed a failure last time, there is a high probability that they will do all they can to spread Trump's lies and disinformation as widely and forcefully as possible this time.
The question is, will enough Americans be fooled by it this time?
A note of desperation is creeping into Talibangelical Christian extreme right circles as the polls are increasingly predicting a Biden win in November, reversing all the progress they have made towards their dream of a Christian Taliban-style fundamentalist theocracy in America.
The self-aggrandizing, avaricious old faith-healing fraud, Morris Cerullo has died - unless you believe Christian Post reporter, John Whittle, that is. He has announced that Cerullo is alive and well and living with Jesus.
Apart from a brief mention of 'some controversy' over allegations of tax evasion by filing false income reports on three consecutive years (dismissed by a district judge on a technicality because ther grand jury which indicted him had not been told that a donor’s intent is key to determining whether money given to religious ministers is subject to tax), there is no mention in Christian Post of the unethical and ruthless way way he amassed a fortune by exploiting gullible and desperate sick people.
In a nice example of the self-correcting nature of science, the editor of the International Journal of Impotence Research - a Springer Nature title - has retracted a paper despite the disagreement of all the authors, because he realised it was a homeopathy promotion with no basis in science.
The paper had slipped past the peer-review process but, when examined in detail fell far short of the standard science normally expects of medical research. It had purported to show that a drug, Impanza, manufactured by OOO NPF Materia Medica Holding, of Moscow, gave rats an enlarged penis and might therefore be useful in treating erectile dysfunction in humans. There were also claims that it increased libido and enhanced intercourse satisfaction!
Should we blame covidiot televangelist frauds like Kenneth Copeland for continuing to scam fundamentalist Christian simpletons, or should we blame the fundamentalist simpletons for allowing him to continue to scam them?
The fact is that these simple-minded fundamentalists have created the environment (the market-place) in which these parasitic frauds operate with the moral scruples of a bed bug and the manipulative tactics of a snake-oil peddler, in their desperation to shore up their fragile beliefs. And they will keep coming back for more the more they are rewarded for their dishonesty.
According to psychologists, obsessive homophobia is very often a sign of repressed homosexuality. Never was this better illustrated than in the once-popular 'gay conversion therapy' organizations which burgeoned in the USA, as the demand for LGBTQ rights grew. Now, having lost many of their leading advocates, these organizations are almost gone. Very many of their leading lights have come out as gay themselves and acknowledged the harm they did to others in their attempts to come to terms with their own latent homosexuality.
One such was Hope for Wholeness founder and head, McKrae Game, who stunned the movement last August by publically coming out and renouncing the 'therapy' as a fraud and the program as torture which did enormous harm to its victims - victims who were only made to feel in need of 'treatment' by the religion that them sold it regardless of the harm it was doing. Having defined a natural impulse was a 'sin' or mental illness, churches then sought to profit from selling a cure for an illness that didn't exist and which inflicted real mental illness on their victims to the extent that many committed suicide.
It was the realisation of the harm he was doing to his victims that finally drove McKrae Game to renounce his faith and the organization he founded and condemn it as 'false advertising'.
But McKrae Game was not the first. In 2014, nine founders and leaders of the most prominent gay torture organisations wrote an open letter, published online by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, calling for these 'conversion therapies' to be banned, declaring:
As former ex-gay leaders, having witnessed the incredible harm done to those who attempted to change their sexual orientation or gender identity, we join together in calling for a ban on conversion therapy. It is our firm belief that it is much more productive to support, counsel, and mentor LGBTQ individuals to embrace who they are in order to live happy, well-adjusted lives.
Now, having failed to appoint a successor to lead the Spartanburg, South Carolina-based Hope for Wholeness scam, the board have decided to throw in the towel and close down. Despite this, the organisation is still advertising its torture sessions to those who have been shamed by religion into believing they are ill with:
Hope for Wholeness exists so that those who struggle with homosexuality can find freedom to live according to God's design. Genesis 1:27 We accomplish this by not trying to "change" people, but instead walk beside them and encourage them on their journey to wholeness in Christ. We are all fallen, and walk together in our collective imperfection. We are not anti-gay or political in any way. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us for answering questions, help with resources, prayer, and encouragement. We ask for your support in our efforts to impacting those affected by homosexuality, same-sex attractions, and transgenderism, as well as opportunities to walk with those who do not struggle with these issues but share in similar sexual and relational brokenness.
Note the false claim "We are not anti-gay" in a paragraph that equates homosexuality with being abnormal (not designed by God) or incomplete ([lacking] wholeness in Christ) and talks of "those affected by homosexuality, same-sex attractions, and transgenderism"
Despite telling NBC:
It has been a tumultuous several years for us. We lost the founding director, searched for two years for his replacement, hired a new director and then lost that director as well,” the memo, which was signed by the group’s board, states. “After much prayer and discussion, we have made the difficult decision to dissolve the organization. This was not an easy decision. But we do believe it is the right decision.
The scam organization is still appealing for funds on its website and makes no mention of its impending closer. It is also unrepentant, pledging to donate its (undisclosed) assets to another gay-abuse organization, Abba's Delight, an affiliated organization, based in Louisville, Kentucky and having broadly similar aims and methods as Hope for Wholeness.
so long as there are victims to bully for money and so long as there are impressionable people who can be fooled into believing perfectly natural desires and feeling are 'sinful', there will be frauds stepping forward to take their money, with not a hint of conscience about the harm they are doing.
These repugnant charlatans hide behind Christianity and blame their behaviour on Bronze Age superstitions written in a 'holy' book. Tweet
Despite purporting to believe in a god who told people to do unto others what they would want others to do unto them, and despite Jesus allegedly making up a tale about a 'good' Samaritan to show you don't need to be Christian to be good, you just need empathy, and that anyone who needs your help is 'thy neighbour' whom you should love, religious people tend to be less caring and compassionate than Atheists, according to recent research. Their work is to be published in the Journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science on 12 July and builds on the same team's findings published last April in the same journal
In that paper, a research team reported finding that compassion is greater amongst less religious people, who so tend to be more generous. The team tested the hypothesis that, with fewer religious expectations of prosociality, less religious individuals’ levels of compassion will play a larger role in their prosocial tendencies. They found, as the results of three separate studies that:
Compassion was more critical to the generosity of less religious people.
Increased generosity among less religious individuals but not among more religious individuals
Feelings of compassion predicted increased generosity across a variety of economic tasks for less religious individuals but not among more religious individuals.
In the first study, Saslow and her colleagues analyzed data from a national survey of more than 1,300 American adults taken in 2004. They found that compassionate attitudes were linked with how many generous behaviors a person was likely to report. But this link was strongest in people who were atheists or only slightly religious, compared with people who were more strongly religious.
In a second experiment, 101 adults were shown either a neutral video or an emotional video about children in poverty. They were then given 10 fake dollars and told they could give as much as they liked to a stranger. Those who were less religious gave more when they saw the emotional video first.
"The compassion-inducing video had a big effect on their generosity," Willer said. "But it did not significantly change the generosity of more religious participants."
Finally, a sample of more than 200 college students reported their current level of compassion and then played economic games in which they were given money to share or withhold from a stranger. Those who were the least religious but most momentarily compassionate shared the most.
Experiments such as this give the lie to the frequent claims of religious frauds that, because Atheist allegedly have no moral compass or 'objective' moral values, they are incapable of acting morally.
In fact, those claims are only ever made by religious fundamentalists whose 'objective' morality seems not to tell them that bearing false witness such as this is wrong because it encourages hate towards those who tend to be the most compassionate and so do the most good in society, often to mitigate some of the harm done by religions.
False witnessing against Atheists by religious frauds is probably a terror management strategy designed to cope with their fear that Atheists are right, and they are wasting their life hoping for something better later. Tweet
Atheists, on the other hand, are living for life, not waiting for death, so get on with creating a better world for the one life we have.
General anesthesia has been in use for nearly 175 years, but its mechanism for causing loss of consciousness has been unknown until now. So momentous was the first use of ether that it was memorialized in this painting, "First Operation Under Ether," by Robert C. Hinckley.
Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine,
Harvard Medical School.
Scientists may not have fully explained consciousness and how the brain monitors its own thought processes but, as this piece of research by scientists from the Scripps Institute shows, consciousness does not exist independently of the brain, as some woo-peddling charlatans claim, but is an integral, materialist function of neurophysiology.
Using modern nanoscale microscopic techniques, plus clever experiments in living cells and fruit flies, the scientists show how clusters of lipids in the cell membrane serve as a missing go-between in a two-part mechanism. Temporary exposure to anesthesia causes the lipid clusters to move from an ordered state, to a disordered one, and then back again, leading to a multitude of subsequent effects that ultimately cause changes in consciousness.
I have often commented in this blog about how science without any effort or intent, casually refutes creationism by falsifying another of it's articles of faith, or sacred dogmas.
This paper on parthenogenic bees is yet another of these, as was the recent one on the transitional plant fossil. It illustrates how a mutation can be highly beneficial in the right environment. Creationist dogma says it can't be, of course, because all mutations are harmful and increase 'genetic entropy' - an argument made popular by Michael J Behe in his failed attempt to show that evolution is consistent with the Christian notion of 'the fall' because all evolution is really 'devolution' [sic].
Yet here we have a mutation in a subspecies of honeybee - the Cape honeybee (Apis mellifera capensis) which is highly advantageous, enabling this subspecies to parasitise other honeybee colonies, to the extent that they present a serious threat to other honeybee populations.
Two more stories of wackadoodle Christians demanding the right to catch Covid-19 in church today.
The first is from New Mexico where Sierra County Sheriff Glenn Hamilton has sworn in 20 Christians as "deputies", so exempting them from the state-wide ban on gatherings. He was exploiting an exemption from the ban on gatherings for law-enforcement officers.
Perhaps Americans can feel a little less embarrassed by the antics of their religious fundamentalist when they learn that we in the UK are plagued with them too. This example is from Camberwell in London where 'Bishop' Climate Irungu Wiseman of the Kingdom Church is cashing in on the Covid-19 pandemic emergency by selling a quack 'cure' for £91 for a 'kit'.
The kit consists of a bottle of 'Divine Plague Protection Oil' and a length of red yarn. 'Bishop' Wideman, who runs Bishop Climate Ministries claims:
It is by faith that you can be saved from every pandemic by covering yourself with the Divine Cleansing Oil and wearing the Scarlet Yarn on your body. That is why I want to encourage you, if you haven’t done so already, to get your Divine Plague Protection Kit today! Available to order online and ship to you right away.... That is why the Lord has instructed me to prepare special oil that has been mixed with cedar wood, hyssop, and prayer. Yes this special oil has sat upon the altar for 7 days. It’s called Divine Cleansing protection Oil. As you use this oil, along with a special scarlet yarn, every plague and any other deadly thing will pass over you. Just like the children of Israel were spared from death, just like Rahab and her family were saved from destruction, the same will happen for you.
Covidiots ignore social distancing and put their children at risk in support of Pastor Tony Spell's bid for martyrdom and in defence of Christian privilege.
As part of Pastor Tony Spell's campaign for martyrdom and the right to spread the Covid-19 virus as widely as possible in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, supporters have now blocked the local police departments phone system after his mother, Magi Spell, published their phone number on her Facebook page and asked people to ring it.
Supporters are also demonstrating outside the Louisiana governors house demanding a lifting of the house arrest order intended to prevent Spell from holding church services in defiance of the social distancing order forbidding gatherings of more than ten people.
Pastor Jeremiah Johnson, of Behold the Man Ministries in Lakeland, Florida, is a Trump-supporting evangelical, preaching the 'prosperity gospel', and self-proclaimed prophet who recently declared that Dr Anthony Fauci had been sent by Satan to thwart Donald Trump.
He also prophesied that a businessman would become a millionaire based on what he said was a "sign from God".
The problem was, the man went bankrupt shortly afterwards.
Covid-19 is a godsend for disingenuous Pastor Tony Spell, in his desperate search for martyrdom. The social distancing measures needed to slow down the spread of the lethal virus to prevent health services from being overwhelmed, has provided him with just the excuse he needs to get himself arrested and imprisoned so he can play the victim card for all it's worth.
As reported yesterday, he is subject to a court order forbidding him to leave his own home because he refused to comply with Louisiana state orders banning gatherings of more than 10 people - including in places of worship. He has been fitted with an ankle monitor device to ensure his compliance.
Earlier this month, while he was killing Covid-19 by blowing on it and casting magic spells at it, mega-rich Christian televangelist Kenneth Copeland also called on God to cause a heatwave at Easter to kill the Virus in New York (as though his magic wasn't going to be enough).
He declared:
All God needs to do to deliver us is a heatwave, a supernatural heatwave. You know, usually you get what they call the Easter spell. When you think everything is warming up and all of a sudden you get a cold front. Well now, this year it’s going to be a[n] Easter heatwave, It’s going to get so hot in New York City. It’s going to get so hot and muggy, glory to God! It’s going to hit that place and it’s going to burn that virus. It’s going to, you know what it’s like in New York City at 85 or 90 degrees. It’s going to get however hot it has to get there to kill that thing right now all over this nation and the rest of the world where it’s needed.
Readers may recall how pastor Tony Spell managed to exceed the normal abysmal standards of fundamentalist Christian evangelist greed by demanding that unemployed people should send him their stimulus checks. He has been placed under house arrest for refusing to assure a judge that he would not encourage people to gather together in his church by holding open services.
He had been arrested and charged “aggravated assault with a deadly weapon". He is now deemed to be too much of a threat to society to be allowed to leave his house.
Kenneth Copeland is the sort of American Christian televangelist whom Europeans look at and ask themselves, "What is wrong with these people?"
He is also obscenely rich because people give him lots of money, believing this will buy them special favour with God who wants them to help make Kenneth Copeland obscenely rich - because Kenneth Copeland says God told him he does.
Multi-millionaire televangelist Kenneth Copeland tells his "partners" (i.e. donors) that they deserve all the credit for buying him one of the finest private jets in the world. pic.twitter.com/4mY4ndzFDQ
For example, after his recent 'success' at ridding America of the Covid-19 virus with some magic spells, his followers gave him enough money to buy himself 'the world's finest jet' - the Gulfstream V - so he can travel in safety and not have to travel in as 'long tube full of demons'.
True to form, and as though to distance himself from the obvious greed he displays, he blamed his 'partners', i.e., the dupes he scammed for donating enough money.
American televangelist Kenneth Copeland, recently claimed that the coronavirus pandemic will be “over much sooner you think” because “Christian people all over this country praying have overwhelmed it,” has summoned the “wind of God” to destroy the novel coronavirus during a recent sermon.
Before blowing at the camera, he said: ”I blow the wind of God on you. You are destroyed forever, and you’ll never be back. Thank you, God. Let it happen. Cause it to happen.”
Leading a chant surrounded by members of his church and preaching to an empty room, he called out: “Wind, almighty, strong, south wind, Heat: Burn this thing, in the name of Jesus. I say, you bow your knees. You fall on your face.”
According to the same report, after he had "executed judgment" on the virus he declared the virus ”finished” and “over” and made the US ”healed and well again.” and told his audience that they would be cured by touching their TV screens!
He also told Americans that it was "vital" they keep paying their tithes, even when out of work.
At the time of writing (26 April, 2020), there have been 959,000 cases of Covid-19 in the USA with 54,161 deaths. The USA is accounting for almost 32% of the 2.9 million cases worldwide. American evangelist are campaigning to have restrictions of social gatherings to be lifted so Christians can again crowd together in church to sing and shout and spread virus particles, 'safe' in the knowledge that their collective magic spells have driven the virus away.
According to Celebrity Net Worth Copeland is worth at least $300 million and maybe as much as $750 million or even over $1 billion. He lives in a $6.3 million lakefront mansion and has now appealed to his 'partners' to donate $17-$20 million so he can upgrade his private runway and hanger for his brand new Gulfstream V private jet.
Kenneth Copeland purports to follow Jesus, who, according to the Bible, told his followers to sell their possessions and give to the poor.
