Evolution News - Putting the Pieces of The Puzzle Together

Extant and fossil ape distribution.

Extant apes live in (or nearby) densely forested areas around the equator in Africa and Southeast Asia. Except for the recently recognized tapanuli orangutan (which may represent a subspecies of the Sumatran orangutan), each of the three extant great ape genera presently has two geographically separated species. The Congo River (highlighted in dark blue) acts as the current barrier between common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus). Red stars indicate regions with Miocene sediments (spanning ~23 to 5.3 Ma) where fossil apes have been uncovered. (Some regions may contain more than one site; contiguous regions are indicated with different stars if they extend over more than one political zone.) It is possible that modern great ape habitats do not represent the ancestral environments where the great ape and human clade evolved. Paleontologically, the vast majority of Africa, west of the Rift Valley, remains highly unexplored. Extant ape ranges were taken from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN Red List).

Background image sources: Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, i-cubed, USDA FSA, USGS, AEX, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, swisstopo, and the GIS user community.

Review: Human Origins Stories Incompatible with Known Fossils | AMNH

Reconstructing the evolutionary history of a species often resembles creating the picture in a jigsaw puzzle from only a few pieces. The many gaps will be inevitable and there is no real certainty about the resulting picture.

This is especially true of the evolutionary history of the hominins, for example. But one thing is certain: none of it makes any sense other than as the picture of an evolutionary process, as this review of the known evidence by researchers from the American Museum of Natural History show in their paper published in Science today shows.

Although the evidence is far from complete, nowhere is there evidence of that forlorn Creationist lie that the TOE is a theory in crisis, about to be replaced by magic creationism, as the first ever scientific theory to be replaced by evidence-free supernaturalism with a god and god-magic inserted in every conceivable gap.

Paradoxically, the picture is often made more complicated and uncertain, not less, with the discovery of more fossils of 'transitional' species, because it is often not obvious just how this or that latest find fits in with the overall picture (we do not have a picture on the lid to follow). Despite the false claims of Creationist frauds that science doesn't have any 'transitional' species (is it only human evolution that worries them?) science actually has so many it's difficult to know what to do with them all, so far as fitting them into a coherent, evidence-based narrative goes.

This is made clear in the opening paragraph of the press release from AMNH:

In the 150 years since Charles Darwin speculated that humans originated in Africa, the number of species in the human family tree has exploded, but so has the level of dispute concerning early human evolution. Fossil apes are often at the center of the debate, with some scientists dismissing their importance to the origins of the human lineage (the “hominins”), and others conferring them starring evolutionary roles. A new review out on May 7 in the journal Science looks at the major discoveries in hominin origins since Darwin’s works and argues that fossil apes can inform us about essential aspects of ape and human evolution, including the nature of our last common ancestor.

When you look at the narrative for hominin origins, it’s just a big mess—there’s no consensus whatsoever. People are working under completely different paradigms, and that’s something that I don’t see happening in other fields of science.

Sergio Almécija, Lead author
Senior research scientist
Division of Anthropology
American Museum of Natural History.

Humans diverged from apes—specifically, the chimpanzee lineage—at some point between about 9.3 million and 6.5 million years ago, towards the end of the Miocene epoch. To understand hominin origins, paleoanthropologists aim to reconstruct the physical characteristics, behavior, and environment of the last common ancestor of humans and chimps.

[...]

There are two major approaches to resolving the human origins problem: “Top-down,” which relies on analysis of living apes, especially chimpanzees; and “bottom-up,” which puts importance on the larger tree of mostly extinct apes. For example, some scientists assume that hominins originated from a chimp-like knuckle-walking ancestor. Others argue that the human lineage originated from an ancestor more closely resembling, in some features, some of the strange Miocene apes.

In The Descent of Man in 1871, Darwin speculated that humans originated in Africa from an ancestor different from any living species. However, he remained cautious given the scarcity of fossils at the time. One hundred fifty years later, possible hominins—approaching the time of the human-chimpanzee divergence—have been found in eastern and central Africa, and some claim even in Europe. In addition, more than 50 fossil ape genera are now documented across Africa and Eurasia. However, many of these fossils show mosaic combinations of features that do not match expectations for ancient representatives of the modern ape and human lineages. As a consequence, there is no scientific consensus on the evolutionary role played by these fossil apes.

Current disparate theories regarding ape and human evolution would be much more informed if, together with early hominins and living apes, Miocene apes were also included in the equation. In other words, fossil apes are essential to reconstruct the ‘starting point’ from which humans and chimpanzees evolved.

Sergio Almécija

But there is no problem per se with having two major approaches as both are capable of producing results and neither approach produces a complete answer, as the rest of the press release explains:

In reviewing the studies surrounding these diverging approaches, Almécija and colleagues with expertise ranging from paleontology to functional morphology and phylogenetics discuss the limitations of relying exclusively on one of these opposing approaches to the hominin origins problem. “Top-down” studies sometimes ignore the reality that living apes (humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and hylobatids) are just the survivors of a much larger, and now mostly extinct, group. On the other hand, studies based on the “bottom-up” approach are prone to giving individual fossil apes an important evolutionary role that fits a preexisting narrative.

“In The Descent of Man in 1871, Darwin speculated that humans originated in Africa from an ancestor different from any living species. However, he remained cautious given the scarcity of fossils at the time,” Almécija said. “One hundred fifty years later, possible hominins—approaching the time of the human-chimpanzee divergence—have been found in eastern and central Africa, and some claim even in Europe. In addition, more than 50 fossil ape genera are now documented across Africa and Eurasia. However, many of these fossils show mosaic combinations of features that do not match expectations for ancient representatives of the modern ape and human lineages. As a consequence, there is no scientific consensus on the evolutionary role played by these fossil apes.”

Living ape species are specialized species, relicts of a much larger group of now extinct apes. When we consider all evidence—that is, both living and fossil apes and hominins—it is clear that a human evolutionary story based on the few ape species currently alive is missing much of the bigger picture.

Ashley Hammond, Co-author
Assistant curator
Division of Anthropology
American Museum of Natural History.

Overall, the researchers found that most stories of human origins are not compatible with the fossils that we have today.

“Living ape species are specialized species, relicts of a much larger group of now extinct apes. When we consider all evidence—that is, both living and fossil apes and hominins—it is clear that a human evolutionary story based on the few ape species currently alive is missing much of the bigger picture.

Kelsey Pugh, a Museum postdoctoral fellow and study co-author adds, “The unique and sometimes unexpected features and combinations of features observed among fossil apes, which often differ from those of living apes, are

The unique and sometimes unexpected features and combinations of features observed among fossil apes, which often differ from those of living apes, are necessary to untangle which features hominins inherited from our ape ancestors and which are unique to our lineage.

Kelsey Pugh, Co-author
Postdoctoral fellow
American Museum of Natural History

necessary to untangle which features hominins inherited from our ape ancestors and which are unique to our lineage.”

Living apes alone, the authors conclude, offer insufficient evidence. “Current disparate theories regarding ape and human evolution would be much more informed if, together with early hominins and living apes, Miocene apes were also included in the equation,” says Almécija. “In other words, fossil apes are essential to reconstruct the ‘starting point’ from which humans and chimpanzees evolved.”

More detail is given in the structured abstract to their paper in Nature:

Structured Abstract

BACKGROUND

Ever since the writings of Darwin and Huxley, humans’ place in nature relative to apes (nonhuman hominoids) and the geographic origins of the human lineage (hominins) have been heavily debated. Humans diverged from apes [specifically, the chimpanzee lineage (Pan)] at some point between ~9.3 million and ~6.5 million years ago (Ma), and habitual bipedalism evolved early in hominins (accompanied by enhanced manipulation and, later on, cognition). To understand the selective pressures surrounding hominin origins, it is necessary to reconstruct the morphology, behavior, and environment of the Pan-Homo last common ancestor (LCA). “Top-down” approaches have relied on living apes (especially chimpanzees) to reconstruct hominin origins. However, “bottom-up” perspectives from the fossil record suggest that modern hominoids represent a decimated and biased sample of a larger ancient radiation and present alternative possibilities for the morphology and geography of the Pan-Homo LCA. Reconciling these two views remains at the core of the human origins problem.

ADVANCES

There is no consensus on the phylogenetic positions of the diverse and widely distributed Miocene apes. Besides their fragmentary record, disagreements are due to the complexity of interpreting fossil morphologies that present mosaics of primitive and derived features, likely because of parallel evolution (i.e., homoplasy). This has led some authors to exclude known Miocene apes from the modern hominoid radiation. However, most researchers identify some fossil apes as either stem or crown members of the hominid clade [i.e., preceding the divergence between orangutans (pongines) and African great apes and humans (hominines), or as a part of the modern great ape radiation]. European Miocene apes have prominently figured in discussions about the geographic origin of hominines. “Kenyapith” apes dispersed from Africa into Eurasia ~16 to 14 Ma, and some of them likely gave rise to the European “dryopith” apes and the Asian pongines before 12.5 Ma. Some authors interpret dryopiths as stem hominines and support their back-to-Africa dispersal in the latest Miocene, subsequently evolving into modern African apes and hominins. Others interpret dryopiths as broadly ancestral to hominids or an evolutionary dead end.

Increased habitat fragmentation during the late Miocene in Africa might explain the evolution of African ape knuckle walking and hominin bipedalism from an orthograde arboreal ancestor. Bipedalism might have allowed humans to escape the great ape “specialization trap“—an adaptive feedback loop between diet, specialized arboreal locomotion, cognition, and life history. However, understanding the different selection pressures that underlie knuckle walking and bipedalism is hindered by locomotor uncertainties about the Pan-Homo LCA and its Miocene forebears. In turn, the functional interpretation of Miocene ape mosaic morphologies is challenging because it depends on the relevance of primitive features. Furthermore, adaptive complexes can be co-opted to perform new functions during evolution. For instance, features that are functionally related to quadrupedalism or orthogrady can be misinterpreted as bipedal adaptations. Miocene apes show that the orthograde body plan, which predates below-branch suspension, is likely an adaptation for vertical climbing that was subsequently co-opted for other orthograde behaviors, including habitual bipedalism.

The evolutionary history of apes and humans is largely incomplete.

Whereas the phylogenetic relationships among living species can be retrieved using genetic data, the position of most extinct species remains contentious. Surprisingly, complete-enough fossils that can be attributed to the gorilla and chimpanzee lineages remain to be discovered. Assuming different positions of available fossil apes (or ignoring them owing to uncertainty) markedly affects reconstructions of key ancestral nodes, such as that of the chimpanzee-human LCA.

OUTLOOK

Future research efforts on hominin origins should focus on (i) fieldwork in unexplored areas where Miocene apes have yet to be found, (ii) methodological advances in morphology-based phylogenetics and paleoproteomics to retrieve molecular data beyond ancient DNA limits, and (iii) modeling driven by experimental data that integrates morphological and biomechanical information, to test locomotor inferences for extinct taxa. It is also imperative to stop assigning a starring role to each new fossil discovery to fit evolutionary scenarios that are not based on testable hypotheses.

Early hominins likely originated in Africa from a Miocene LCA that does not match any living ape (e.g., it might not have been adapted specifically for suspension or knuckle walking). Despite phylogenetic uncertainties, fossil apes remain essential to reconstruct the “starting point” from which humans and chimpanzees evolved.

Abstract

Humans diverged from apes (chimpanzees, specifically) toward the end of the Miocene ~9.3 million to 6.5 million years ago. Understanding the origins of the human lineage (hominins) requires reconstructing the morphology, behavior, and environment of the chimpanzee-human last common ancestor. Modern hominoids (that is, humans and apes) share multiple features (for example, an orthograde body plan facilitating upright positional behaviors). However, the fossil record indicates that living hominoids constitute narrow representatives of an ancient radiation of more widely distributed, diverse species, none of which exhibit the entire suite of locomotor adaptations present in the extant relatives. Hence, some modern ape similarities might have evolved in parallel in response to similar selection pressures. Current evidence suggests that hominins originated in Africa from Miocene ape ancestors unlike any living species.

Almécija, Sergio; Hammond, Ashley S.; Thompson, Nathan E.; Pugh, Kelsey D.; Moyà-Solà, Salvador; Alba, David M.
Fossil apes and human evolution
Science 07 May 2021: Vol. 372, Issue 6542, eabb4363; DOI: 10.1126/science.abb4363

© 2021 The American Association for the Advancement of Science
Reprinted with kind permission under licence #5063530209822

So, given what these experts say about the fossil evidence for humun evolution from a common ancestor with the other African apes and how best to use it, would any creationist like to explain why this shows evidence for Creationism and a 'theory in crisis' as Creationist frauds like Ken Ham, Michael Behe, et al. continue to insist? If not, from where do these frauds get the evidence for their claims?

Malevolent Designer News - Why SARS-CoV-2 is Deadly and Different

New Cell Atlas of COVID Lungs Reveals Why SARS-CoV-2 is Deadly and Different | Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Creationist mode:

News today shows just how amazingly brilliant the Intelligent [sic] Designer who designed the SARS-C0V-2 virus to kill as many people as possible was. Scientists at Columbia University's Irving Medical Center have shown how it is far more deadly and has a longer-lasting effect on survivors than other similar viruses.

According to the Columbia University news release:

Trumpanzee News - More Bull From Robin Bullock

Robin Bullock - False Prophet
Youth Force Ministries Church International

Robin Bullock Claims President Hillary Clinton Would Have Ushered in the Great Tribulation | Right Wing Watch

2020 did not go well for American televangelical 'Prophets of God' when all of their prophecies of a landslide win for Trump failed to come true, and 2021 has so far been even worse with so many of them having prophesied an imminent military coup or some other means of deposing Biden and reinstalling Trump in the White House.

So, fresh from his stunning failures at prophesying the future, loopy right-wing Trumpanzee Talibangelist and self-appointed 'Prophet of God', Robin Bullock, has now taken to prophesying the past. At least he seems to have learned the lesson that a successful prophet never makes himself a hostage to future events by prophesying something specific - that can fail to happen. Keep it general; keep it vague and always use words that can be reinterpreted later if need be.

Last Monday, he appeared on the loony right-wing Elijah Streams You Tube channel to tell his credulous followers that Barak Obama had planned the Covid-19 pandemic and for Hilary Clinton to become President in order to destroy America and usher in the 'End Times', because, as everyone knows, destroying America is what these supposed 'End Times' in the 'Book of Revelations' is all about.

Not only was the future existence of the USA known to the writers of the New Testament in 2^nd century Rome, but the racial profile, social stratification and exact form of the democratic system that no-one had ever heard of at the time, was known, so they were accurately describing its destruction in 2020, give or take a year or two.

For the parochially ignorant American extreme right, 'America' and 'the World' are synonyms. Everything of any importance happens in the USA and onlythings that happens in the USA are of any importance. If their mythical god, Jesus, ever manifests himself, it will be in America, without a shadow of doubt, because he is American - and he speaks English.

Playing to their paranoias and hatred of the liberal left, Bullock told his credulous audience:

Remember when Barack Obama left the presidency? He said, ‘Maybe we were 15 to 20 years too early.’ Why would he say that? He’s talking about the demoralization period… He said, ‘Maybe we were 15 or 20 years too early,’ because he was a Saul Alinsky follower. He’s following the four stages of subversion.

He thought it was gonna happen, and he thought Hillary Clinton should have stepped in, and it was demoralized, destabilize, pushed to a crisis. The crisis was COVID. That’s what it was. It was to push the nation to a crisis — COVID — and so they planned on Hillary Clinton being president right at that moment. That’s why they went berserk when Trump won. They couldn’t get over that. They said, ‘We got to get him out, got to get him out, got to get him out, got to get him out,’ because they knew the virus was coming in 2020, and she should have been the president. And if it had been, the book of Revelation — we don’t have time to look at that — said she would have taken us into the Great Tribulation. And that’s what was planned.

The Saul Alinsky referred to is high on the conservative right's demonology because he advocated social justice and democratic community action to achieve it. Elements of his 'community action' teaching were initially adopted by the right wing Republican faction, the Tea Party, until they realised that both Obama and Hillery Clinton had studied his work too, so he instantly became the focus of misrepresentation and bogeyman scaremongering by the extreme right.

In fact, both Clinton and Obama had been critical of aspects of his direct community action, but that was lost on the right wing propagandists looking to smear them with accusations of un-American activities and ambitions. How dare anyone advocate social justice for the poor and dispossessed and even racial minorities? They'll be wanting real democracy, equal rights and a say in shaping their own destiny next! Then where would we be!? The 'End Times' indeed for the extreme right.

But Bullock seems even more confused than usual here. Aren't these 'End Times' what every evangelical fruitloop Christian is working for? Isn't that the time when the greatest thing they can hope for will happen - their imaginary friend comes and kills everyone who disagrees with them and they get everything for themselves and the reward of a grandstand view to watch people, even their friends and relatives, being tortured for eternity in the final satiation of their hatred for anyone who isn't in their cult?

This case highlights the difference between mental health-care in the UK and the rest of the civilised world, and the USA. In the civilised world people who hear voices and suffer from psychotic delusions and paranoia get admitted to a place of safety and given medication; in the USA they are put on television and people hang on their every word and give them money.

Look What Religion Can Be Used For! Kansa Rep. Mark Samsel Arrested for Battering a School Boy

Rep. Mark Samsel (R-Wellsville, Kansas)

Kansas Republican Mark Samsel arrested on battery charge after substitute teacher videos surface - The Washington Post

The other day, Christian fundamentalist and elected Representative for Kansas Wellsville, Mark Samsel, Republican, harangued a bunch of school kids about their sex live, masturbation, God and the Bible, then kneed one of the boys in the groin and invited his classmates to 'check his nuts', then told them they had permission to 'kick him in the balls'. He was acting as a substitute teacher at the time.

He was later arrested after complaints from parents and charged with battery. He was released on $1,000 the same day, and now claims it was a stunt in which his victim was fully compliant. They did it to warn the other children about the dangers of suicide [sic] allegedly. In a posting on SnapChat he said: It was all planned. Every little bit of it. That’s right. The kids and I planned ALL this to SEND A MESSAGE about art, mental health, teenage suicide, how we treat our educators and one another. To who? Parents. And grandparents. And all of Wellsville.
Samsel claimed he was trying to warn the children about:

A sophomore who’s tried killing himself three times [because] he has two parents and they’re both females. He’s a foster kid. His alternatives in life were having no parents or foster care parents who are gay.

And if you believe that, you'll probably believe anything.

---

Apparently, this is best done by pinning a child against a way and threatening to "Put the wrath of God in you" then sexually assaulting him in a way that could have affected his fertility and had life-changing consequences. After rhetorical questions about whether they enjoy 'making babies' because it feels good, he then asks the class if any of them have every masturbated and tells them not to answer because God knows already. At one point he asks the boy pinned against the wall if he believed God has been speaking to him (Samsel).

Samsel works with students in several capacities, including as a referee and through church groups, parents said. One parent, Joshua Zeck told the Kansas City Star:

I’m a concerned parent who doesn’t want this swept under the rug. He's around Kids all the time. He’s a state representative. He’s in a position of power.

Wellsville Unified School District Superintendent Ryan Bradbury said that Samsel will no longer be allowed to work for the district. Their priority is the safety of students.

Last February, Samsel was one of 13 Repuglicans who voted against a bill to end Kansas’s exclusion of spouses from sexual battery laws. Currently, it's not an offence for a man to rape or sexually assault his wife in Kansas, and Samsel wants to keep it that way. Speaking ahead of ther vote he said he did not want to criminalise sexual relations between spouses! Clearly, he has strange ideas about what normal sexual relations between spouses are and has no concern about the safety of women in an abusive marriage.

Samsel behaved like this because he is a fundamentalist Christian zealot.

The question is, has his Christian zealotry made him act in this bizarre way, or is it his excuse for sexually assaulting and verbally abusing children in his care? In other words, was Christian fundamentalism the cause of his insane behavious or was insanity the cause of his Christian fundamentalism?
Answers below, please.

Talibangelical News - False Prophets For Trump Getting it Wrong Again

Jeff Jansen, False Prophet
Global Fire Ministries International

‘Prophet’ Jeff Jansen Says Trump Will Be Back in Office by June | Right Wing Watch

Either God is very bad at predicting events, or his self-declared 'prophets', like the hapless Jeff Jansen, are lying about what God said to them.

Having guaranteed, on the word of God as revealed to him, that Trump would win in November 2020, Jansen is now, like the others who gave the same God-given assurance, frantically trying to present that 'prophesy' as accurate, even though it plainly wasn't. One of the ways he does this is by telling his dupes that Trump did win really, but the election was stolen (God, apparently lacking the power to prevent that theft, or allowed it for some ulterior reason, other than making his chosen 'prophets' look like incompetent liars and frauds, too stupid to know you should never make a prophesy that can fail, like that old fraud Harold Camping did some years ago).

False Prophets make False prophesies

Trump will be back by end of April, definitely! Guaranteed. Would I lie to you?

---

... Er... no! Scrub that! It'll be June! Got that? June, not April! Okay? Definitely end of June! Guaranteed! God sez!

So, having been cheated of his (God's that is) victory, God is now going to reverse that result and install Trump in the White House - any day now, real soon - you'll see!

Originally God told Jansen to tell his dupes er... followers that he would do it no later than the end of April...

When April came to an end and there was no sign of Trump being installed by a military coup like Jansen prophesied, he realised God must have meant June when he said April, so Jansen has now had to tell his dupes er... credulous dupes, that things have been delayed but God will definitely have Trump back in the White House and confirmed as rightful president by the end of June.

Maybe by the end of 2021, Jansen will be announcing that his first prophesies got the year wrong and it'll be April (or is it June?) 2022 when the military intervene and put Trump back. And the world-wide 'dancing in the street' has just been delayed - as though the rest of the world is just hanging on Jansen's word and gives a toss how Americans chose their president.

But then Jansen's little god has the same level of parochial ignorance as Jansen and his gullible dupes... er loyal fools have, it seems, and thinks the only events of any importance or interest to the rest of the world all happen in America.

[Biden is] not our president! He is not, nor will he ever be. Everybody knows there was a red tidal wave, there was a Red Sea moment, which is a red tidal wave. And quite frankly, America voted in Donald J. Trump.

We will be rejoicing in the streets by March, April, May, June. There’s going to be an amazing turnaround. You just watch what happens. And the world will rejoice. Not just America, the world will rejoice because of this exposure. I’m telling you that’s going to take place. I’m going down with the ship on this. The Lord showed me this.

Jeff Jansen - False Prophet and raving loon.
Global Fire Ministries International
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA

Jansen seems to have other worries, apart from people realising he's just a false prophet grifter, blowing hot air for money. He also seems concerned that they might think he's "turned effeminate, almost homosexual", so he needs to be a big tough man to prove he hasn't. Back in mid-April Jansen issued a new interpretation of the pacifism Christians have claimed to believe in because Jesus told them to turn the other cheek and forgive their enemies.

He announced that Jesus was a tough guy who wouldn't hesitate to use violence, and the church has "turned effeminate, almost homosexual" so he has told all the ushers in his church to carry guns and kill anyone who even thinks of 'trying something'. He says he's told them:

Listen, guys, if I’m up there preaching and somebody comes up running, make sure you get them. Just kill ’em. Just shoot ’em dead.

In other words, if you're late, don't run up to Jeff Jansen's church; you won't make it through the door alive. His heavies will gun you down like a dog to prove Jeff Janson isn't even a little bit homosexual and not at all effeminate.

So, from now on, any Chritian who doesn't carry a gun and who doesn't think it's right to kill people who 'try something', is officially, "effeminate, almost homosexual", according to God's own (false) prophet, Jeff Jansen.

And gullible people still send these frauds money so they can live in a style of which their dupes er... victims can only dream.

Far Beyond Carbon-Dating - A New Method for Building Timelines of Human Evolution

Fragments of ostrich eggshells from the Ysterfontein 1 site near Cape Town, South Africa. Researchers have determined that these eggshells are about 120,000 years old, discarded by early Homo sapiens who lived along the coast and exploiting marine food resources as well as ostrich eggs. The scale bar at lower right is 1 centimeter (0.4 inches).

Photo credit: Elizabeth Niespolo

Discarded ostrich shells provide timeline for our African ancestors | Berkeley News

Don't tell Creationist frauds like Ken Ham and Kent Hovind this, but scientists have found a way to extend the accuracy of precision radiometric dating of hominin activity to about 500,000 years - some ten times as far back as carbon-14 dating reliably takes us. It all depended on discarded ostrich shells from the midden tips of our African ancestors!

This holds out the possibility of accurately tracing the progress of our ancestors over time so giving us a more detailed picture of the timing and movement of the different archaic forms as they evolved.

A long and detailed news item from University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley) explains how, and the scientists' paper can be read in PNAS, sadly behind a paywall, so only the abstract and statement of significance is freely available.

Explaining the significance of their technique, the Berkeley team say:

Significance

Novel ²³⁰Th/U burial dating of ostrich eggshells complements other dating methods applicable to archaeological materials beyond the range of radiocarbon dating. New ages for the Ysterfontein 1 (YFT1) shell midden show it accumulated rapidly between ∼120 to 113 ka closely following the Last Interglacial sea-level highstand. The ages show the great antiquity of intensive human coastal adaptation, date a distinctive lithic industry, and show that teeth from YFT1 are among the oldest H. sapiens fossils recovered in southern Africa. Stable isotopes of ostrich eggshells indicate rapid cooling and drying during site occupation. Despite rapid sea-level drop and increasing aridity, the site’s occupants maintained a consistent diet, which may not indicate a stable paleoenvironment but rather results from systematic, selective foraging.

From the UC Berkeley News release:

40 Million Year History of the Central Asian Steppe

Mongolian steppe.

Unfolding 40 million years of Asian steppe history | CNRS News

Young-Earth Creationist dogma, based on nothing more than a calculation by an Irish Bishop, not from looking at the geological record, but by reading a Book of Hebrew origin myths written in the Bronze Age by people who thought Earth was small and fat with a dome over it and that the Universe worked by magic and was haunted by demons, is that Earth was created in about 4004 BCE and so is about 6,000 years old give or take a century or two.

Bear that in mind as you read this article about the findings of a combined Dutch and French team of scientists who have just completed a project to map the evolution of the Central Asian steppe over the past 40 million years, then ask yourself why Bishop Ussher got it so badly wrong, if that's not already obvious.

What does this tell us about using religion, not science, to try to discover the truth about the world we live in? Answers below, please.

A news item from Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (The French National Center for Scientific Research) explains how they went about this. The key to understanding how this vast area evolved over time was in the pollen grains trapped in sediments:

From the northern foothills of the Tibetan plateau to southern Siberia, and from western Kazakhstan to eastern Mongolia lies one of the world’s largest ecosystems, the Central Asian steppe. As far as the eye can see, an ocean of grass harbours a rich biodiversity. Elk, gazelles, brown bears, leopards and Siberian tigers, among other remarkable species, have made it their home.

However, until now, there was something missing from this vast region: its natural history. The evolution of the steppe over geological time remained a mystery, since it had hardly ever been studied. A French-Dutch team has now set out to fill the gap, by publishing the first-ever chronology of the main climatic and environmental events that have affected the region over the past 40 million years. This segment of history shows the extent to which this grassland is fragile and vulnerable to climate change.

Using pollen as a time machine

To reconstruct the evolution of the steppe, the researchers made use of one of the best indicators of past ecosystems: pollen. Every grain has a specific shape and pattern, making it possible to identify the plant species or family that produced it. As a result, a record of successive floras is preserved in different geological strata.

There we have a record that spans a period from 40 to 15 million years ago. It’s a unique site that provided us with an overview of the history of the steppes.

You have to be extremely careful not to contaminate samples with recent pollen.

One possible scenario is that the advance of the desert will leave only scattered islands of fertility. Then, if the barren areas continue to expand, the fertile patches will in turn disappear. What our work shows is that there is a threshold beyond which there is no turning back. Once a desert environment takes hold, it could last for millions of years. So, even if we managed to control levels of atmospheric CO2, returning to the previous situation would be impossible,

Guillaume Dupont-Nivet
CNRS researcher Université de Rennes, CNRS, Géosciences Rennes, France and Universität Potsdam, Institute of Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany.

In northwest China, the researchers found an exceptional location for the collection of pollen near the town of Xining, the capital of Qinghai province. “There we have a record that spans a period from 40 to 15 million years ago,” explains Guillaume Dupont-Nivet, a CNRS researcher at the Geosciences Rennes laboratory^[1] and at the University of Potsdam (Germany). “It’s a unique site that provided us with an overview of the history of the steppes.”

Collecting these microscopic grains is a particularly tricky job. “You have to be extremely careful not to contaminate samples with recent pollen,” the researcher explains. Under the microscope, it is indeed very difficult to distinguish a 30 million-year-old grain from one that has just been released from a nearby flower.

To reconstruct the history of the climate and environment of the region, the scientists also used other information. They relied on climate models, animal fossil records, and isotopic data that can help track variations in temperature and precipitation over millions of years. This enabled them to identify three major ecological phases in the steppes of Central Asia.

Successive climate upheavals

Looking for pollen in sediments, bushes and plants (Xining Basin, Qinghai province, China, 16 August 2017).

© Guillaume Dupont-Nivet

Some 40 million years ago, two families of shrubs, the Nitrariaceae and the Ephedraceae, were found everywhere in the region. These plants fostered the emergence of a remarkable fauna dominated by the ancestors of horses and rhinoceros, the Perissodactyla, or odd-toed ungulates.

But then the local climate started to change. The Himalayas and Tibet began to rise, pushed up by the collision of the Indian subcontinent with Eurasia, leading to a change in the monsoon regime. To the north of Tibet, rainfall started to decrease. At the same time, the Paratethys, the extensive sea that stretched from Mongolia to the Mediterranean, gradually dried up, causing the area to become increasingly arid.

However, the final blow that ushered in the end of these early steppes occurred 34 million years ago. A global crisis known as the Eocene-Oligocene Transition brought about a mass extinction of species in many regions around the world. It was largely caused by the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet, an event that rapidly cooled the planet, leading to a sharp drop in precipitation in Central Asia. The steppes turned into a desert as arid as the Sahara. Sand dunes covered the last refuges of life. In this hostile environment, the fauna mainly consisted of a few rodents and rabbits.

Evolution of the geographical distribution of pollen records in Central Asia from the Eocene period (40 million years ago) to the modern era. These paleogeographies also show mountain ranges gradually rising and the Paratethys Sea receding westwards.

© G. Dupont-Nivet/Sciences Advances DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abb8227

The desert persisted for millions of years. Then, in the middle of the Miocene, 17 to 14 million years ago, the climate became wetter again. As Dupont-Nivet admits, scientists don’t know what caused the change. Yet for whatever reason, there was a significant shift in conditions, which once again became more favourable to life. Steppes like those seen today, covered with grasses and shrubs, emerged. Large mammals, such as lions, aurochs and megaloceros (giant deer) encountered their ecological niche there, before being ruthlessly hunted down by a new invasive species that arrived 50,000 years ago: Homo sapiens.

The uncertain future of the steppes

This great ape may well turn out to be the cause of another environmental upheaval. Climate change models show that Central Asia is fast becoming one of the hottest and driest places on the planet. Researchers think that the steppes could turn into a highly arid desert again. Ecosystems are already visibly deteriorating, as shown by the expansion of the Gobi Desert, which has led the Chinese authorities to embark on a massive reforestation programme dubbed “the Great Green Wall”. “One possible scenario is that the advance of the desert will leave only scattered islands of fertility. Then, if the barren areas continue to expand, the fertile patches will in turn disappear,” the scientist predicts.

The problem is that this process could be irreversible. “What our work shows is that there is a threshold beyond which there is no turning back. Once a desert environment takes hold, it could last for millions of years. So, even if we managed to control levels of atmospheric CO2, returning to the previous situation would be impossible,” Dupont-Nivet warns. If this worst-case scenario were to come about, the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people would collapse in just a few decades.

The team's open access paper was published last October in Science Advances:

Abstract

The origins and development of the arid and highly seasonal steppe-desert biome in Central Asia, the largest of its kind in the world, remain largely unconstrained by existing records. It is unclear how Cenozoic climatic, geological, and biological forces, acting at diverse spatial and temporal scales, shaped Central Asian ecosystems through time. Our synthesis shows that the Central Asian steppe-desert has existed since at least Eocene times but experienced no less than two regime shifts, one at the Eocene–Oligocene Transition and one in the mid-Miocene. These shifts separated three successive “stable states,” each characterized by unique floral and faunal structures. Past responses to disturbance in the Asian steppe-desert imply that modern ecosystems are unlikely to recover their present structures and diversity if forced into a new regime. This is of concern for Asian steppes today, which are being modified for human use and lost to desertification at unprecedented rates.

Barbolini, N.; Woutersen, A.; Dupont-Nivet, G.; Silvestro, D.; Tardif, D.; Coster, P. M. C.; Meijer, N.; Chang, C.; Zhang, H.-X.; Licht, A.; Rydin, C.; Koutsodendris, A.; Han, F.; Rohrmann, A.; Liu, X.-J.; Zhang, Y.; Donnadieu, Y.; Fluteau, F.; Ladant, J.-B.; Le Hir, G.; Hoorn, C.
Cenozoic evolution of the steppe-desert biome in Central Asia
Science Advances 09 Oct 2020: Vol. 6, no. 41, eabb8227 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abb8227

Copyright: © 2020 The authors. Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science
Open access. Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

So there we have a clear, coherent picture of how the Central Asian steppe came to be what it is today over a period of some 40 million years.

Which all goes to show how:

The Bible is a book about what people used to believe before we knew any better.

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Evolution News - Filling More of Creationism's God-Shaped Gaps With Science

Researchers performed a more detailed comparison of the genomes of modern and archaic humans and found that the way genes turned on and off could have resulted in changes in the brain and vocal tract.

Image: Getty Images

Stanford study dives deeper into genetic differences between modern and archaic humans

I've just posted an article about how advances in techniques for DNA recovery and analysis are closing Creationism's god-shaped gaps by the dozen and finding no gods and no place for gods in them. Now here is another example from Stanford University, where researchers have developed a technique for analysing not only the DNA sequence of ancient hominins but also the likely way they were activated.

This opens up the prospect of a far greater depth of analysis of ancient DNA than simply sequencing it, and so discovering finer details not only of DNA changes but changes in the way particular genes were activated. Changes in the sequence and duration of activation of genes during embryonic development can have a profound effect on the resulting genotype with little or no change in the genes themselves.

The Stanford group have used the technique to show how the brain and vocal tract evolved as our ability to vocalise developed.

The Stanford News Service article by Taylor Kubota explains how this was done:

The Ever-Shrinking God of the Gaps Just Got a Bit Smaller.

This skull of the extinct horned crocodile from Madagascar (Voay robustus) has been part of the American Museum of Natural History’s scientific collections since the early 1930s.

Credit: M. Ellison/© AMNH

Ancient DNA of Crocodile Sheds Light on Croc Family Tree | AMNH

It has been said the creationism's God of the Gaps is the only thing faster than light because it's always gone just before Science shines its light in the gap, leaving Creationists to search around for another gap to put it in - or invent one if they can't find one.

Just such a gap was found to be empty a few days ago when science solved an ongoing puzzle - how did the extinct Madagascan horned crocodile fit in the crocodile family tree? It was quite obvious from just looking at it that it was a crocodile of some sort but its evolutionary relationship to the others was unknown - until now. The key to closing the gap was the recent advance in the recovery and analysis of ancient DNA - the same scientific advance that is proving the Theory of Evolution to be correct, closing gaps and evicting gods by the dozen.

The Madagascan horned crocodile, Voay robustus (artist's impression)

Source: Nix Illustrations

In this case, it turned out that the Madagascan horned crocodile, Voay robustus, was very much part of the crocodile family tree but deserved a branch in the tree all to itself.

A research report from the American Museum of Natural History tells the story:

New research based on two skulls that have been in the Museum’s collection since the early 1930s resolves a long-standing controversy about an extinct “horned” crocodile that lived in Madagascar.

Another Religion-Based Dogma Falls to Science

Mice form categories to simplify their world. Showing that, researchers identified neurons that encode learned categories.

© MPI of Neurobiology/ Kuhl

Simplifying our world - Mice master complex thinking with a remarkable capacity for abstraction | Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Yet another religion-based dogma fell to investigation by science recently. The dogma was that there is something unique about humans that sets us apart from the other animals as some sort of special creation - the basis of our belief that we own the planet and everything on and in it, including the other animals, incidentally.

In particular, humans were once thought to be the only sapient, tool-making species. That dogma has been laid to rest many times with many species now known to be capable of logical reasoning, tool-making and use, and problem-solving.

Now here we have evidence, provided by scientists working at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany, that mice can categorise information and think in the abstract - a fundamental of logical reasoning, information processing and learning, and mice use the same parts of their brain to do it with as we use. Their results were published, open access, in Nature recently.

The Max Plank Gesellschaft news release explains:

How Creationists Lie to Us - Tom Meyer

'Leonardo', the 77-million-year-old Brachylophosaurus canadensis Showing the beautifully-preserved 'soft' tissue.

Dinosaur discovery contradicts theory of evolution, claims creationist Bible expert | Weird | News | Express.co.uk

Young-Earth Creationist, Tom Meyer's claim to fame is that he can recite large chunks of the Bible from memory - so this makes him an expert biologist, geologist and cosmologist, fully qualified to inform millions of working biomedical scientists, geologists and cosmologists, that they've got it all wrong and he knows best - because he's memorised large chunks of a book.

Only trouble is, he also seems to realise he needs to misrepresent science, misinform his audience and play to their gullible, scientifically-illiterate credulity to foist his superstitions on his dupes.

Subversive Christian Talibangelicals Just Keep on Trying!

Rep. Mary Bentley (R-Perryville), seen here introducing a bill to ban abortions in Arkansas, despite the Supreme Court ruling in Roe vs Wade, which decriminalised it in all 50 states.

House advances bill to let schools teach creationism

Subversive Talibangelical Christians are continuing their efforts to circumvent the Constitutional Establishment Clause which forbids any tier of US government from promoting any religion.

This time their effort is in Arkansas where the Repuglican-dominated House has approved a bill (by 72-21) to allow the teaching of Intelligent [sic] Design Creationism to children at tax-payers expense. All the Repuglican voted for the bill and all the Democrats voted against it. This is in direct contravention of a 1980 court ruling which forbids the teaching of Creationism in Arkansas schools, several Supreme Court rulings which have struck down previous attempts to do so and the famous Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District which ruled that Intelligent Design is religion in disguise, not science. The bill now moves to the Senate.

Fundamentally Racist Christians

Source

Do Multiracial Churches Offer Healthy Community for Non-White Attendees? - Barna Group

A survey by the Christian Barna Group has revealed a shocking level of racism in American churches, according to their Beyond Diversity project.

29% of practicing Black Christians reported experiencing racial prejudice in multiracial churches; 27% reported feeling required to give up their racial/ethnic identity in order to integrate successfully into a multiracial church and 28% say they find it difficult to build relationships in multiracial churches.

Persecution News - The Doubt That Strikes Terror in the Heart of Religions.

Said Djabelkhir

3 years in prison and a 50,000 Dinar fine

Said Djabelkhir,
Sentenced to 3 years in prison and a 50,000 Dinar fine.

Algeria: quash the conviction of humanist academic Said Djabelkhir, Freethinker.

Can you imagine a fundamental disagreement between two scientists over a basic principle in science resulting in the state locking up one of the scientists while supporters of the other called for his execution?

That's exactly what has happened in Algeria because of a fundamental disagreement in Islam.

Talibangelical Covidiot News - Death Threats for Advocating Anti-Covid Vaccine

Jamie Aten, Disaster psychologist, author and evangelical
Death threats for advocating anti-Covid vaccines.

For evangelical leader Jamie Aten, advocating for vaccines led to a death threat

An evangelical Christian who urged his fellow evangelicals to get the anti-covid vaccine says he has been getting death threats and other hate messages from his fellow evangelical Christians.

Jamie Aten is executive director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College and his work has generally been praised, but when he began urging his fellow evangelicals to get vaccinated, things turned ugly.

Among the emails he reported when he filed his complaint to the sheriff’s office in DuPage County, Illinois, was one telling him his work on vaccines was "punishable by death".

How's your Monday going? Mine started with having to file a police report in response to the increasing number of threats I'm getting for encouraging white evangelicals to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

— Jamie Aten (@drjamieaten) April 26, 2021

Another, received after he spoke to the New York Times about the importance of getting vaccinated, warned him that encouraging white evangelicals would "eventually lead to the murdering of all mankind". It continued with the veiled threat, "If I knew my stuff, I would know not to encourage people to get vaccinated because that’s what’s going to take down humanity more".

The importance of persuading white evangelical leaders to get a vaccine was highlighted by a recent Pew Research poll which showed that 37% of white evangelicals would not have the vaccine - one of the highest levels of vaccine scepticism for any American demographic. Given the large number of white evangelicals in the USA, this figure means it will be difficult to reach the required level for herd immunity to be effective in controlling the virus, so America will always have a high level of infections and the pandemic will last much longer and claim many more lives than it need.

Other surveys have shown that White Evangelical Christians are the least concerned about how their behaviour impacts on other people when it comes to holding super-spreader events in churches, wearing face masks and observing the social-distancing regulations, so it is hardly surprising that they are also least concerned about acting as a reservoir for the coronavirus and providing a means for new varieties to evolve, so long as they aren't slightly inconvenienced in any way.

Last year, under Trump's leadership, face-masks became a badge of tribal loyalty for Americans, like a MAGA hat. Now it seems a vaccination is also a sign of tribal loyalties.

But perhaps the most instructive thing in this story is not the stupidity of those, mostly Trumpanzee evangelical Christians, who are campaigning against the vaccines, but their quick resort to threats, like good fundamentalist Christians when people disagree with them.

Having just posted a slightly tongue-in-cheek item on Twitter about science flying a helicopter over the surface of Mars and asking what equivalent achievements religions had to matched it, I can understand how Aten feels, as I have also had veiled threats about what their imaginary friend is going to do to me if I don't agree with them and credit the work done by religious scientist to religion, not science. Apparently, they believe that science done by religious scientists is materially different to that done by non-religious scientists, so should be credited to religion, not science.

But Aten has chosen his bed-fellows himself. He might like to consider what it is about their mutual religion that can be used to excuse their selfishness and the threats of violence against anyone who dares to disagree with them. He chose to jump into bed with that particular rat pack so he shouldn't be surprised when they act entirely in character (with apologies to any rats who may have been offended by that metaphor). Laudable though his efforts are, he should be asking himself why they are evoking such a response in his co-religionists.

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Repugnican News - When the Truth Doesn't Work for You, Lie.

New York Post temporarily deletes, then edits false story that claimed Harris' book was given out in migrant 'welcome kits' - CNNPolitics

A couple of days ago the New York Post ran a story that alleged copies of VP Kamala Harris' children's book, Superheroes Are Everywhere were being included in welcome packs for immigrant children at Long Beach, California and she was therefore profiting from immigration. This would have been illegal, if true, so it was eagerly seized upon by several prominent Repuglicans and repeated on social media such as Twitter without the slightest attempt at fact-checking first. Why spoil a good scandal with truth, eh?

Religious Abuse News - 99 Years for Child-Abusing Paedophile Pastor

Jeffrey Winston Forrest, Youth Pastor
99 years for aggravated sexual abuse of a child and jumping bail

Former Abilene youth pastor sentenced to 99 years in prison | KTXS

"Religion provides excuses for people who need excuses!"

This was never truer than in the case of former Abilene youth pastor Jeffrey Forrest, sentenced to 99 years in prison for the aaggravated sexual abuse of two boys, bail jumping and failure to appear. He had fled to Mexico where he was tracked down, arrested and extradited back to Texas in May 2020.

During the trial, multiple witnesses testified that Forrest admitted to the abuse. He allegedly told a good friend and a professional counsellor.

New York Religions - Trying to Solve the Problems Religions Cause.

Dec 11, 2019. Orthodox Jewish men pass New York City police guarding a Brooklyn synagogue prior to a funeral for Mosche Deutsch, a rabbinical student from Brooklyn who was killed in a shooting at a market in Jersey City, N.J.

Credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

In New York, interfaith coalition makes common cause against rising tide of hate

Concerned by the rising tide of inter-faith tension and hate resulting in violent attacks on members of one faith by members of another, a group of New York's faith organizations have got together to try to solve the problem faiths are causing.

According to a report in Religion News Service:

On April 16, clergy from 20 New York congregations, including Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and Christians, met as the Interfaith Security Council held its first meeting to talk about how to share expertise and improve relations with law enforcement.

This was prompted by, amongst other incidents, the mass shooting in Pittsburg, PA, in October 2018, when a gunman attacked worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue, killing 11 people, vandalism at four synagogues in the Riverdale neighbourhood of Bronx, NY, last week, and the killing of Mosche Deutsch, a rabbinical student from Brooklyn in Jersey City, N.J. on Dec 11, 2019. Armed police had to be deployed at the Brooklyn synagogue where his funeral took place.

The Interfaith Security Council is an umbrella organisation bringing together several other religious security organizations, one of which is 67th Precinct Clergy Council of Brooklyn, which supports mostly churches in the borough’s East Flatbush area. It's president, Pastor Gilford Monrose, of Mt. Zion Church of God 7th Day, blamed white supremacists for the escalating level of inter-faith violence with:

Malevolent Designer News - Another Win for Science?

The life cycle of malaria parasites. A mosquito causes an infection by a bite. First, sporozoites enter the bloodstream, and migrate to the liver. They infect liver cells, where they multiply into merozoites, rupture the liver cells, and return to the bloodstream. The merozoites infect red blood cells, where they develop into ring forms, trophozoites and schizonts that in turn produce further merozoites. Sexual forms are also produced, which, if taken up by a mosquito, infect the insect and continue the life cycle.

National Institutes of Health (NIH), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

New vaccine success for Oxford is truly remarkable | Kenan Malik - The Guardian

News today of a major breakthrough by medical science in its search for a treatment/cure for malaria which Intelligent [sic] Design advocates believe was created by their putative designer deity to kill around 430,000 people a year, mostly children.

Scientists at Oxford's Jenner Institute have announced the results of a clinical trial of their anti-malarial vaccine, R21, in Burkino Faso, which has shown it to be 77% effective.

One of the problems facing those humanitarian scientists seeking to eradicate malaria, is the complexity of the life-cycle of the organisms that cause it. From the Medicins Sans Frontier website:

Unintelligent Designer Update - The Pea Aphid Blunders.

Pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum

Credit: Shipher Wu (photograph) and Gee-way Lin (aphid provision),
National Taiwan University.
Source: Wikipedia
CC BY 2.5,

Defense Mechanisms in Aphids Can Become a Double-edged Sword, Sharpened by the Seasons | Now | Drexel University

A paper published a few days ago, should be giving Intelligent [sic] Design advocates nightmares, if they had the intellectual integrity to read it. It highlights several instances where basic creationist dogma is refuted by observable reality.

First a little bit of background: pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum) are sap-sucking insects that live on members of the pea family of plants such as alfalfa. They are predated on by a parasitoid wasp (Aphidius ervi) that lays its eggs in the living aphid, which is then consumed alive by the grubs of the wasp. However, they have living in their cells a common endosymbiotic bacterium (Hamiltonella defensa) which provides them with some protection against the wasps in that it prevents the grubs from developing.

These bacteria are inherited exclusively through the female line, being passed to the next generation in the female gamete, or via the cells when the females reproduce parthenogenically (as they normally do) similar to how mitochondria are inherited. Throughout the summer, pea aphids reproduce parthenogenically and can produce about 13 generations in a year, being capable of reproducing 10-12 days after birth. In colder climates reproduction is sexual at the end of summer, via fertilized eggs which over-winter. In warm climates the females continue to reproduce parthenogenically all year round and in intermediate climates a mixture of adult females and fertilized eggs over-winter.

This very high generation rate means evolution can be readily observed so this species was used by researchers at Drexel University to investigate the evolutionary forces at work in this relationship between the endosymbiotic bacterium, the parasitoid wasp and the pea aphid.

Their findings were published a few days ago in the journal Molecular Ecology, sadly behind a paywall. However, the Drexel University news item has the details:

Fundamentally Hypocritical

Dr. Robert Jeffess
"Satan targets Evangelical Leaders and makes them 'sin'."

The Christian response when a brother falls

Another noxious bubble of stinking hypocrisy just burst on the surface of that cesspit of corruption, American fundamentalist Christianity, in the form of Dr. Robert Jeffress of First Baptist-Dallas.

In doing so, it showed how fundamentalists use religion as the source of excuses for their behaviour, so they don't need to take responsibility for their own actions and the consequences of them.

Commenting on the difficulties currently befalling Jerry Falwell Jnr and Liberty University, Jeffress blamed Satan.

Readers may recall how Jerry Falwell Jnr., head of Liberty University - a post he inherited from his dad, who founded the fundamentalist, right-wing conservative Christian Bible college - resigned abruptly when it was revealed that he and his wife Becki, had been having an unusual arrangement with a pool boy from Miami, Giancarlo Granda. The arrangement was that Becki and Giancarlo had sex while Jerry watched.

It also emerged that Falwell had decided to give public support to Donald Trump's election campaign shortly after receiving help from Trump's shady lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, in preventing Granda making the photographs of the trio's activities public. Cohen had earlier been instrumental in bribing the prostitute, Stormy Daniels, to keep quiet about her activities with Donald Trump, during the 2016 election campaign - about which he later lied to Congress and for which he went to prison for election campaign expense offences in not declaring the payment as an expense by the Trump team.

Malevolent Designer News - How SARS-CoV-2 Gets a Second Shot at Killing Survivors of its First Attempt.

A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that even mild cases of COVID-19 increase the risk of death in the six months following diagnosis and that this risk increases with disease severity. The comprehensive study also catalogues the wide-ranging and long-term health problems often triggered by the infection, even among those not hospitalized.

Credit: Sara Moser

Among COVID-19 survivors, an increased risk of death, serious illness – Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Those few remaining diehard intelligent [sic] design advocates who are still dogmatically wedded to the notion that nothing evolves and everything is the work of their putative magic creator will be thrilled by this piece of research from scientists at Washington University School of \Medicine in St Louis.

In a paper published in Nature yesterday, the researchers show how, even if you manage to survive the first attack by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it is 'designed' to get a second go at you in several different ways. Obviously this designer thing has left very little to chance in its determination to kill as many people as possible.

Sadly, the paper in Nature is behind a paywall but, as the Washington University School of Medicine news release explains:

Right-Wing Christians for Lynch Law

George Floyed by Lukas Carlson, 2020

Right-Wing Activists Attack Conviction of Derek Chauvin, Engage in Whataboutism | Right Wing Watch

In the wake of the conviction of ex-police officer, Derek Chauvin, for the extra-judicial killing of George Floyd, yet another in a long list of white police officers killing black people, right-wing white supremacist Christian fundamentalists are coming out in favour of these murders and in defense of the murderers.

Right-wing extremist, Candace Owens, who at the time of the killing tried to justify it by branding Floyd, "a horrible human being" and then categorised the protests that followed as catering for "the bottom denominator in society" (i.e. black people), declared the verdict "mob justice".

Trumpanzee lawyer, Jenna Ellis claimed the jury reached its 'guilty' verdicts because they were influenced by 'leftist' to make him "pay for the collective sins of white people".

Another neo-fascist extremist, Mike Cernovich, declared that the verdict will result in police officers leaving the cities to move into 'deep red' areas,

On Tucker, Candace Owens calls the Chauvin verdict "mob justice" and declares that "this was not a fair trial. No person can say this was a fair trial." pic.twitter.com/A9OtJaKa9K

— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) April 21, 2021

presumably because he believes in these Repugnican areas they can continue to kill black people with impunity, like in the good ol' days of Jim Crow, segregation and KKK Lynchings. He was supported in this by the far-right activist, Jack Posobiec, who blamed the anti-fascist "Antifa", whom Trump declared to be "terrorists". Remember how in Trump’s America, opposing fascism was regarded as terrorism?

Malevolent Designer News - A Little More About How Brilliantly SARS-CoV-2 is Designed for Killing People

1. Rotavirus RNAs have a 5′ cap but not a 3′ poly(A) tail. Its NSP3 protein (instead of PABP) binds to the 3′ end of the viral mRNA and interacts with eIF‐4G directly to maintain the closed‐loop RNA for the initiation of viral RNA translation and to block host mRNA circularization (Piron et al, 1998
2. Picornavirus RNA has an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) in the 5′ untranslated region and a 3′ poly(A) tail. Viral protease (2A or leader) digests eIF‐4G. The truncated eIF‐4G shows higher efficiency in the IRES‐driven translation than the cap‐dependent translation (Ohlmann et al, 1995; Ali et al, 2001).
3. Coronavirus RNAs have a 5′ cap and a 3′ poly(A) tail. In our model, SUD associates with the 40S/80S ribosome and enhances the PABP:Paip1 interaction to stimulate the host translation machinery. Meanwhile, coronaviral Nsp1 specifically cleaves host mRNAs (green) but not viral RNAs (Kamitani et al, 2006; Huang et al, 2011). Also, viral Nsp1 blocks host mRNA binding to the 40S ribosome. As a result, SARS‐CoV could increase the viral RNA translation but inhibit host mRNA translation.

How SARS coronaviruses reprogram host cells to their own benefit | News - LMU München

For those Intelligent [sic] Design advocates who are not embarrassed by the evident malevolent sadism of their putative designer, this sort of information should thrill and delight them.

Scientists working at the University of Lübeck, Germany and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany have discovered the brilliant mechanism by which the SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 viruses reprogram our cells to reproduce many more copies of the viruses than other coronaviruses, such as those causing the common cold.

They suggest that this may account for the much higher pathogenicity of these two viruses compared to the other coronaviruses. Their findings appeared, open access, in The EMBO Journal 2021, two days ago.

The relevent details are in the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität news release:

Coronavirus researchers led by Professor Rolf Hilgenfeld of the University of Lübeck and PD Dr. Albrecht von Brunn of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München have discovered how SARS viruses enhance the production of viral proteins in infected cells, so that many new copies of the virus can be generated. Notably, coronaviruses other than SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 do not use this mechanism, which may therefore provide a possible explanation for the much higher pathogenicity of the SARS viruses. The findings appear in the EMBO Journal.

Coronaviruses that cause harmless colds in humans were discovered more than 50 years ago. When it emerged in 2002/2003, the SARS coronavirus was the first coronavirus found to cause severe pneumonia in infected people. Comparisons of the RNA genomes of innocuous coronaviruses with those of the SARS coronavirus permitted researchers to identify a region that only occurred in the latter, and was called the "SARS-unique domain" (SUD). Such genomic regions and their protein products might be linked to the extraordinary pathogenicity of SARS coronavirus and its cousin, the COVID-19 virus SARS-CoV-2.

The research groups led by Hilgenfeld and von Brunn showed that the SUD proteins of these two viruses interact with a human protein called Paip-1, which is involved in the first steps of protein synthesis. Together with Paip-1 and other proteins in human cells, SUD apparently binds to the ribosomes, the molecular machines that are responsible for protein synthesis in cells. This would lead to an enhancement of the production of all proteins, both those of the host cell and those of the virus. However, in cells infected with SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2, the messenger RNA molecules that code for host proteins are selectively destroyed by a viral protein named Nsp1. As a result of this complicated process, the infected cell predominantly produces viral proteins, so that many new copies of the virus can be created.

Albrecht von Brunn’s research group discovered the interaction between the proteins SUD and Paip-1 several years ago. "Being an experienced coronavirologist, I knew that one has to inspect the special regions of the SARS genome when trying to understand this virus,” he says.

[My emphasis]

Ingenious, or what?!

The Church of English Racists

Church of England congregation.

BBC Panorama programme 'Is the Church Racist?' | The Church of England

An insight into one of the reasons the Church of England has suffered such a massive decline in membership and attendance was revealed in a BBC Panorama program a few days ago. The CofE is deeply and institutionally racist, at least in the lower tiers of management. Viewers were given example after example of racial abuse and discrimination and of managerial indifference to it. For example, as Dr Elizabeth Henry, the CofE's former race relations adviser related:

A really shocking incident was a young black man who received a picture of a banana [with] his head superimposed on it and underneath is said 'Bananaman'. That is a deeply offensive and a deeply racist image.

He took it to HR and did file a grievance [but] the decision was that it was not racist.

[He] left and was given a very small compensation, however he was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Right Wing Christian Racism News - "It's The Jews, I Tell You!"

Right-wing Christian pastor Rick Wiles,
Conspiracy theorist and anti-Semite.

Rick Wiles Says the US Is Under the Control of ‘Satanic Zionists’ | Right Wing Watch

The undercurrent of antisemitism in extreme right-wing Christian fundamentalism was given another noxious airing recently when radical right-wing Christian, conspiracy theorist and End Times broadcaster, Pastor Rick Wiles, declared that the United States is under the control of “Satanic Zionists.”.

Wiles, a non-denominational senior pastor at Flowing Streams Church in Vero Beach, Florida, with a long history of antisemitism, homophobia and support for Putin's Russia, delivered the following hate-filled rant to the audience of his TruNews [sic] broadcast:

The reason the ruling deep state of America hates the Russian people and wants to destroy them? It is the satanic Zionist power that overthrew the Russian government in 1917, did a human blood sacrifice of the Romanov family — a satanic ritual where they slaughtered the Romanovs, it was a satanic blood sacrifice — that same group of Satanists that overthrew the Russian people in 1917, that’s what controls America today.

That spirit right there is what is destroying the United States of America, destroying our freedom, destroying our culture, that spirit right there. That’s what’s making war against Russia. They overthrew it, they got free, they got out from under its bondage. And so who is under its bondage now? The American people. We’re under the bondage of that same satanic spirit.

Trumpanzee Talibangelical News - Just Another Nut-Job For Trump

Tod Coconato, President of Religious Liberty Coalition

Todd Coconato Says Christians Don’t Believe Biden Is President Because God’s ‘Mantle of Anointing’ Remains on Trump | Right Wing Watch

Leading Trumpanzee cultist, preacher and extreme right-wing fundamentalist Christian 'prophet', Tod Coconato, is living in one of Trump's alternate realities so he can reconcile his false prophesy of a Trump landslide victory in 2020 with the fact that Biden won with the largest popular vote ever in American electoral history, and is now firmly installed as 46^th President of the United States of America.

Coconato, self-appointed President of Religious Liberty Coalition, has now announced to his credulous followers that Biden is not really POTUS because God anointed Trump! Coconutjob announced this while live-streaming from his car last Wednesday.

Claiming, in best psychotic style, that he heard God speaking to him, and miraculously telling him exactly what he wanted to hear, almost like God was reading from a script that Coconato had handed him, he informed his dupes:

When I prayed about if we’d ever see President Trump as our president again, God just reminded me that he’s the one that chooses the leadership, not us. He allows certain things to happen, but he also responds to the prayers of the righteous. And what he was telling me is that just like David—and I think I said this in a past livestream—but just like David, President Trump has the mantle of leadership, has the anointing of leadership. That’s why it’s kind of confusing to saints that are looking, and they’re wondering what’s going on. Because they see Joe Biden and they’re like, ‘This guy doesn’t seem like he’s authentic, like he’s real; is he really the president?’ And I said, ‘God, why are so many people questioning if Joe Biden is the president? I mean, clearly this guy is the president of the United States. Are we to doubt that? Are we not to believe that?’ And God said, ‘It’s about the mantle, the mantle of anointing, which is on President Trump, not Biden.'

The 'Mantle of anointing', eh? That's the way, Todd! Talk gibberish so your dupes will think it holy wisdom!

It would be comical if only there wasn't a more sinister side to this lunacy.
There is a clear warning in that, and not only of the insanity that fundamentalist zealotry can cause (or does the insanity precede the zealotry?). Note Coconato's cavalier regard for the supremacy of the people in their choice of elected leaders. It's not they who choose the president but Coconato's compliant God (as announced by Coconato and other self-appointed 'saints' who claim to hear voices).

If these frauds ever achieve their goal of a Fundamentalist Taliban-style Christian Theocracy in America, these are the self-appointed people who will be deciding who forms the executive, the legislature and, indirectly, the judiciary!

Another examples of how:

Religion provides excuses for people who need excuses

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Malevolent Designer News - Using Mink to Make a More Lethal SARS-C0V-2 Virus

Introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into farmed mink leads to the emergence of viral variants that partially evade antibody-mediated neutralization.

A) SARS-CoV-2-infected workers introduced the virus into farmed mink populations, causing an epidemic spread of the virus in the animals. As a result, the virus mutated in mink and gave rise to a novel SARS-CoV-2 variant. This novel variant was subsequently transmitted back to workers, sparking transmission chains in the local community.

B) SARS-CoV-2 from mink harbor one or more mutations in the viral spike protein, which is used by the virus to enter cells and constitutes the main target for neutralizing antibodies. These mutations enable the virus to partially evade from neutralization by antibodies from convalescent individuals and synthetic antibodies used for COVID-9 therapy.

Figure: Markus Hoffmann

Deutsches Primatenzentrum: SARS-CoV-2 variants from mink evade inhibition by antibodies

Creationist mode:

News today of the lengths Creationism's putative intelligent [sic] designer is going in its plan to make as many of us die from its new plague virus, SARS-CoV-2, which is currently ravaging the world in the worst pandemic for a century.

It has recruited the help of mink!

According to an open access paper in Cell Reports a few days ago, the variety of the virus that went from humans into mink has now produced a variant that evades the antibodies we have been building in the population to prevent us suffering from the virus, or being made seriously ill by it if we do catch it.

The research was carried out by scientists working for the Infection Biology Unit, German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany and the Division of Molecular Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine 3, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany. The news release from the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, gives details:

Look What Evangelical Christianity Causes! Penis Insecurity!

Penis Insecurity
Correlation between number of Google searches for key phrased and the number of Evangelical Christians in a US state

New study links evangelical Christianity to phallic insecurity in the United States

A paper published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion last March, offers an explanation for the sometimes bizarre behaviour and aggressive attitudes of male American Bible-belt Evangelical Christians, including their frequent fascination with guns and propensity to follow the male leaders of weird cults - behaviour that seems so at odds with what most of the rest of the developed world sees, rightly or wrongly as a peace-loving, pacifist religion.

The paper reveals an almost obsessive evangelical preoccupation with the size of their penis and suggests that this is due to:

...the largely patriarchal―and increasingly embattled and radicalized―evangelical subculture [which] explicitly or implicitly promotes equating masculinity with physical strength and size, leaving men influenced by that subculture (whether evangelical or not) to seek solutions for their privately felt failure to measure up.