Malevolent Designer - How The Influenza Virus Appears To Be Intelligently Designed to Make Us Sick

Confocal microscopy of a cell (magenta, cell nucleus in blue) of the A549 cell line on immobilized influenza viruses (green).

© HZI / Broich

Influenza virus. 3D illustration showing surface glycoprotein spikes hemagglutinin purple and neuraminidase orange.

Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock.

HZI | How influenza viruses communicate with cells

In their attempts to pass creationism off as legitimate science, Discovery Institute fellows William A. Dembski and Michael J. Behe have unwittingly undermined their own case. Their arguments—largely based on a classic god-of-the-gaps fallacy and a false dichotomy—can just as easily be turned against the very idea that their supposed intelligent designer is the God of the Christian Bible.

While they stop short of making that claim explicitly, the infamous Wedge Document [1.1], which outlines the political aims and strategy of the Discovery Institute, leaves no doubt: their ultimate goal is a fundamentalist Christian theocracy governed by so-called "Christian principles" and that selling the idea that 'Intelligent Design' creationism is real science, is a fundamental aspect of that strategy because it would enable them to teach creationism to children at taxpayers' expense, under the guise of real science.

And yet, even within their own paradigm, the evidence points not to a benevolent deity but to something far more disturbing.

Take, for example, recent research from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, which offers a striking illustration of what Dembski might call "complex specified information" and what Behe might regard as "irreducible complexity". The study reveals how the influenza virus is 'designed'—if one accepts their terminology—with remarkable sophistication to circumvent our defences and invade human cells. Ironically, these very defences are what the same creationists insist were intelligently designed to protect us—against, among other things, intelligently designed viruses. We are left, according to this worldview, with the absurd spectacle of a designer who engineers both the pathogens and the immune system meant to defend us from them—a system that, demonstrably, does not always work.

And this is held up as evidence of a supreme intelligence!

Far from supporting creationist claims, these findings align far more convincingly with what we would expect from a blind, indifferent process of evolution—one that requires no designer at all. Once again, creationists are faced with an uncomfortable dilemma: either accept the notion of a malevolent and inept designer or acknowledge the explanatory power of natural selection and evolutionary biology.

Refuting Creationism - What T. Rex's Ancestors Were Doing More Than 70 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'.

T. rex’s direct ancestor crossed from Asia to North America | UCL News - UCL – University College London

This artwork illustrates the disparity of the northern and southern hemisphere’s evolution of terrestrial Cretaceous faunas after the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum. On the left, End Cretaceous Southern Hemisphere (Western Gondwana) became dominated by megaraptorid theropods and titanosaur sauropods. The centre of the piece summarises the extinction event of terrestrial fauna at the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum, where the apex predators the carcharodontosaurids and allosaurs went extinct and tyrannosauroids (including megaraptoran and the ancestors of Tyrannosaurus rex) were small. On the right, the end Cretaceous northern hemisphere fauna dominated by tyrannosaurids (such as Tyrannosaurus rex), hadrosaurs and ceratopsian ornithischian dinosaurs. The environment also became more mesic compared to the more semi-arid seasonal environment earlier in the Cretaceous.

Credit: Pedro Salas and Sergey Krasovskiy.

One of the major challenges for creationism is how to ignore the overwhelming volume of evidence that contradicts it—especially from the vast span of Earth’s pre-'Creation Week' history, during which 99.9975% of geological time unfolded. Even allowing for their standard claim that scientists fake their dates and Earth is really only a few thousand years old, there is a vast amount of history to compress into so short a timeline.

During that immense period, something remarkable was happening: a distant ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex, destined to become one of the most formidable land predators the planet has ever seen, was making its way across a land bridge from Asia into North America.

That’s the conclusion of a new study led by researchers at University College London (UCL), recently published in Royal Society Open Science. The team found that this transcontinental migration—via the Beringian land bridge over 70 million years ago—marked a key moment in the evolution of tyrannosaurids. They also noted a rapid increase in body size that appears to have coincided with a global cooling event following a climatic peak around 92 million years ago. The study was a collaboration between scientists from UCL and the universities of Oxford, Pittsburgh, Aberdeen, Arizona, Anglia Ruskin, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

Bearing False Witness - Why the American Religious Right Are Lying Again.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr

The MMR vaccine doesn’t contain ‘aborted fetus debris’, as RFK Jr has claimed. Here’s the science

In recent years, vaccine misinformation has become an all-too-familiar feature of public discourse, often amplified by prominent figures with political or ideological agendas. One of the more persistent myths involves the claim that the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine contains material derived from aborted foetuses—a claim most recently repeated by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement.

In the article below, reproduced with permission under a Creative Commons licence, Professor Hassan Vally—a public health expert and epidemiologist—carefully and comprehensively dismantles this falsehood. Writing for *The Conversation*, he draws on decades of scientific research and vaccine development history to explain precisely why this claim is misleading, how vaccines are actually made, and why they remain one of the safest and most effective tools in modern medicine.

This piece is a timely and important correction to the misinformation circulating in some circles, particularly those aligned with religious or ideological opposition to vaccination. For readers unfamiliar with the scientific details, Professor Vally’s article offers a clear and accessible summary grounded in evidence and public health best practice.

First, an AI analysis of the reasons Kennedy and his far-right religious allies are deliberately misleading the American public and casually risking the lives of American children with a characteristic callous disregard for the children who will inevitably and predictably die as a result of this disinformation:

Malevolent Design News - How An 'Irreducibly Complex' Jumping Gene Survives To Cause Cancer

Credit: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Study Reveals Details of Process Driving Evolution & Major Diseases | NYU Langone News

A recent study by researchers at NYU Langone Health and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München has shed new light on how certain genetic elements, known as "jumping genes," contribute to both human evolution and the development of disease [1.1].

Intelligent Design (ID) proponents, such as Discovery Institute fellow William A. Dembski, claim that any genetic information which is both complex and specific can only originate from an intelligent designer. Similarly, Michael J. Behe argues that any complex biological structure or process requiring all its parts to function could not have evolved gradually and therefore must have been deliberately designed.

These arguments rest on little more than the fallacies of argument from incredulity and the God-of-the-gaps. Worse still, they inevitably raise troubling theological implications: if such "complex specified information" leads to harmful outcomes—such as diseases, congenital disorders, or parasitism—then their supposed designer must be incompetent, indifferent, or malevolent. In the case at hand, the study focuses on a type of "jumping gene," or retrotransposon, which is known to cause genetic diseases including cancers.

Proponents of ID consistently sidestep these issues, as they conflict with their effort to portray the Bible as a scientifically accurate text describing a benevolent, human-centred creator.

Refuting Creationism - Why Gaps In The Fossil Record Are To Be Expected, Naturally

Cretaceous fossil shrimp from Jbel Oum Tkout, Morocco
registered at the Museum d’histoire naturelle de Marrakech.

© Sinéad Lynch - UNIL

Why did some ancient animals fossilize while others vanished?

One of creationism’s favourite fallacies is the claim that gaps in the fossil record disprove evolution, based on a misrepresentation of something Charles Darwin wrote. According to this argument, Darwin supposedly insisted there should be a complete and continuous series of transitional fossils and admitted that any gaps would be fatal to his theory.

As with many creationist arguments, this is a distortion of both Darwin’s actual words and how science works. It reflects a peculiar misunderstanding of science as a belief system centred on the writings of historical figures — Darwin, in this case, cast as the ‘prophet’ of ‘evolutionism’. The implication is that by discrediting Darwin personally, or selectively quoting his early uncertainties, one can somehow bring down an entire field of modern science built on nearly two centuries of accumulating evidence.

The tactic ignores the fact that Darwin's style was to introduce the reader to a seemingly unaswerable problem, or potential difficulty for his theory, before explaining how his theory of evolution by natural selection provided an answer.

But why would any reasonable person expect the fossil record to preserve every generation of every species, in every habitat, across hundreds of millions of years—and for those remains to be conveniently accessible to palaeontologists today? The idea that scientists expect such completeness betrays a deep scientific illiteracy. Fossilisation is an exceptionally rare process requiring very specific conditions. There are many reasons why an organism is unlikely to fossilise, and relatively few that make fossilisation even possible.

Refuting Creationism - More Pterrible News For Creationists As Scientists Track The Evolution of Terrestrial Pterosaurs

Quetzalcoatlus northropi (artist's impression)

Witton MP, Naish D (2008),
CC BY 3.0, Link

Ptero Firma: footprints pinpoint when ancient flying reptiles conquered the ground | News | University of Leicester

False-colour depth map revealing the shape and pressure of each step, showing that these creatures bore more weight on their hands while walking.

Most people—apart, perhaps, from creationists who deny such creatures ever existed—are aware that a group of reptiles evolved the ability to fly and took to the skies long before birds and bats emerged to exploit this medium.

What many people don’t know, however, is that some members of this group, including larger species, later returned to land and adopted a coastal wading lifestyle. We know this because their fossilised tracks have been found preserved in what was once coastal mud.

Young Earth creationists routinely point to geological formations derived from coastal or estuarine mud as 'evidence' of a supposed global flood, yet they consistently fail to explain how such a flood could have preserved so many footprints—left by waders such as ducks, geese, redshanks, and sandpipers—as well as delicate raindrop impressions. Even harder to explain is the evidence showing that these footprints were made at different times, spanning several million years, up until the mass extinction caused by an asteroid impact 66 million years ago.

And disconcertingly for creationists, a team of palaeontologists led by Robert Smyth, a doctoral researcher in the Centre for Palaeobiology and Biosphere Evolution (School of Geography, Geology and the Environment) at the University of Leicester, has demonstrated that these fossil footprints can be used to trace the evolutionary history of the pterosaurs that made them.

Refuting Creationism - Homing In On Consciousness - No Gods Involved

Landmark experiment sheds new light on the origins of consciousness - Allen Institute

Consciousness, like the Big Bang and abiogenesis, represents a gap in scientific understanding that creationists eagerly exploit as a place to insert their evidence-free deity — the classic “God of the gaps” fallacy. This false dichotomy is the lifeblood of creationism, which appeals to the scientifically illiterate and culturally chauvinistic creationists who view science as a rival to their preferred local religion. According to this view, if science cannot yet explain something, or if it has ever been wrong, then “God did it” wins by default.

However, a major new study suggests that science is closing in on a natural explanation for consciousness. The findings support the idea that consciousness is an emergent property of neurophysiology, leaving no room — or need — for supernatural explanations. In a landmark 2019 collaborative experiment involving human subjects, researchers from the Allen Institute tested two competing theories of consciousness against one another. They published their findings today in Nature, claiming the study marks a pivotal moment in the quest to understand this elusive phenomenon. Further details are available in an Allen Institute news article.

Refuting Creationism - Giant Fast-Running Croccodiles In the Caribbean - 11 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Sebecids dominated South American landscapes for millions of years, but scientists were perplexed when their fossils started appearing in the Caribbean, too.

Florida Museum image by Jorge Machuky.

Giant croclike carnivore fossils found in the Caribbean – Research News

Six million years before biblical literalist creationists assert Earth and all living creatures were created ex nihilo, giant long-legged, crocodile-like predators known as sebecids were hunting their prey on Caribbean islands. Remarkably, these creatures persisted long after similar species had vanished from South America, where sebecids had become apex predators following the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

Although sebecids went extinct on mainland South America about 11 million years ago, new evidence from Caribbean fossil records shows they survived considerably longer on islands, continuing as apex predators. This finding comes from recent research conducted by a team of palaeontologists from the Florida Museum, who have been compiling evidence over the past three decades. The team's detailed findings have now been published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Further insights and context are available in an accompanying Florida Museum news article.

Refuting Creationism - A 'Hell Ant' For The Science Deniers

Vulcanidris cratensis (Scale bar, 2 mm.)

Figure 2 Photographs depicting details of Vulcanidris cratensis gen. et sp. nov. Holotype (MZSP-CRA-0002).

• (A) Head and anterior portion of mesosoma. Scale bar, 1 mm.
• (B) Mesosoma. Scale bar, 1 mm.
• (C) Left forewing. Scale bar, 1 mm.
• (D) Right forewing. Scale bar, 1 mm.
• (E) Detail of head. Scale bar, 0.5 mm.
• (F) Detail of petiole. Scale bar, 0.5 mm.
• (G) Metasoma. Scale bar, 1 mm. Arrowheads indicate key characters mentioned in the text.

Ancient ‘Hell Ant’ Discovery Is Also The Oldest Ant Fossil Ever Unearthed | StudyFinds

Most dedicated creationist advocates will already be familiar with the mental gymnastics required to assert that a coelacanth allegedly remaining unchanged for tens of millions of years somehow disproves evolution, therefore life must have been magically created ex nihilo just a few thousand years ago.

Now they have a new specimen to test their contortions even further: a beautifully preserved 113-million-year-old ant fossil from Brazil—the oldest ant fossil discovered to date. Remarkably, by 113 million years ago, this now-extinct species was already highly specialised as a predator, equipped with distinctive scythe-like mandibles. These formidable features have earned it the informal nickname "hell ant."

The exquisitely preserved limestone fossil clearly reveals detailed wings and wing veins, characteristic of the insect order Hymenoptera, confirming ants' close evolutionary relationship with wasps and bees. Since wings are typically absent in worker ants, the presence of fully developed wings strongly suggests that this specimen represents a reproductive female—likely a queen.

This remarkable ant fossil was identified within a collection originating from the Crato Formation in northern Brazil, housed in the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo. The Crato limestone was deposited in a shallow lake environment approximately 113 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period, at a time when the ancient southern supercontinent Gondwana had not yet fully separated into what would become modern-day Africa and South America.

Refuting Creationism - How Plate Tectonics Allowed The Interchange of Species, Including Human Ancestors, Between Africa and Asia

How Activity in Earth’s Mantle Led the Ancient Ancestors of Elephants, Giraffes, and Humans into Asia and Africa | Jackson School of Geosciences | The University of Texas at Austin

An international team of geophysicists has uncovered compelling evidence that tectonic activity approximately 20 million years ago created a land bridge between Eurasia and Africa via the Arabian Peninsula. This geological event facilitated the migration of various animal species, including the ancestors of modern elephants, giraffes, and hominins, from Eurasia into Africa, which had been relatively isolated since the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana.

The formation of this land bridge resulted from the collision between the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates. This collision led to the uplift of the Arabian Peninsula and the closure of the Tethys Seaway, effectively splitting it into what are now the Mediterranean and Arabian Seas. The closure of the Tethys Seaway had significant climatic and ecological consequences, including alterations in ocean circulation patterns and the aridification of regions such as the Sahara Desert.

The newly formed land connection enabled a significant faunal exchange between Eurasia and Africa, known as the Proboscidean Datum Event. This event is marked by the migration of proboscideans (elephant ancestors) and other species into Africa, as well as the dispersal of African species into Eurasia . This biogeographical interchange had profound implications for the evolutionary trajectories of numerous species, including primates.

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

This article is best read on a laptop, desktop, or tablet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A green stick insect (Timema cristinae) blends in on a
California lilac, Ceanothus spinosus.

Photo Credit: Aaron Comeault.

Timema cristinae (striped morph)

Credit: Bart Zijlstra www.bartzijlstra.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AI-generated image (ChatGPT 4o)

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

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

Ralph Vanstreels, (UC Davis).

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

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

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

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

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

Creationism Refuted - Isolated Evolution of a Curious Butterfly

The Curiously Isolated Hairstreak, Satyrium curiosolus.

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

Curious isolation: new butterfly species discovered | Blog

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

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

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

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

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

Medical science corrects a design defect.

Source

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

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

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

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

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

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

Artist's impression of the exoplanet K2-18b.

Credit: A. Smith/N. Mandhusudhan

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

AI-generated image

Strongest hints yet of biological activity outside the solar system

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Carollia perspicillata bat from a colony that had been maintained at WSU Vancouver.

Photo: WSU

Seba's short-tailed bat, Carollia perspicillata

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unintelligent Design - The Extreme Lengths To Which a Shrew Goes To Survive

Masked shrew
Sorex cinereus

By rpoort - https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/12617120,
CC BY 4.0, Link

Masked Shrew, Sorex cinereus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Family life in the Ice Age

AI-generated image (ChatGPT4o)

Section through the large fireplace 1.

Credit: Philip R. Nigst.

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

Credit: Philip R. Nigst.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Quina tool kit from Longtan.

Credit: >Hao Li

Quina tools from Longtan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Refuting Creationism - Stone Tool Manufacture In a South African Cave - 10,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

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

Photo by Sara Watson

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

Photo by Sara Watson.

Right: Archaeological team excavating in the seaside cave.

Photo by Sara Watson.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Helmetia expansa

Holotype of Helmetia expansa USNM 83952, dorsal view.

Jean-Bernard Caron and Sarah Losso.

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

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

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

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

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

Refuting Creationism - A New Denisovan Jaw Bone - From The Coast of Taiwan

A fishing vessel dredged this fossil jawbone, now confirmed as Denisovan, from the Taiwan Strait.

Yousuke Kaifu

AI-generated impression of a Denisovan male.

ChatGPT4o

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

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

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

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

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

UC researchers discovered that prehistoric rhinos like these that shared a waterhole 12 million years ago lived in enormous herds.

Photo/John Haxby/The University of Nebraska State Museum

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

Photo/John Haxby/The University of Nebraska State Museum

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

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

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

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

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

Unintelligent Design - If Scientists Can Do It, Why Can't an Intelligent, Omnipotent Designer - If It Wanted To?

Treatment for mitochondrial diseases within reach | University of Gothenburg

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

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

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

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