Skip to main content

Thus is a New Pseudoscience Born!

Well, I suppose it's actually a darling little toddler at this point, but in reality this new field of "biology" (at least in the creationist mindset), was stillborn from the beginning.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v3/n4/bara-what

Baraminology attempts to present a biblical classification of species based on the original "kinds", thus assuming microevolution in the years since the original "creation." The author, Dr. Todd Charles Wood, asserts that he uses "sophisticated mathematical formulas" to determine the original kinds that Adam would have named. He believes that these formulas, whatever they are, have led him to a categorization close to that of the so-called original. Funny, it looks like science, sounds like science, but alas, it is not science!

This purported "new field" is nothing but creationist apologetics wrapped up in the guise and rhetoric of science. It is a distortion, meaningless talk that is based on a story, not upon facts. How does one categorize the world's dolphins, which all look very much the same but are entirely different genus and species? They look the same, and Wood may even consider them the same "kind", but instead they are unrelated based on their DNA, a perfect example of convergent evolution.

The author believes that while a deal of progress has been made, there is much remaining in the field. Why yes, doctor, indeed there is, but it isn't the work that you think it is. By all means, use "baraminology" or whatever the deuce you want to call it, but the citizens of the reality-based community will rely on Mr. Linnaeus or Mr. Darwin for our categorization systems. They make so much more sense, don't they?

I promise the next post won't involve creationism. I'm getting tired of it myself: rather like the Hydra of Greek myth, you strike off one head of the stupid beast only to find that two more grew up in its place. And its breath is sheer poison.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Today I Am Ashamed of My Alma Mater

Over a week ago, my alma mater, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, released what it touted as a "bold" and "ambitious" workforce plan for the next several years. The backlash was both strong and immediate, forcing the University Administration, currently headed by President Karen Whitney, to release a " Frequently Asked Questions " for its plan. The outrage on social media, as well as a MoveOn.org petition with several thousand signatures, doubtless have already channeled the displeasure of the community, alumni, and students with the plan. The University is accepting public feedback, but this seems to be only a political window-dressing for a plan that Whitney herself was  quoted  as saying "...is 95-98% a done deal." For over a week I debated over what form a blog on the topic would take, and while I realize that what I have to say here is little different from what I and others have already stated elsewhere, I feel the need to address thi...

How I Left Creationism

There is a discussion going on right now in the science community about whether or not we should debate creationists: it is a debate within a debate, if you will. There are good arguments on both sides, but I have to think that we should debate creationists, and we should do it as often as we can stand it. Why do I think this? Last week, I saw that Michael Shermer posted a link to a story of a woman who argued this very point. As a former creationist, it was going to debates between Shermer and Kent Hovind that began to convince her of the legitimacy of evolution and of science. I too was once a creationist. Without ever having read anything about it, without it ever having been mentioned in class (I never heard a word about evolution in high school), I was ready to pounce at the merest mention of the topic as false and godless, two of the favorite creationist talking-points. I look back at this self in amazement, at how ignorant and proud of that ignorance I was, how I failed to ...

The Hovinds...Still Poking at Straw Men

Kent Hovind, the false "Dr. Dino", and his ilk are at it again. In a new article on his website, Hovind (or whoever authored the piece, perhaps his son) claims that while creationists have no problems using miracles to explain events (a habit that perpetually makes them unfit to do real science), evolutionists criticize them for it, even though, in Hovind's mind, they rely on miracles just as much to explain their "religion" of descent through natural selection. This is, at its core, demonstrably nonsense. He claims that a "miracle" is needed to make stars and planets form out of gas, a supposed violation of Boyle's Law because there was no "outside force" acting on the gas and dust. How about gravity, Dr. Dino? That would certainly explain it, no miracles needed here. This attack is a non-sequitur. The objection has everything to do with astronomy and cosmology and nothing to do with evolution, which is the development of new species o...