Weekly carnival listing and open thread

Darwin Is Not The Enemy

Larry Yudelson

David Klinghoffer wonders why the Jewish community hasn�t joined the struggle against Darwin (�Darwin�s Jews,� Feb. 24). He asserts high theological stakes: If it cannot be proven that the origin of life is a scientific impossibility, then Judaism cannot be believed.

Klinghoffer seems unaware that an Orthodox Jewish response to Darwin was offered a century ago by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook.

Rav Kook, who was to become the chief rabbi of prestate Palestine, saw no need to disprove evolution. Indeed, he saw Darwin�s theory as pointing to �the unfolding of the spiritual dimension of existence, which does not show a hiatus of a single wasted step.�
...

David Klingenhoffer or Rav Kook, which Kook would you follow?

And since ID has nothing whatsoever to do with religion in any way, shape or form (snicker), why would Klingenhoffer thing the Jewish community should be concerned with it?

Apologies for spelling Klinghoffer's name incorrectly.

It's true that there are no wasted steps in evolution. 'Waste' is a concept that simply doesn't apply.

Of course, if we're going to presume that the development of mankind was meant to be the goal, then evolution is ridiculously wasteful, and Rav Kook was either profoundly stupid or utterly insane. Or both, of course.

it's truly amazing how religion can experience "evolution" of its own in the face of irrefutable science. it seems that every time there is a major challenge to faith, the religious scholars can always be counted on to tweak their dogma a bit to accomodate.

Move Over Intelligent Design, Here Comes Bhartiya Creationism
by Ra Ravishankar
www.dissidentvoice.org

PZ

I noticed you've managed to attract a couple trolls (at least I've never noticed them here before)!

Do we get to feed them?? Maybe start a flame war?? A thousand comment thread??

Hey, are you calling me a troll? I'm not a troll, I'm a fool.

Sounding the Trumpet
Blog entry of March 22, 2006:
Imagine an intelligent design research database. . .

Try your luck; wamba seems to be blocked from the site after one post.

Speaking of trolls, does anyone know why Panda's Thumb keeps coming up as "Cannot find server" this afternoon? Are they under attack, or just having some other kind of technical time-out?
Whatever's going on doesn't seem to be affecting any other site...

Marine Geologist,

I say we feed 'em to the squid. Let 'em swim with the fishies.

Let's see what those non-living squid will do with 'em.

Is it murder if we let the non-living take care of them?

(Sorry. I can't get over how STUPID that AiG argument was. Holy mackerel. Pun intended.)

Conspiracy!
Unnamed Malaysian government entities are covering up evidence of Bigfoot!

The pt domain recently came up for renewal -- DNS may be confused. Give it time.

I throw all trolls to the savage instincts of the readers here. Have at 'em. If things get too out of hand, though, I reserve the right to disemvowel.

Creationism cards: Get the full set!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alun/sets/1033930/

Thanks, PZ, re PT.

I'll try to leash my jones.

Damn you science!!how dare you give evidance that creationists are wrong again!

for all those who say that random mutations only create problems, look at this!

Protein returns youth to cardiac muscle

some quotes:
As reported in Nature Medicine, Day and Metzger's team found a way to improve adult troponin I by using DNA technology to make a combined fetal and adult version.

Day explains, "What we did was to take a very small piece of the DNA from the fetal form and insert it into the adult form." Indeed, it was a very small piece of DNA ? they switched a single amino acid of the troponin I protein from an alanine to a histidine....Even though this is a very small change, the team saw dramatic results. When they put this combined protein in to mice, they discovered that the animals with the new form of troponin I withstood heart attacks better than those with the normal adult version....Even when there's nothing wrong in the heart, this combined version of the protein functions normally.

thank god for discover magazine, putting articles from Nature into words I can understand.[:D][:D]

bolding mine.

my bad... the web page is this...

http://www.discover.com/web-exclusives/young-hearts/

I'm confused - why would we turn off a helpful version of the protein in favor of a defective one?

My guess is that there are advantages to the adult protein that the researchers haven't identified yet. I'd hope a lot more research is done before anyone starts thinking about treatments.

The Pharyngula community does not feed trolls. The Pharyngula community eats trolls.

That's why we're nominated for being so unpleasant.

I know they're not squid, but:

Jewel-encrusted cockroaches on leashes

Have at 'em. If things get too out of hand, though, I reserve the right to disemvowel.

Y mn yll rn th cmmnts thrgh fltr s th ll cm t lkng lk ths? Th hrrr!!

Caledonian:

From what I understand the adult version of the gene is the one that controls fight-or-flight responses in the heart. It also leads to heart attacks. but with a change of ONE amino acid, they got the benefit of the fight-or-flight with less heart attacks.

(Knock knock)

Land shark?

No, it's an alligator at your door.

Maybe I should try starting saveascientist.com

Francis Collins on atheism:

He ascribes the espousal of atheism by other leading scientists (the majority of biologists with the National Academy of Sciences) as coming from "some personal agenda" and not from "rational argument."
.
"From a purely logical perspective, it will never be possible to disprove the existence of God, since the tools of science apply only to the natural world. Thus of all the possible worldviews, atheism is the most irrational choice," Collins stated in an interview with TCS.

Its amazing that someone that brilliant can actually tie his shoes.