German Paleontologist Günter Bechy Continues to Doubt Darwin

Dr. Bechy is a dragonfly fossil expert, but that wasn't notable enough for Wikipedia's non-scienctist contributors. Image courtesy of Daderot, public domain.


Joel Kontinen

The message of Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is as timely now as it was almost a decade ago.

Wikipedia editors, most of whom are non-scientists, have erased German paleontologist’s Günter Bechly’s Wikipedia page, ostensibly for trivial reasons, but the real reason seems to be that he embraces intelligent design.

In an interview in World Magazine, Bechly is said to be “an expert on fossilised dragonflies, he has discovered more than 170 new species, and 11 new genera have been named after him.”

He also tells of his aversion to Charles Darwin: “Michael Behe used mathematical modeling to study mutations where we have empirical data: for example, mosquito resistance to malaria drugs. Applying that model to a vertebrate species with a smaller population size and longer generational turnover, we find the time needed to get a single coordinated mutation is much longer than the existence of the entire universe.”

Source:

Lind Schmitt, Jenny. 2019. Fossils and genetics show too little time exists in the universe for evolution  World Magazine (8 February).

Darwin Day 2018: Wikipedia Receives Censor of the Year Award

Wikipedia is the 2018 Censor of the Year.




Joel Kontinen

On February 12, which happens to be Charles Darwin’s birthday, Discovery Institute grants the Censor of the Year (COTY) award on individuals or organisations, recognising their “outstanding efforts in silencing debate about Darwinian evolution and alternative theories of life's origins.”

Past recipients of the award include Jerry Coyne, Neil deGrasse Tyson, the Commission on the General Conference of the United Methodist Church and the German Natural History Museum.

This year’s award goes to Wikipedia for the erasure of German palaeontologist Günter Bechly, disinformation about intelligent design and the biased treatment it gives to ID scholar Walter Bradley.

Source:

Klinghoffer, David. 2018. Happy Darwin Day! Our 2018 Censor of the Year Is Wikipedia. Evolution News & Science Today (12 February).

Michael Dowd: The Best Evolution Sites Are Wikipedia and Talk Origins

Reverend Michael Dowd collected the best webpages that defend the ideas of ol’ Charles. Image from Wikipedia, ranked as the top site by Dowd.



Joel Kontinen

Michael Dowd’s e-magazine The Evolutionary Times dropped into my mailbox during the weekend. As usual, the May issue was full of praise to evolution.

Reverend Dowd discloses that he got the idea for a short article entitled Evolution as Meaningful, Inspiring Fact after hearing an evolution skeptic voice doubts about the evidences for evolution in a radio programme.

Thus, Rev. Dowd decided to write an article that would list the best resources on inspiring evidences for evolution.

He concluded that the best evolution defending websites were Wikipedia and Talk Origins.

Both sites are known for their evolutionary propaganda. Rev. Dowd has probably not heard that at least one U.K. university will drop the grades of students caught in using Wikipedia as a source in their written assignments. (Wikipedia is admittedly a reasonable source of images depicting Charles Darwin, but that is an entirely different story.) Talk Origins is known for not letting facts stand in the way of defending evolution.

According to Rev. Dowd, cosmic complexity can be spiritually nourishing and deeply empowering. It seems likely that he will not let the facts spoil a good theory anytime soon.

Source:

Dowd, Michael. 2009. Evolution as Meaningful, Inspiring Fact. The Evolutionary Times (May). http://thankgodforevolution.com/node/1520.