Dinosaur?

Here's an excellent video by AronRa exploring the classification of dinosaurs (and their non-dinosaurian relatives).

So what about the dinosaurs?

Birds are dinosaurs.

Pterosaurs are not dinosaurs, but they share a close common ancestor.

Ichthyosaurs are not dinosaurs.

Mosasaurs are not dinosaurs, instead they're related to today's monitor lizards.

Plesiosaurs are not dinosaurs either.

Dinosaurs are not lizards.

Many dinosaurs have been discovered to have feathers (yes, Velociraptor is fluffy!)

Evolution (AronRa)

I frequently refer to AronRa's Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism series. And for some reason, I remembered the couple of evolution information heavy ones as the bulk of the series rather than just a part.

So, I rewatched them to set that straight. From the playlist: Foundational Falsehood of Creationism,

8th FFoC: On mutations and "information". This video explains mutations and creationist misconception of related concepts. Some interesting information on beneficial human mutations.

9th FFoC: Transitional species. This one explains transitional forms.

10th FFoC: Introductory primer to cladistic phylogenetics. Two words: FUCKING AWESOME (to me anyways). The video attempts to condense that particular set of evidence for common ancestry.

11th FFoC: This one deals with creationist misconceptions about speciation. Helpful to understanding common ancestry.

The other parts are great too. But they deal specifically with other creationist misconceptions/lies/fallacies; they are lighter on information on evolution.

For stuff on evolution by Aronra, they are consolidated in this playlist.

Evolution (QualiaSoup)

QualiaSoup uploaded a new version of his "Evolution" video.

Do check out QualiaSoup's other high quality videos.

Videos on Evolution

In light of recent "discussion" on evolution, here's a video series worth watching.

It discusses 3 of the evidence for evolution in ourselves: our Chromosome 2 history, the Vitamin C pseudogene, endogenous retroviruses (ERVs). The last 2 videos deals what is not and is a missing link with cool examples.

Click here to see playlist page.

Lawrence Krauss (Imagine No Religion 2)

If you haven't seen the "Something from Nothing" lecture by Lawrence Krauss, here's one from the Imagine No Religion 2 conference. And it's done somewhat differently from the usual version he gave previously.

Discussion with Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss (2012)

This is a wonderful 120 minutes of discussion and Q&A with Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss at the Origins Project, ASU (4 Feb 2012). Topics ranged from evolution to cosmology, science & science education, religion and politics.

* Added to this playlist: Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss

New Videos and Playlists

TrustingDoubt has uploaded the seventh part of her God's Emotions series which explores Christian concepts of god using affective science.

Youtube Channel update
After updating the layout and phasing out the Favorites section of my Youtube Channel, a couple of new playlists has been added to organize some of the videos retained from the favorites "playlist".

QualiaSoup and TheraminTrees
This playlist contains a majority of QualiaSoup's videos and a handful of TheraminTrees pertaining to topics such as skepticism, science, religion and atheism.

Psychology of Belief
A 10 part series created by AntiCitizenX. It explores how belief is generated and various cognitive biases and how they relate to belief in god(s).

Discovering Religion
This series created by DiscoveringReligion explores creationism, evolution, religious influence on government and morality. As of now, it has 22 episodes.

AronRa Evolution Videos
Aside from his Foundational Falsehood of Creationism series, AronRa has a number of videos pertaining to evolution. Like his series, these videos are content heavy, very interesting and educational.

Evid3nc3 Series: Atheism
A playlist consisting part of Evid3nc3's series that pertains to atheism. Personally, the highlight of the series so far is the video: A History of God.

Animated Arguments
A playlist of videos of standalone animated "arguments" by DarkMatter2525.

"There are no gods"
3 videos, 40 minutes. This is a response series by TheraminTrees addressing concepts of god he once accepted and now rejects.

Old Testament Gods - AETV
3 episodes of the Atheist Experience TV show on the topic of Old Testament gods. Spanning more than 4 hours, Tracie explores the OT pantheon (El, Asherah, etc) with Matt while answering calls intermittently.

Channel Update

Just a note. The Atheozoa Youtube channel has been updated with the new layout format.

As such, the favorite videos section has been phased out (the Favorites playlist is just plain too messy to feature). Also, the new layout removed the "Subscriptions" section and replaced it with the "Featured Channels" section where I have only put up a couple of channels at the moment.

One nice new feature is the "Featured Playlists" section where I've put up the the higher quality video series by several Youtubers.

Do check out the channel at: Channel Atheozoa

Creationism Attack on Singapore

It has just come to my attention that Singapore is actually one of the 7 countries targeted by Creation Ministries International's "Question Evolution" campaign.

So if any Singaporeans has visited my blog, please be aware of this piece of religious nonsense attempting to spread itself further within our communities.

For more information and resources on the alleged Evolution-Creationism controversy, do visit the following sites:

National Center for Science Education (USA)

This US non-profit organization has been defending the scientific theory of evolution for more than 2 decades. Check the site out for information pertaining to anti-Evolution movements by creationists in the US.

TalkOrigins Archive

The TalkOrigins archive is home to the Index of Creationist Claims where practically all creationists claims has been answered/refuted. This is a quick resource for people looking for answers from mainstream science about creationists' "questions".

Judgement Day - Intelligent Design on Trial

Creationism's pseudoscientific disguise, Intelligent Design, has been demolished in a federal court. The event was made into a NOVA documentary. This is worth a watch!

Question Evolution: Answers 

15+1 Youtubers, Christians and non-believers, has put together a 4 part video series to answer/rebut the 15 questions from the Question Evolution Campaign.

Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism

For those who enjoy being immersed in a stream of information, check out AronRa's Foundational Falsehood of Creationism series on Youtube.

Why Science is Better Than Religion and Always Has Been

Also from Skepticon 1 is this presentation by Richard Carrier entitled: "Why Science is Better Than Religion and Always Has Been"

I like it.

Adaptive Immune System

I haven't posted anything for quite awhile so I thought I'd recommend a video.

Here's a video from the FreeOK Convention - there are 5 segments on TheThinkingAtheist channel if you're interested. This one is a presentation on vaccination and your adaptive immune system by Abbie Smith.

Question Evolution: Answers

Via TheLivingDinosaur, it came to my attention of Creation Ministries International's campaign, Question Evolution. As a response, 15+1 Youtubers came together to produce videos to answer the ludicrous questions in the campaign's pamphlet.

Here are the 4 videos collated:

Links to the creationist's site and pamphlet can be found on the Youtube page of the first part of the video. Links to the individual contributors can be found on the Youtube page of the video part they appear in.

Phylogeny (Tree of Life)

A new video by AronRa.

Back with Videos

It's been 3 weeks and during that time, lots of videos has been churned out on Youtube. Here's three that I particularly liked.

Most recently, richarddawkinsdotnet has (finally) posted new videos. Here's a conversation between Richard Dawkins and Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Interesting stuff.

QualiaSoup also uploaded another video. This time he addresses atheism directly. Beautifully made video as usual.

I thoroughly enjoyed this video by AronRa. Continuing his "Falsifying Phylogeny" series, this video is about the dog family.

Youtube Atheism

I have been neglecting my blog lately (close to two freaking months actually). I am just too lazy to pen down what I thought of lately. I'm sure that will change when my conscription ends.

So, nope, no new mini essays from me. Instead I will post some of the videos that I enjoyed.

Here's a little something on Evolution, specifically Systematic Phylogenetics, by AronRa. Unfortunately, embedding is disabled for the video - so here's the direct link.

Then we have this video. I found it particularly refreshing (perhaps a tiny bit disturbing for the rioting scenes) - a reminder that we are definitely still animals whatever else we may wish we are.

Here's a satire by DarkMatter2525, "If Atheists Acted Religious". Actually, to be specific, it's more like "If Atheists Acted Like Religious Bigoted Americans"

TheThinkingAtheist has been churning out a couple of nice videos for our entertainment. My favorite is this one.

And this one is about Christianity.

Stars died for you

We are all literally made of stardust. Isn't that a beautiful thought (fact, rather)? This is because all higher elements are synthesized in stars. When stars explode later in their life, they release all those elements - carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, iron etc. And it is those higher elements that we're eventually made of.

That's Professor Lawrence Krauss in the video by the way.

Stars, the Furnaces of Life. Forget Jesus, the stars died for us.

Science, learning about the true wonders of the universe. Forget petty religions, think science and reason.

Retarded Creationists

This entry will be a follow-up rebuttal to the points the creationist (Wendy Wright) in this video have made. This is going to be long - and educational. And I will recommend videos along way - they explain more with illustrations.

Richard Dawkins tries really hard to explain that there is multitudes of evidence for evolution. Given the location of the interview, he cannot, of course, show the evidence themselves - that which Wendy wants to see now although she remains unconvinced despite having previously seen them (or so she claims).

Let's start. Here's the first video in question.

1:12 - 1:31
There has been an effort within the scientific community to censor out information... against evolution that proves that evolution may not be as many scientists believe. There has been many times in which evidence that was brought forward to bolster the idea of evolution turned out to be fraudulent.

Actually, no. There is no such thing. (Shocking, eh?)

The alleged frauds and hoaxes said to cast doubt or even disprove evolution were exposed by the scientific community itself. There is no need to "censor" such information simply because they known to be false. Not to forgetting to mention that they are not evidence that the case for evolution is built on.

Here's a video by AronRa that deals with a few of the hoaxes (Haeckel's drawings, Nebraska Man, Archeoraptor, etc) that creationists frequently claim to show that evolution is a fraud:

Moving on...

1:31 - 1:52
So what we argue for is to teach the controversy. Don't censor out the facts that goes against evolution... such as the famous pig's tooth, the tooth that was claimed to be an example of a prehistoric man and turned out to be just the tooth of a pig.

The "famous pig's tooth" example (Nebraska Man) has been dealt with in the video mentioned above.

What about teaching the "controversy" then? No, we shouldn't.

We should teach only science in a science class - thus only valid scientific theories should be taught. As much as creationists would like to believe the contrary, the Theory of Evolution is demonstrably true and is accepted by the scientific community. Non-scientific or even unscientific ideas have no place in the science curriculum.

We don't teach the "controversy" between Evolution and Creationism the same way we don't teach the controversy between Heliocentrism and Geocentrism. The same way we don't teach the controversy between Reproduction by Sex and by Storks. You get the idea (I hope).

2:36 - 2:45
There is no evidence of evolution from one species to another. There's microevolution within a species but not going from one species to another.

False. This is patently false.

There are plenty of transitional forms (ie, evidence of one species evolving to another) in the fossil record. In fact, EVERY fossil found is a transitional form.

I'd recommend these two videos, by AronRa and by standup4REALscience

3:11 - 3:58
Scientists are now claiming that they are the only ones that can speak on this issue. And yet when people who look at the evidence, go to the Smithsonian Museum on Natural History and when we look for where is the evidence to show evolution from one species to another all we find are drawings, illustrations, there aren't the actual material evidence showing it. So, while there are attempts to say that only scientists can speak on this. What we have are scientists that are then creating an isolated community and saying that we're the ones... almost like... it's almost like it's a religion in which only scientists can speak or teach on it and to teach everyone else and everyone else must believe what the scientists, what particular scientists, say...

This is what I call implicit arrogance. Look at the language used here. She paints a picture in a way that it seems that it is scientists who are being unfair. She goes so far as to claim that the scientists are operating as though they were a religion.

Now here's the wake up call.

YOU are not qualified to make valid comments with regards to the theory of evolution or any other scientific theory for the matter. If you're not trained in the field, you have as much to contribute to the discussion as a car mechanic has on performing a heart surgery.

Only scientists (biologists specifically for evolution) can speak on such issues because they are the only ones who are qualified.

So why did I say that she was being implicitly arrogant? Because she thinks her complete lack of qualifications (may I add critical thinking as well) trumps the scientific consensus by people who are trained and have worked in the field. Now, that's some fat-ass arrogance there.

6:07 - 6:34
The ad hominen attacks that people who have faith in evolution use against people who don't buy into that... I think shows the lack of confidence in the evidence. If evolution had so much evidence behind it then those people in favour wouldn't to be reduced to ad hominen attacks against those who say show us the evidence show us what's lacking

Ad hominen attacks? I'm guessing that that is referring to things like:

"You retard, can't you see the freaking evidence?"
"Faith-heads cannot be convinced even if you place the evidence right in front of them."
"Oh god, you moron. I can't be bothered to explain any further."

It's not the lack of confidence that result in such comments. It is the sheer exasperation when creationists refuse to be convinced even when presented with the multitudes of evidence for evolution.

It's NOT "you moron, you better believe what I believe."
It's more like "you moron, the bloody evidence is so freaking obvious."

7:28 - 7:39
What they claim to be the evolution of a foetus in the womb based on hand drawings which has been proven to be false and yet they continue to publish it in scientific textbooks.

That's about Haeckel's drawings. It was also discussed in the first video I recommended (watch it if you haven't).

The thing with Haeckel's drawings is that even though Haeckel admitted that a few of his drawings are not based on actual observation, he's still sort of correct.

Embryos do in fact look extremely similar during the early stages of development. Some of those features displayed during development are indicative of their evolutionary history (ie, evidence for evolution).

Here's a blog entry by biologist PZ Myers on the topic of Haeckel's embryos. (Extremely long article - you've been warned)

8:18 - 10:13 [End of video]
*Babbles on about morality and science then more on the alleged lack of evidence*

How we operate society is completely separate issue from the validity of a scientific theory. It is a naturalistic fallacy to claim that because evolution says so and so therefore we should/would do so and so.

That is a very simple concept to understand. We don't have to operate our society's on Darwinian principles. If the principles are true in nature, that's that. It is a retarded claim to say that those principles are false simply because we don't like them.

Facts are facts whether you like them or not.


** Wow, the sheer amount of crap in one video... I don't think I will start on the second one...

Our Universe

Everytime when I watch a video that explores the sheer magnitude of the universe and the celestial objects within it, I get shivers down my spine. The awe. The wonder. The pride in humanity for we have gone so far in trying to understand the universe.

Here's another one with a different presentation style.

And this one was the first one that really blew me away.

Why Science?

It's a fundraiser video by the Richard Dawkins Foundation but it says much more than that.

Great Stuff!

RichardDawkins.net added 3 new and interesting videos this past week.

This one is a presentation by Dr PZ Myers on the topic of Evolution.

The following videos are presentations by Dr Andy Thomson. The first relates to morality and the latter on the topic of terrorism. Both of which revolves around religion.