Essays On Pseudoscience
The Generation Game: No Prizes For Young Earth Creationists
According to Biblical literalists, Homo sapiens suffered a population bottleneck of eight people (five of whom were closely genetically related), around 2348 BCE. If this is true, then no more than about 200 generations of humans can have lived since the purported Noachian flood. Current genetic and historical demographic evidence demonstrates that this is a physically impossible scenario.
Rev. Paley Finds A Watch: A Poorly Designed Argument For Design
Discussion of the reasons we have to doubt Rev. Paley's notion of design in the natural world and its modern equivalent in the intelligent design movement. There remains no viable methodology in which to identify purposeful design in biology because natural mechanisms are observed to regularly and effectively mimic the claimed designed characteristics of organisms without recourse to supernatural explanations.
A Fallacy Of Gamblers: The Collective Noun For Creationists
Analysis of the likelihood that, if discovered, the mechanism underlying abiogenesis will demonstrate physical causation rather than some supernatural 'miracle'. Creationist misunderstandings regarding the concept of randomness, how probability calculations are made, and the distinction between concurrent and consecutive events are discussed.
The St. Fagans Pterodactyl: Lies, Damned Lies And Christian Fundamentalism
On their American TV show, ​fundamentalist Christian hosts Eric Hovind and Paul Taylor made the ludicrous claim that eyewitnesses reported pterodactyls swooping on a battlefield in 17th century Wales. Unsurprisingly, no historical documents or even local folklore verify this. Yet similar untruths are regularly found in Christian fundamentalist school textbooks, as well as in Kent (Dr Dino) Hovind's hilarious, diploma mill 'PhD thesis'.
An Honest Look At Flood Mythology Leaves Biblical Literalists All At Sea;
Close examination of the mythology of diverse cultures reveals that tales involving floods similar to the Noachian story are not nearly as globally prevalent as young earth creationists claim. Examples are given in which accepted methods of investigation have been ignored and/or evidence is knowingly presented dishonestly. The essay concludes with a general discussion of the psychology of mythology and how it negatively impacts on creationist claims.
