ted@imsvax.UUCP (07/05/84)
I believe that the truth regarding man's origins and the origins of our world lie between what is being proposed by creationists and what is taught in our schools. The "scientific" version, with its emphasis on uniformatarianism and natural selection over huge expanses of time as the driving mechanism of evolution, can be demolished by the average Baptist minister as Evolutionists learned to their shame at Roanoke. Some of the arguments against natural selection are as follows: 1. The "plan" for many animal species must exist from day one e.g. the archer-fish and the giraffe; how did these animals survive whilst their necks and water spitting proclivities were evolving (presumably over millions of years) to a state at which they could earn their livings in the manner in which they do now? 2. The second law of thermodynamics, a scientific rendering of the ordinary maxim that sh__ rolls downhill, not uphill, is a perfectly good argument against the notion of chance mutations as a mechanism for driving evolution. Almost all mutations are for the worse, not for the better. Human mutations invariably take forms such as Down's syndrome or Tay-Sachs disease or hemophilia. Mutations other than these occur so rarely as to render impossible the chances of like mutants mating and forming a new species. And lastly, many animal species will kill mutants; among humans until just recently, this took the familiar form of the witch-craft trial. 3. Geological evidence of entire ages opening and closing suddenly contradict the notion of vast expanses of time being needed for evolutionary processes, especially as regards the extinction of entire animal species over large land areas. Why did the horse and camel become extinct in the Americas a few thousand years ago while prospering in Asia and Europe? Surely nobody can argue that they were inferior adaptations in the Americas. Likewise, the mammoths and mastodons which vanished in recent ages were at least as well adapted as our present elephants. At no time in recorded history has disease or natural disaster ever wiped out an entire animal species over an entire continent. Only the machinations of man cause large scale extinctions in our times and, in ancient times, man was not capable of such doings; indeed, he lost a great deal of sleep worrying about other animals making HIM extinct. In 1955, Imanuel Velikovsky proposed a theory of cataclysmic evolution in which disaster and large scale mutation caused by radiation and the unleashing of large amounts of energy at the times of global cosmic catastrophies replaces natural selection as the driving mechanism of evolution. This theory may be read in "Earth in Upheavel" which is still in print today. It explains a great many things which Darwinism fails to explain e.g. extinction; once you accept the notion of global catastrophies, it is not difficult to understand how whole species could be extirpated root and branch from entire land masses simply by being at the wrong place at the wrong time, particularly the largest animals which had the hardest time trying to get to high ground or other safety at such times. To understand the possabilities of radiation and energies being unleashed at the times of global disasters, the following consideration should suffice: twice in the story of Noah, in Genesis, the seven days just prior to the flood are mentioned; from the King James, Gen 7-4 'for yet seven days and I will cause it to rain forty days and forty nights' and Gen 7-10 'and it came to pass, after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth'. Seven days of what? Again, from the King James, Isiah 30-26 'Moreover, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of the seven days'. In the typical laconic style of the old testament, Isiah is mentioning the common notion amongst the ancient world that a stellar blow- out within the solar system immediately preceeded the flood and, probably, was the causal agent of the flood. The seven days prior to the deluge, during which this event was visible on earth is, apparently, the basis of the seven day light festivals of the ancient world, including Hannukah with its seven candals. A deeper reading of ancient lore would reveal that this nova involved Saturn and not our present sun. Hesiod, in "Works and Days" and Ovid in "The Metamorphoses" use almost identical language in describing the universal ancient belief that there had been "a golden age when Saturn (Kronos) was the king of heaven, followed by a silver age when Jupiter(Zeus) was the king of heaven, followed by the deluge and the present ages". In the same language, the sun is the "king of heaven" now. A huge amount of radiation was unleashed upon the earth at the time of the flood; Noah and his family survived in the great ship and handfuls of people and beasts survived on mountaintops in various parts of the world. Many of the children of men and animals were looking less like their parents than might have been expected. Ovid, in "The Metamorphoses" wrote 'When, therefore, the earth, covered with mud from the recent flood became heated up by the hot and genial rays of the sun, she brought forth innumerable forms of life, in part of ancient shapes, and in part creatures new and strange'. Noah's grandson, Canaan, looked quite a bit less like his parents than most of the children of that time. Again, from the King James, Gen 9-25 'Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren'. The old testament is laconic; it is meant only as an index of sorts to the full body of rabbinical lore called Midrashim. It is not meant to be terribly readable in and of itself. To further complicate matters, its authors lived in a world in which our notion of objectivity or of things happening by chance were inconcievable. To them, nothing just happened; rather, the Lord caused something to happen for a reason. The notion that two cities luck might just run out one night as they lay in the path of a meteorite storm was, again, inconcievable. Rather, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and brimstone from heaven as punishment for their sins. The story of Canaan was assumed to be widely known by the authors of the old testament and hence drew only a one line reference. A modern person reading it might not understand what was meant. The only really large body of Midrashim which has ever been translated into English is Louis Ginzberg's seven volumn "Legends of the Jews", copyright 1907, 1937 available from the Jewish Publication Society of America in Philadelphia. Volumn 1, pages 168-169 describe the curse of Canaan in more detail, again in language indicating that the original authors had no comprehension of random events or genetic mutation etc. " the descendants of Ham through Canaan therefore have red eyes, because Ham looked upon the nakedness of his father; they have twisted curly hair because Ham turned and twisted his head around to see the nakedness of his father; and they go about naked, because Ham did not cover the nakedness of his father". Prior to the flood, conditions had been such that man had no need for either technology or the institution of slavery. There had been no seasons, food grew unaided, and the force of gravity itself had been significantly less, allowing animals to grow to sizes at which they couldn't function in todays world, also allowing work which seems heavy to us to be done easily by the people of the time. In those days, even as in the middle ages four or five hundred years ago, a genetic mutant like Canaan would have been burnt at the stake. After the flood, however, there weren't enough people of any variety around for anyone to feel good about killing someone for being different and, since life in general had just become much more difficult, and the idea of owning slaves was just starting to occur to people, who better to make slaves out of than someone who had just been punished by the lord, obviously for some grandiose sin. Thus did the black race, rather than originating in Africa as is commonly taught, escape to various parts of the world, only to survive in Africa and India and a few places in which they were better adapted than and were left unmolested by other groups. Again, from the King James Gen 10-18 'and afterwards were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad'. Arguments from the realm of radio-carbon dating purporting to show that Africa was inhabited tens of thousands or millions of years ago are simply invalid; they are based on the assumption that our present ratios of carbon types held good in all ages, an assumption that goes out the window with catastrophism. Likewise the notion that Neanderthals and other primitive types disappeared tens of thousands of years ago rather than just recently.
sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) (07/09/84)
Doesn't this belong in net.jokes? Or at least in net.religion? (Apologies in advance to the readers of both other groups.) -- /Steve Dyer {decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca.ARPA
dubois@uwmacc.UUCP (07/10/84)
>[Steve Dyer] >Doesn't this belong in net.jokes? Or at least in net.religion? >(Apologies in advance to the readers of both other groups.) Perhaps a clue as to the source of your merriment? Your comments are unnecessarily obscure. -- Paul DuBois Univ. of Wis.-Madison {allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!dubois UW Regional Primate Center And he is before all things, and by him all things consist... Colossians 1:17
wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (07/12/84)
Perhaps this should go into net.fairy-tales, net.wild-assumptions, net.science-is-all-wet, or net.tub-thumping-fundamentalist. I could not believe what I was reading. Velikofsky(sp)? That old reprobate was debunked years ago. Hmmmmm. Sounds like a good story line for a new sf movie. T. C. Wheeler
dyer@wivax.UUCP (Stephen Dyer) (07/14/84)
Of course, the issue is NOT "cataclysmic evolution" per se which deserves mention in net.fairy-tales, but the treatment of it in the referenced article. Have you noticed the reports in recent months that iridium, presumably from a comet or meteor, has been found in certain strata dated around the time of one of the great extinctions? -- /Steve Dyer decvax!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca.ARPA
steven@qubix.UUCP (07/16/84)
>> >[Steve Dyer] >> >Doesn't this belong in net.jokes? Or at least in net.religion? >> >(Apologies in advance to the readers of both other groups.) >> >> Perhaps a clue as to the source of your merriment? Your comments are >> unnecessarily obscure. Considering that the article consisted of a rehash of 50's pseudo-science debunked, I think that Mr Dyer might well think of it as a joke. Among other things it contained refrences to "Worlds In Collision", the most infamous book of scientific charlatinry (sp?) ever written in america. Steven Maurer