Evolution @ MindSay 
science
First:
Recently, a thought captivated my mind that proves that the theory of evolution is a big hoax. The thought is simple and yet profound ... why is there no recorded history before approximately 4,000 B.C.? The answer is obvious ... there was no history!
This is why it is commonly referred to as "pre-history". It stands to reason that no writing system is needed if you live in a small band of hunter gatherers. In fact, you really don't need writing until trade needs to be established so you can keep track of debts. This also completely ignores all the pre-history evidence of human manipulation of environment, such as cave painting which date to 12,000 BCE or earlier. The article also seems to think that we are now at the pinicle of human culture and civilazation, but more on that in a bit.
...Such Biblical claims seem absurd to modern evolutionists, who have convinced themselves that the earth is billions of years old. Ironically, they have absolutely NO EVIDENCE of such longevity.
One of the simplest and best proofs that evolution is a joke, is the FACT that there is NO recorded history prior to 4,000 B.C. The world's history is CLEARY defined by SIX world powers since time began: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
And China and the ancient Nordic empire and Mongolia and... well, except for the Nords the other ancient civilazations aren't white, so they must not count. And just to rub the lack of a real world view in thier face:
Do you think it's a mere coincidence that the Word of God is so concise on world history?
Yea, it's real concise.
If I were an evolutionist, I would be extremely disturbed by this FACT. Prove me wrong! I dare you. I triple-dog dare you to show me any recorded civilization before 4,000 B.C. And I don't mean some pottery jug or item that you claim is 14,000 years old--Show me any evidence of civilization prior to 4,000 B.C. You cannot.
Condecending, childish and over sure of himself. It is obvious that no amount of evidence would change his mind, be it cave paintings, pottery, or fossils. I also find it funny that he equates civilazation directly with humanity... like man needs civilazation to even exist.
There is NO recorded history prior to 4,000 B.C.--no writings, no carved stones, no battles, no wars, no countries, no nothing! It's as if mankind just suddenly began (which is exactly what the Bible teaches happened).
Now he shoots himself in the foot. We know that some early writings are from about 3,500 BCE (some disputed to be from as early as 6,000 BCE, and thats just established wrting systems) because of dating techniques... the same ones that he refuses to believe can date past 4,000 BCE. Besides, we do have evidence, LOTS of evidence, of carved stones from a very long time ago. We have a whole system just to catagorize them, in fact.
IF, as evolutionists claim, the earth is billions of years old, and mankind has evolved from a lower and simpler form of life, then why has mankind gone from writing upon stones to laser printers in just the past 3,500 years?
Because it took us a long time to reach a population where such things were necessary. I also like the way he assumes that we are at some wonderfully advanced state now. Yes, our technology is amazing to us now, but in 100 years, hell, in 20 years it will seem antiquated and simple. I'm sure fire was super advanced to cavemen too...
The Word of God declares that God created the world at approximately 4,000 B.C.--YOU'D BE A FOOL NOT TO BELIEVE IT, BECAUSE THERE'S NO HISTORY PRIOR TO 4,000 B.C. As incredible as this fact is, it is undeniable proof against evolution.
The proof for evolution is science backed up by tons of evidence. The proof for creation amount to about two chapters from an old book. I'll take my chances with being "a fool".
-Maru!
I don't know what brought this on. I created a whole online journal, I have one on livejournal but that place turned into something where I hold no comfort in posting anything. I had another mindsay account, but to be honest I forgot about it a week after creating it, therefore I do not remember the screenname or password. Anyway, here I am, typing up an entry while listening to Evolution of Dance and switching to Falling Slowly from Once.
Lack of Tab bothers me. I was having a conversation with Colonel, my nickname for him not an actual colonel he's a friend of mine at school. I was looking through Facebook and ran across a couple of friends who had some dramatics this year over boyfriend-stealing and whatnot and that got me thinking. How do we blame?
I'm uncomfortable actually putting out the whole boyfriend theiving deal of cards on the table, so I'm not going to go into it.
When we point the finger, do we point them at the guilty party, who we wish were the guilted one, or do we blame someone so your friend (or boyfriend) doesn't have blame on them?
Colonel seemed to conclude that when it comes to situations like the one above, one that involves sides, one will always tend to side with the friends. He says that situations that include sides rarely do not consist of bias. I agree, even jury members hold prejudice, even though they aren't supposed to. Stupid stereotyping schemas, which is a bit redundant, but I'm indifferent. Is blame ever fair? Is blame ever justly dealt out? Or is blame designated by a judge, a jury or an academic peer?
Oh right! The purpose of the blog title. I belong to drama club, and on more than one occasion I've heard my friends imitating British accents for a skit, and I wanted to die they're so bad. A friend of mine and I had a conversation about this before which resulted in her saying this
"They all suck at British accents. Nobody can do a British accent, not even the British."
A joke obviously, but badly imitated British accents bother me nonetheless. I know, I know who am I to say if an accent is badly imitated or not? If it sounds like Dick Van Dyke from Mary Poppins it makes me wonder. If it sounds so forced it's frightening, I take it with a grain of salt. Basically if it sounds like my friends I don't think of it as legitimately aped, because they sound forced and in the style of a certain chimney sweep. That's just me being vicious though.
--Amanda
If you're waiting for things to get better....well, you might want to grab a Snickers because it's gonna be awhile. The mortgage meltdown has not finished its Super Nova phase yet, and will continue to smolder for some time to come. But the same rapscallions that perpetuated the mortgage fraud are the same cowboys behind predatory lending of credit cards, and even student loans. Fannie Mae is warning of a pending crisis in student loans that will make the Enron debacle look like a hiccup. And we still have to wait until January of next year before the new Hazmat Team can get into the White House and get a good look at just how toxic the past 8 years have really been. Whew, it's going to be ugly. When does the Oath of Office take place? January what? I expect there will be a Major News Conference by February where the next President will gaze forlornly into the camera, sigh deeply, and utter the most pathetic speech we've heard from the Oval Office since the Great Depression. It'll be the equivalent of that hair removal scene from "The 40 Year Old Virgin" where the Korean attendant yells out, "We're gonna need more wax!!!!"
I swear to God. If just one of these war-mongering, lying, canker sores could be brought up on REAL charges...if just ONE head of some "higher-up" were to roll...if somebody, ANYBODY in a position of authority were to be held accountable....then perhaps the exhausted, confused, overworked and grossly underpaid American, trillion-dollar-war-tax-payer might actually be able to raise their heavy heads and heavier hearts to the heavens and remember what it was like to have some HOPE for the future. They might recall those vacated feelings of optimism and enthusiasm that once defined us as people. But as it stands, we are mere shells of our former selves. Our jobs have been shanghaied by corporate pirates called CEOs who, after having expunged every last decent wage-paying job from American mills, farms and factories, collect their multi-million dollar severance packages and retire to one of their Carribean properties to drink Rum Punches on their 3,000 square foot deck overlooking a Robert Trent Jones Golf Course. Ahhh, the good life.
You know what this feels like? It's like a wide-eyed child, innocent and wonder-filled, after spending a day at the circus where sixteen clowns tumbled out of a tiny car, and elephants balanced on one leg, and the bearded lady swallowed flaming swords and all things were magical and true. But later, when the crowds have left and the klieg lights have been dimmed, the child wanders back to the Big Top, sneaks in under the flaps and lo and behold, Wonderland has turned back into the Hell that it is. The clowns are gang raping the Constitution, the elephant is being mercilessly beaten by a midget named W., and the bearded lady is really an ex prison guard from Guantanamo who has a swastika tattooed on her ass and believes waterboarding is too kind.
It's too late to run and hide. We can't pretend we don't know the truth. And the options, the few that we actually have, are rather unpleasant and discomforting. But, and I say this with all the steadfast sincerity that I can muster in these darkly disturbing times, if we don't ACT on what few options we have left to us, then we will have even fewer options tomorrow.
In this time, and in this space, we must evolve. If we fail to do so, then we shall succumb. There are ten thousand crises lined along the high ridge of the horizon. If we hesitate, they will soon enough, each of them, have their day in the sun...until the sun itself is extinguished by their fury. Yet, for al the myriad issues that face us, that challenge us to our marrow, there is one solution that will cure all ills. That solution is the spiritual evolution of our species.
In the most optimistic sense of it all, these hard times have done us a kind of favor. They have prepared us for what we can, and what we must, accomplish. Knowing the truth of these times, knowing the nature of an enemy so sinister and so deceiptful, we can at last look inward, find the embers of a glowing strength we may have all but forgotten we possessed, and take the matter to task.
I will summarize this particular blog with a highly-appropriate quote from Nelson Mandela: "Our deepest fear is not that we are weak, or helpless. Our true fear is that we are powerful beyond imagining..."
To know our true power makes us responsible. With such knowledge comes an obligation, a moral and pressing urgency, to rouse ourselves from this collective and apathetic slumber and reclaim what was once nobly referred to as our "humanity".
In this time...in this space...and for the sake of all that is free and wild and lovely...let us hasten.
I am the Reverend Terry Stingley. I wrote and approve this message.
(Future blogs will address the necessity and the techniques for spiritual evolution)
Does your brain have a mind of its own?
Why can't we stick to our goals? Blame the sloppy engineering of evolution.
By Gary Marcus
May 4, 2008
How many times has this happened to you? You leave work, decide that you need to get groceries on the way home, take a cellphone call and forget all about your plan. Next thing you know, you've driven home and forgotten all about the groceries.
Or this. You decide, perhaps circa Jan. 1, that it's time to lose weight; you need to eat less, eat better and exercise more. But by the first of May, your New Year's resolutions are a distant memory.
Human beings are, to put it gently, in a unique position in the animal world. We're the only species smart enough to plan systematically for the future -- yet we remain dumb enough to ditch even our most carefully made plans in favor of short-term gratification. ("Did I say I was on a diet? Mmm, but three-layer chocolate mousse is my favorite. Maybe I'll start my diet tomorrow.")
In a wonderful study conducted at Stanford University in the late 1960s, psychologist Walter Mischel offered preschoolers a choice: a marshmallow now, or two marshmallows if they could wait until he returned. And then, cruelly, he left them alone with nothing more than themselves, the single marshmallow, a hidden camera and no indication of when he would return.
A few of the kids ate the oh-so-tempting marshmallow the minute he left the room. But most kids wanted the bigger bonus and endeavored to wait. So they tried. Hard. But with nothing else to do in the room, the torture was visible. The kids did just about anything they could to distract themselves from the tempting marshmallow that stood before them. They talked to themselves, bounced up and down, covered their eyes, sat on their hands -- strategies that more than a few adults might on occasion profitably adopt. Even so, for about half the kids, the 15 to 20 minutes until Mischel returned was just too long to wait.
Toddlers, of course, aren't the only humans who melt in the face of temptation. Teenagers often drive at speeds that would be unsafe even on an autobahn, and people of all ages have been known to engage in unprotected sex with strangers, even when they are perfectly aware of the risks. (To say nothing of the daily uncontrollable choices of alcoholics, drug addicts and compulsive gamblers.)
What gives? Why are we as a species so often so desperately poor at achieving our goals? If we are, as the selfish-gene theory would have it, organisms that exist only to serve the interests of our genes, why do we waste so much of our time doing things that are not, in any obvious way, remotely in the interest of our genes? How can one explain, for example, why a busy undergraduate would spend four weeks playing "Halo 3" rather than studying for his exams?
The selfish-gene theory doesn't, in itself, answer these questions, but there is another facet of evolution that can: The fact that evolution is entirely blind, unable to look forward, backward or to the side. As Charles Darwin observed, evolution invariably proceeds through a process called "descent with modification." In lay language, this means that Mother Nature never starts from scratch, no matter how useful an overhaul might be. Everything that evolves necessarily builds on that which came before. Our arms, to take one simple example, are adaptations of the front legs of our primate ancestors.
In practical terms, that means that evolution's products aren't always particularly sound. Truly dismal solutions are quickly weeded out; if someone has a genetic condition that brings them into the world without a functioning heart, they don't live long enough to reproduce. But merely adequate solutions (what engineers call "kluges") -- like the awkward, injury-prone human spine, good enough but far from perfect -- can stick around indefinitely if better solutions are too far away on the evolutionary landscape.
In the mental machinery that governs our everyday decisions, kluges abound. Take, for example, the scenario described in the beginning of the essay -- the fellow who forgets his errand on the way home. His problem is clearly not in finding his way to the grocery store -- it's in remembering to go in the first place.
The problem is that evolution failed to realize that remembering goals is not like recognizing objects. When your brain sees a lion, the thing to do is to decide, lickety-split, to get out of the way. Run first; ask questions later. We're programmed for just that kind of split-second decision; just about every creature on the planet is built such that it can identify things like predators and prey very rapidly. We're not programmed to remember precise episodes from the past. Why not? Because remembering the exact date on which you last saw a lion is not particularly helpful when you're trying to get out of the way.
Alas, evolution didn't have the foresight to realize that different kinds of tasks require different kinds of memory, and it used the same basic sort of memory for everything, not just for remembering what lions and tigers look like (in which general tendencies suffice) but also for cases -- like tracking our goals -- where a bit more precision would have been helpful. As a result, trying to remember what to do next can be a little like trying to remember what you had for breakfast yesterday: There are too many breakfasts and too many yesterdays for our biological memories to keep track of.
The same thing can happen with our goals. When you sit in your car late in the day and ask yourself, "What am I supposed to do next?" and all of a sudden the cellphone rings, your brain can easily lose track of which "next step" is the right one. Instead of zeroing in on the specific memory it needs, it may well settle for remembering whatever you've done in the car most often -- and that's drive home. Voila, autopilot.
Our attempts to pursue our goals are often thwarted by the fact that evolution has built our most sophisticated technologies on top of older technologies -- without working out how to integrate the two. We can plan in advance, using our modern deliberative reasoning systems, but our ancestral reflexive mechanisms, which evolved first, still basically control the steering wheel. When the chips are down, it's those mechanisms that our brains turn to, and that means that our brains frequently wind up relying on machinery that is all about acting first and asking questions later, squandering some of the efforts of our deliberative system.
No sensible engineer would have designed things this way. Why design fancy machinery for making long-term goals if you're not going to use it? Yet the brain is structured such that the more tired, stressed or distracted we are, the less likely we are to use our forebrains and the more likely to lean back on the time-tested but shortsighted machinery we've inherited from our ancestors.
Still, all is not lost. Even though our short-term desires are pretty good at grabbing the steering wheel of our consciousness, our more recently evolved deliberate minds are powerful enough to regain at least some measure of control.
Consider, for example, the difficulty that most people having in sticking to abstract goals like "I intend to lose weight" or "I plan to finish this article before the deadline." Nice thoughts, but not formulated in terms that your ancestral, reflexive brain might understand. The work-around? Translate those abstract goals into a form your ancestral systems -- which traffic largely in dumb reflexes -- can understand: if-then. If you find yourself in a particular situation, then take a specific action: "If I see French fries, then I will avoid them." As Peter Gollwitzer, my colleague in New York University's department of psychology, has shown, even simple changes like these can markedly increase the chances of success.
Our conscious, deliberate systems will never have total control, and our memories will never be perfect, but as they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, recognition is the first step. If we come to recognize our limitations, and how they evolved, we just might be able to outwit our inner kluge.
Gary Marcus, a professor of psychology at New York University, is the author, most recently, of "Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind."
Today I was talking to my friend Laura . She asked me how I got into sculpting. It was a bit of a long story, I probably put her to sleep. ;) But anyway, somewhere or somehow I got to thinking... about art, sculptures, what it means to me and what I want to accomplish with myself. I have studied art a bit, and its history.. well, not as much as I would like to, but that is something for another day... but what is on my mind now, is that I wonder how art is evolving and changing over time. And, I wonder if my art is a step forward in sculpture. I wonder if art as a whole is growing because of what I do. Even if not very many people have seen it, I know it is unique and different then all other sculpture. It reminds me of another theory, that every time someone breaks a new world record, our species evolves on some small level; as we are pushing our boundaries and capabilities as human beings. So I wonder if the same is true for art, and what I do. I think about artists like da Vinci, Dali, Van Gogh, and others.. who have each their individual styles and have influenced art throughout their time and our time. It seems like da Vinci's style has been lost on many levels in modern art; like the way he created a portrait isn't being used today. Well, it probably is, but perhaps isn't as popular (I don't really know). So anyways, I would like to see myself creating sculptures on higher levels of art, meaning that I want them to push the limits of what we know about art and sculpture today. To see if I can create a new type of art or expression or something from what I do.
You can see my work at www.futantshadow.deviantart.com/gallery/
Peter
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