The PBS Evolution Library has an entry called Ring Species: Salamanders. The article discusses the breeding patterns of the Ensatina salamanders found on the Pacific coast and describes them as, "all descended from a common ancestral population. [of salamander]" The ring species of Ensatina salamanders is described as, "From one population to the next, in a circular pattern, these salamanders are still able to interbreed successfully. However, where the circle closes -- in the black zone on the map in Southern California -- the salamanders no longer interbreed successfully. The variation within a single species has produced differences as large as those between two separate species." To which I say, so what? There is a big difference between "don't" and "can't." One wonders if these different types of salamanders no longer interbreed by choice or if they became biologically incapable of mating. Why do they stop interbreeding? Do we know, or only think we know? Besides, whether they interbreed or not, these creatures all have the same salamander genome. We see the exact same behavior with dog breeding -- most people know that you can put together two (male and female) dogs of the same breed and you'll get purebred puppies, but if you put together two dogs of different breeds and allow them to mate, you'll get a mutt. Chihuahuas and Great Danes don't successfully mate very well due to physical limitations, and yet we still say we only have one species of canine. Yet with wild species, the slightest variation in kind can result in the declaration by … [Read more...]
Coastal Empire and Hunter’s Omen have been re-released
As the draft of Atheist's Prayer gets nearer to completion, a major rewrite and re-release of Coastal Empire came to be in order because the dialog simply wasn't up to standard. In fact, it was pretty terrible. But it's been fixed. The plot was always a good one and the characters remained the same, but virtually every line of dialog in the novel was rewritten, and much of the narrative retold as well. Naturally, a new edition called for new cover art, which my talented wife provided. On the other hand, the plot of Premonition was already fairly solid, so the necessary revisions were considerably less significant (after cutting the first third of the first chapter.) Nevertheless, once we entered rewrite mode, we didn't want to stop with the first Mercer novel and ignore the sequel. The second novel also needed to match what I hope to continue with Atheist's Prayer in terms of total quality. The worst thing about Premonition was the title. The second worst thing about the novel was the cover. Both of those issues have been resolved (along with a few minor revisions) and we are pleased to announce the release of Hunter's Omen. Won't these look good on your bookshelf? Signed copies available upon request for $20 each. … [Read more...]
Secondhand Sight Audiobook is now available
The audiobook for Secondhand Sight is officially available for sale through Audible.com. The link can be found here. … [Read more...]
Evolutionary Creation is for suckers
A friend of mine sent me this link at Biologos to an article titled "Evolutionary Creation is for Everyone", probably knowing full well the sort of reaction that provocative title would get from me, a reaction of the knee-jerk variety. While I hold no animus toward the Biologos organization, this sort of nonsense is what happens when Christians try to compromise with secular beliefs. Darwin's theory of shapeshifting is actually a very poor explanation for the complexity of life, and yes, I'm about to explain why. The reason I say that evolutionary creation is an attempt to compromise Christian beliefs with atheistic ones is because I've read the books by popular (atheist) biologists such as Richard Dawkins, Jerry Coyne, and P. Z. Myers, and these "experts" all preach that creationism is nonsense, and evolution is truth. It is an attempt to compromise with people uninterested in compromise. These secular scientists will acknowledge that people like Francis Collins and Ken Miller are good scientists, but imply they are mentally unstable for being Catholic and claiming evolution and creation is both true. Are evolution and creation both true, or are they mutually exclusive beliefs? It seems to depend on whom one asks. Advocates of evolution prefer to make arguments from authority, and have written books considered academic works, yet bearing ludicrous titles such as Evolution and the Myth of Creation. Author/Professor Tim Berra became famous for committing what has come to be known as "Berra's Blunder" because he used an obvious example of intelligent design in a … [Read more...]
POTUS Campaign, Plank 2
Busy lately, so I'll get right to the point. Given that my subscriber count didn't increase at all from my big announcement that I was open to running for President of the United States, I'm not going to make the campaign a daily effort. It turns out that I don't know how to write a short blog post. What should have been a sentence or two at most about anti-trust legislation to break up the monopolies currently enjoyed by our modern free speech censors in control of social media. PLATFORM PLANK #2: Break up the big tech monopolies, so they can no longer censor and suppress free speech. Jeff Bezos owns Amazon. Sure, other people own stock in Amazon, but Bezos has acquired unbelievable power through his control of the company. He also owns Amazon Web Services, and The Washington Post. With his virtually unbridled power, he silenced millions of America with the snap of a finger, when he de-platformed Parler. Mark Zuckerberg interfered with the 2020 election by censoring free speech on his platform. Truth was suppressed and lies were promoted. Even worse, the lies were given the cover of claiming to be "fact-checked." It's bad enough that Zuckerberg has total control of Facebook, given the power and market dominance that application has, but then consider that Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp among the astonishing number of independent companies that behemoth has acquired and absorbed over the years. Equally powerful (meaning much too powerful) is Alphabet corporation, the parent company for Google and Youtube. Google is known to bury information they don't … [Read more...]
