Advocacy against Materialism and Neo-Darwinism: 2024 (part 2)

 

 

Article "Fossil Friday: Time Wanderers Debunk Popular Scenario of Mammalian Evolution" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (July 5, 2024) about out-of-place fossils among the mammal-like reptiles.

Photo: Holotype of Chronoperates paradoxus, University of Alberta, fair use
Photo: Holotype of Chronoperates paradoxus, University of Alberta, fair use

Photo credit: Pikaia, Bruce Martin, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: Pikaia, Bruce Martin, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Article "Fossil Friday: Cambrian Fossils Turned Upside Down Yet Again" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (July 12, 2024) about the reinterpretation of the iconic fossil Pikaia.


 

Article "Fossil Friday: Saber-Toothed Tigers Originated Multiple Times" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (July 19, 2024) about convergence and accelerated evolution in sabre-toothed animals.

Photo credit: Wilfredor, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: Wilfredor, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

If you want to suffer through yet another incompetent and vulgar response by Bill Needle you can read “A Convergence of Idiocy!” at his Marmotism blog (July 31, 2024).

Photo credit: Hallucigenia, Han Zeng, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: Hallucigenia, Han Zeng, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Article "Fossil Friday: Cambrian Explosion Bingo Continues" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (July 26, 2024) about another arbitrary just-so-story to explain the Big Bang of life.


 

 

Article "Fossil Friday: Controversial Gradualism in Tyrannosaurids" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (August 2, 2024) about more empirical problems for Darwinian gradualism.

Photo credit: Daspletosaurus, Evolutionnumber9, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: Daspletosaurus, Evolutionnumber9, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Photo credit: RECOLNAT (ANR-AA-INBS) - Gaëlle Doitteau, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Photo credit: RECOLNAT (ANR-AA-INBS) - Gaëlle Doitteau, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

 

Article "Fossil Friday: The Carboniferous Explosion of Winged Insects" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (August 9, 2024) about my very favorite subject and field of expertise: the fossil record of insects.


 

 

 

Article "Fossil Friday: Human Nature of Neanderthals Supported Again" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (August 16, 2024) about our ancient fellow humans from the Ice Age.

Photo credit: Tiia Monto, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: Tiia Monto, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Chilesaurus diegosarezi, by ケラトプスユウタ, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Chilesaurus diegosarezi, by ケラトプスユウタ, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

 

Article "Fossil Friday: The Mystery of the Frankenstein Dinosaur" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (August 23, 2024) about an enigmatic dinosaur and conflicting views on dinosaur relationships.


Bill Needle responded with yet another meltdown titled “Bechly Pinches Out ANOTHER Steaming 3-Coiler!” at his Marmotism blog (Sept. 1, 2024), and whines that I parroted the formulation “in happy Darwinian fantasy land” from him, even though this is clearly HIS phrase that only HE uses all the time. Well, he apparently has forgotten that his ridiculous blog has a search function, so I checked and searched for ‘fantasy land’ and exactly found two hits with the formulation "in  creationist fantasyland”, one in a blog post 2016 and the other in 2012. Oh boy, - if there ever was a doubt that this weirdo has some serious mental health issues, we know for sure now. Pathetic!

 

Article "Fossil Friday: The Sudden Appearance of Crocs in the Triassic Fossil Record" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (August 30, 2024) about the abrupt origin of the crocodile lineage.

Photo credit: Postosuchus, Dallas Krentzel, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: Postosuchus, Dallas Krentzel, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Photo credit: H. Zell, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: H. Zell, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

 

 

Article "Fossil Friday: Sea Scorpions Defy Darwinian Expectations" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (September 6, 2024) shows that evolutionary biology is largely a scam.


 

 

Article "Fossil Friday: More Evidence That “Feathered Dinosaurs” Were Secondarily Flightless Birds" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (September 13, 2024).

Image credit: El fosilmaníaco, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Image credit: El fosilmaníaco, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Photo credit: Ventus55, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: Ventus55, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

 

Article "Fossil Friday: Update on the Dubious Nature of the Precambrian Gabonionta" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (September 20, 2024).


 

Article "Oceanic Design: The Fine-Tuned Balance of Trace Elements for Marine Life" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (September 23, 2024).

Photo: Zoanthus, by G. Bechly
Photo: Zoanthus, by G. Bechly

Photo credit: Kabacchi, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: Kabacchi, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

 

Article "Fossil Friday: When Paleontologists Let Turtles Fly" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (September 27, 2024) about misidentified fossils and a Transylvanian mystery.


 

Article "Fossil Friday: Hobbits Thwart Darwinian Predictions Again" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (October 4, 2024).

Photo credit: Rama, CC BY-SA 3.0 FR , via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: Rama, CC BY-SA 3.0 FR , via Wikimedia Commons

Photo credit: Verisimilus, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: Verisimilus, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

 

Article "Fossil Friday: The Avalon Explosion and the Power of Maybe" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (October 11, 2024).


 

 

Article "Fossil Friday: Chitinozoa — Enigmatic Microfossils from the Paleozoic Era" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (October 18, 2024) about yet another major group of organisms that originated in the Cambrian Explosion.

Photo credit: Verisimilus, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: Verisimilus, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Image credit: Jean-Bernard Caron, Simon Conway Morris, Degan Shu, CC BY 2.5 , via Wikimedia Common
Image credit: Jean-Bernard Caron, Simon Conway Morris, Degan Shu, CC BY 2.5 , via Wikimedia Common

 

 

Article "Fossil Friday:  An Extinct Animal Body Plan from the Cambrian Explosion" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (October 25, 2024) about another enigmatic group of Cambriananimals.


 

I presented a talk about “Scientific Challenges to Neo-Darwinism” at the European ID conference Cosmos, Life, Intelligence, Information at the stunning venue of the Ateneo Veneto in Venice / Italy on October 26, 2024. This international  event was organized by the Centro Italiano Intelligent Design (CIID) in collaboration with En Arche (Poland), BioCosmos (Norway), Centre for Intelligent Design (UK), Zentrum für BioKomplexität & NaturTeleologie (Austria), and Discovery Institute (US).

Photo: G. Bechly
Photo: G. Bechly
Photo: O. Grasso
Photo: O. Grasso

 

Article "Fossil Friday: New Fossil Evidence Challenges Another Icon of Evolution" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (November 1, 2024), about convergences in the alleged reptile-to-mammal transition.

Photo credit: Ghedoghedo, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: Ghedoghedo, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Photo credit: Cyclomedusa, Vassil, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: Cyclomedusa, Vassil, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Article "Fossil Friday: An Edicaran Animal with a Question Mark" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (November 8, 2024), about more dubious science of alleged Precambrian animals.


Article "Fossil Friday: New Research on How Delicate Soft-Bodied Organisms Can Be Perfectly Preserved" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (November 15, 2024), about perfect fossilisation in spite of long transport in turbulent sediment flows.

Photo credit: James St. John, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: James St. John, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

 

Article “Postcard from Venice: First Pan-European Conference on Intelligent Design” with my brief report for Evolution News (November 16, 2024) about this remarkable conference in Venice this October.


Speaking engagements and other scheduled events for 2024:

  • February 5: recording of podcast “How the Caterpillar Got Its Legs…Or Not” or ID the Future with Andrew McDiarmid.
  • March 14: recording of podcast “A Paleontologist's View of Darwinism and Intelligent Design” for Come Reason! with Lenny Esposito.
  • April 17: recording of podcast “Unraveling the Mess of Arachnid Phylogeny” for ID the Future with Andrew McDiarmid.
  • May 26-30: Presentation on May 29 about “Four Challenges to the Causal Adequacy of Neo-Darwinism” at a private interdisciplinary conference titled Modern Alchemy in Florence / Italy (43 participants).
  • August 4-7: Two lectures on August 6 about “Fossil Explosions in the History of Life” and “The Waiting Times Problem and Other Challenges to Neo-Darwinism” for the summer colloquium Cosmos & Creator: Reason, Faith and the Academic Disciplines (Jul. 31 - Aug. 17, 2024) in Cambridge / UK (55 people in the audience).
  • August 21: Lecture about “Explosions in the History of Life” for the twentieth annual Discovery Society Insiders Briefing God & Science in Cambridge (Aug. 17-23) in Cambridge / UK.
  • October 25-28: Lecture on October 26 about “Scientific Challenges to Neo-Darwinism” at the Centro Italiano Intelligent Design / CIID conference Cosmos, Life, Intelligence, Information in Venice / Italy (about 60 participants).