How Journalists Perpetuate Darwin Dogma

Science reporters do this to
ensure Darwinism remains the
only allowable explanation

 

The steps are simple. Once a young wannabee science reporter has earned its D-merit badge, it* knows how to sing the Darwin Party theme song and stay out of trouble.

*Pronoun “it” used out of deference for material objects like evolved human beings. One doesn’t want to assume the gender of an evolved material object. It might show signs of aggression.

Never having taken philosophy of science or a course in critical thinking, its job is simple. It only needs to make up stories and quote DODO experts, using some clickbait wording and pictures, preferably graphics drawn by other Darwinists. Here are the requirements:

• Use the e-words (evolution, evolved) copiously in the title and text.
• Quote Darwinian experts to give yourself cover (i.e., “they said it, not me”).
• For variety, quote other experts who disagree, but only other Darwinists.
• Pretend that Darwin skeptics don’t exist.
• Never use the words “intelligent design” together. Instant job threat!

With those rules understood, science writing is fun! The sky is the limit on how creatively silly a story can be.

Why does drinking water feel so good when you’re thirsty? (5 Oct 2024, Live Science). Young reporter Margaret Osborne lets Caltech Darwinist Yuki Oka take the heat for the silly notion that drinking evolved to feel good. No testing needed. Just put out the story.

The processes that quickly relieve thirst help prevent overhydration, Oka noted. But he also wonders whether they evolved to aid the survival of not just each individual but also the survival of a group. When critical resources such as water are limited, a quick stop to thirst may help keep a species alive. The hypothesis has yet to be tested, but Oka is intrigued by the idea.

“That’s a very interesting experiment in how to share,” he said. “If that’s really true, the neurocircuit has evolved to thinking about … others, not just the self.”

Alligator gar: The ‘living fossil’ that has barely evolved for 100 million years (5 Oct 2024, Live Science). Next entry from Lie Science is by Melissa Hobson, who finds evolution in something that didn’t evolve. The facts must never falsify evolution. Instead, they must “shed light” on evolution. The reporter tosses accountability to Darwinian biologist Jeremy Wade.

“Their survival is in part because of their unique defense system — scales made of a super hard enamel called ganoine,” said Wade. “This armor plating has seen them survive predatory dinosaurs.” These hard, interlocking flexible scales protect them from threats. Once gars are more than a meter long, their only predator is the alligator.

It never crosses its mind that some dinosaurs like ankylosaurs and bonehead dinosaurs did not survive in spite of even heavier armor. But it has an out: the alligator gar survived “in part” due to the armor. It trucks in the e-word while explaining why this animal did not evolve:

Alligator gars are also among the ultimate “living fossils” — species that have barely changed for millions of years. A 2024 study found gars have the slowest rates of evolution of all jawed vertebrates. They have evolved so slowly that alligator gars and longnose gars (Lepisosteus osseus) — two species separated by 100 million years of evolution — can still produce fertile hybrid offspring. Evolution across such a long period of time typically produces wildly divergent species that could never reproduce.

By contrast, that’s about the same amount of evolutionary time that separates wombats and people, two wildly different species that could never reproduce, study author Chase Brownstein, a first year graduate student at Yale, previously told Live Science.

Neanderthals and modern humans interbred ‘at the crossroads of human migrations’ in Iran, study finds (4 Oct 2024, Live Science). Kristina Killgrove is the next Darwin dogmatist. (So far, these three reporters at Lie Science look like biological female Homo sapiens, but one can never be sure these days.)

Neanderthals emerged around 400,000 years ago and lived in Europe and Asia, while the ancestors of modern humans evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago and spread throughout the world.

Its mentor Leonardo Vallini takes the helm to explain why they evolved.

“We encourage Iranian archaeologists to conduct field excavations in this potential interbreeding area,” they wrote, and “we await many exciting discoveries that will shed light on human evolution and dispersal.”

Cuffing season: an evolutionary explanation for why people want to settle down for the winter months (3 Oct 2024, The Conversation). If you thought the reporters at Lie Science were incorrigible Darwin dogmatists, contributors to The Conversation are generally more so, and Woke, too. Here Martin Graff from the University of New South Wales explains why couples seem to pair up more easily in cold weather. Short answer: it evolved. Of course. That’s the only option. But it does require ramping up the perhapsimaybecouldness knob.

“Cuffing” is a metaphor for wanting to be attached to someone for a period of time….

In our evolutionary past, cuffing may have been necessary for survival. The winter months are cold and dark, and it would have been adaptive for our ancestors to seek out the company of others to keep them warm and safe, over a period when they could perish from exposure, or be more vulnerable to attack from predators. The company of others would have provided warmth, and possibly someone to help protect them.

Apparently all the romances at the beach in summer take place among losers in the fitness game.

Pterosaurs needed feet on the ground to become giants (4 Oct 2024, University of Leicester). Readers are left in the dark that there is no fossil record of pterosaur evolution, or of powered flight in any of the other groups (insects, birds, or bats). They just evolved. It’s remarkable what evolution can do.

The evolution of pterosaurs, the first true flying vertebrates, showcases some of the most remarkable adaptations in the history of life. While these creatures are best known for their ability to soar through the prehistoric skies of the Mesozoic era (252-66 million years ago), a new study has revealed a surprisingly high degree of diversity in where and how pterosaurs lived when they were not airborne.

The reporter gives the pterosaurs permission to evolve bigger. Otherwise, the landlubber pre-pterosaurs might not have thought of it, even though “ecological opportunities” had opened up.

These early pterosaurs were likely restricted to arboreal habitats and consequently, small body sizes. However, a major evolutionary shift occurred during the Middle Jurassic period, when pterosaur hands and feet changed to look much more like those of ground-dwelling animals. These adaptations to ground-based movement opened up new ecological opportunities, leading to a wide variety of feeding strategies. Freedom from the size constraints imposed by vertical living allowed some pterosaurs to evolve to gigantic size with wingspans of up to 10 metres.

Funny; the same ecological opportunities opened up for everyone else, but only pterosaurs took advantage of them.

Maybe the small pterosaurs drank flavored Darwin Flubber and didn’t share the magic juice with tardigrades and mites. Good thing; would anyone want to see a flying grizzly bear? Well, apparently there were flying elephants once upon a time.

Oh, the questions the late Dr Jonathan Wells, a gentle giant of intelligent design, could have asked these reporters. We must continue his legacy.