A couple of years ago, Professor Wickramasinghe suggested that the SARS virus could be of extraterrestrial origin. He didn’t provide any element to corroborate his speculation.

Cameron, can you provide the reference, in which Creationist pamphlet did you found that Hoyle & Wic(k)ramasinghe consider Darwin’s theory as “preposterous” ?

Did Ann Coulter credits Hoyle & W as the origin of the racoon’s fart ??

John Moore; I’m sure not too many people (have time to) read books so the fact Coulter’s book was #1 on NYT best seller list isn’t apolectic.

Carl; “evolutionary tradeoffs” are design flaws (sickle-cell), defects of the “intelligent designer”. If intelligent design replaces evolution in the courts think of all the lawsuits against god and his purveyors for telling us he is perfect while hypeing his flawed design.

petec

Why would God do such a thing? Well, it might be easier. For one thing, only stuff out to a light week needs to be created. This is oh so much smaller than the Universe we know about. Anything further out can have no consequence, since, Next Thursday, everything will be new again. So, yes, all those photons have to be started in just the right directions… and yes, the devil is in the details.

So God created the Hubble Space Telescope, presumably so that we could learn about the cleverly aimed photons.

So….does this one quote not have a MILLION possibilities for someone like you or PZ to go with…..

She may scoff, but if religion seems to confer health, social and monetary benefits,(National Geographic and the 7th Day Adventists article in 2005 comes to mind) welllllll……………

I have another question—

Do certain people (families) have more problems with their immune systm than others? Has anyone ever studied if people with appendix or tonsil problems when they are kids have immune system problems later? Or vice versa?

Bruce, you need to be able to determine the evolutionary history of todays raccoon gas.

One of my underlying assumptions was that modern raccoons were an accurate reflection of the GFR, so evolution has no role in my hypothesis. I never mentioned creation or time, so these are not direct issues. I asked a very specific question about gas composition. By sidestepping these issues I’ve created my own big tent where everyone’s raccoon based belief is welcome.

Evolution favors reproduction, favors change. Organisms bred for increased life-spans have low fecundity. So, increased intelligence is not the only trait that lowers reproductive rates. A friend explained to me one time, “Don’t confuse that person with facts. His mind’s already made up.” Chances are Coulter is the same way, or she’s cynically writing to a limited audience who don’t believe evolution either. Trying to educate an audience with reason seems to be more and more difficult these days, especially in politics where people appeal to people’s outrage and other emotions, rather than reason and intellect. Thanks for the illumination.

Sincerely,
John Moore, Ph.D. Molecular and Cell Biology

We generally tend to assume that any non-believer of the GFRT must be a fundamentalist Pastafarian , and it is our mission to put a lid on all such religious nonsense.

While plain pasta may not alter gas production, various sauces can have startling and dramatic effects so I don?t see any conflict.

ID makes the same errors as my GFR hypothesis. Just as I assumed earthly raccoons were accurate representations of the GFR, ID assumes that our ability to detect human design in human artifacts extends to detecting design in biological systems. I was bold enough to propose an experiment based on my hypothesis, but as yet we have not seen any experiments from the ID camp. Any ID experiments would be subject to the same criticisms as mine.

Well, not exactly. We generally tend to assume that any non-believer of the GFRT must be a fundamentalist Pastafarian, and it is our mission to put a lid on all such religious nonsense. In fact, we’ve asked the ACLU to investigate several instances of public school cafeteria pastaletyzing.

For He Is The Kwisatz Haderach…

Oh yeah, it’s that faith thingie. It ain’t testable either. And it’s something Islam, Christianity, Scientology, and the Raelians all have in common.

All hail the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster, my his saucy goodness fill you and drive away the pains of hunger.

The idea that a Giant Flatulent Raccoon expelled the universe in a noxious cloud is no more ridiculous than six literal days of creation – and no less provable.

I disagree. This is a testable hypothesis. Hypothesis: If the Giant Flatulent Raccoon (GFR) was the source of the initial materials for the universe, then a comparison of raccoon gas composition with elements in the early universe should be similar.

First we need a group of raccoons, a gas chromatograph and some long rubber hoses. Since the GFR gas composition may have varied with diet, a dietitian should design a series of diets that would produce varied gas compositions.

It’s underlying assumptions are that current raccoons are accurate reflections of the GFR, our analysis of the composition of the early universe is accurate, and we can recreate the diet of the GFR.

While this hypothesis may not be deserving of a NSF grant it is possible to construct a hypothesis and an experiment.

The underlying assumption concerning the nature of raccoons and their relationship to the GFR falls outside of the ability of science to explore. Any positive results could only be interpreted as raccoon gas, and not the GFR gas, being consistent with the composition of elements in the early universe.

Oh mighty flatulent racoon, pray tell us how we can get some Coulter bile of our own!

As pointed out before, Ann Coulter has written a book of breathtaking inanity, which is now second on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list (after topping the list for several weeks, I believe). Among the usual preposterous claims against, y…

Seriously though: Coulter’s metaphor could be used effectively against her. The idea that a Giant Flatulent Raccoon expelled the universe in a noxious cloud is no more ridiculous than six literal days of creation – and no less provable.

“God laid a fart and that was the start”

Obviously this little bit of scatological humor has entered into american folklore and is the ultimate source of Coulter’s reference.

Great article about the Flatulent Raccoon.Coulter’s writing is politics, not science. In an election year, the only evidence of intelligent design is her publishers getting “Godless” out right now to take advantage of the market. I agree with one of the above emailers, Coulter doesn’t care about the details. Afterall, she isn’t writing a treatise attacking evolution. What she is writing is a politics. As for the mythical Flatulent Raccoon, if he exists, maybe he should run for office; afterall, he’s got good press coverage now.

After all, even Coulter would agree that ?the maker? wouldn?t have provided an appendix without a reason.