human evolution or intelligent design?
Topic: human evolution

Was man created by an intelligent life force , god, or alien?   Or did man evolve into the humans we have today from lower beings?   I don't have the answer but i do have some good questions i would like answered.

When you look at any life form, be it flora or fauna, it is perfectly suited to the environment it is native to.   Either god designed well, or it evolved along with its natural habitat.  A caterpillar gets everything it needs to be healthy, grow, mature,  and metamorphose  from the plant (usually  just one type) that it feeds from.   Everywhere you look plants are found native in areas that fit their needs exactly.   Every nutrient they need is in the soil where they originate.

I believe man is the exception to this rule.   Every year scientists and researchers find some new enzyme, or nutrient, or mineral, or trace element that is essential to good health.   Not beneficial, but essential.   Consider the many different foods we eat from around the globe to try to achieve a healthy diet.  But it isn't enough.  No matter how you combine foods from every nation, you still have to take vitamins and mineral supplemens to be healthy.

Where on earth could man have evolved?  What single spot on the planet naturally provides the human body with the protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and trace elements for perfect health.   I don't believe such a place exists.  How is it possible for any life form to evolve with dietary needs not met by its natural habitat?   It isn't.   If those nutrients can't be found in the area, the plant or animal will not develope a need for them.

Why would god create man in an area devoid of nutients needed to stave off disease or disability?   That appears too cruel and more important impractical.   Why make all the lower forms fit their environment perfectly, then make man that can't be properly fed from any one spot on earth?   What about metals like zinc and copper that are mined and processed out of rocks?   What about rare supplements like selenium, and cesium that weren't even discovered until recent times and are difficult to process into a useable form and dosage?

With gene splicing we can now create new life forms by combining genes from several species into a totally different species.   We now have corn, that naturally produces no proteins or amino acids, combined with a few human genes that produces the amino acid lysine.   This corn is a complete feed currently used to feed cattle and other livestock we eat.   This corn is not fed to humans yet.   How many human genes does your food need to contain before you are considered a cannibal?  

With all the gene splicing we are able to do now, and the new life forms we are able to create, is it wrong to ask if we were somebody's lab experiment?   Space is vast.   Stars abound by the millions.   Planets by the tens of millions.   And that is just in the galaxy we can see in the night sky.   It is vain to think our pleasure of skygazing is the only reason the stars and heavens exist.   It is impractical to think we are the most advanced race in the galaxy or even in our tip of one arm of the galaxy.   Perhaps the meddling of some superior race is responsible for our unique existence on earth.   Or maybe not.       

election reform
Topic: politics
There are many reforms we need to make in our goverment, but none will be possible so long as our polititians are indebted to corporations to get elected. When it costs millions of dollars to successfully run for office polititians turn to corporations for funding.
These corporations dont give out hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars for nothing. They always want legislation favorable to them (and unfavorable to the citizens) in return.
We have to stop this circle of corruption. We can only do that by changing how elections are funded. Candidates must be barred from using their own money or any contributions to fund their election. Only a set amount of goverment money will be given to each person who obtains enough signatures to get on the ballet.
Party affiliation doesn't count - only that you get enough signatures. At first this sounds like it will cost the tax payer a lot of money. it will cost quite a bit. However when you take into account the hundreds of millions of dollars of pork barrell spending and other corruption it will eliminate, it will be very, very cheap.
When the elected officials start to work for the voters, rather than the big funders, we can get other much needed reforms passed. But no true reforms in goverment can take place untill we have goverment sponsored elections.

leaping lizards: how birds did not evolve
Topic: avian evolution
According to the theories i have seen on television the popular belief among scientists on avian evolution is as follows. Small dinosaurs ran up trees to escape predators, then leaped out. Eventually they grew long forelimbs with feathers that enabled them to glide farther. Ultimately these leaping lizards gained full flight and were birds.
The two main traits of most birds are flight and feathers. Somehow scientists jump to the conclusion that because birds have hollow bones and feathers, flight was the objective of evolution.
If you look at common birds that fly rarely, if ever, you will see that feathers serve useful purposes other than flight. The most important being insulation. When birds perch for the night they fluff their feathers out away from their bodies creating thousands of air pockets that insulate their bodies and enable them to endure the cold nights that would otherwise kill them. Penguins use the air pockets among their feathers to enable them to endure violently cold waters.
Most birds are found floating on water, wading in water, or near water. The great numbers of birds and the variety of birds found on or near water may indicate that is where they evolved, not trees.
Hollow bones make a bird lighter, therefor it can fly easier. It also makes waterfowl float easier. We know that ice ages appear periodically in history. Those that can adapt to the cooling or warming of the earth survive.
I believe the first birds were waterfowl, not leaping lizards. First, they developed the ability to float on the surface of the lakes or shallows, thus evading the large predators in deep waters and on land. Second, they developed feathers for insulation to survive a climate that was cooling. Third, natural selection the forelimbs to better run across the surface of the water when . This eventually led to small flights off the surface, which became longer.
When their feathered limbs reached the point they could sustain flight they were able to travel over the predators heads to new lakes farther inland full of untapped food resources. Those with the best flight abilities would be able to reach the most remote feeding grounds and be healthier and stronger than those remaining in overcrowded, food depleted areas. These individuals would be more attractive mates and would spread their genes more.
Flight was not the goal of evolution but a by-product. If nature wants to create an animal for flight all it has to do is reduce the body size, increase the of the forelimbs greatly, and stretch skin from the forelimbs to the body. In effect a bat. The bat proves feathers and hollow bones are not necessary for flight. Penguins, emus, and other flightless birds prove feathers do not always result in flight.

An alternate theory on the geology of the Grand Canyon
Topic: grand canyon geology
I believe the theory accepted as fact that the Grand Canyon was formed by the Colorado River is a fallacy. This theory has two major problems which are routinely overlooked. First water is not erosive. It is not the water but the grit or sediment carried in the water that causes the abrasion or grating of the solid rock. The speed of the water flow increases abrasion as does the total water flow and the amount of grit concentration in the water. This is a very slow very weak erosion effect.
Many geologist assume a valley or canyon was created by the river or stream flowing through it. the truth is the opposite. The valley or canyon existed and the water simply flowed to the lowest point, collecting in the bottom. If there is an exit for the water it becomes a stream, if not it becomes a lake.
The second problem is the massive amount of solid rock missing. If you fill the grand canyon and its subsidiary canyons to the rim with soil you have millions of tons of soil that has to have gone somewhere. Where is it? The Colorado delta would have to be so huge there would be no Gulf of California. The rather small delta that does exist can be explained by the gradual erosion the canyon walls, windblown dust settling on rock surfaces, and soil from surface runoff of the fields surrounding the canyon.
A probe into the Colorado delta will show minerals consistent with the surrounding topsoil not a layer by layer inverted scale of the rock formations.
How then was the Grand Canyon created? As the earth's crust was forced to higher elevations, thousands of feet, during the uplifting of the rockies and the Colorado Plateau it stressed the crust more than it could expand. Since the surface of the earth's crust cannot stretch greatly like an expanding balloon, it broke and cracked. Most major canyons are cracks in the earth's surface. As uplifting and expansion of the surface continued the walls of the canyon were pulled farther apart. The Grand Canyon is the largest crack in the earth's surface in the rocky mountains but not the only one.