we’ve all see those little booklets that morons^H^H^H^H^H^H^H christians pass around to convert the hethins–Jack Chick is the guy responsible for those. I found this on his website, and I’m wondering what he’s leaving out. if evolution had actualy been disproven, I think I’d heard of it sooner.
–I put this here rather than GQ because I’m sure it’ll turn into a debate sooner or later.
While I’m sure that the bombardier beetle is an amazing critter, and we may or may not have discovered everything we’d like to know about how it evolved, I’m pretty sure that some of that page was less than fully accurate: The gasses are at 212° F? You have a cold-blooded critter storing gasses at the boiling point of water? Interesting.
I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the article mentioned in the OP (I’ll read it when I get the chance), I did find this about Bombadier beetles.
The liquids reach the boiling point at the time of ejection. Basically, this species has taken a reasonably common defence mechanism and added one more step. IIRC, hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinones (? I could look it up, I guess) are stored in little tiny bladders in the beetle’s abdomen. Mixed with the right enzymes the spray undergoes a chemical reaction and hits its target boiling hot. Pretty cool, even if there are several related beetles which use less complete weapondry.
Oh, and the site in the OP is wrong. The chemicals are not very dangerous individually, nor even if mixed. Enzymes are needed to facilitate the reaction, not inhibit it. Also the precursor chemicals are stored seperately and not mixed until the moment of expulsion. Wrong on every count of the beetle’s anatomy except for its size.
I have the Chick Tract Rite of Exorcism stored in my documents folder, ready to cut and paste upon request. I’ve successfully used it twice on this message board.
As a further note, it seems that the bombadier beetle is a recurring ‘argument’ for intelligent design (try a search for “bombadier beetle” on the web - the vast majority of hits are from creationist sites!).
Of course, the talk.origins site addresses this issue.
Jack Chick isin’t worth disproving:)
At the end of the article, the Bible is quoted:
“O Lord, how manifold are they works! In wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. (Psalm 104:24)
Uh huh. The best way God has of impressing us is making beetles that squirt hot gas out of their ass?
I think beetles squirting hot gas out of their ass is pretty impressive.
Wish I could do it. I’d get hassled by skeevy-looking refugees from Deliverance a lot less.
Actually, I think I’ve just negated the argument from design, here.
Actually, this is quite easy to duplicate yourself. Just eat a big plate of lamb vindaloo, a doner kebab with onions and chilli sauce, and chase with several pints of lager.
And the multitudes said ‘Lo! Here is a beetle which lightest its own farts! How wonderful is that? Great is the L*rd, and manifold His sense of Humour.’
Basically, the argument that the bombardier beetle’s defenses “must have” been deliberately designed is an argument from ignorance. It’s like believing that the ancient Egyptian pyramids “must have” been been built by aliens because your imagination is too limited to come up with a way the ancient Egyptians could have built them themselves.
Slight aside:
For a somewhat lighter take on the issue, check out the Annals of Improbable Research’s special Bomby the Bombardier Beetle issue, in which they feature a bit of children-targeted creationist literature:
Not all of it, unfortunately, is online, but you can check your local library…
I laughed out loud when he said that it must have “evolved piecemeal,” which is, of course, a contradiction in terms.
Bach. Rembrandt. Signarino. All the great artists are invariably misunderstood in their time.
I strongly recommend that my colleagues point their browsers to the following link, so that they may better understand Jack Chick’s genius:
http://members.aol.com/monsterwax/chick.html
Those with fast internet access might try looking at a Jack Chick movie available here:
http://www.rsubox.com/archive.html
I challenge you to find anyone more ecumenical in his offensiveness. Sheer genius.
flowbark, the chick flick (he he) was great! I think Jack may have found his calling. I absolutely loved the juxtaposition of the really bad black and white characters and the real life scenery/people.
Without a doubt, the best work I’ve seen from Jack yet.
Visit the Jack T. Chick Parody Archive!
Just look at how smug and snotty creationists can be when they think scientists are having trouble answering a particular question. It’s usually a pretty obscure question given the multitude of questions scentists, but without even giving the experts a chance to respond, the creationists begin spouting off about how closed-minded and dogmatic the “evolutionists” are. Of course they’re describing themselves.
Here’s another example from Wednesday’s Mpls Star Tribune:
To give credit where credit is due, I should note that the “Chick flick”, Somebody Goofed was not made by Jack himself. Here’s a review for the movie:
“Rodney Ascher & Syd Garon’s Somebody Goofed is a visually stunning animation of the Jack T.Chick religious comic, and it’s the best handling of the material in any medium. Created entirely in the Macintosh computer, it also heralds a technical innovation soon to change filmmaking as we know it. Comic stills and snapshots were scanned into Photoshop, and some video footage was digitized from vhs… Using Media 100 software, it was downloaded to Beta Cam SP. It took up 10 gigs of space, but hell, this can all be done at home.”
The link is for the review is http://www.fringecore.com/magazine/m7-7.html