I have been doing a few things

I have been a weak blogger. But I have been doing some more public writing. 

 

The other day I can across a BS pile written by creationist Jerry Bergman.  

Core Cause of WWII Was Darwinism Recognized in 1941 

https://thevillagereporter.com/column-is-it-really-so-core-cause-of-wwii-was-darwinism-recognized-in-1941/? 

My reply was posted; 

Gary Hurd, PhD on April 14, 2026 2:48 pm 

Jerry Bergman is a well known creationist author. As is commonly practiced, he has misrepresented the facts. I’ll mention two that illustrate his methods. 

First, his source is popular-press 1941 article at the onset of WWII, and he offers it as proof that Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx were root causes of that war. 

Das Kapital was published in three volumes, only the first was published in Marx’s lifetime (1867). The remaining two were completed from his notes and published by his collaborator Friedrich Engels in 1885 and 1894. 

Hitler was inspired instead by “Foundations of the Nineteenth Century” by Houston Stewart Chamberlain, German publication 1911, English 1912. 

There Stewart Chamberlain was a strong critic of Darwin. Adolf learned this well. “The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life….” [Adolf Hitler, Berlin, February 1, 1933]. 

Bergman also claimed that Darwin had difficulties in getting famed British publisher John Murray to publish On the Origin of Species. John Murray had already published several successful books written by Darwin. In a letter to Darwin from Murray, he wrote that on the strength of CD’s details about his work on species and his success with CD’s former publications, he offered to publish Origin without even seeing the MS. (See: National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive, Ms. 41913 p.32) And a last note in a 2 Nov 1859 letter from John Murray to Charles Darwin, he offered to reward Darwin with 2/3 of the sale profits (National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive, Ms. 41913 pp. 53–4). Darwin replied in just one day thanking Murray, and even suggesting that the royalty payment was too high! 

Perhaps Bergman could use his time to honestly report the facts.

Creationist hate spew

Years ago I did a video interview with Bill Ludlow about some creationist BS about the origin of life. The link follows;

James Tour Lies Alot.

Buried about the comments are a few gems I thought might amuse some readers. Here they are;

@sombodysdad 1 month ago Gary Hurd is a loser who couldn't present any evidence that nature produced life and its diversity if hos said, deluded life depended on it. You are a sad, skinny old man, Gary 

@GaryHurd 1 month ago Joe G aka "sombodysdad" AKA JoeG AKA Joke Gallien AKA "Sharon Mahoney retired marine biologist" AKA Joke G AKA Little Joe Gallien. He is just a creationist troll. 

@sombodysdad 1 month ago (edited) ​@GaryHurd My arms are bigger than your legs, you skinny, deluded, lying old fart. And i could easily destroy you in a debate on science, biology and evolution. You are too chickenshit to ante up. Punk. 

@GeDePeU 3 months ago @GaryHurd Says a guy with „a doctorate in Social Science from the University of California” pretending to know more about chemistry than James Tour ... 🤣 Debate him, you intellectual wimp!

It Worked! It would work again.

 

 

 Pejman Rohani, Justin Bahl
"Collateral effects of pandemic control"
Science386,620-621(2024).DOI:10.1126/science.adt34

Data from;

Zhiyuan Chen et al.

2024 "COVID-19 pandemic interventions reshaped the global dispersal of seasonal influenza viruses" Science 386, eadq3003(2024). DOI:10.1126/science.adq3003

A Review: "Evolving Certainties: Resolving Conflict at the Intersection of Faith and Science"

 

 

*The review was posted on-line by Amazon.

This 2018 publication was of poor study with grandiose ambitions. We expect accuracy on simple facts before going along with the author's great claims. Here is a sadly typical error in the first sentences of Chapter 5 "The Biological Revolution" : "After a short, unsuccessful stint studying medicine at his father's insistence, he turned to theology, but did not complete his degree."

Charles Darwin was enrolled in 1825 to study medicine at Edinburgh university. He was 16 years old. Darwin made several studies of marine life while at Edinburgh under the encouragement of Dr. Robert Edmund Grant. Two of Darwin’s original discoveries were made in 1826; that the so-called "ova of Flustra" were in fact larvæ, and that the little globular bodies which had been supposed to be the young state of Fucus loreus were the egg-cases of the worm-like Pontobdella muricata. Darwin had read papers on these observations to the student’s “Plinian Society” founded by Professor Jameson. Prof. Grant referred to these in print when he later became the Professor of comparative anatomy and zoology at London University, (1827-1874).

Two years later, Darwin had given-up medicine. His academic science work was successful, but he could not stand the sights, sounds, and smells of the surgery.

Darwin's disappointed father sent him to Cambridge to prepare for the clergy. Darwin was admitted to Christ's College on 15th October 1827, gaining his BA on 26 February 1831, his MA in 1836 and an honorary doctorate in 1877.

And moving from those several errors on the first page of that chapter to the last, we find another doozy. Defoe wrote, "There is general agreement among biologists that natural selection by itself is insufficient to explain the development of new animal body plans. " Defoe's source given in Footnote 130 miscited Deborah Haarsma's August 25, 2014 introduction to a review of the Intelligent Design Creationism book, "Darwin's Doubt" by Steven Meyer. The review was published by the Christian apologetic organization BioLogos. There is no such competent "general agreement among biologists." On her January 19, 2015 review Physicist Haarsma paraphrased geneticist Darrel Falk quoting creationist philosopher Steven Meyer.


Save time and money. I'll suggest some more popular reading. One of my core requirements is that the authors do not wander off into religious discussions. This is why books by Dawkins, Harris, Coyne, or Prothero are not listed.

For the basics of how evolution works, and how we know this, see;

Carroll, Sean B. 2020 "A Series of Fortunate Events" Princeton University Press

Shubin, Neal 2020 “Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA” New York Pantheon Press.

Hazen, RM 2019 "Symphony in C: Carbon and the Evolution of (Almost) Everything" Norton and Co.