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Abiogenesis

2012-02-06T04:52:00Z

Reasoning: Abiogenesis is a credible theory supported by multiple experiments.

''See also:'' [[Origin of Life]]

Abiogenesis is the scientific theory as to how nonliving matter could give rise to living organisms. The theory revolves around the idea that simple polymers that can easily be formed in the primitive Earth conditions could give rise to more complex structures such as liposomes, small spherical structures made of fatty molecules. Small molecules such as bases could pass through the membrane but could not leave because once inside, they would bond to other bases, becoming to large to exit. These pseudo-life forms "reproduced" through mechanical breakage from water currents.

The bases that entered the liposome consisted of adenine, guanine, uracil, and cytosine: the components of RNA. Because trillions of the liposomes formed in the primitive Earth's pools of water, there is a high chance that self copying RNA began to form. In fact, scientists have been able to create self replicating RNA molecules through minimalist construction.

Liposomes grew in size when they came into contact with each other, thus they grew collectively larger in size. In addition to self replicating RNA, other forms of polymers began to arise, most notably polymers with the ability to bind to other polymers. This allowed for two liposomes to link together. The significance to this is that this is the basis for multicellular life. Because the enzymes formed by RNA become denatured at high temperatures, liposomes can not exist at higher water levels where the heat is greater (due to thermal vents). Thus liposomes bound together had the advantage of being able to use their higher mass to stay in optimal temperatures; this is one of the earliest examples of evolution. This process has been observed in yeast. http://www.bti.umn.edu/gateway/011912travisano_article.html

Another important aspect to abiogenesis is the endosymbiotic theory. Endo meaning inside, and symbiotic meaning coexisting life. This theory is widely agreed upon by biologists primarily due to the difference in genetic material between mitochondria, chloroplasts, and the cells they inhabit. The theory states that mitochondria and chloroplasts were once free living bacteria like organisms that were engulfed through phagocytosis by large liposomes. Thus, they began to provide and generate energy for the liposome while being given protection from mechanical forces. We can observe the foreign behavior of mitochondria and chloroplasts today. Mitochondria and chloroplasts reproduce independently of the cells they exist in and reproduce through binary fission rather than mitosis. Additionally, they do not follow Mendellian genetics. This unique trait of mitochondria is used today in genealogy and forensics to track down people through their mothers, as only the egg provides mitochondria for the zygote.

In summation, abiogenesis is a widely accepted theory that provides the foundation for the theory of evolution. Multiple experiments have been carried out proving this theory, most notably the Miller-Urey experiment (although the experiment was later discredited, researchers created a more accurate experiment that yielded the same results).

==Historical Meanings==
Abiogenesis may also refer to [[spontaneous generation]], an archaic theory that stated that life could appear spontaneously under particular conditions. For example, pieces of cheese and bread wrapped in rags and left in dark areas were thought to produce mice, because after several weeks, mice appeared in the food. The same reasoning was applied to the appearance of maggots on decaying meat. <ref name="Dictionary%20Definition">[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/abiogenesis Abiogenesis from Reference.com]</ref>. This theory was finally put to rest by experiments by [[Louis Pasteur]].

==Biblical Origin of Life ==

''See also:'' [[Origin of Life]]

The most famous example of abiogenesis begins in Genesis 1:20, when [[God]] created life:
{{Bible quote|And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.|book=Genesis|chap=1|verses=20|version=KJV}}

==See Also==
*[[Creation]]
*[[Biblical scientific foreknowledge]]

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Biology]]

Ku Klux Klan

2012-02-03T02:44:12Z

Reasoning: No Citations

[[File:KKKrally1946.JPG|right|300px|thumb|Ku Klux Klan rally, unknown location, August, 1951]]
The name '''Ku Klux Klan''' has been used by three entirely different organizations in the U.S. While these copied the same name and regalia, they had very different goals and activities.

The Klan of the 1860s was a violent effort by white Southern [[Democrats]] to fight [[Reconstruction]]; it was suppressed by the federal government.

The third Klan comprised unrelated hate groups that sprang up in the South in the 1960s to fight integration.
* the Klan largely fell apart in the 1980s [http://www.fumento.com/arson/wsjfire.html]

A series of scandals ruined the KKK's reputation and the group faded away after 1925, except for some remote areas like West Virginia. [[Robert Byrd]], now a Senator, was an organizer in West Virginia in the 1940s, and has apologized repeatedly for it. Supreme Court Justice [[Hugo Black]] admitted in 1939 that he had been a member in the 1920s.

==Third Klan==

[[David Duke]] was a [[Democrat]] at the time of his official membership with the Klan. He has ties to white supremacist organizations like the NAAWP, which he founded. After leaving the klan, Duke was elected as a Republican to the Louisiana state legislature. The [[Republican National Committee]] disavowed Duke and repudiated his racist views when Duke made an unsuccessful bid for governor.<ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-1176548.html RNC Condemns Ex-Klansman Duke], ''[[Washington Post]]'', February 25, 1989.</ref>

==Bibliography==
* Newton, Michael, and Judy Ann Newton. ''The Ku Klux Klan: An Encyclopedia''. (1991).
* Alexander, Charles. “Kleagles and Cash.” . ''The Business History Review.'' (1965) Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 348-367
* Chalmers, David. ''Hooded Americanism.'' (1987), an older survey
* Dray, Philip. ''At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America'', (2002).
* Feldman, Glenn. ''Politics, Society, and the Klan in Alabama, 1915-1949''. (1999).
* Fryer, Jr. Roland G. and Steven D. Levitt. "Hatred and Profits: Getting under the Hood of the Ku Klux Klan," ''National Bureau of Economic Research,'' September 2007, [http://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/13417.html abstract]; [http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:cyuQ-5WfsXAJ:www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/fryer/papers/Hatred%2520and%2520Profits,%2520Getting%2520Under%2520the%2520Hood%2520of%2520the%2520Ku%2520Klux%2520Klan.pdf+%22Hatred+and+Profits%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us full text online]
* George, John, and Laird Wilcox. ''American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists & Others'' (1996) 443 pgs. [http://www.questia.com/library/book/american-extremists-militias-supremacists-klansmen-communists-and-others-by-john-george-laird-wilcox.jsp online edition]
* Glaeser, Edward L. “The Political Economy of Hatred.” ''Quarterly Journal of Economics.'' 2005. Vol. 120, No. 1, pp. 45-86. [http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/qjec.2005.120.1.45 abstract], goes well beyond the KKK
* Goldberg, Robert Alan. ''Hooded Empire: The Ku Klux Klan in Colorado.'' (1981).
* Horn, Stanley F. ''Invisible Empire: The Story of the Ku Klux Klan, 1866-1871'', (1939)
::Horn, born in 1889, was a Southern historian who was sympathetic to the first Klan, which, in a 1976 oral interview [http://www.lib.duke.edu/forest/Research/ohisrch.html], he was careful to distinguish from the later "spurious Ku Klux organization which was in ill-repute—and, of course, had no connection whatsoever with the Klan of Reconstruction days."
* Jackson, Kenneth T. ''The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915-1930.'' (1992)
* MacLean, Nancy. ''Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan.'' (1994)
* McVeigh, Rory. “Power Devaluation, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Democratic National Convention of 1924.” ''Sociological Forum'' 2001. 16(1):1-30.
* Moore, Leonard J. ''Citizen Klansmen: The Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, 1921-1928'' (1991). [http://www.questia.com/library/book/citizen-klansmen-the-ku-klux-klan-in-indiana-1921-1928-by-leonard-j-moore.jsp online edition]
* Parsons, Elaine Frantz, "Midnight Rangers: Costume and Performance in the Reconstruction-Era Ku Klux Klan." ''The Journal of American History'' 92.3 (2005): 811-36. [http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/92.3/parsons.html in History Cooperative]
* Pegram, Thomas R. "Hoodwinked: The Anti-Saloon League and the Ku Klux Klan in 1920s Prohibition Enforcement." ''Journal of Gilded Age and Progressive era'' 7.1 (2008): [http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jga/7.1/pegram.html online].
* Rhodes, James Ford. ''History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the McKinley-Bryan Campaign of 1896. Volume: 7.'' (1920)
* Trelease, Allen W. ''White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction'' (1995).
* Wade, Wyn Craig. ''The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America''. (1987); a highly negative account of all three Klans, based on extensive research but not familiar with recent scholarship.

==Critical external links==
* [http://reactor-core.org/original-kkk.html The History of the Original Ku Klux Klan] - by an anonymous author sympathetic to the original Klan
* W. S. Simkins, "Why the Ku Klux," 4 ''The Alcalde'' (June 1916): 735-748. [http://www.law.du.edu/russell/lh/alh/docs/simkins.html online]; Simkins (1842-1929) was an organizer of the KKK in Florida in 1868, and a law professor when he wrote this memoir.
* [http://education.harpweek.com/KKKHearings/AppendixA.htm Full text of the Klan Act of 1871]
**[http://education.harpweek.com/KKKHearings/AppendixB.htm simplified version])
* [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-694 Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction Era] (New Georgia Encyclopedia)
* [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2730 Ku Klux Klan in the Twentieth Century] (New Georgia Encyclopedia)

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Hate Groups]]
[[Category:United States Political Scandals]]
[[Category:Reconstruction]]
[[Category:1920s]]
[[Category:Terrorism]]
[[Category:Racist Organizations]]

David Silverman

2012-02-01T23:50:06Z

Reasoning: The previous version included information which is misconstrued as David Silverman losing a debate to his daughter on religion. The cited website actually implies no such thing.

'''David Silverman''' serves as the President of the [[American Atheists]] organization.<ref>http://www.atheists.org/about/Board_of_Directors</ref> Silverman served as the New Jersey State Director of American Atheists and after four years of service he become National Spokesperson for the American Atheists Organization.
<ref>http://www.mastermediaspeakers.com/davidsilverman/index.html</ref> David Silverman holds degrees in Marketing and Computer Science.<ref>http://www.mastermediaspeakers.com/davidsilverman/index.html</ref>

== Personal life ==
According to Silverman, he became an [[atheism|atheist]] at the age of six.<ref>http://www.mastermediaspeakers.com/davidsilverman/index.html</ref> According to the MasterMedia Speakers Bureau website, Silverman is married to a religious Jewish woman.
== Controversial Billboard ==

The American Atheists organization sponsored an aggressive and controversial billboard and an interview with [[Fox News]] occurred as a result of the billboard [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XEgkViLbTk VIDEO]. As noted above, Silverman has a degree in [[marketing]], but despite his degree in marketing, according to fellow [[atheist]] and [[evolution|evolutionist]] [[PZ Myers]], Silverman was stuck defending a "badly designed, ugly" sign.<ref>http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/01/that_controversial_oreilly_int.php</ref>

== See also ==

*[[Atheism]]
*[[Prominent atheists whose wives believe in the existence of God]]
*[[Atheism and Debate]]
*[[William Lane Craig vs. Frank Zindler debate]]
*[[Frank Zindler]]
*[[Militant atheism]]
{{Nb Atheism}}

== External links ==

*[http://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/DavidSilverman David Silverman] at Atheist Nexus
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XEgkViLbTk Bill O'Reilly interview with David Silverman] - [[YouTube]] video

== Notes ==
{{reflist|2}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silverman, David}}
[[Category:Atheism]]

Appendix

2011-12-14T21:26:59Z

Reasoning: The appendix is a vestigial organ that has a variety of functions in humans today.

An '''appendix''' consists of supplementary materials added to the end of a document.

In a legal [[appeal]], the appendix includes key documents presented to the court below.
[[Category:Legal Terms]]

In human [[anatomy]] appendix is a part of the large intestine and is a tube-like organ. Evolutionists claim that this is a remnant of evolution from more primitive animals. The appendix can be observed in other animals as the cecum, and is typically larger in herbivorous organisms. A common misconception is that vestigial organs are completely useless. However, vestigial organs can often gain new functions. For example, the appendix is able to provide a habitat for intestinal bacteria due to the high surface area to volume ratio. The human diet changed due to the domestication of animals and the development of tools, allowing for easier access to meat, making plant material an alternative source for energy. Thus as humans became less herbivorous, the need for a cecum lessened. This can be explained through natural selection. As food passes through the digestive system, nutrients are absorbed. Longer digestive tracts are found in herbivores because the beta-glucose chains that compose cellulose in plant cells are difficult to digest, thus requiring more time to thoroughly break down into basic sugars. However, if the food being digested is meat, it is easily absorbed and a long digestive tract would simply be a waste of energy. The energy spent digesting the food versus the energy gained from digestion would result in an inefficient deficit. Wasting energy is counter intuitive to survival, thus leading to the natural selection against humans with long digestive tracts. Thus as the cecum became shorter, it became vestigial. One can survive without an appendix and there is little impact on lifestyle.

[[Category:Biology]]