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Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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Monday, January 06, 2014

Are the very mental shortcuts our brain has evolved for efficiency working against the acceptance of evolution?

Somewhere, something went terribly wrong ... Is evolution itself behind the modern Science v Creationism debate?
Somewhere, something went terribly wrong ... Is evolution itself behind the modern Science v Creationism debate? Source: Supplied
IS evolution itself driving America's growing rejection of modern biology? New studies suggest this very thing.
Today's revelation that one-third of the US population rejects the idea of evolution and instead believes we were created through intelligent intervention is nothing new.
The fact that only a third of us accept that "natural processes such as natural selection" are behind our existence has had science thinking for some time.
Creationism is growing into a powerful political force. But the strength of their arguments and the forcefulness of their campaign does not entirely explain its growing success.
The debate has heated up in recent years as and a so-called "culture war" is being waged across a deepening partisan divide.
So why does the concept of evolution cause so much upset in an era overwhelmed with science - be it in medicine, transport, communication and calculation?
"Natural selection is like quantum physics ... we might intellectually grasp it, with considerable effort, but it will never feel right to us," writes the Yale psychologist Paul Bloom.
It's about the nature of our brain. It's an amazing device at finding new and successful ways to adapting to an ever-changing world - with the minimum of effort.

1 comment:

Ego Ronanus said...

If you switch to the cfz-usa site, you will see an interesting alternative to natural selection put forward by a biologist who has specialized in hybridization. He argues that humans are descended from the hybrid of a pig and a chimpanzee.