Ring species

During our September meeting while discussing evolution, Ryan brought up a great example that I was not familiar with. It is an evolutionary concept called "Ring Species", it is a great example of evolution in action. As an animal population spreads, the neighboring populations can continue to interbreed with one another. So, in this example there are 7 subspecies of the  Ensatina salamander. Subspecies 1 can interbreed with subspecies 2, and 2 with 1 or 3, and so on. However, subspecies 1 and 7 which live side by side can not interbreed with one another. As they descended down each side of the valley, they evolved with subtle differences and by the time the salamanders met at the bottom of the valley, while looking very much like the same animal, they are essentially 2 different species.      

Now of course this did not just happen overnight and would have taken many years and generations for this to have taken place. What makes this so interesting is that you can see the transition species along the way, of course all of the species have continued to adapt. Being able to track the animal as it moved and adapted to it's environment, while still being able to see the original species, make it a great tool to show evolution in action. There are other ring species as well, but the Ensatina salamander is one of the better known examples. For further information, I would recommend  checking out this link and look at the work Tom Devitt is doing, it also contains a more in-depth explanation and some experiments he has done with the salamanders. http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/devitt_01 

Facebook

M.E.A.N. now has a Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Metro-East-Atheist-Network/240811429300641  As of right now there isn't too much to it, I personally do not have a Facebook page, so there will be a little learning curve there. When I post meetings on the meetup page I will post them on our Facebook as well. As always I welcome any input to improve the site or the group, so feel free to pass on any ideas you may have. Thanks, Wingman.

An Atheist's Faith

At our last meeting we were discussing whether or not it took faith to be an atheist.  It doesn't take faith to be an atheist,we do have faith though, faith in those we trust, in science, in the fact that there is no god, but, does it take faith to not believe? As viewpoints were expressed it seemed that people fell into one of two general categories, those who believed there was no god and those who knew there was no god.

Those that believe god doesn’t exist, in general are open to the possibility that given indisputable evidence, they could change their mind. This viewpoint stems from the difficulty of proving a negative, and therefore just as those without proof believe god exists, those without proof to the contrary believe he doesn’t.  
The other group however, says with a certainty that they know god doesn’t exist. They start with no belief and look for evidence that something exists. Without that evidence, religion is just another mythology, and they know this.
One of Webster’s definitions of faith is: sincerity of intentions. This may be the best definition of faith that can be applied to atheists. Both those whoknow and believe do so with good intentions. They believe that without religion this world could be a better place. Every day there are acts of violence and hate carried out in the name of religion. This is a small minority of believers but it is done over differences of faith or different interpretations of the same faith. Politicians even claim natural disasters as messages from god. No god means suffering isn’t caused or allowed by some unseen force or being. No god means we don’t have an excuse for not doing more to help those who are suffering. No god means we have to realize how short and precious this life is, because there is no eternal heaven after, and we must take care of each other better than we do now. So if faith is sincerity of intentions, then yes every atheist I know has faith, faith in mankind without religion.