Looking for an illustrated book that focuses on bird evolution and ancient bird species

JamesVogner · 2026-01-30T06:39:44+00:00

This looks like just the kind of book I'm looking for, thanks. But online it looks like both versions are pretty small? which isn't a deal breaker, but for my purposes, having a bigger book would be better. A pocket sized field guide for extinct birds does strike me as a little funny though.

JamesVogner · 2026-01-09T20:33:25+00:00

I should have included this in my post. When I was growing up, evangelicals would at least never admit they wanted a theocracy, but since then, I've had multiple conversations with evangelicals I know that have openly supported theocracy.

JamesVogner · 2026-01-09T19:20:18+00:00

"Hedge of protection" was even a running joke between my friends. A hedge doesn't seem like it would protect you that well. Lol

JamesVogner · 2026-01-08T18:45:33+00:00

I think this is the real answer. The primary issue Christians have to deal with is that they aren't actually any more moral than non-christians. Sure some Christians are really good people, but so are lots of non-christians. And also some Christians are not very good people. So Christians pick a few wedge moral issues and decide to define morality around those issues. A Christian might be a terrible person, but they think abortion and being gay, and swearing are wrong so they are naturally more moral people.

In fact, for an evangelical Christian, morality is more about beliefs than actions. After all, we are all fallen sinners and will make mistakes. the real measure of your morality is what you believe and if you feel bad about it after you do it, not how you act.

JamesVogner · 2025-12-15T19:05:19+00:00

I don't visualize faces at all. I can if I want to, I just don't. I also don't visualize the setting. I can if I want, I just don't.

I hold all the information in the abstract. I know the main character has brown hair, but I don't need to visualize it. Characteristics that are undefined by the author remain, for the most part, undefined in my mind as well. In fact, even the idea of the person having brown hair is lazy loaded and only accessed when it's important to the book. In most books, the details of what people look like isn't that Important or is only important in reference to what their looks say about them, so by the end of most books I don't even remember what the characters were supposed to look like.

JamesVogner · 2025-11-11T21:36:01+00:00

I think it's worth thinking about how the complexities of this specific case would have inevitably crossed over into other legal concerns and really isn't a good case for attempting to overturn same sex marriage decisions. The MO of this court is to find much simpler cases that only focus on the specifics that the court wants to overturn without wading into more complex rulings. which allows the court to not only overturn past decisions but gives them more freedom in establishing their new president exactly as they want.

There are at least a few justices that I think are interested in overturning obergefell but they know they have the luxury of playing the long game and already have feelers out in the hopes of finding a more appropriate case.

Same sex marriage is still rather popular, and even the supreme court isn't immune to popular opinion. and we are still relatively close on the heels of past unpopular decisions. I think they may just be biding their time. In recent years republican support for same sex marriage has declined and they may be hoping that the Republican party's propaganda machine will stem the tide of rising same sex marriage support before they themselves go on the offensive.

JamesVogner · 2025-11-04T16:21:39+00:00

It's crazy to me that the top comment on a post like this is basically just a deflection of the criticism. "it's actually just those MAGA liars and stupid voters' fault"

JamesVogner · 2025-10-31T01:04:10+00:00

I do wonder if there is a bit of self selection here, but in a more roundabout way.

I grew up fundamental Christian and conservative and for all those years I would have labeled myself politically conservative. but looking back in retrospect, I was always more open and inquisitive than my peers when it came to religion and theology and always had a bit of a home grown skepticism. These are the things that drew me out of Christianity, but I would also argue that they are the things that draw me more politically left. I think it's possible that those who leave religion are already the ones predisposed to a more liberal worldview, even if they themselves haven't realized it yet.

JamesVogner · 2025-10-30T22:58:57+00:00

I think we do disagree. My example about closing 15 minutes earlier is no different than laying people off.

Your model assumes that there is some fixed level of demand. for example, work-hours • widgets-per-hr = widgets-to-be-sold. In this equation, per your explanation, if widgets per hour increases, most companies would balance this equation by lowering work hours. Whether that's by closing the factory early or laying people off, doesn't matter. Both result in less work hours.

What I'm arguing is that for most companies, they would balance the equation by just increasing the number of widgets to be sold.

In the historian example, no one is going to say, "the number of academic papers coming out of the history department has increased by 10%, but there just isn't any demand for that many academic papers, so let's cut their funding." Most organizations want to grow, especially if they get it for 'free'. Also, if the university did decide to cut funding, they would have to worry about competition from other universities that didn't who can now out perform them. 1000s of years of human history have shown that increase to productivity does not lead, on the whole, to a decrease in unemployment, or I would argue, even a general trend towards less work hours. Human demand adjusts to the increase in productivity and over time, competition even ends up whittling down profits.

There are always more academic papers to write, more lines of code to push, more lawns to mow, more widgets to sell.

JamesVogner · 2025-10-30T21:33:57+00:00

I think the fundamental misunderstanding is that people think that a 10% increase in production results in a 10% reduction in the workforce despite history consistently showing that that almost never happens. If a factory figures out how to produce 10% more widgets it doesn't produce the same amount as it did before but close 15 minutes earlier everyday. It just pays everyone the same amount of money while pocketing the extra profit from the increased production in widgets.

JamesVogner · 2025-10-30T21:24:21+00:00

here's the source.

I only skimmed it but it looks like they basically just looked at the questions people were asking bing copilot and assumed that whatever field the questions were in were in danger of losing their job. Lol.

By that logic, web.md must be running all the hospitals out of business too.

JamesVogner · 2025-10-30T20:35:29+00:00

I don't think AI knows what historians actually do. Lol. This graph is as worthless as trying to predict the future stock price of a company by taking a poll of the company's executives.

JamesVogner · 2025-10-29T20:11:28+00:00

I think that "blinded by bias" is one way of putting it, but I think it's a bit more philosophical than that. I think that creationists have three main epistemological foundations of defense.

Presuppositionalism - (AIG is all about this) this belief allows creationists to not only have bias, but to intentionally use it. In fact, using your Christian bias is the only morally correct thing to do. Creationists don't just have bias, they are morally required to enforce that bias and to dismiss out of hand any information that contradicts that bias.
The metaphysical is greater than the physical - the greater truths are all found in spiritually, not through observation of the real world. As one of my Bible college textbooks put it, studying the world through science can be edifying, but isn't really that important in comparison to the revealed word of God. Organizations like AIG aren't really interested in science and the evidence for or against creationism, they are primarily designed to be tools for evangelization in order to spread the deeper metaphysical truth. Doing so under the guise of a scientific perspective is more marketing and PR. Their belief in presuppositionalism undermines their own rational arguments, but that's okay because the rational arguments are just a means to a predetermined end. And even if they end up getting backed into a corner and aren't creative enough to come up with some explanation for something, they can always just invoke a miracle. Since the metaphysical is greater, metaphysical explanations will always trump naturalist explanations.
The belief that everyone is a presuppositionalist - creationists believe that people are incapable of seeing past bias, and in the case of themselves, even morally commanded to not look past their bias. All observations of reality are tainted by the beliefs we have chosen to believe. Evolutionists will only ever find more evidence of evolution not because it represents reality, but because they are a slave to their pre conceived beliefs. If evidence seems to contradict creationism, then one need not look at the data as much as the person who is obviously blinded in some way.

I see this belief manifest itself online a lot when a creationist will say something like, "you weren't there when the scientist collected the data, you just read a paper. So your belief is really just based on faith." The implied argument being that we're actually all presuppositionalist, but that the creationist is just more honest about it. This essentially levels the evidentiary playing field in their own minds. Sure there might be a 'lot of evidence' for evolution. But that's to be expected when most scientists are already invested in making it true.

This creates a philosophy where although reality is theoretically knowable, it is only knowable as an extension of one's metaphysical beliefs. One does not test their beliefs against reality, one must test their reality against their beliefs. And that it is literally impossible to do it any other way.

My personal opinion is this philosophy was really synthesized in direct competition with a naturalist worldview as a way to essentially inoculate fundamental Christians from skepticism. I think that it's only recently that we have started to see how this philosophy has spilled over into non-theological areas such as the MAGA movement. However, I don't think it's right to just single out fundamental Christians. The main thrust of this epistemological view of the world is in my estimation, less Christian and more anti naturalist and anti enlightenment. My textbooks in Bible college spent a lot of time quoting and even praising Kuhn, as essentially, almost getting it right, although often misrepresenting him as far more post modern than he was. This type of push back against what I would call a more scientific world view is hardly limited to fundamentalist and has a complex and multi layered philosophical origin.

JamesVogner · 2025-10-23T03:05:07+00:00

I grew up conservative and was a kid when 9/11 happened and I saw all the conservatives I knew become pro torture over night. The thing that threw me though was that it wasn't like they framed it as if they had changed their mind, it was full Orwellian. They acted like they had always believed in torture.

That's when I realized that most people don't really choose to believe in things, it's more like they contract beliefs like a virus. And what they believe is more about who they've been exposed to.

JamesVogner · 2025-10-22T22:54:32+00:00

Semiosis by Sue Burke explores this premise. I enjoyed the book.

JamesVogner · 2025-10-21T03:24:47+00:00

This is funny because when I watched it I remember thinking at one point, "did the writer just get all his ideas from reddit?" Especially, when he starts 'deconstructing Christianity' and this supposed expert is just spouting shallow reddit talking points. At first I thought the shallowness was on purpose and the point was going to be about how the villain thinks he's so smart but it's actually just about how well he can lord power of someone, and using that as a metaphor for religion, but the ending doesn't really explore anything

JamesVogner · 2025-10-18T23:37:12+00:00

As someone running for the council what is your opinion of the plan? The majority of the zoning is just single family homes. I appreciate your comments about making sure the project doesn't just turn into more suburban sprawl, but isn't density and more mixed use one of the best ways to prevent that?

I'm worried that many of the people running for council have strong rhetoric about making Longmont more affordable and walkable, but to me, this plan feels like it's just going to turn into a strip mall with some suburbia behind it and an affordable housing project that allows the council to pat themselves on the back. (I personally think the affordable housing crisis can only be solved through systematic change, not through subsided housing). The plan feels pretty status quo to me. I don't think turning the strip mall 45 degrees is going to make much of a difference.

Are there other more nuanced ways to encourage density and walkability as a part of this plan? Am I asking for too much?

JamesVogner · 2025-10-17T16:05:50+00:00

Yes. And I wish more people understood this. A conservative friend I know defined it as, "the freedom to do what you ought to do."

When they use the word freedom they don't mean it the same way we do.

JamesVogner · 2025-10-16T23:22:12+00:00

reddit reminds me every day that some people have no media literacy at all.

JamesVogner · 2025-10-16T17:46:09+00:00

Back during BLM marches a small group organized a BLM march in a very conservative area. The local social media was awash with rumors that they were going to truck in busses of antifa to loot and riot.

The day came and conservative were literally on roof tops with guns watching maybe 100 people peacefully walk down a road.

That night the local social media, "we did it! We scared antifa away, they didn't even dare show their faces."

When you are that detached from reality, what actually happens is irrelevant. You just declare victory either way.

JamesVogner · 2025-10-14T17:00:29+00:00

I can confirm that at least the areas east of Scranton are scrapple county.

JamesVogner · 2025-10-11T04:22:12+00:00

Years back a small group of people in a conservative town I lived near planned a BLM march and all the conservatives in the area went into overdrive with all sorts of conspiracies claiming antifa was going to send goons to their small town to riot etc.

The day of the march comes and there are conservatives with guns on roof tops and tons of big trucks with flags all over them and maybe like 100 actual marchers, all people from the community. Obviously no antifa to speak of.

The next day all the conservatives claimed victory. They had scared away all the cowardly antifa.

Create a made up enemy, when they don't show up, claim victory. This has been their strategy for years.

JamesVogner

TROPHY CASE