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Sounds like extremists with "new information" and a "fresh new approach" who are using the name God, Jesus Christ, and the "precious" Holy Spirit for their own pursuits, twisting the original principles from years ago like mankind has done for quite some time for his own gain, whatever that gain may be.

Recently, I read the following:There is such a great thing. It is called "Divine Retribution". It happens to people who have no fear of God. And it happens in His way and in His time and by His hand. And it happens with one hundred percent certainty.

If there were a God and if there was such a concept as "Divine Retribution" at His disposal, I would hope that His criteria for meting out punishment and rewards was not based on whether or not people feared Him. Otherwise, He would just be a vainglorious Petty Tyrant!

I certainly pray, er, I mean hope that this is not mainstream theism talking???

With the assistance of an article from Scientific American, I have been RTing about the forces involved in adaptations. How through the process of evolution certain species have evolved in certain ways in order to best adapt to their environments as to further the chance of the survival and perpetuation of those species.

Let's if we will take a look at once specific area of adaptation, feet.

All humans are members of just one species.
Human's feet are generally all the same, being adapted for the activity(s) that they mostly do, sitting, er, I mean walking and standing upright with very little climbing involved.

Yet birds whose species number around 10,000 have seven types of feet depending on what activity they are most involved in obtaining food-as birds, unlike me, eat to live.

So, here are the seven activity adapted feet types of birds:

1. Climbing: Two toes in front, two toes in back (por ejemplo, woodpeckers and woodcreepers)

2. Swimming: Webbed feet (por ejemplo, ducks, grebes, moorhens and coots).

3. Perching: Three toes in front, one toe in back (por ejemplo, warblers, vireos, buntings, tanagers-in fact songbirds in general as they are also called perching birds.)

4.Grasping: Clawlike feet with curved talons (por ejemplo birds of prey like hawks, eagles, falcolns, owls, and kites).

5.Running: Strong-legged with two or three thick toes, all facing forward (por ejemplo, roadrunners and ostriches.)

6. Scratching: Four toes, all with strong nails for digging into the ground (por ejemplo, chickens and turkeys).

7. Wading: Long, thin legs and toes (por ejemplo, herons, egrets, limpkins and stilts).

So, whether you are an agnostic, atheist, deist, or theist, if you acknowledge evolution as a natural fact of life and death, do you believe through the process of adaptation that if humans continue on in their over sedentary ways that in time their feet will change to meet the demands of their dominant activity, sitting. If so, what might those human feet of the future look like?- that is, if the species survives at all sitting still!

A trilogy of naturalistic bird-related quotes that portend a free-willed change to come:

"Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark."- Rabindranath Tagore

"There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before."- Robert Lynd

"You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, and even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things."- Henry David Thoreau

"I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven."- Emily Dickinson

No Bird is a Bad Omen

No bird is a bad omen
Not to children, women, or men
So nevermore fear the clever raven
Quoth this mortal human, wondrously I say "amen."

I think birds are a good omen. They have freedom to go where they choose to and an ability to see from a distance. They've adapted to many situations in order to survive and yet they seem to do it effortlessly. Many have plumage and a song that will brighten any day. To me they are an affirmation of life.

Like Debbie, I never associate birds with any negativity. Yesterday, when I saw 25 species of birds on the trails near our home, I felt extremely lucky to have seen each and everyone of them.

Yet, in cultures around the world numerous superstitions, both good and bad-many with religious origins-revolve around specific groupings of birds. Many species of birds (some depending upon specific circumstances), including the aforementioned raven, are believed to be harbingers of death.

Of the following birds, which of these do you think have good, bad or mixed reputations based on superstitions/folklore?:

Albatrosses
Wrens
Sparrows
Doves
Blackbirds
Kingfishers
Ducks
Swallows
Robins
Magpies
Whippoorwills
Owls
Vultures
Bitterns
Cuckoos

What bird which does not appear in the above list is viewed in the Christian faith as serving God, being called God's "bow and arrow"? Hint: It is a relatively common man's first name.

While composing this post, I am being serenaded by a hooting owl off in the distance. Wow, am I lucky!

So, good-lucky, bad-lucky or not, what place in the evolutionary history of sentient beings does the much maligned and much beloved bird hold?

Well, according to many scientists birds around 150,000,000 years ago evolved from the dinosaurs. Numerous finds in recent years seem to support the hypothesis that birds descended from two-legged, running dinosaurs called theropods.

As to the age-old question as to what came first the insect or the bird (I do so get my age-old questions confused!), it is believed that insects preceded the bird by over a hundred million years.

As some of you may have surmised by the exclusively bird-centric postings of the last few days, I/we will be flying off from RT, migrating to a different random perching zone located at the Birding Forum.

In the last 30 days, RT has had almost 21,000 views with a daily average of around 700 with a high of 1284. I am truly without knowledge as to why RT has been so well-received. Thank you one and all, posters (should that be singular?) and lurkers alike.

LanceB's and Edwardd1's new home will be on a soon to be created thread called Random Avian Flights of Thought (RAFT).

Muchas gracias y muchas saludos,
Les