July 1, 2009
Category: Evolution
Thursday morning started bright and early, since the first talk was at eight. It goes against my grain to be out of bed at that hour, but sometimes in life you just have to make sacrifices.
I was at the big meeting room by 7:45. Got to schmooze with some of the big shots, like Genie Scott and Ken Miller:
Keith Miller (no relation to Ken), a geologist at Kansas State University was there. I met him a few times during my post-doc at K-State, so it was nice to see him again. My fellow Panda's Thumbers Richard Hoppe and Art Hunt were there as well.
Read on »
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:29 PM • 32 Comments
June 30, 2009
Category: Anti-Creationism
Here's an interesting tidbit from a blogger for the Indianapolis Star:
Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett hurriedly called this morning to be removed from the speakers list at an annual conference on Creationism after accidentally agreeing to speak, said Cam Savage, his spokesman.
The Creation Evidence Expo 2009 listed Bennett on the speakers list for its September conference in Indianapolis. (Speakers list here.) Other speakers include scientists and science teachers who advocate Creationism, the belief the world was created by God as described in the Bible, rather than scientific theories about the creation of the universe.
Bennett had met with the conference's organizer, the Rev. Fredrick Boyd, about a mentoring program, Savage said. As they talked, Boyd asked Bennett to come speak at his conference, and the superintendent agreed. But Bennett had assumed he would be speaking about the future of Indiana education and did not know the topic of the conference, Savage said.
Bennett, a former science teacher, agrees with the Indiana standards for science, which include the teaching of evolution, Savage said.
That last line provides some comfort, I suppose.
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 3:41 PM • 2 Comments
Category: Evolution
A few weeks ago I took notice of a looming book fight between Richard Dawkins' forthcoming The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution and Jerry Coyne's book Why Evolution is True.
I gave Round One to Dawkins on the grounds of having a better title. Now Round Two goes to ... Coyne!
His book has shown up on Newsweek's list of fifty books to read now. Quite an honor!
What's that you say? Not really a fair fight since Dawkins' book hasn't been published yet? Cry me a river. Timing is everything.
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 2:24 AM • 7 Comments
Category: Anti-Creationism
Kenneth Chang of The New York Times has now weighed in with an article about the big trip to the Creation Museum. A couple of interesting tidbits:
Arnold I. Miller, a professor of geology at the University of Cincinnati and head of the meeting's organizing committee, suggested the trip. “Too often, academics tend to ignore what's going on around them,” Dr. Miller said. “I feel at least it would be valuable for my colleagues to become aware not only of how creationists are portraying their own message, but how they're portraying the paleontological message and the evolutionary message.”
Quite right. It can be pretty galling to plunk down money at the museum, but every scientist needs to be aware of what is going on.
Of course, my favorite part of the article was this:
Read on »
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 2:05 AM • 9 Comments
June 28, 2009
Category:
For me the big paleontology conference began on Wednesday morning when a group of us gathered to go to the Creation Museum. There were a couple of luminaries in attendence, including Eugenie Scott:
If you look carefully you can make out my reflection in the glass.
I have made several visits to the museum, and it has been crowded each time. But even I was taken aback by the mob scene that greeted us. Things were so clogged it was sometimes hard to work your way through the labyrinth of exhibits. Very depressing.
Read on »
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:58 PM • 116 Comments
June 27, 2009
Category: Miscellaneous
Had a great time in Cincinnati, and will be doing a couple of posts about it shortly. In the meantime, how about some cat pictures to tide you over.
Here's Emily in a pensive mood:
And here she is on her favorite bookshelf:
Read on »
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:45 PM • 12 Comments
June 21, 2009
Category: Anti-Creationism
Tomorrow I will be leaving for sunny Cincinnati, Ohio to participate in the 9th North American Paleontological Convention. On Thursday I, along with fellow Panda's Thumbers Art Hunt and Richard Hoppe, will be participating in a panel discussion on “Countering Creationism.” Of course, I will be sure to emphasize that the really important thing in countering creationism is to try to offend as many religious people as possible. Browsing through the program reveals that the two big Thursday talks before our panel are from Ken Miller and Eugenie Scott. Should be interesting!
Alas, I don't generally blog from the road, so you'll just have to make do without me for a few days. Sorry about that. :(
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:28 PM • 12 Comments
Category: Politics
Meghan McCain appeared on Bill Maher's show the other night. One of the other guests was Democratic strategist Paul Begala. The following exchange took place:
McCAIN: The Obama administration really has to stop completely blaming everything on its predecessor, completely. And I'm really sick of hearing, oh, we were handed this we were handed this. I know. Everyone knows. But we need to move on.
MAHER: Do you think that's what Obama is doing?
McCAIN: I do, to a degree.
BEGALA: Not to enough of a degree, Im sorry. Not nearly to enough of a degree. Ronald Reagan blamed Jimmy Carter every day for eight years. In the speech one of the things President Bush said ...
McCAIN: I wasn't born yet, so I don't know.
BEGALA: I wasn't born during the French Revolution but I know about it.
Zing! As always, the transcript doesn't do it justice. Watch the video to get the full effect.
Read on »
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:17 PM • 8 Comments
June 18, 2009
Category: Evolution
In 2002 I attended an ID conference near Kansas City. Among the speakers was philosopher J. P. Moreland. During his talk he unleashed a broadside against Michael Ruse, accusing him not only of perjuring himself during the famous 1981 Arkansas creationism trial but also of having publicly admitted to his misdeeds.
I had an audio recording of the talk and wrote to Ruse to ask him about it. I transcribed Moreland's exact statement and asked Ruse if he had admitted any such thing as was being alleged. Ruse flatly denied Moreland's assertion and was kind enough to give me a quote to use in my write-up (PDF format) of the conference for Skeptic magazine.
Ruse's e-mail to me contained another interesting nugget. I was a post-doc at the time. Ruse, knowing this, observed that I was very young, and that fighting creationism should be left to older folks like him. I think his concern was that creationism can be something of a black hole, and not something a young academic early in his career should be worrying about. Obviously, I chose not to take that advice.
Read on »
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 7:31 PM • 79 Comments
June 17, 2009
Category: Politics
It doesn't happen often, but there are times when MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews really comes through. Here he is commenting on the difference between Obama's handling of the aftermath of the Iranian elections and the reaction of his Republican critics:
MATTHEWS: What strikes me, David and Bob, is the difference between the president, who is being very calm and not jumping up and down, and those on the right who are hitting the idiot button right now. And the idiot button is the one often pushed by Sarah Palin, but this week by John McCain and others.
They're all jumping at-Mitt Romney. They're all saying phony, bogus, let's attack Iran. That seems like exactly what the bad guys in Iran want us to be doing.
Well said! Actually, Chris' guests, Washington Post reporter David Ignatius and writer Robert Baer, also had many interesting things to say, so go have a look at the full transcript.
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:43 PM • 22 Comments
