Now on ScienceBlogs: Zihlman's 'pygmy chimpanzee hypothesis'
You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that it loses itself early and does not find itself any more. --Mark Twain
Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at the National Center for Science Education. He is also a graduate student at the University of Kansas, completing a doctorate in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. When not modeling species distributions or battling creationists, he writes about developments in progressive politics and the sciences.
The opinions expressed here are his own, do not reflect the official position of the NCSE. Indeed, older posts may no longer reflect his own official position.
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The Birth of Intelligent Falling
A failure of Intelligent Design
Why it's called Intelligent Design Creationism
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Category: Policy and Politics
Just back from Egypt, and still not ready for craziness. So please no one steal a lot of emails from climate scientists and try to dishonestly present a few snippets from them as evidence of a global conspiracy, OK? Also, could everyone stop blogging for a day or two, just until I catch up? Thanks....
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 4:27 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
Alexandria, actually, but still. I'm here at the British Council's conference on Darwin's Living Legacy. It's really a remarkable event, bringing together brilliant biologists from around the world to talk about how the research program begun by Darwin continues today, as well as historians and philosophers giving us a nuanced view of Darwin himself and the reception of his ideas around the world, not to mention sociologists and education experts exploring contemporary reactions to Darwin's ideas (including my own talk comparing Islamic creationist rhetoric with that of American creationists). As always, the informal interactions after the projectors are turned off...
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 12:11 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
We truly are ruled by the worst in society. Proposition 13, the supermajority requirement for tax increases, and the state's inane proposition system more generally, are destroying California. But what can you do about it?: Backers of an overhaul of California's government, who hope to leverage disgust with Sacramento into support for changing how the state raises taxes and spends money, have a difficult path ahead, according to a new poll of California voters. Major segments of the electorate see the state's problems as the product of unrestrained lawmakers driven by special interests to waste taxpayer money, and reject arguments...
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 6:48 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
Sorry for minimal blogging lately, which will continue for the next week or so, most likely. Last Friday I headed off to Kansas, where I helped celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of Kansas Citizens for Science. It was a great time, and a great thing to celebrate. Marvelous to see the gang again and to think about the next decades of KCFS's future. From there, I was off to Minneapolis, where I participated – along with NCSE's Peter Hess – in a symposium at the University of St. Thomas Law School on "ID and the Constitution." Other panelists...
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 6:19 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Creationism
Todd Wood is a creationist. He is a professor at Bryan College, named for William Jennings Bryan, who prosecuted John Scopes in 1925. He is, in particular, a professor of baraminology, the creationist notion that his particular Christian God created the "kinds" in the first week, and that by careful measurement, he can identify those "kinds." He thinks the earth is less than 10,000 years old. He thinks evolution is wrong, but he also freely acknowledges that it is the very best scientific knowledge available, and has been on a minor crusade to move other creationists away from the absurdities...
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 9:50 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
Martin Cothran – fellow traveler with the Disco. 'Tute, shill for James Dobson's crew, and generally unpleasant person – thinks the dissent of 162 members of American Physical Society disproves a scientific consensus. Alas for Cothran, the APS has 47,189 members, so the dissent of 162 hardly undermines a claim of consensus. Bonus shorter Martin Cothran – A sad story: Guilt by association is wrong. It might lead you to criticize someone for endorsing the racist, eugenic arguments of racist eugenicists, or to criticize an event promoting sexual health and safety for being sponsored by a group which sells novelty...
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 4:05 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
For some reason, people are only now realizing Christopher Hitchens' distaste for Mother Teresa. It's like they started paying attention to the world a week ago....
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:15 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Creationism
There's been much ink spilled lately about the latest work from the authors of Freakonomics. I should say before getting into this that I haven't read their last book, and don't plan to read the sequel. I also haven't read any of Malcolm Gladwell's books, for largely the same reasons (note that the Freakonomists apparently acknowledge that they cut one section of their latest book because Gladwell scooped them). Basically, I see these sorts of books as attempts by minimally-informed dilettantes to insert themselves into complex topics by applying a canned methodology and pretending that the naive solutions resulting from...
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 8:04 PM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Norman Levitt was a great man, a leonine defender of science against the trendy pablum advanced under the guise of post-modern critique. This defense was most famously advanced in Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science, co-authored with the indomitable Paul Gross. He also assisted in an amicus brief in Kitzmiller v. Dover and reviewed a book about Dover by sociologist Steve Fuller, who testified in defense of ID (arguing, for instance, that ID deserved "affirmative action"). Levitt passed away over the weekend, and his widow has asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to...
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 2:02 PM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Culture Wars
Jason Rosenhouse, criticizing Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum's reply to Jerry Coyne's review of their book in Science, ends with this thought: You can not consistently argue that one side hurts the cause every time they open their mouths, but then object that you are not telling them to keep quiet. Free speech has absolutely nothing to do with this, as has been explained to M and K many times. No one thinks they want the government to come in and do anything. To be honest, I'm baffled that M and K persist in getting so irate on this point....
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 9:09 PM • 90 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
