stcynic
Posts by this author
February 9, 2004
First up, the airline pilot who doesn't seem to understand where the boundaries of appropriate behavior lie in his job. Seems an American Airlines pilot asked the passengers aboard his flight from LA to New York to raise their hands if they're Christian, announced that those who didn't raise their…
February 9, 2004
Kudos to Steve Sanders for this article, entitled Federalists Do It Too: The False Debate Over "Activist" Judges. Sanders says what I've been saying for many years, that whenever you hear conservatives complain about judges "making law" as opposed to "interpreting the constitution", you're being…
February 8, 2004
A couple weeks ago I referred to an incident involving myself and Richard Dawkins and allegations of creationist dishonesty and I promised to write up the whole story soon. Let me preface this by saying two things. First, I am, as should be obvious to everyone who has read any of my writings on…
February 6, 2004
There is a terrific new website designed to help teachers and students learn more about evolution that is finally up and available for public use. The Understanding Evolution site was an enormous project that has been under development for quite some time under the auspices of the University of…
February 6, 2004
Georgia school boss Kathy Cox has backed off her announced plan to remove the word "evolution" from the state academic standards. Paul Myers speculates that the whole thing could very well have just been a cover-up for the fact that the new proposed standards water down the teaching of evolution…
February 6, 2004
This is beginning to resemble a Monty Python sketch at this point. In my last post I made this statement:
"He must know that "presenting the data" is pointless if he has already decided that no data possibly COULD establish what is being disputed."
Rusty replied:
"...he has already decided that no…
February 5, 2004
In the last post, I wrote the following to Rusty:
On the issue of transitionals, you are still dodging the question. You said that appearance alone cannot prove transition. Therefore wouldn't you have to say that no fossil evidence could possibly show transition? Fossils can only show appearance,…
February 5, 2004
Rusty has been leaving comments in response to various entries here, but there are two issues that I'd like to move up here to the top so they don't get lost and solicit a direct answer on.
1. Transitional Forms
Rusty has repeatedly declared that there are no transitional forms in the fossil…
February 5, 2004
I've just come across a group called Catholic Apologetics International, a very, very conservative Catholic organization founded by Robert Sungenis. How conservative? How about so conservative that they think Pope John Paul was wrong to apologize to Galileo and admit that the earth revolves around…
February 5, 2004
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has an op-ed piece in today's Wall Street Journal entitled "One Man, One Woman: A citizen's guide to protecting marriage." It's a perfect example of the wild leaps of logic inherent in arguments against gay marriage. He starts out with a statement that he appears…
February 4, 2004
The Talk.Reason Archive has an absolutely hilarious article lampooning the Intelligent Design movement. A few of my favorites:
Greater and greater numbers of scientists are joining the ID movement, which is why we keep referring to the same three year after year.
We're not creationists, except for…
February 4, 2004
I seem to have attracted the attention of one Mac Swift. Who is Mac Swift? Well, let's let him answer that:I think I can accurately pride myself on being the ONLY pro-Chick Publications and pro-KJV blog on the Internet.
Apparently he regards being pro-Chick Publications as something to be proud of…
February 4, 2004
Rusty has again left comments on a post below. Unfortunately, the comments only allow a short message and the issues he raises may require more than 300 words, so I'll copy them here and respond in more detail. Rusty's words are in italics, my responses are in plain type.
I will take a different…
February 3, 2004
Rusty posted a brief response to my last entry on the testable creation model. I'll paste the comments here because it allows a bit more space to respond:
Ed, you really are tempting me to respond...
I really think a good, long conversation on this topic would clear a lot of things up. We would…
February 2, 2004
Reed Cartwright of the University of Georgia has done a thorough analysis of the proposed Georgia science standards. It shows, in brief, that Kathy Cox is lying when she says that the new standards would teach the concept of evolution without using the word. Of course, I think everyone knew that…
February 2, 2004
Rusty Lopez of the New Covenant blog has stated that his latest response to me regarding the "testable creation model" that he advocates will be his last. I thank him for an engaging dialogue on these issues, and regret that he chooses not to continue the conversation. He says he does not have the…
January 31, 2004
Georgia wants to ban the word "evolution" from science classes, replacing it instead with "biological changes over time". The superintendant of schools, Kathy Cox, claims that she wants to do this because the word "evolution" has become such a controversial buzzword that perhaps replacing the term…
January 30, 2004
To continue the dialogue with Rusty Lopez from the New Covenant blog, let's examine his latest posting. I'm going to do this one a bit differently so as not to lose the threads of each specific point of dispute. I'm going to divide this post by those areas and label them as such, and I will put my…
January 28, 2004
In this entry, I will deal only with the brief note that Rusty Lopez made in reference to a testable creation model. In the next few days, I'll post a longer and more detailed critique of the model presented by Hugh Ross that Rusty referenced in his note. I'll put his statements in italic and my…
January 28, 2004
Rusty Lopez of the New Covenant blog has an entry in reply to a comment I left him. In a post a few days ago, he made a reference to a new Hugh Ross book that he said contained a "testable creation model approach to the issue of the origin of life". I left a comment on his blog saying that I could…
January 27, 2004
On the heels of Josh Claybourn quoting another blogger quoting a third blogger about the dangers of unrestrained liberty leading to chaos, I have 3 stories that illustrate that the impulse to control is still alive and well.
Example #1:
The first story comes from The Great Separation, a blog I…
January 25, 2004
Josh Claybourn has an interesting blog that I read now and then, but this morning he has an odd entry on the front page entitled "Libertarian Freedom: Self Destruction?". I think he's engaging in a bit of a straw man - at the very least, in drastically oversimplifying complex ideas. The entry…
January 24, 2004
I haven't written much about the (former) Judge Roy Moore situation in Alabama, but as an interesting postscript, I find this incredible. Judge Moore's supporters are now asking President Bush to withdraw the nomination of Mark Pryor for the federal bench. Pryor is the Alabama Attorney General who…
January 23, 2004
It seems I can't get away from this amusing little story. Thanks to one of my readers for reminding me that JoMo and Karl Priest's challenge was featured about a year ago in an article by Richard Dawkins about why he doesn't bother to debate with creationists. He even reprints the e-mail he was…
January 23, 2004
The Great Separation recently posted an article with the headline "A New Hero Emerges and Plants Another 10 Commandments Monument". It then links to a Worldnetdaily article about Vernon Robinson, the Winston-Salem city council member who placed a 2000 pound monument with the Ten Commandments on it…
January 22, 2004
The saga of Joseph Mastrapaolo's $10,000 challenge to evolutionary scientists continues. As I noted a few days ago, the True.Origins webpage removed the "debate dodgers" article that so childishly attacked evolutionary scholars who didn't respond to their already-defeated challenge to prove their…
January 21, 2004
In today's Carnival of the Vanities is a link to an article on this blog about a strange church/state ruling. The facts of the case are that the Byron, California school district has a very controversial 3 week unit in their World History class for middle school students in which, in order to teach…
January 19, 2004
In a posting last week, I discussed a challenge that has been made by Joseph Mastrapaolo to pretty much everyone he can find who defends evolution. After sending out this challenge and getting no response from scientists who have better things to do with their time than play JoMo's absurd little…
January 18, 2004
It is appropriate that in the month of January, I have made so many entries about the Intelligent Design movement. January is named for Janus, the Roman god of gates, often depicted as having two faces. The more I study the ID movement, the more convinced I am that Janus is the perfect symbol for…
January 17, 2004
Intelligent Design Creationists are actively working in several states and at the federal level to get their ideas into public school science classrooms. In their famous Wedge Document, the Discovery Institute's strategic blueprint for overthrowing materialistic science, Phase 1 was supposed to be…