creationism
gregladen | April 13, 2008Dawkins Admits to Not Being Perfect Atheist: Consideres Possibility that Fairies and Green Unicorns May, just May Exist. (But almost certainly not.)
Hat tip: Science and Religion News
pharyngula | April 13, 2008So what are we supposed to make of Maciel Giertych, anti-Darwinist loon and one of the interview subjects in Expelled, who is also an anti-Jewish bigot who characterizes Jews as "those who did not recognise Jesus Christ as the awaited Messiah"?
evolvingthoughts | April 12, 2008
Following on from my demonstration that Darwinism is entirely responsible for anti-Semiticism back on 1 April, comes this discussion of how Darwinism has even infected the morals of anti-Darwinians, via John Lynch; in this case Maciej Giertych, one of the pro-ID "scientists" interviewed by the film Expelled, and a notable and vocal anti-Semite. Obviously he is influenced by the evil Darwinism, and not from any long-standing tendency in Poland to attack, kill and generally persecute Jews well before Darwin published. And of course poor Ben Stein and Mark Mathis - this makes the clear message…
pharyngula | April 12, 2008Everyone was so pleased with getting a thread over 2000 comments, but I'm sorry — it's so huge it's causing server problems on ScienceBlogs. I'm closing comments there; if you really must continue, do it here.
gregladen | April 12, 2008Scott Hatfield of Monkey Trials reports that an infamous Young Earth Creationist Don Patton is planning a church sponsored talk in a local public high school on the topic of creationism. Scott is seeking help.
If you live in the vicinity, please consider showing up and being a person with a brain in the audience.
PZ Myers has outlined an excellent strategy for Scott (or anyone else i his position). I would add one more item: Scott, send off a note to the National Center of Science Education letting them know what's up.
mikethemadbiologist | April 12, 2008Steven Novella at NeuroLogica Blog has a great post explaining why ID can't meet the criterion of falsification. How does one conclusively disprove the existence of the Great Vorlon?
I would add two points. First, a good trick that intelligent design creationists play is that they subtly make their 'hypothesis' (such as it is) the null hypothesis. That means evolution by natural processes must always make the affirmative case, or overturn intelligent design creationism. Because ID creationism is so well established. Or something. I call bullshit.
Second, it always interests me how, when…
pharyngula | April 12, 2008Scott Hatfield is asking for assistance: one of the old school Liars for Jesus, Don Patton, is going to be speaking at his public high school. This is disgraceful. Patton is a sleazy fraud, and to have him abuse public school facilities with his dishonesty is completely inappropriate; confine him to the churches, where nonstop lies are a regular feature.
Scott asks what can be done. Here's my general prescription for dealing with these slimy hoaxsters:
Advertise. These guys feed on an ignorant audience; they get a lot of praise by packing auditoriums with the most stupid people they can…
pharyngula | April 12, 2008Most of you have probably already seen this: David Bolinsky accuses Expelled of theft. Bolinski is the professional who invested a great deal of time and money in generating the "Inner Life of the Cell" video, only to see it misappropriated, misinterpreted, and misused by creationists to promote their absurdity. You can tell that Bolinski might be a little bit angry about this, but of course there's not much that a few poorly paid college professors can do against the huge buckets of money from unscrupulous fat cat investors and bloated right wing 'institutes'.
To Mr. Dembski: The only…
gregladen | April 11, 2008And the review is very negative. Of Expelled, as well as of PZ Myers and atheists in general.
The man made famous by Ferris Bueller, ... quickly wades into waters far too deep for him. He makes all the usual mistakes nonscientists make whenever they try to take down evolution, asking, for example, how something as complex as a living cell could have possibly arisen whole from the earth's primordial soup. The answer is it couldn't--and it didn't. Organic chemicals needed eons of stirring and slow cooking before they could produce compounds that could begin to lead to a living thing. More…
mikethemadbiologist | April 11, 2008By now, you might have heard about the copyright infringement by the producers of Expelled. Wesley Elsberry points out a serious legal problem for the producers of Expelled if a lawsuit were to proceed--the discovery phase (italics mine):
If the "Expelled" folks think about this for more than five minutes or so, they will do everything in their power to comply with the XVIVO request, including screwing the distribution deal and holding off the premiere for another several months. Why?
..."Expelled" is a production linked into the persecution stories at the heart of IDC. They have had months…
gregladen | April 10, 2008Things are happening exactly as I predicted...(Expelled! The Movie To Be Pulled From Theaters Following Myers/Dawkins-Gate Screwup)
The movie "Expelled!" with Ben Stein (you may have heard of it) includes a segment consisting of the animation of the inside workings of a cell. It is said to look a lot like a production that came out of Harvard and a private animation firm last year or so:
People who saw the clip used in Expelled! were beginning to think that the video Expelled! used was not the Harvard video because there were some differences. However, this remains unclear. My thinking on…
pharyngula | April 9, 2008One thing I know: I never want to piss off Peter Irons, Esq., Attorney at Law.
Re: Copyright infringement in "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"
Dear Mr. •••••:
This letter will constitute notice to you, as Chairman of Premise Media Corporation, of the copyright infringement by your corporation, and its subsidiary, Rampant Films, of material produced by XVIVO LLC, in which XVIVO holds a copyright.
It has come to our intention that Premise Media and Rampant Films has produced a film entitled "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," which is scheduled for commercial release and distribution on…
gregladen | April 9, 2008From FOX:
After seeing a new non-fiction film starring Comedy Central's Ben Stein, you may not only be able to win his money, but also his career.
Stein is that whiny little guy with the monotone voice that makes him seem funny and an unlikely "character" for TV appearances. But that career may be over come April 18, when a movie he co-wrote, narrates and appears in, called "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," is released.
Directed by one Nathan Frankowski, "Expelled" is a sloppy, all-over-the-place, poorly made (and not just a little boring) "expose" of the scientific community. It's not…
pharyngula | April 9, 2008
First Fox News, now Scientific American gives Expelled both barrels. They dedicated a fair amount of space to ripping into the movie, and you might be wondering if it isn't giving the movie more publicity than it deserves, a question I'm getting asked a lot, too. Of course it is! The controversy is exactly what they want, since it will help put butts in seats. However, this is bad publicity, and what serves our ends is that people see the movie skeptically, and are made aware of the fundamental dishonesty of the makers. John Rennie notes this problem:
Rather, it seems a safe bet that the…
gregladen | April 9, 2008
Please Visit Expelled Exposed ... the National Center for Science Education's official response to the Ben Stein movie Expelled .. you will find this collection of resources helpful!!!!!!
gregladen | April 9, 2008The atheists are on the march like never before. Why? Because creation is also being discussed like never before and they are worried! This weeklong series of lectures and activities will equip you and your children with the necessary tools and information to dramatically affect this world for Christ.
Here are a few of the topics covered:
Planetary Cataclysm
Plate tectonics modelling--
astounding new insights into Noah's Flood
How textbooks mislead
'Facts' are not neutral-and neither is education
The Mystery of Our Declining Genes
Startling data for recent creation--in our DNA
Leaving Your…
laelaps | April 9, 2008The reviews for Expelled are starting to come in, and even FOX News' Roger Friedman has panned the film. You'll have to scroll down a little bit to see the review (Mariah Carey's new album beat Stein in terms of importance), but here's a snippet to give you an idea of what Friedman thinks of the creationist film;
The gist of Stein's involvement is: He's outraged! He believes in God! God created the universe! How can we not avail our students of this theory? What do you mean we're just molecules?
What the producers of this film would love, love, love is a controversy. That's because it's being…
pharyngula | April 9, 2008Oh, my — you know a right wing Christianist propaganda film is bad when even Fox News pans it.
pharyngula | April 9, 2008Some wacky creationists are having a Creation Supercamp in Australia. I am surprised by one thing: their opening description of the event is actually true! I can't find one thing I disagree with in this statement.
The atheists are on the march like never before. Why? Because creation is also being discussed like never before and they are worried! This weeklong series of lectures and activities will equip you and your children with the necessary tools and information to dramatically affect this world for Christ.
Yes, I think we are seeing an atheist surge right now, and yes, we are worried by…
pharyngula | April 8, 2008People are still interviewing me about the silly Expelled movie. The most prestigious news source so far, though, has to be my campus newspaper, The Register. They even ran it on the front page of their April Fool's issue, a signal honor which I only acknowledge at this late date because I was so busy gallivanting about that I missed it. You're supposed to be able to read it at the source, but the link seems to have gone all flaky, so at least until it's fixed, I've put the interview below the fold.
University Register: For those who haven't been following along, could you give a brief…