creationism
gregladen | January 29, 2008Lee Salisbury, a former evangelical preacher, comments on evolution and creationism.
He starts with this:
Creationism seems to be gaining credence far beyond its actual influence in the world of science. Even American presidential candidates, lest they offend the religious right, reject evolution in favor of creationism. Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson and Mit Romney endorse creationism.
And ends with this:
Creationists are quite explicit in their stated goals, and there is little room for doubt their true intentions. The true mission of creationism is theocracy. Thus exposed, the need to fight…
pharyngula | January 29, 2008Steven Schafersman is the president of Texas Citizens for Science, and he sent along a status report for Texas — it's not all bad news, and of course it's always good to see a strong, active organization defending science in the state. I've put the full report below.
ICR
I talked to many individuals in Austin. I had several good conversations with THECB Commissioner Raymund Paredes. He is really a good guy and we got along well. He understands Austin politics, and is now completely knowledgeable about Creationism in general and ICR in particular, and since we traded several email messages…
pharyngula | January 29, 2008Ben Stein must be on a campaign to make himself look stupid. Everyone here knows about his association with creationism, but it turns out this former student of economics at Yale is clueless about everything…but he still gets published in The New York Times.
First, let me begin with a first. I have never warned readers away from any one columnist or journalist, but after reading his column this weekend in The New York Times , I feel obligated to tell readers to never read Ben Stein again.
In indicting traders and lackeys in the press for the subprime selloff, Stein offers not one shred of…
pharyngula | January 29, 2008I've remarked before how difficult it is to satirize creationists — they're already so absurd that any mockery is often overtaken by the reality. There is a corollary: creationists shouldn't try to do satire. They really, really suck at it. This fellow from Sebring, Florida, William Dailey, Jr., has created a web site called the First Church of Evolution, for instance. There's not much to it; he seems to have simply vented his spleen in a few text pages, but while he may think he was cleverly making fun of evolutionists, but all he really accomplished was to parade his own misconceptions.…
gregladen | January 28, 2008"The first witness called by attorneys for the parents was Dr. Kenneth Miller"
pharyngula | January 28, 2008We have another point of correspondence. Remember how Kent Hovind's organization was bellowing and bucking about to block criticism on youtube? Now the Discovery Institute is up to the same shenanigans, trying to silence criticism by shutting down their youtube critics.
It's a good video that also nicely explains Dembski's Harvard/XVIVO fiasco as an ironic counterpoint.
The Discovery Institute's attempts to launder their internet presence have reached ridiculous levels — they've even asked Les Lane to remove a photo of Casey Luskin — "copyright infringement," don't you know — which is…
gregladen | January 28, 2008The Twin Cities Creation Science Association Home School Science Fair, held each year in February, in Har Mar Mall, Roseville, Minnesota, will occur this year on Saturday & Sunday, February 16 and 17, 2008.
The Application Deadline is January 31st, 2008 ($5.00 entry fee)
You can register after January 31st at the door for only three bucks more!
Here are the entry guidelines:
This fair is open to all Home School students in the greater Twin Cities area.
Each student may enter only one project.
There will be only individual projects, and team projects will not be allowed.
Each exhibit…
pharyngula | January 27, 2008Has anyone else noticed that you often only need to read the first sentence of anything written at Uncommon Descent to see them screw up royally? Especially, lately, if the author is Denyse O'Leary. Take this, for example.
Textbooks often don't discuss extinction — the death of all members of a species — in any detail.
That's news to me. I opened up my intro biology text, which is more a philosophy and history of biology book, and found 23 pages dedicated to discussing extinctions. It's been my experience that most textbooks will mention at least the Permian and K/T extinctions; they'll…
gregladen | January 27, 2008"Eventually, I came up with a name for it. I called it 'irreducible complexity'"
gregladen | January 27, 2008"Counterknowledge," I would have thought, includes things like how a particular customer likes her eggs, or if another customer gets antsy if he does not get his refill right way. You know, like in a diner. Counter knowledge. But it turns out that Counterknowledge is stuff like creationism, creation science, Scientology, alternative medicine, and so on.
The Telegraph has a review of a book by Damian Thompson with the title "Counterknowledge."
A synopsis from the publisher:
We are being swamped by dangerous nonsense. From 9/11 conspiracy theories to Holocaust denial, creationism to…
gregladen | January 26, 2008"Twelve mentions of Charles Darwin in a 1,400 page textbook..."
Previous in the series
gregladen | January 26, 2008This is a repost of an item from my old blog.
The Twin Cities Creation Science Fair association usually posts "random" photographs of the children's exhibits on their web site after the fair is over. You can go and see them for the last few years. (Don't look for a place to click on this post, I don't provide it here.)
But this year, something different happened, and if you go to the site where the photographs are supposed to be posted, you get this:
Interesting, huh?
Now, to really get the context of this, you may need to read at least the blog post and the last six or so comments in…
gregladen | January 26, 2008This is a repost of an item from my old blog.
The Twin Cities Home Schooling Creationist Science Fair at Har Mar Mall in Roseville, Minnesota happened last month. The organization that (at least partly) sponsors this event (Twin Cities Creation Science) usually posts photographs of the science fair, but this year they got into a tizzy about it for some reason and removed the photographs from their web site.
I was at the science fair, and I snapped a couple of photos, and I think there are interesting points of discussion that are lost with the TCCSA dropping the ball. Unfortunately, many…
gregladen | January 26, 2008This is a repost of an item from my old blog.
The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge.
Proverbs 1:7
This is an Absodoodly-don't miss event!
Har Mar Mall, Rosedale District
Roseville Minnesota
Feb 17 and 18 2007
Exhibits must be set up between 8:30 and 10:00 am Saturday and will remain up until 4:00 pm Sunday
Judging begins at 10:00 am and finishes at about 12:30 pm Saturday
According to Russ McGlenn (the dapper gentlemen in the photo, shown here at the Har Mar Mall during a previous Creation Science Fair), of Adventure Safaris (facilitator and coordinating agency of the Home…
gregladen | January 26, 2008I'm serious. You can't see this post until you put down your coffee and make sure your airways are clear. Then you can click on the heading and laugh, and cry, and everything...
This is a repost of an item from my old blog.
OK, I think this is fake, it can't be real. This was spotted on Pharyngula, and PZ Myers is a smart guy, but maybe this time he was fooled.
I'm talking about the "Twin Citeis Creation Science Association 2007 Home School Science Fair" planned for February 17th and 18th.
Here is the link if you want to see their site.
The following are my favorites form a list of 114…
gregladen | January 25, 2008"This is the story of a battle between faith and knowledge..."
The first in a series from the BBC
Next in the series
gregladen | January 25, 2008From the NCSE newsroom:
At least nine county school boards in northern Florida have adopted resolutions calling for the state board of education "to revise the new Sunshine State Standards for Science such that evolution is not presented as fact, but as one of several theories," according to a January 23, 2008, report from Florida Citizens for Science. These resolutions represent a backlash to a draft set of new state science standards, which are presently undergoing revision in response to comments from the public. The state board of education is expected to consider the revised draft set of…
pharyngula | January 25, 2008It bodes ill for a certain southern state that my mailbox overfloweth with tales of idiocy from Florida … it's gotten to the point where I cringe a little bit when I see "Florida" in the subject line, because I know it's going to be another delusional school board, another wacky letter to the editor, another Floridian complaining that his state isn't as stupid as it sounds from all the news. Even the Florida Citizens for Science blog is a reservoir of terrible stories right now.
So I'm going to abstain for a little while from the Florida bashing and give the good guys a chance to catch up.…