creationism
gregladen | January 19, 2008Today's St. Petersburg Times has a letter from Bill Foster. Foster was the outgoing city councilman who wrote a letter to the school board opposing the teaching of modern Evolutionary Biology, or at least, the teaching of modern science without wrapping it in a medieval blanket of Christian Inquisitorial reasoning. Let's have a look at Bills latest letter.
On Jan. 2, I spent my last day as a St. Petersburg city councilman. I was heralded by my colleagues and received a key to the city from the mayor. After almost 10 years of service, I was forced out of office due to term limits. Many nice…
gregladen | January 19, 2008Sorry, this is not as fresh and current as I would like, but you will still find it interesting. The National Center for Science Education has a news release covering a number of topics:
DECISION ON ICR'S GRADUATE SCHOOL DEFERRED
The Institute for Creation Research's quest for Texas certification of its
graduate school, which would offer a master's degree in science education,
is on hold, at the ICR's request. A preliminary assessment of the ICR's
facilities described the educational program as "plausible," adding, "The
proposed degree would be generally comparable to an initial master's…
gregladen | January 19, 2008Education committees are beginning to review the science standards for Texas Schools this month. There are indications that efforts will be made to weaken the standing of evolution, or insinuate creationism, creation science, or intelligent design into the standards.
The current Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards includes a statement that sudents must learn "the theory of biological evolution." The standards also specify that students must apply critical thinking, address "strengths and weaknesses" in theories.
This does not sound like a bad idea, but it is exactly the kind of…
gregladen | January 19, 2008First, from the standard news sources in Jacksonville:
Despite impassioned opposition from science experts, teachers and some clergy, Clay County School Board members unanimously resolved Tuesday night that evolution should be presented as a theory, and not fact, in the classroom.
The board passed a resolution, proposed by Superintendent David Owens, asking the Florida Department of Education to reword its newly proposed state standards, which presents evolution as "the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported in multiple forms of scientific evidence."
Baker County…
gregladen | January 19, 2008From the Texas Citizens for Science:
In an email message to its friends, the Institute for Creation Research proposes The Disjunctive Duality of Science Distinction, a new argument to support its effort to obtain Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approval for its masters degree program in science education. The argument is actually an old one. It posits that two types of science exist, "experimental" science and "forensic, historical, or orgins" science. Only the first is real science, while the second--which, needless to say, includes evolutionary biology--is not a reliable science…
pharyngula | January 18, 2008Those wacky fellas behind the movie Expelled are at it again. First, we have an
interview with Ben Stein. You can tell that the interviewer has drunk deep of the Discovery Institute spring.
Cybercast News Service: There is a segment in the film, where it's made clear that intelligent design can open up new areas of inquiry that could improve the human condition. One involves a neurosurgeon, Michael Egnor, and another scientist, Jon Wells, who indicate that given how the cells are put together, with eye toward intelligent design, and with the idea that animal cells have tiny turbines - or if…
gregladen | January 18, 2008[Post Revised]
According to one story:
After a public hearing Thursday evening to discuss a possible change in the way science courses are taught in public schools, the Clay County [Florida] School Board voted unanimously to support a change in the state science curriculum that would use the word evolution in the classroom.
The state Board of Education will scheduled to vote Feb. 19 on the change, which would require more in-depth teaching of evolution and other scientific topics while setting specific benchmarks for students to meet.
Source is here.
But according to other sources, things…
evolvingthoughts | January 17, 2008
Colin Purrington has a nice set of publicly available images for use in pro-science talks. Go check 'em out.
pharyngula | January 17, 2008I have mixed feelings about this article in Inside Higher Ed on the issue of approving an ICR degree program in Texas. On the one hand, it's clear that the Texas bureaucracy is being cautious and thorough and working its way through their official protocols. Raymund Paredes, the commissioner of higher education, has raised concerns about the proposed program—online graduate degrees in he sciences are problematic because they lack the laboratory component; the proposed curriculum is not equivalent to other graduate programs in Texas; they haven't documented that the ICR is a research…
pharyngula | January 16, 2008I heard this third hand, so it's not exactly the most well-founded rumor around, but a contact with inside information in the Southern Baptist Ministries has heard that they want to help out with the koo-koo descent into creationist madness that is Florida. They have asked their Florida churches to send information to businesses and school boards — a fine idea, and perfectly acceptable practice, I would think — but you have to see the "information" to believe it.
The rumor is that they're going to send a tract called Apes, Lies, and Ms. Henn. That's right, a Jack Chick tract.
I'm torn. It…
gregladen | January 16, 2008From the National Center for Science Education:
Science, Evolution, and Creationism, the new book from the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine designed to give the public a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the current scientific understanding of evolution and its importance in the science classroom, is receiving wide attention -- and, what's more, praise both from the scientific community and newspapers across the country for its uncompromising endorsement of the necessity of including evolution in science education.
Stories about Science, Evolution, and Creationism…
laelaps | January 16, 2008The creationist propaganda piece Expelled has been in the pipe for a while now, but it seems to be more and more apparent that the people behind it are scrambling to prevent the film from being a direct-to-video style flop. Originally slated for Darwin Day (February 12), the film has been pushed back to April (I would assume the delay stems from a desire to include more about the Gonzalez tenure-denial kerfuffle), and it looks like the filmmakers are trying to "recruit" as many people as possible to see the film when it opens by throwing money at schools. According to a recent post up at the…
mikethemadbiologist | January 16, 2008By way of ScienceBlogling Razib, I came across this Reason article by Ronald Bailey summarizing the presidential candidates views' on evolution. Bailey highlights two reasons what lack of support for evolution says about a candidate:
The candidate probably is weak on the separation of church and state.
The candidate is unable to rationally assess evidence.
But I think this misses the point entirely: evolution matters because evolutionary biology matters.
Granted this sounds like something Yogi Berra would say, but I'm tired of the Coalition of the Sane, regardless of where individual…
gregladen | January 15, 2008Texas higher education officials announced today that they have postponed action on a Bible-oriented group's proposal to offer a master's degree in science education.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board had been scheduled to consider the proposal by the Dallas-based Institute for Creation Research at a meeting Jan. 24.
But Eddy Miller, dean of the institute's graduate school, said in an e-mail to the coordinating board Monday that the school needs more time "to do justice to the concerns you raised," according to a news release issued by the coordinating board. Miller asked the…
gregladen | January 15, 2008If you follow the creationist news stories from around the country, you get a lot of the same exact thing over and over again, and it is hard to identify the novel or persistent elements in the flow of information. But increasingly it is clear that Bill Foster of St. Petersburg Florida is somewhat novel and starting to look persistent.
Foster was a relatively typical family values fiscal conservative kind of city council member. Term limits have forced him out of his job, which is too bad because maybe he would have just continued along that course minding his own business and not doing…
pharyngula | January 13, 2008
Remember the creationist trying to raise money by selling off his mastodon skull? Now we know why he is trying to get money fast. He got into a nasty, mud-slinging lawsuit with a fellow Christian creationist over ownership of another fossil. The wonderful news: if he doesn't get enough cash from the sale of the skull, he may have to close his museum.
Man, you people sure jumped hard on that poor Canadian who thought the title of Darwin's book was sufficient to damn it. Now he has replied with another post in which he demonstrates his stupidity. He really should stop. He has put up a long…
gregladen | January 13, 2008It is science fair season! Elmer's Inc is cranking out the three-part display boards, Office Max is stocking up on its colored paper and glue sticks, and thousands upon thousands of kids are working out the fine details of the hypothesis they want to test using an experiment that can be demonstrated in the Science Fair.
Pretty boring, actually.
Unless you focus on the Christian Creationist Science Fairs. They are Always so much fun. And remember, Greg Laden's Blog here at scienceblogs.com is your Christian Creation Science Creationist Science Fair Center! Keep checking back!
For now, I…
gregladen | January 13, 2008By now you all know about Bill Foster, an outgoing council member in St. Petersburg, Florida, who has very strong creationist leanings. Foster had written a widely cited letter linking Hitler and the Columbine shooters to Darwinism. I thought it would be fair to have the ENTIRE letter written by foster available, rather than allowing this quote mining to go unanswered!
This is a transcription of a PDF file available at the St. Petersburg Times.
The Honorable Nancy N. Bortock, Chairman
All Pinellas County School Boared Members
P.O. Box 2942
Largo, Florida 33779-2942
Re: Evolution…
pharyngula | January 13, 2008Talk about clueless gomers—here's a Canadian blog praising the Expelled movie, and bringing up a very tired argument against evolution.
For the trolls (and you know who you are!), I simply offer the original title Darwin gave to his book,
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
,and ask you to explain how such a social (and Holocaust-endorsing) statement can be classified as the title of a purely scientific work -- until I get a direct answer to that, I will not respond to any of your inquiries as I haven't seemed…
gregladen | January 12, 2008Florida has a purifying effect on politicians. Around the nation, there is a range of opinion among politicians about science education and other issues, but it seems that in Florida, we have a purified strain of politicians. They are pure idiots.
A likely future candidate for Mayor of St. Petersburg, Bill Foster, believes that the study of Darwinism led Hitler to come up with the Holocaust, and the Columbine shooters to come up with murder and mayhem. Foster, currently a city council member in St. Petersburg, wrote a letter to the Pinellas County School Board (considering changes in the…