creationism
pharyngula | December 4, 2007Although if you're at work, it probably isn't a good idea to crank up the volume. Unless you work in a lab, in which case your colleagues might join in on the chorus.
gregladen | December 4, 2007
After 27 years as a science teacher and 9 years as the Texas Education Agency's director of science, Christine Castillo Comer said she did not think she had to remain "neutral" about teaching the theory of evolution.
"It's not just a good idea; it's the law," said Ms. Comer, citing the state's science curriculum.
But now Ms. Comer, 56, of Austin, is out of a job, after forwarding an e-mail message on a talk about evolution and creationism -- "a subject on which the agency must remain neutral," according to a dismissal letter last month that accused her of various instances of "misconduct and…
pharyngula | December 4, 2007Now the NY Times has an editorial deploring the politicization of the Texas Education Agency. This one is going to burn the creationists, I think; it's an opportunity to turn their slogans about fairness right around and skewer them.
laelaps | December 4, 2007Ben Stein is out and about flogging his upcoming farce of a documentary, Expelled, and he recently repeatedly shot himself in the foot during a recent appearance on Glenn Beck's self-aggrandizing CNN show. If you can stomach it, here's the video;
Hearing what Stein said during this brief interview, he has certainly confirmed what the scientific community has been saying all along, and they have every right to call him a fool. I'm not sure I would call the first slip-up a mistake though, perhaps it's honesty, but it significantly weakens Stein's entire premise. Beck says "Tell me about…
pharyngula | December 3, 2007Forgive me. This is disgusting.
Glenn Beck + Ben Stein.
Stein repeats his ignorant caricature of the origin of life as "lightning striking a mud puddle," and then…oh, man, this was unbelievable:
If they're so sure that they're right, what are they afraid of? If they're so sure that their position is unassailable, let the other guy talk and then blow him out of the water and say, "You fool, you didn't know this, this and this."
Gosh. That sounds exactly like Pharyngula.
This is exactly what we all do over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and…
pharyngula | December 3, 2007Regular old physical mail, that is, paper with a stamp. Anyone remember Michael Korn? The nut from Colorado who threatened biologists there, and then sent email to everyone at my university offering to meet them for a fistfight out by the flagpole? He sent me a bunch of tracts … and a poem.
Here's the letter and poem.
Dear Professor Myers,
These martyrs uffer enormous pain to uphold the ultimate Truth that you strive mightily to denigrate, deride, and destroy. Yet these simple people seem to have so much more wisdom than a proud American professor, who will inherit the Vale of Tears for all…
mikethemadbiologist | December 3, 2007In light of recent creationist idiocy in Texas, the evolution 'controversy' will be in the news. Those of us who support science will need some talking points made for TV debate, not the classroom. Here are my suggestions:
ID should always be referred to as intelligent design creationism. Not only is this accurate, but many people don't want to be linked with creationism--creationism does have a stigma attached to it.
Evolutionary biology is critical to medicine and genomics--denying evolution is like watching television and denying the existence of photons. Genomics is one of those…
pharyngula | December 3, 2007The DI had their press conference. They unveiled their killer evidence, emails from his university colleagues obtained via a Freedom Of Information Act request. They revealed — oh, horrors! oh, tea and crumpets! oh, I feel a swoon coming on! — that his colleagues had discussed Gonzalez's involvement with intelligent design in a negative way before the tenure decision was made.
The disclosure of the e-mails is contrary to what ISU officials emphasized after Gonzalez, an assistant professor in physics and astronomy, learned that his university colleagues had voted to deny his bid for tenure.
"…
gregladen | December 3, 2007Mike the Mad Biologist suggests this:
One way pro-science citizens can influence what local and state governments do is through federal funding. The next time any educational legislation is proposed, a key component should be the release of federal support for educational programs contingent upon the adoption of educational standards that do not accept intelligent design creationism as science and that also support the study of evolution.
It is possible. The mechanism for this is in place to some extent. There is the No Child Left Behind policy which demands certain things happen at the…
laelaps | December 3, 2007A few weeks ago I mentioned that the school board in Polk County, Florida looked like they were going to try and get creationism into the classroom when the school science standards are revised in January of 2008, and now it looks like some of the members of the Texas Education Agency might be gearing up to try the same thing. By now I'm sure that most of you have heard of how the Texas Education Agency's director of science, Christine Comer, was forced to resign after forwarding a message about a Nov. 2 lecture by philosopher Barbara Forrest on called "Inside Creationisms Trojan Horse" to a…
pharyngula | December 3, 2007The NY Times covers the Chris Comer resignationtoday. This story is a wonderful window into the events transpiring within the Texas Education Agency — they are gearing up to shut down biology education in the whole damn state. And why now?
The standards, adopted in 1998, are due for a 10-year review and possible revision after the 15-member elected State Board of Education meets in February, with particular ramifications for the multibillion-dollar textbook industry. The chairman of the panel, Dr. Don McLeroy, a dentist and Sunday School teacher at Grace Bible Church in College Station, has…
evolvingthoughts | December 2, 2007
The Institute for Intellectual Disco Dancing has spun its recent debacle at Minnesota thus:
The dyspeptic and ad hominem blogger/biologist Dr. P.Z. Myers was there and brought a Darwinist claque.
Note that in passing it is not a fallacy to be ad hominem if the point is relevant to the argument. But let's focus on dyspepsia. A friend recently noted my own dyspepsia on matters religious (not nearly as strong as PZ's though). It occurred to me that dyspepsia is a really great condition: it stops you swallowing shit uncritically. Now intellectual coprophagia may be necessary to ensure that…
pharyngula | December 2, 2007Now the Louisville, Kentucky Courier-Journal is running an op-ed critical of Ken Ham.
There is a great educational injustice being inflicted upon thousands of children in this country, a large percentage of whom come from the Kentucky, Ohio and, Indiana areas. The source of this injustice is a sophisticated Christian ministry that uses the hook of dinosaurs, the guarantee of an afterlife, and the horrors of hell to convince children and their families to believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible. The tax-exempt ministry, Answers in Genesis, and its new $28 million creation museum in…
pharyngula | December 2, 2007It's good to see that the Austin American-Statesman can see the obvious:
Is this state's education agency being driven by a political orthodoxy so fierce that it dumped its science director for passing along a harmless e-mail? It's possible.
Chris Comer was director of the science curriculum for the Texas Education Agency for nearly a decade when she was forced to resign recently. Her offense, as unbelievable as it is to relate, was forwarding an e-mail message about a presentation by an author critical of the intelligent design approach to science education.
We knew when McLeroy was…
gregladen | December 2, 2007The Courier Journal is a regular normal every-day newspaper out of Louisville, Kentucky. James K. Willmot is a normal every-day former science teacher at a Goshen Kentucky school. He works in a lab now in Britain, but he's from Louisville. The following Op Ed in the Courier-Journal by James Willmot should be sobering for anyone living in the readership zone of that paper, or anyone with kids in the area:
There is a great educational injustice being inflicted upon thousands of children in this country, a large percentage of whom come from the Kentucky, Ohio and, Indiana areas. The source…
gregladen | December 2, 2007Here we have another example of the link between Christian religion, Creationism, and Dishonesty. This time, it is in the post-game analysis of John West's talk at the University of Minnesota, posted on the Discovery Institutes's Web Site.
The post by Bruce Chapman, who was not at the talk, is based on "two calls" Bruce got about the talk. It is full of lies and misinformation, which are pretty much obliterated in this post by PZ Myers, which appeared on the Internet only moments ago.
What I find most amazing is this: West was asked explicitly if he was making a link between the early…