creationism
pharyngula | December 2, 2007The Discovery Institute is spinning wildly to make excuses for West's performance on Friday, and to declare him the "winner".
I got two calls last night about Dr. John West's presentation at the University of Minnesota on Darwinism's fathership of eugenics. It appears that the scholarly and well-delivered lecture, derived from the new West book, Darwin Day in America, was successful in influencing the thinking of a largely skeptical audience. (The dyspeptic and ad hominem blogger/biologist Dr. P.Z. Myers was there and brought a Darwinist claque. West generously introduced him and acknowledged…
mikethemadbiologist | December 1, 2007No, I'm not talking about voting them out of office (fat chance of that happening in some places). By now, you've probably heard about the firing of the Texas Education Agency's director of science curriculum. There's not much to add to what others have already said about how stupid this is, so, instead, I want to propose one possible way to strike back at these bozos: federalize the issue.
This latest front in the Republican* War on Science illustrates how this is a political issue that revolves around power, not framing. One way pro-science citizens can influence what local and state…
pharyngula | December 1, 2007Yesterday, I hopped into the black evo-mobile and made the long trek to Minneapolis to witness another creationist make a fool of himself. As is my custom when traveling alone, I like to crank up the car stereo until the road noise is beaten back, and the soundtrack for my trip was first, NPR's Science Friday, and then Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light, which I'd received in the mail earlier this week (thanks, Richard!). This was a mistake. This would have prepared me for science, complexity, and beauty, but all I was going to get at the end was ideological stupidity, simple-mindedness, and a…
mikethemadbiologist | December 1, 2007:By way of moonbat, I came across this diagram that explains intelligent design creationism perfectly:
Nuff said.
gregladen | November 30, 2007The 1920s. It was a sad, sad time in America. All the biologists got together and, inspired by Darwinian writings, embarked on a campaign to sterilize those they perceived as unfit, the campaign known to us as Eugenics. From Eugenics grew other evils, such as Planned Parenthood, Modern Evolutionary Biology, and The Nazis.
Or so intoned John West of the Creationist Discovery Institute, in a talk ending just moments ago at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus.
The talk itself was rather sad, not just the apocryphal topic. It was executed with a modicum, but only a modicum, of…
pharyngula | November 30, 2007A reminder: tonight is the creationist schlockfest at the University of Minnesota. Smart people will meet at the Campus Club, on the fourth floor of the Coffman Union, between 5:30 and 6:45, for pre-seminar preparation.
See you there!
pharyngula | November 30, 2007Mark Mathis, the guy who did the interviews for the creationist movie Expelled, has been doing the Christian talk radio circuit lately. He was on in the Twin Cities yesterday, although I missed it … but he's about to go live on WAMT 1190 in Florida, at 11:05 ET. Listen in, or even call in…make him dance.
The call-in numbers are 407-273-1190 and 888-300-3776, by the way. And the KKMS interview in the Twin Cities might be accessible here, I haven't tried it myself.
OK, all done. What an amusing show! Mathis is your classic, standard creationist, constantly claiming (falsely) that evolution is…
pharyngula | November 29, 2007Texas Citizens for Science has posted a summary of the political pressures:
TEA has a new policy, one of neutrality between biological evolution and Intelligent Design Creationism. This new policy was put in place when Dr. Don McLeroy--an outspoken Creationist and activist for Intelligent Design Creationism and its marketing campaign--was appointed the new Chair of the State Board of Education (SBOE). By publicizing a lecture by a Louisiana State University professor of the philosophy of science that supported evolution--as required by the state's science standards--and opposed Intelligent…
scientificactivist | November 29, 2007Dear Texas,
Let me first of all say that despite our differences, I still consider you my home, even if I only get to visit a couple of times a year these days. Friends, family, football: you have it all for me. And, as I watched it get dark here in Oxford around 4 pm this afternoon, I have to admit that I really miss that warm Texas sun.
But, Texas, I have to tell you--pal to pal--that your recent actions have been so stereotypical. I mean, yeah, we get it. You're conservative. Really conservative. And, you like Jesus. A lot. Tell me something new. But now I hear that you forced…
pharyngula | November 29, 2007We now have a copy of the vile, biased e-mail that cost Chris Comer her job. It's unbelievably one-sided and horrible — I swear, it's like using your office network to harrass co-workers with explicit porn. It turns out that this offensive e-mail was from the NCSE, and referenced the Center for Inquiry; if only it had mentioned the ACLU, it would have achieved a hellish trifecta.
The mind-blowing e-mail is below the fold, to protect innocent eyes.
To: Glenn Branch
From: Glenn Branch
Subject: Barbara Forrest in Austin 11/2
Cc:
Bcc: [redacted]
Dear Austin-area friends of NCSE,
I thought that…
mikethemadbiologist | November 29, 2007Things are kind of hectic, but I stumbled across this interesting post by Chris Colvin, an NBC news writer, about blogging:
Now to the news media.. the Mainstream Media.. as it has become known, and an object lesson in how the blogosphere is changing the way the MSM operates. (And I say this at the risk of sounding hopelessly naive to the many people who think the "corporate media" exists to push a political agenda-- if that's true, I'm either too stupid or too low on the food chain to be able to actually demonstrate it.) Anyway. Salon's Glenn Greenwald has engaged in a fairly brutal…
pharyngula | November 29, 2007In the Dover trial, you got the palpable sense that the creationists were terrified of Barbara Forrest's testimony. I did not know quite how deeply the dread was until today, though: the Texas director os science curriculum, Chris Comer, was pressured into resigning because she forwarded an e-mail announcing a talk by Barbara Forrest. One Lizzette Reynolds, Republican hack and senior advisor to the Texas Education Agency, was freaking horrified.
This is highly inappropriate. I believe this is an offense that calls for termination or, at the very least, reassignment of responsibilities.…
tfk | November 28, 2007The Austin American Statesman reports that Ms. Chris Comer, Texas state director of science curriculum, was fired after forwarding an email announcing a talk about intelligent design in the Austin area. The talk "Inside Creationism's Trojan Horse," was by Barbara Forrest, a historian and philosopher who has studied the ties between ID and earlier generations of creationism. It focused on her work in the Dover trial and her book Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design.
The Statesman explains:
The call to fire Comer came from Lizzette Reynolds, who previously worked in the…
pharyngula | November 28, 2007I almost feel sorry for Guillermo Gonzalez. The Discovery Institute is turning him into a political football, and making his denial of tenure a far greater mess than is warranted. They're going to hold a press conference on Monday.
The fight will rage on over Iowa State University astronomy professor Guillermo Gonzalez, who advocated for intelligent design, the theory that disputes parts of evolution, and lost a bid for tenure.
Advocates for Gonzalez said in a release distributed Tuesday that they will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. Monday in Des Moines. There, they said, they will discuss…
pharyngula | November 27, 2007Our Friday plans are getting better and better. Remember, the crappy talk by John West blaming Darwin for Hitler is at 7 on 30 November at the UM campus — come prepared to be critical. The fun part is that we're meeting between 5:30 and 6:45 in the Campus Club, on the fourth floor of the Coffman Union. Then some really good news: Mark Borrello, UM's expert in the history of science, is going to speak briefly after West's drivel. West isn't going to get away with anything, at least on Friday.
Unfortunately, he's also being given an opportunity to lie unchecked to the public on Saturday. The…
pharyngula | November 27, 2007I mentioned before that Michael Medved was joining the Discovery Institute, and now Amanda comments:
I love the move, because it's so transparent. The weak claims to be an institution dedicated to scientific research fall away; Medved is no scientist, just a dedicated culture war soldier. Which of course means that the Discovery Institute is less interested in discovery than in squelching any perceived threat to the cultural dominance of white Christians of a fundamentalist stripe. Medved no doubt was hired because of his willingness to lie, deceive, conceal, and distract from any realities…
pharyngula | November 26, 2007You all remember Dembski's recent faux pas — he was caught stealing a science video from Harvard/XVIVO for use in his Intelligent Design creationism lectures. Dembski has issued one of his patented not-pologies. He now declares that all of the allegations against him are false, but he now promises to no longer use the video. You see, he really didn't steal it. Here's his excuse.
The video was so good that I wanted to use it in some of my public presentations, but when I tried to purchase a DVD of it (I sent several emails to relevant parties), I was informed it wasn't ready.
Translation: He…