creationism
pharyngula | November 12, 2007The middle-aged man named Ian Musgrave has replied to the grey-haired man Michael Behe in response to his recent condescending dismissal of the young woman Abbie Smith (don't these irrelevant signifiers of age, sex, and status add so much to our understanding of the discussion?) It's really all about fun with viral proteins, and Behe's failure to understand the basics of the evolution of the same. I think I'd be reluctant to refer to him as "the middle-aged biochemist Michael Behe" anymore — a biochemist should know this stuff.
Behe replies. He seems to be in a bit of a snit.
gregladen | November 11, 2007... I believe it even less than I did before, and I believed it not at all, of course.
This is an actual reconstruction from the Creation Museum in Kentucky, courtesy of Right Wing Watch:
[hat tip: Pharyngula]
pharyngula | November 11, 2007One of the most vocal pro-creationist governors in the country, Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky (home of Ken Ham's infamous creationist "museum") has had his re-election bid go down in flames. This is fabulous news. Revere sees it as one more sign of the impending demise of the religious right — I can't be quite so optimistic, since they always seem to resurrect themselves. Greg Laden is also pleased with the result. He also takes exception to the claim that creationism is properly taught in social studies and comparative religion classes — and to that, I'd add the frequent suggestion that it…
gregladen | November 10, 2007 JUDGMENT DAY PRAISED IN NATURE
From the National Center for Science Education ...
Judgement Day Praised in Nature
Reviewing Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial -- the new documentary about Kitzmiller v. Dover -- for the November 8, 2007, issue of Nature (450: 170), Adam Rutherford was impressed, not least with the way in which the filmmakers met the challenge of retelling the story. "The makers of Judgment Day inject tension with eyewitness accounts from the people of Dover," he writes, "and home-video footage of raucous school board meetings shows how passionate and divided this…
gregladen | November 10, 2007Kentuckians can be less embarrassed starting soon. This from the NCSE ... it's a bit old, but it had slipped past in a flurry of other emails, and I think it is really interesting.
FLETCHER LOSES KENTUCKY GOVERNORSHIP
Kentucky's incumbent governor Ernie Fletcher (R) was soundly defeated in the November 6, 2007, election, by Steve Beshear (D), a former lieutenant governor of the state, who took 59% of the vote. A Baptist minister, Fletcher was perhaps the most outspoken supporter of creationism to serve as a governor anywhere in the country in recent years. He expressed disappointment about…
pharyngula | November 8, 2007Is everyone looking forward to the new Nova program, Judgment Day? Look for it next Tuesday, 13 November, on PBS. The first review I've seen is available in this week's Nature, and it's positive.
Hot on the heels of several books chronicling Kitzmiller vs Dover, comes Judgment Day, a rigorous television documentary from the producers of the prestigious science series Nova. This two-hour montage of interviews and reconstructions, to be shown on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States, features all the main players, bar one. Michael Behe, inventor of the specious meme "…
laelaps | November 8, 2007Just in case you needed more evidence that the young earth creationists of Answers in Genesis are boldfaced liars, they've published a new webpage advising students how to start "Creation Clubs" at their public schools. AiG has sworn up and down that it doesn't want to force their (appallingly incorrect) version of the history of the world into public schools, but over and over again the opposite has turned out to be true. Indeed, taking advantage of the ability of many schools being able to host religiously-oriented clubs run by students, Ham & Co. recommend doing the following to…
pharyngula | November 7, 2007Right Wing Watch has the press kit for Ken Ham's creation science "museum". It's somewhat bizarre; they provide a collection of videos that are done exactly like broadcast news stories — making it easy for small town news stations to simply slot in creationist propaganda as if it were part of a real newscast.
Sleazy. Sleazier still if any broadcaster actually used the ghastly things.
gregladen | November 7, 2007Bill Wenmark, a member of the Minnetonka School Board who supports the teaching of Intelligent Design in High School Cirriculum was ousted in yesterday's election.
Bill sent me an email that included a note to his constituents, and he and I have been discussing the possibility of me posting it here. Now that the election is over, I doubt that will materialize. In any event, he sent me the email to clarify his position on ID, and I'll pass my interpretation of that on to you. He can certainly add comments to this if he feels more clarification is in order.
My understanding is that Bill…
pharyngula | November 7, 2007Remember how I told people to Vote "no" on Bill Wenmark, the creationist school board member in the Minnetonka school district? Well, you did. Or at least that subset of you eligible to vote in that local election did. Bill Wenmark is out, and good people have been elected. The last vestiges of Intelligent Design creationism have been, ahem, expelled from one school district.
gregladen | November 7, 2007[Repost with minor modifications form gregladen.com]
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As indicated in a press release by the National Center for Science Education, the National Council for the Social Studies has released a position statement on Intelligent Design.
...There have been efforts for many decades to introduce religious beliefs about the beginning of life on Earth into the science curriculum of the public schools. Most recently, these efforts have included "creation science" and "intelligent design." Following a number of court decisions finding the teaching of creationism and intelligent design…
pharyngula | November 6, 2007I think it was intended to be an unfavorable comparison, but the ambiguity of the phrasing does leave open the possibility that Ben Stein is accusing Einstein of having a closed mind.
What we see below are two views of Intelligent Design's place in science. One quote is from a brilliant, open minded and humble man...the other from a man typical of those who believe that they know better, but who don't have much to offer, other than a closed-mind.
"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive…
laelaps | November 6, 2007Back when I was a blogging greenhorn, right about this time last year, an evangelical YEC thought he had come up with an intellectual coup de grâce to make me see "the light"; "Antony Flew believes in a god, so there." (Ok, so I'm paraphrasing just a bit) Chalk it up to ignorance, but I had never even heard of Antony Flew, and saying that he believed in a deity had about as much effect on me as saying "Charlie Parker thought the sky was purple" (and given his problems with drug addiction, maybe he sometimes did). Still, over and over again Christian apologists have invoked Flew's name and I…
mikethemadbiologist | November 6, 2007In commenting on a post by SA Smith that rebuts (quite well) Behe's latest ID creationist idiocy, tristero writes (bold original; italics mine):
But reading Smith's post on HIV evolution, I have to confess I can't for the life of me understand it. Ms Smith, I promise I'll spend some more time on it later and try to puzzle it out; I like that kind of a challenge (and please don't bother rewriting it for civilians, you've got better things to do!). But the tactic Behe is employing worries me, because it is so cynical, and dangerously effective.
Essentially, id creationists are slowly trying to…
pharyngula | November 5, 2007Perhaps you haven't noticed, but we've got a serial spammer in the comments. This twit, calling himself Peter Moore (also known as Ken DeMyer, or Kdbuffalo, as he was known on Wikipedia before being banned there), is repeating himself over and over again, asking the same stupid question, never satisfied with any answer anyone gives him. Forty nine insipid comments in three days is enough.
I will answer him one last time. Any further attempt to spam multiple comment threads with his demands (and this alone makes him an ass: an incompetent, unqualified hack like Moore is in no position to make…
gregladen | November 5, 2007I'm pretty sure Amanda and I were abducted by aliens this morning. This is not the first time, for me. I was abducted with two others about 20 years ago in Southern Maine while looking for antiques, back when you could still get them cheap even in antique stores (inexpensive antiques, not aliens). You can tell about the abduction because one moment it is a certain time and the next moment is it much later in time and you have no memory whatsoever of he ensuing time. Since that is essentially impossible, alien abduction is pretty much the best possible explanation. Back in Maine, it…
pharyngula | November 4, 2007Don't you just love how Mike Behe is getting a serial reaming from a 'mere' student?
evolvingthoughts | November 3, 2007
Oh, I just know this is going to get enmeshed in arguments about framing, but I don't care.
A new movement in the UK, home of democracy as we know it, involves scientists getting out there and active in public engagement. So what? I hear you ask. This is old stuff. But what is new here is that it is the scientists who start the debates, before the public has a chance to react and set up the framing issues, to ensure that a reasonable and informed debate is had. It is called upstream public engagement.
I think this might be a useful modus operandi for other public intellectual domains;…
pharyngula | October 29, 2007How can you not believe in creationism when such famous authorities in biology and human anatomy accept it?
pharyngula | October 29, 2007No three words are more pregnant with the promise of error in a conversation with a creationist than to hear them say "what evolution predicts…". It's practically a guarantee that you're going to hear something bizarre and fundamentally erroneous — but it is at least a good start on identifying basic misconceptions. Orac has found a doozy, a creationist who goes on at remarkable length, building a house of cards on a few flimsy premises. He's dealt with it thoroughly, so I just want to focus on one piece of Pat Sullivan's deeply flawed understanding of evolution.
Imagine an area of town…