creationism

This is, after all, A Blog Around The Clock, so, I guess I should be a strong and vocal proponent of the Clock Theory aka Specified clockplexity. After all, nobody's ever seen a clock move! So, I should start fighting against vile, rabid, Atheistic Blindtimekeepingism: Atheists often level a strawman at Intelligent Timekeepingist (hereafter referred to as IT) views. They force you to stare at a clock for 5 minutes or so and claim vindication when the big hand of the clock moves. But DTists all agree that the big hand moves! This is simply microtimekeeping, and it does not go against ITist…

Richard Dawkins has a huge list of well-wishers, but William Dembski is unhappy — he sent a birthday greeting, and rushed to complain on Uncommon Descent that it wasn't posted. Alas, it was, and we can all see what an insincere and sarcastic and snide comment he sent. Richard Hughes gets a gold star for his comment: If you can't find your name in an alphabetical list, you might want to stop looking for evidence for god in bacterial flagellum.

At Res Ipsa Loquitur comes a tale of a law professor trying to use Cicero to argue that all morality comes from intelligent design. Yes, that intelligent design. Read the smackdown by the student, who gives me much hope for the legal profession...

The IDiot Dembski has written this: It’s a happy Darwinian world after all … William Dembski Every now and again when I want to feel good about our shared humanity, I curl up with Darwin’s DESCENT OF MAN and read passages like the following: The reckless, degraded, and often vicious members of society, tend to increase at a quicker rate than the provident and generally virtuous members. Or as Mr. Greg puts the case: “The careless, squalid, unaspiring Irishman multiplies like rabbits: the frugal, foreseeing, self-respecting, ambitious Scot, stern in his morality, spiritual in his faith,…

Some commenters wondered if the Ken Poppe mentioned in the previous story was the same Ken Poppe who wrote a creationist book, Reclaiming Science from Darwinism. Yes, it is. He's at Trail Ridge Middle School, a public school in Longmont, CO, and is listed as teaching 6th grade science. He freely admits to teaching creationist crap to his class, and says that the book grew out of his lessons. For a quick estimate of the scientific quality of his book, look at the cover. Look carefully. Anyone notice anything … funny … about that putative DNA molecule? Oh, well, it's just the cover, accuracy…

Here's a newspaper article about a classroom debate on global warming. Class debates are good, I think — they get the students thinking about the evidence and working over how to present it persuasively, although I also think it's up to the instructor to provide some guidance. Realistically, sixth graders aren't going to have a good handle on either the facts or the theory, and it's up to the teacher to give them the battery of data they're going to use to make their arguments. And sometimes it can go wrong. In this case, the students who do not believe humans contribute to global warming…

Minnesotans are going to be apologizing for this for a good long while (Why? Because we're so darn nice and we hate to see pain inflicted on others). Cheri Yecke is clawing her way to greater responsibility in the Florida educational system. On the other side of the equation, state K-12 chancellor Cheri Yecke has announced that she will seek the commissioner’s chair. Yecke, who has led the education departments in Virginia and Minnesota, came to Florida two years ago, abandoning a run for Congress in Minnesota. “The whole battle about standards and accountability was fought and won here a…

In a recent post that's made it's way around blogtopia (and yes, skippy invented that phrase), I referred to willful ignorance. I've used that phrase before, and one troll decided to get hung up on that phrase (even though I then explained it). In one of those internet tubes, I found an excellent parody of the anti-gay spew vomited forth by various rightwing faithtanks called "The Heterosexual Agenda: Exposing the Myths." The whole thing is worth a read, but in the part where the author explains how to write a similar parody is an excellent description of willful ignorance (bold original;…

I can't believe I didn't think of this first: Customer: Hello. I wish to complain about this so-called 'scientific theory' what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very establishment. Salesman: Oh yes, 'Intelligent Design'. What, uh... what's wrong with it? Customer: I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. Its vacuous, that's what's wrong with it! Salesman: No, no, uh... what we need now is to 'teach the controversy'... Customer: Look matey, I know an empty 'argument from incredulity' when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now. Salesman: No, no, it's not empty: it's just…

The Paleyists at Uncommon Descent seem to be having a competition to find the most awful thing Darwin ever said. It's not hard, actually; Darwin was a conventional 19th century Englishman, with all the standard prejudices of his day, tending to assume that Anglo-Saxons were superior in most ways to every other ethnic group on the planet. It's darned easy to browse through the Descent of Man and find casual assumptions that make us cringe today. So what? We can recognize that Darwin was a flawed human being and a brilliant scientist. What is bizarre, though, is how some creationists simply…

Perhaps you thought Lisa Nowak, the pampers-wearing jealous lover, was enough of a stain on the reputation of astronauts. Here's another one, though, to give you more excuses to kick them off their pedestal: There's going to be a "Back to Genesis" conference sponsored by the Institute for Creation Research in Colorado Springs, and among the luminaries in attendance will be Russell Humphreys, Henry Morris III, and this fellow: Col. Jeffrey Williams, U.S. Army, is a NASA astronaut with graduate degrees in aeronautical engineering and strategic studies. Col. Williams has been with NASA since…

Some more or less random links that I am grouping under the epistemology of philosophy of science. For those who have not reached Level 9 or higher in the Illuminati, "epistemology" has nothing to do with getting drunk, but with how knowledge is acquired (episteme means "understanding, skill or knowledge of some field"). First, Medlar Comfits has a nice essay on what science is compared to the sort of "believe authority" view of creationists. Also, this is a really nice blog I hadn't previously seen, with for instance articles on the use of English to communicate by ESL writers. Well…

Coturnix is organizing an informative google bomb — if you look up Michael Egnor on the web, what should you find? How about lots and lots of critics? It seems only fair. Teach the controversy! Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor •…

In response to my latest post about Michael Egnor, I received a couple of comments lamenting my intemperance towards Egnor. Below is the long version, but Mark sums up the short version quite nicely (bold original; italics mine): But his illness is the result of the actions of many doctors - doctors like Dr. Egnore who ignore reality, and don't practice medicine with an awareness of how their actions contribute to the evolution of the other species that surround us. It's people like Dr. Egnor who hand out antibiotics like candy, because after all, bacteria don't evolve, and so their…

In the back-channels here on Scienceblogs and on Panda's Thumb we were discussing the pros and cons of paying so much attention to one Dr.Michael Egnor, a new creationist shill for the Discovery Institute. Yes, it feels like a tremendous waste of time to debunk incredibly stupid (and incredibly old and well-worn and well-debunked) claims of a very minor figure in the anti-Enlightenment movement. But, who knows, one day he may appear in MSM (you know how they like to show "both sides" of everything!) and some journalist (or just interested people) will like to know who this Michael Egnor is…

We're so accustomed to hearing about good Christian parents complaining about the material their kids are taught in science class, and lobbying school boards to ban the eeevilution word from the school, that it's rather nice to see an example of the shoe on the other foot. A school in Sisters, Oregon (I know that place! Nice little town in the Cascades, east of Eugene) fired a teacher for peddling creationist bunkum. During his eight days as a part-time high school biology teacher, Kris Helphinstine included Biblical references in material he provided to students and gave a PowerPoint…

You know how on comment threads on blogposts about evolution you, sooner or later, get a commenter saying something that reveals complete lack of understanding of even the basics of evolutionary biology? It is usually accompanied by some creationist canard as well. What do you do? If you stop to explain the basics, the thread gets derailed. You REALLY want to discuss that latest study, not go back to basics over and over again. So, instead of explaining the basics, you post a link to the appropriate page on the TalkOrigins FAQ or Index of Creationist Claims and move on with the…

What are we going to do with Michael Egnor? He seems to be coming up with a new bit of foolishness every day, and babbling on and on. Should we ignore him (there really isn't any substance there), or should we criticize him every time (although he's probably capable of generating idiocy at a phenomenal rate—he's got a real talent for it)? I'm not going to link to the awful "Evolution News & Views" site, and I'll make this brief. His latest gripe is with the recent Newsweek cover story (that I had some problems with, too), but his argument is silly. This is your assignment. You are to read…

The blog Startling Moniker has a nice acknowledgment for being added to my blogroll, but the main interest in that post is that he admits to a guilty pleasure I share: fishing through seedy bookstores. You can sometimes find the weirdest stuff in old bins in fringe bookstores. DaveX explores a Christian bookstore (speaking of masochism…) and finds a copy of Gish's 1972 Evidence Against Evolution, which of course does not contain any. I can do him one better—I have this treasure on my bookshelf: Yes indeed, Henry Morris was announcing the Twilight of Evolution 44 years ago, in 1963. It also…

Raymond Finney, MD of Tennessee wants to ask a bunch of pompous questions of his state board of education ("Is the Universe and all that is within it, including human beings, created through purposeful, intelligent design by a Supreme Being, that is a Creator?" etc., etc., etc.). Although I'm getting my fill of arrogant doctors lately, I really don't have any problem with a stuffed shirt in the state senate asking questions, and now we learn that neither will the Tennessee courts—it's not unconstitutional. As long as there is no penalty if the education commissioner doesn't answer, or answers…