creationism
pharyngula | January 11, 2007This is a concrete image of biology's future under the Intelligent Design creationists: it would be dissolved by fiat.
If I ever became the president of a university (per impossibile), I would dissolve the biology department and divide the faculty with tenure that I couldn’t get rid of into two new departments: those who know engineering and how it applies to biological systems would be assigned to the new “Department of Biological Engineering”; the rest, and that includes the evolutionists, would be consigned to the new “Department of Nature Appreciation” (didn’t Darwin think of himself as a…
pharyngula | January 11, 2007I reported on this survey of people's attitudes towards evolution, in which the US was second to the worst. We beat Turkey. The point was to emphasize the poor shape of US education, but it unfairly made fun of Turkey … imagine, though, how awful it would be to be in their shoes. This week's issue of Nature has a letter from several Turkish scientists describing their plight and what they are doing to fight it; I've put it below the fold.
Turks fighting back against anti-evolution forcesMehmet Somel, Rahsan Nazli Ozturkler Somel and Aykut Kence
Sir:
Your recent Special Report "Anti-…
pharyngula | January 11, 2007
The Kansas Board of Education is going to be re-evaluating the anti-science standards the formerly overwhelmingly right-wing crazy board had approved—they've since elected more moderate members—and the creationists aren't happy about it. When reading the stories, there was this name that kept coming up: Doug Kaufman. I don't know a thing about the man, but from all of his newspaper quotes, I'm getting an impression of a real Gumby, a fellow who has one thought in his head and who bellows it out at every opportunity. If only that thought weren't wrong…
Here's Doug Kaufman in the Kansas City…
mikethemadbiologist | January 10, 2007Over at DailyKos, Darksyde comments on the motivations of the Kansas creationists (italics mine):
It's easy to get lost in the scientific or religious discussion, but this isn't about evolution or science or even religion. It's just another right-wing funded attack on behalf of the mega-rich, cleverly packaged to appeal to the very working families whose future it will devastate. The real goal is to undermine confidence in public education, maybe ultimately replacing those institutions with privatized versions (No doubt run by a recently acquired subsidiary of Neoconia Inc., suckling at the…
tfk | January 9, 2007
At the DI's official blog, DI associate director/vice-president John West asks Why Does National Center for Science Education (NCSE) Spokesman Think "Mocking Traditional Religion" is OK?
Set aside that the spokesman in question doesn't defend the act of mocking traditional religion. He responded to the DI's whining about the Noodly One by asking a very good question: "Why would mocking traditional religion be of concern to a purely scientific organization?" This can be readily taken as a response to Casey Luskin insistence (on Christmas Day) that "it's … clear that the FSM images are…
pharyngula | January 9, 2007The Intelligent Design creationists keep trying the same old tactics of making their case with phony PR, but I don't think it's working so well anymore. For example, take a look at this op-ed from Richard Buggs of "'Truth' in Science"; he makes a futile attempt to throw out some of the usual creationist talking points, like these:
But, whatever the limitations of Darwinism, isn't the intelligent design alternative an "intellectual dead end"? No. If true, ID is a profound insight into the natural world and a motivator to scientific inquiry. The pioneers of modern science, who were convinced…
pharyngula | January 8, 2007Jim Lippard continues to present his reports on creationist finances, and this time he shows the Discovery Institute's balance sheet. They brought in $3.5 million in 2004, almost all of it in the form of donations.
That sounds like a lot of money, but to put it in perspective, you could take a look at a representative university's operating budget. The small liberal arts university I'm at, with about 2000 students, brings in about $11 million per year in tuition, and I believe that charitable donations were on the order of $1 million per year. In that absolute sense, the Discovery Institute…
evolvingthoughts | January 4, 2007PEER, a website devoted to promoting environmental responsibility by public institutions, notes that three years after promising to review the literature on display at the Grand Canyon National Park after creationist literature was on offer, nothing has happened.
In fact, the National Park Service has refused to say anything about the age or formation of the canyon, due to pressure from Bush appointees. It seems geology cannot be allowed to interfere with the religious supporters of the Bush gang.
Hattip to John Pieret.
Update: The Sacrameto Bee gives some of the background and developments…
pharyngula | January 4, 2007Here's some happy news for all you warriors against creationism: Mark Isaak's Counter-Creationism Handbook(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), that wonderfully indispensable and entirely portable version of the Index to Creationist Claims, can now be purchased in paperback for less than $15. It was previously only available in a rather pricey but but extremely well bound edition. Next time you attend a talk by Ken Ham or Duane Gish or any of the common-as-dirt wandering creationists (or Kent Hovind, once they let him out of jail*), you'll want a copy of this with you—teach them to fear the power of well-…
razib | January 4, 2007Over at Accidental Blogger Ruchira Paul has a profile up of Barbara Forrest, philosopher and science activist. I've long admired her coauthor Paul Gross, who I've had the pleasure of being mildly acquainted with on internet mailing lists, and I props to Dr. Forrest as well. I don't talk much about Creationism here because I don't feel it is part of my brief, but I'm very glad that there are people out there who are active on that battle front.
clock | January 3, 2007Oy, vey! In Russia, a test of God vs. Darwin:
....She did not attend the first two court hearings and seems far less interested in the outcome than her father, Kirill Shraiber, who spoke to the court on her behalf, and Anton Vuima, a family friend who heads a public relations firm called Spiritual Heritage.
Vuima, whose firm goes by the slogan, "We Create Sensations," believes that nothing short of society's collapse is at stake when it comes to the teaching of evolution. He, like the lawsuit, contends that Darwinism, while not a political ideology, stems from Marxist-Leninist ideology;…
mikethemadbiologist | January 2, 2007So Michael Fumento has issued a challenge to put 'odds' on avian influenza, thinking that somehow I've stated that an avian influenza pandemic is likely (he's also accused me, a scientist, of being "anti-scientist" and "alarmist"). Well, I'm not putting odds down because I've never said that a pandemic is likely. Then again, one should hardly be surprised when a professional conservative completely distorts what one says.
In fact, in the post, I wrote:
We can argue about public health priorities (avian flu isn't my top priority personally).
One would think that was clear, but I made the…
pharyngula | January 2, 2007The definitive book on the history of the creationism movement is The Creationists(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll) by Ron Numbers (and I have to remember to get a copy of the new expanded edition). Numbers has an interview in Salon which starts off well, but as it goes on, my respect for the guy starts sinking, sinking, sinking. He's another hamster on the exercise wheel, spinning around the same old ineffective arguments that get us nowhere, and he can't even follow through on his own chain of logic.
Here's that reasonable beginning.
Given the overwhelming scientific support for evolution, how do you…
evolvingthoughts | January 2, 2007Mark Vernon, at the Guardian's blog site, asks what would happen to theology if Corot finds evidence of inhabited planets (which it won't, because it's not set up for that). He raises the traditional theological concerns, made popular in C. S. Lewis' Perelandra series. But then he makes the following mistake.
The scientifically-minded should be careful before using such a reductio ad absurdum as another stick with which to beat Christianity. For life on other planets would set science in a spin, too. Take Darwinism. Although evolutionary theory is mute on how life started, it does suggest…
evolvingthoughts | January 1, 2007Salon has a nice interview with the historian and sociologist of creationism well worth reading. In particular, this:
Are you an atheist?
I don't think so. I think that's a belief -- that there's no God. I really wanted to have religious beliefs for a long time. I miss not having the certainty of religious knowledge that I grew up with. But after a number of years of trying to resolve these issues, I decided they're not resolvable. So I think the term "agnostic" would be best for me.
pharyngula | January 1, 2007Bill Dembski has posted a list of three pathetic predictions for Intelligent Design: that there will be two books published by the usual suspects (Behe, and Wells and Dembski) and that there will be a 'research center' at some unspecified university. Whoop-de-doo. For a major, groundbreaking, revolutionary new scientific paradigm, as they like to think of it, that's nothing—when they crow about their triumphs, all they can do is mention a few PR efforts, and they're so paltry that you could count them on the fingers of one partially maimed hand? John Lynch mocks their feeble vision, and…
pharyngula | January 1, 2007The declining scientific content expressed by the National Park Service has been an issue for years; the latest complaints (that I wrote about, and that Wesley Elsberry has now brought up) are just recent flareups of awareness. The National Park Service seems determined to strip out anything intellectually challenging from the experiences in their parks — the ideal seems to be Chevy Chase's reaction from the movie Vacation (if you don't know what I mean, here's a short homage). Pete Dunkelberg has brought a letter in Science from 28 October 2005 to my attention — it accuses the Park Service…
pharyngula | December 31, 2006Maybe it's a bad, bad idea for a community to have an open-access electronic bulletin board, because it sure is a great tool for exposing the ugly underbelly of the group. Kearny, NJ has had its moment of fame, with the story of the history teacher babbling nonsense to his class, and
Jim Lippard has found some troubling stuff on the Kearny bulletin board. Paul LaClair, the father of the young man who recorded his teacher's rambling BS, posted a
review and complaint about the community's failure to support good teaching, and what's bothersome are the replies. A few are supportive, but some are…
pharyngula | December 31, 2006I am not going to praise John Derbyshire; some people seem to be impressed because he has penned a dismissal of the ID creationists, but jebus, that ought to be the absolute rock bottom minimum we should expect from rationalists. That he can clear a hurdle set one inch above the ground does not impress me in the slightest.
Furthermore, he couldn't spit it out without saying something stupid.
As it turned out, Judge Jones is a conservative in the right way, the best way: he respects the law, and the plain rules of evidence.
Think about that. Respect for law and evidence is not a property…
pharyngula | December 30, 2006It's hard to believe, but there is more information on the absurd board game designed by Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort.
Cameron said, “We are very excited about this game because it presents both sides of the creation evolution argument, and in doing so, shows that the contemporary theory of evolution is perhaps the greatest hoax of modern times.”
Uh, sure they're going to show "both sides": you can get an idea of what they think is the evolution side by the illustrations. There is a frog with bull horns (a bullfrog! Get it? Ha ha.), and a couple of other chimeras whipped up in Photoshop, and…