creationism
mikethemadbiologist | September 6, 2006I just received fellow Scienceblogger Chris Mooney's The Republican War on Science. I've already read the first edition. The new edition has a new forward, updates at the end of many chapters, and a revamped conclusion. Hopefully, this weekend, I'll get a chance to read it. For more information about the book, you can go the website.
tfk | September 5, 2006I've never seen a train wreck. At least not outside of news reports and movies like The Fugitive. So I can't be certain if reading the commentary at Billy Dembski's blog is exactly like watching a train wreck, or if the right analogy is less bloody and more entertaining.
Today, PaV asks How Random is Random Mutation?, because he came across a study in which four different strains of yeast evolved the same solution to a resource shortage. Somehow, he spends a thousand words pondering this problem without using the only word that matters: selection (though he does dismiss "selective…
pharyngula | September 5, 2006One after the other, I got two requests to promote some worthy causes which need letter-writers to help out. Here they are:
Save wilderness:
Over the strong objections of Native people, wildlife biologists, sportsmen's groups, and the general public, the Bureau of Land Management remains intent on leasing one of the most remarkable wetlands complexes on the planet. The place is the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), the largest single block of wild public land left in the United States.
Save minds:
On Monday, the Ohio Board of Education will hold…
pharyngula | September 5, 2006Poor Francis Collins: now his book has been panned in New Scientist…by Steve Fuller. That Steve Fuller, the pompous pseudo-post-modernist who testified for Intelligent Design creationism in Dover. His criticism has an interesting angle, though. Collins is just like Richard Dawkins. Who knew?
In trying to accommodate too many camps, Collins ends up mired in confusion. Ironically, rather like Richard Dawkins, he treats religions equally, thereby homogenising them. Collins promotes "theistic evolution", a philosophy sufficiently devoid of controversy, if not content, to be "espoused by many…
evolvingthoughts | September 3, 2006Reuters are reporting that neither creationism, which we didn't expect, nor ID, which we did, was the topic of the recent papal study group. Instead, it was the (legitimate, in my opinion) theological implications of evolution. In other words, since evolution is a fact, what does that mean for theology?
They say they use philosophical reasoning to conclude that God created the world, not arguments which intelligent design supporters claim can be proven scientifically.
So I take it back. Despite Schönborn's involvement, there are no firm signs as yet that the Catholic Church is bending to the…
pharyngula | September 2, 2006William Dembski sadly reports that Answers in Genesis is handing out a "$50,000" prize* for a creationist essay…for which no Intelligent Design advocates need reply. He moans that ID doesn't have anywhere near the resources of the traditional creationists (which is true—AiG is bigger, but the DI has just gotten more press), and then uses this to make the argument that he really wishes they could have made at Dover:
This contest demonstrates that creationism and ID are charting separate paths.
No, not exactly. Separate strategies, maybe, but the same goals. There are substantial differences…
pharyngula | September 1, 2006I never thought I'd say this, but…coffee must be evil. Look at Starbucks, for example. I could stop there, I suppose, and everyone would understand my point, but to give a little more detail, PunkAssBlog highlights one of the quotes they are printing on their cups.
The morality of the 21st century will depend on how we respond to this simple but profound question: Does every human life have equal moral value simply and merely because it is human? Answer yes, and we have a chance of achieving universal human rights. Answer no, and it means that we are merely another animal in the forest.…
pharyngula | September 1, 2006David Berlinski, that Prince of Pomposity and Lackey of the Discovery Institute, is trying to get a letter published in Science, complaining about the study that showed America's poor showing in understanding evolution. It's more of an opaque, cranky whine, something Berlinski specializes in, so I rather doubt it will ever get in—the editors there are going to be as respectful of creationist nonsense as I am. Of course, one thing I can do that the editors wouldn't is rip into his letter and tear it to pieces in public…
"Human beings, as we know them," Miller, Scott and Okamoto write, "…
razib | August 31, 2006As someone who makes no bones about being against politically correct evolutionary biology, I will take up RPM's call to link to Panda's Thumb's chapter-by-chapter rebuttal of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design. They fight Creationism so I don't have too!1
1 - I grew up around Creationists, so I've done the face to face "witnessing" enough in my life to believe I've put in my dues.
clock | August 31, 2006You know that I am excited about my kids' great start of school this year. Today when I picked them up from school, Coturnix Jr. informed me that he needed a piece of posterboard and some glue for his debate class. Ah, he is going to be so good at that, the family he is growing in... It makes him a tough kid to raise but great fun to converse with. I bet he can get PZ to join Southern Baptists!
Anyway, that was a tangent. After depositing kids at home I went to the local drugstore to get his supplies. I go there all the time, but today there was a new cashier there, a guy of about 50, I…
clock | August 31, 2006Richard Hoppe further dissects Jonathan Wells' ideas about Ohio State University mentioned in Chapter 16.
clock | August 31, 2006The fisking of Chapter 15 of Wells' PIG is now up on Panda's Thumb. It has something to do with church! Wonder, what has church to do with the "science" of Intelligent Design?!
pharyngula | August 30, 2006John A. Davison has started a new blog. You may recall his previous blog, or the one before that. His technique is to post one article, invite comments, and when he gets tired of them, move on...not to a new article, a new blog. His first got 881 comments (many of them consisting of Davis wondering where everyone was, or arguing with DaveScot); this is the only article there.
I have my own blog now, only because I have been banned from just about all the others. Since I am computer illiterate, don't expect very much from me. I welcome any comments about my published papers including my…
pharyngula | August 30, 2006The ongoing dissection of Wells' The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design continues, with two new disembowelments on display.
Andrea Bottaro rips up Chapter 9, "The Secret of Life". In this one, Wells makes the tired old argument that only intelligent agents can create information, therefore informational macromolecules must have been created by intelligent agent(s). It's also got a sharp, succinct critique of the Sternberg affair, in which Stephen Meyer smuggled an ID paper into Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. (Don't ask what those two subjects…
clock | August 30, 2006Mark Perakh debunks Chapter 16 of Jonathan Well's poor excuse of a book. The chapter is on alleged new "Lysenkoism" in today's American science, which has nothing to do with historical Lysenkoism.
clock | August 29, 2006Previously unopposed, "...the most notorious creationist on the Ohio State Board of Education, Deborah Owens Fink, has a challenger in the Novemeber 7th election." The election is non-partisan and the serious challenger is Tom Sawyer. You can get all of the details from Ed Brayton (as well as additional views by Chad, John and Kevin). Ed writes:
"Sawyer is the former mayor of Akron, a former state legislator and an 8 term US congressman from Ohio. Sawyer's bonafides for a board of education seat are impressive. He is a former school teacher, and husband of a school teacher. He was the…
pharyngula | August 29, 2006
By request, I'm bringing over this old post on the outcome of the Dover trial. What it reveals to an astonishing degree is how delusional and disconnected from reality the Discovery Institute gang are.
Michael Behe has previously commented on his testimony in the Kitzmiller trial. He felt good about it; in fact, he thought it was exhilarating and fun.
I haven't the foggiest idea how the Judge will rule, but I think we got to show a lot of people that ID is a very serious idea.
Hmmmm…I wonder, what did the judge think of his testimony? Do you think there might be a way to, you know, find…
clock | August 28, 2006In the ongoing series of fiskings of Jonathan Wells' PIG book over on Panda's Thumb, Andrea Bottaro has posted his verbal destruction of Chapter 9.
tfk | August 28, 2006Answers in Genesis or Hitler? One said:
In spite of all the variation that we find within the human race, they are all descendants of Adam and bear his resemblance. God also created other kinds of creatures, such as apes, which display significant variation within their kind. But there is an impassable gulf between the human kind and any other kind.
The other:
From where do we get the right to believe, that from the very beginning Man was not what he is today? Looking at Nature tells us that in the realm of plants and animals changes and developments happen. But nowhere inside a kind shows…