creationism
mikethemadbiologist | May 15, 2010You might have heard by now about the True Republican PAC television ad for the Republican gubernatorial primary in Alabama that attacks one Republican candidate, Bradley Byrne, for supporting evolution (TEH DARWINISMZ! AIIEEE!!!). As far as I can tell Byrne is a 'moderate' in that he thinks both evolution and creationism should be taught ('teaching the controversy'), whereas the True Republican PAC is full-on batshit loony. I wrote "as far as I can tell" because, after reading Byrne's statement, he's, well, kinda out of his fucking mind too:
I believe the Bible is the Word of God and that…
pharyngula | May 12, 2010The other day, I posted about the smear campaign in Alabama against Bradley Byrne, which tried to impugn the man by saying, "Byrne supported teaching evolution…said the Bible was only partially true". Byrne won a speck of sympathy from me, despite the fact that he's a Republican, for at least standing up for the evidence.
That sympathy is gone now. Byrne has come back with a rebuttal.
• I believe the Bible is the Word of God and that every single word of it is true. From the earliest parts of this campaign, a paraphrased and incomplete parsing of my words have been knowingly used to insinuate…
tfk | May 12, 2010So remember how I posted a thing about how "critical analysis" is just another Marxist/postmodernist catchphrase adopted by fundamentalists to advance their religious/political agenda? I thought it was interesting, but relatively uncontroversial.
Rob Crowther, Disco. 'Tute's scribe in residence, objects not because of the basic thesis of the piece, but because I didn't clearly indicate that Crowther thinks Camille Paglia is a creationist. That, at least, is what I take him to mean by saying I "impl[ied] the exact opposite" of this:
Camille Paglia has made interesting comments about global…
tfk | May 11, 2010When I first heard about an attack ad in Alabama charging that gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne was in favor of evolution, I didn't even bother blogging it. Of course Roy Moore â famously removed from the state judiciary for unconstitutionally forcing religious symbols into public places â would use evolution as a weapon against his opponents.
But now former state board of education member Byrne is defending himself against the attack, not by standing up for evolution, but by denying the charge that he thinks "evolution ⦠best explains the origin of life." According to Politico,…
pharyngula | May 11, 2010I almost agree with some pieces of what these guys at onehumanrace.com say. Except for the fact that they are insane.
What is the only answer to racism?
Before we can solve the problem of racism, we must first ask the question: "Where did the different 'races' come from?" Explore this site for the answer, plus fascinating scientific research demonstrating that there really are no "white" or "black" people.
Take it piece by piece. There is no one answer to racism, so the opening question is misleading; but otherwise, the next assertion that it would be useful to know about the origins of…
pharyngula | May 10, 2010Bradley Byrne is apparently the front runner in the Republican race for nomination in the Alabama gubernatorial campaign. His opponents have put up this ad against him.
What horrible things has Byrne done, the mere statement of which is sufficient to horrify Alabamans? "Byrne supported teaching evolution....said the Bible was only partially true". It's so open and so much taken for granted that stating truths are violations of conservative principles…it's just crazy.
pharyngula | May 9, 2010Hey, it's been awfully quiet around here — it's been one of those lost weekends for me. Sorry about that, I've been up to my eyeballs in busy-ness, and it doesn't look like it'll get much better today. So I guess I'll steal something from the May/June edition of Skeptical Inquirer, by permission of managing editor Ben Radford.
14 (+ 1) Reasons Why Creationists Are More Intelligently Designed Than Evolutionists
Paul DesOrmeaux
"Creationism" comes before "evolution" in the dictionary.
Radiometric dating has determined that Kirk Cameron is between 6,000 - 10,000 years old.
The banana has…
pharyngula | May 4, 2010It's hard to find something dumber than Kent Hovind, but here you go: the website of Herb Grossman, trashevolution. It's what Hovind could have produced if he'd been an alcoholic gay man in denial. He has a rambling, mostly incoherent set of pages that he claims disprove evolution, but if you read just one, it should be his page on homosexuality. It doesn't really exist, you know, although he has been feeling supernatural homosexual urges for years.
No one has to be a homosexual, because—
—Homosexuality is a Cruel Deception,
and you should not worry about possibly being a homosexual,…
laelaps | May 3, 2010Way back in 1989 (I was only six!), Eugenie Scott and other members of the National Center for Science Education got together for a mock debate pitting evolutionary scientists against creationist impersonators at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. How things have changed (well, except young earth creationist arguments)...
gregladen | May 3, 2010... like, twenty years ago ...
Back in 1989, Dr. Genie Scott and other scientists staged a mock debate between evolution and creationism. Where: San Diego meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologst. When: 4/6/1989
pharyngula | May 3, 2010Massimo Pigliucci has written a book, Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science From Bunk(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), that actually sounds very interesting — it takes a strong skeptic's approach to truth claims. What really makes it sound worth reading, though, is a review by Carlin Romano that pans it, Pigliucci, and a whole great legion of scientists irritated with the public endorsement of nonsense: Romano complains that we're on "ego trips." Why? Because Pigliucci expresses such strong certainty about the conclusions of science.
Here's the heart of the review. It's a lot of aggravating piss-…
pharyngula | May 2, 2010I was cleaning out my filtered junk mail folder, and what do I discover? Mail after mail after mail from a long-banned kook, the infamously idiotic John A. Davison. Davison's is notoriously incompetent: this is the fellow who has created multiple blogs, each with one entry, which he closes when it gathers enough comments…most of which are from Davison himself. He also tends to get in long running battles in blog comments, all over his dismissal of evolution, which he regards as the most important battle in the history of mankind!!!. He has also reported me to my university provost.
He has…
pharyngula | May 1, 2010On 16 May, there will be a demonstration protesting the foolish curriculum the Texas Board of Education is imposing on the state. If you're near the capitol, join in! Here's their rationale:
A religious-right faction dominating the Texas Board of Education is trying to distort the content of public school textbooks. This revisionist history includes downplaying or eliminating mention of Enlightenment thinkers including Thomas Jefferson, more emphasis on religious themes and figures (theocrats like John Calvin!), and even attacks on Darwinian evolution. These religious extremists wish to turn…
tfk | April 29, 2010Yesterday I made the offhand comment, "Say what you will about creationists, some of them have genuine critical thinking skills." I followed that up by adding "garbage in, garbage out." My meaning there may have been obscure, and commenter PhysioProf objected:
Dude, I get that you are now fully invested in how mean and shitty some atheists are and how wonderful and enlightening and allegorical religion can be. But all this "splitting the middle" "both sides do it" false equivalency shit is causing you to lose your fucking mind.
Which wasn't my point at all. My point is that critical…
tfk | April 28, 2010So Fox News breathlessly reported that Chinese researchers had found Noah's ark. "Has Noah's Ark been found on Turkish mountaintop?," they asked, dumbly. "No," answered slacktivist.
Gawker replied at greater length:
A group of evangelicals found some 4,800-year-old wood on top of Mount Ararat. They are "99.9 pecent" sure that it's Noah's ark. This is totally real, which is why it's on the front page of Fox News' "SciTech" section.
Slacktivist didn't actually just say "no," he expanded on the point by noting:
The expedition seems to have found a wooden structure. They hear hoofbeats, so they…
pharyngula | April 28, 2010This is completely unsurprising. An account from Randall Price has emerged; Price is a notorious Ark-hunter, young earth creationist, and professor at Liberty University, so he has good kook credentials and is the kind of guy who desperately wants the recent claims of the discovery of Noah's Ark to be true, making this an admission contrary to his biases…of course, it turns out he also has a money motive to begrudge the Chinese evangelicals their 'discovery'. But this is also a familiar story.
I was the archaeologist with the Chinese expedition in the summer of 2008 and was given photos of…
pharyngula | April 27, 2010Ho hum. I'm getting lots of mail about this ridiculous story on WND and Fox claiming that Noah's Ark has been discovered atop Mt Ararat. No, it hasn't. This is yet another mob of incompetent evangelicals hiking all over a big hill in Turkey and credulously interpreting every rock formation and every chunk of wood as proof that they've found a big boat. It's the same BS Ron Wyatt was peddling for years. It's always the same stuff: distant photos of a rock formation that is vaguely boat-shaped, but nothing close-up to suggest that it is anything but a rock formation. Or sometimes it's a photo…
tfk | April 26, 2010Jerry Coyne, in the throatclearing before an otherwise reasonable dissection of wankery on the Huffington Post, brings the ahistorical and gratuitous FAIL:
I’m coyneing the term “New Creationism” to describe the body of thought that accepts Darwinian evolution but with the additional caveats that 1) it was all started by God, 2) had God-worshipping humans as its goal, and 3) that the evidence for all this is that life is complex, humans evolved, and the the “fine tuning” of physical constants of the universe testify to the great improbability of our being here—ergo God.
Two main thoughts…
pharyngula | April 26, 2010Arch-creationist dentist Don McLeroy is limping and quacking his way off the Texas Board of Education, but there's still plenty of crazy left behind. Cynthia Dunbar recently appeared on a far right-wing radio show to preach her revisionist history, her dislike of atheists and Christians who aren't part of her sect, and plead for more god in the schools. Texas Freedom Network provides a synopsis; listen to the actual show at the peril of your sanity.
Speaking last week on a far-right talk show, The American View, (read more about the show here) Dunbar — a Richmond Republican representing a…
pharyngula | April 25, 2010Tonight, broadcast at 6:30pm ET on WBAI 99.5FM in the New York tri-state area or streamed live, Matthew LaClair will take on the awful Don McLeroy in a discussion of the Texas textbook revisionism. If you miss it, it will also be available later at Equal Time for Freethought.
It could be interesting: young, smart, and open-minded against a ferociously ignorant crank.