creationism
gregladen | May 27, 2009This just in:
Dear Greg,
We are excited about our new public service campaign and it should be fully implemented within a month. Here's the scoop:
This Thursday, May 28th, we will be at a local high school to
tape 3 presentations that will cover the following topics:
- Fossil Evidence
- The Truth about Genetics and Evolution
- How Does Evolution Supposedly Work?
Because most students respond better to interactive forms of learning, we have decided to offer free downloads of these videos as well as the supporting documentation for each of them.
Depending on future funding, we will be…
pharyngula | May 26, 2009While I'm off at meetings, you could be voting to help me win Eric Hovind's iPod Touch. All you have to do is CLICK ON THIS LINK. Note that it has to be that link — it's got an imbedded code in it to let the tabulators know that the incoming click comes from me, PZ Myers, so that the Hovind crew will know that they owe me a new toy.
This is the fourth creation minute video, and I think it's the last one you should have to watch. Sometime after this they'll tally up all the page views, and somebody will win.
This one, by the way, has Hovind defining science — "knowledge derived from…
pharyngula | May 25, 2009Texas senate Democrats say they have the votes to block Don McLeroy's appointment to the board of education. Could this be the end of the creationist kook's reign of ignorance? I'm not placing any bets on this one.
(via Lonesome Mongoose)
tfk | May 21, 2009There are those who say "Not only does the NCSE not criticize religion, but it cuddles up to it, kisses it, and tells it that everything will be all right." There are others who say:
The continuum [between creationism and evolution] as described on the NCSE site strongly implies that “atheist science is better science”. Even though the objective of the continuum is to counter the belief that “evolutionists must be atheists”, it indirectly implies that evolutionists should be atheists. For this fact alone, I think the model needs to be replaced.
A simpler person than I would take this to mean…
grrlscientist | May 21, 2009tags: book review, Why Evolution is True, evolution, creationism, religion, scientific method, Jerry Coyne
Considering the plethora of books about evolution out there, is it really necessary to publish yet another one? What can another book about evolution have to offer that previous books have not provided? This new book not only presents the latest information about evolution to come to light, but it also responds to the most recent attacks made upon this branch of scientific knowledge. The book, Why Evolution is True (NYC: Viking; 2009) by Jerry Coyne, is the most up-to-date and one of the…
pharyngula | May 21, 2009Hah, I knew it had to happen. Phil Plait is now obsolete — he hasn't been keeping up with Creation Astronomy!
We live in a Universe of breathtaking size and grandeur-but where did it come from?
Secular astronomers tell us it formed without a Creator about 14 billion years ago. The Bible tells us it was created by God only thousands of years ago. Which model does the evidence support?
The answer to this question might surprise you!
Recent discoveries have plunged the evolutionary model into a crisis. This site is dedicated to documenting this unfolding drama, and exposing the bankrupt…
pharyngula | May 21, 2009Your greedy, grasping host would really like to snatch an iPod Touch from Eric Hovind, so once again I'm reminding you to click on this link — each click counts as a vote for me. And oh, boy, is Eric Hovind's latest argument a winner: the current level of the Colorado River is several thousand feet lower than the peak elevations of the Grand Canyon, therefore the river must have flowed uphill to cut the canyon when it was formed. I know a few seven year olds who could take that argument apart.
Yeah, I know, it's cruel of me to send you over there to witness such awesome stupidity, but think…
pharyngula | May 21, 2009How are the creationists reacting to the discovery of Darwinius masillae? With denial and outrage, of course, but one thing that is an interesting datum is that they are all responding to the extravagant hype surrounding it. The fossil is important and has a significant place in the evolutionary record, but the way its purchasers and the media have described it with overblown rhetoric has actually damaged public perception. It's an interesting transitional form from an early point in the history of primates, and the sloppy media coverage had people expecting a revivified Fred Flintstone…
pharyngula | May 20, 2009We had hopes that the mad creationist dentist, Don McLeroy, would be booted from the Texas Board of Education. No such luck: I just received this call to action in the mail.
Moments ago at a surprise meeting, the Senate Nominations Committee voted to send the nomination of Don McLeroy, R-College Station, to the full Senate for confirmation as State Board of Education (SBOE) chair. This sets up a major showdown on the floor of the Texas Senate, likely next Monday or Tuesday.
Even though we have already asked you to call your senator about this issue, now we must do so again: please take a…
tfk | May 20, 2009My article for Seed about what the new Texas standards mean for science education nationwide is now online! Check it out.
Here's a taste:
Given these stakes, my colleagues and I worked hard to influence the Texas School Board over the months of hearings, providing them with a statement signed by 54 scientific and educational societies opposing “any effort to undermine the teaching of biological evolution and related topics.” We worked with local activists to organize constituents and political honchos who educated board members about the importance of evolution to science education.
But the…
gregladen | May 20, 2009... tbooks. (get it?)
Josh Rosenau, of the National Center for Science Education, has a piece in Seed online:
The National Center for Science Education, in Oakland, CA, where I work, has tracked hundreds of attacks on evolution education in 48 states in the last five years. In the last two years alone, 18 bills in 10 states have targeted the teaching of evolution. These bills, like the flawed science standards approved by the Texas Board of Education in March, don't ban evolution outright. But they do authorize teachers to omit evolution or include creationism at their whim. "These bills…
gregladen | May 20, 2009It's hard to stand up to brilliant people!
This guy is OTT. I was waiting for him to explode the whole time. Ouch ouch ouch ouch. My brain hurts now.
pharyngula | May 19, 2009Yesterday, I tore into a reeking pile of creationist bogosity by Peter Heck. This morning, he sends me email.
Dr. Myers,
Someone sent me a nasty email that included a link to your blog. I found it a pretty thorough shallacking! Not that I'm opposed to that. If I put arguments out in front of people, I have no problem when they're hacked up by the experts. I actually sent the column to three biologists I know and trust before it was published. They don't agree with my views on some of these issues, but I knew they would challenge my science. They all recommended I take out the first…
pharyngula | May 18, 2009I'm slamming the door shut on yet another thread that will not die, which was in turn the progeny of another enduring thread — as you might guess, this one was fueled by a thickheaded creationist's refusal to acknowledge the evidence. Alan Clarke, if you start regurgitating creationist BS here again, I will shut you down. Otherwise, if necessary, converse here.
pharyngula | May 18, 2009And deserved it is, in this remarkably ignorant article by a creationist named Peter Heck. It starts out very, very badly.
It never ceases to amaze me how intellectually condescending evolutionary naturalists can be. Keep in mind, these are folks who believe that an indescribably tiny wad of nothingness exploded into a fully functional, structured, and ordered universe of orbiting planets and complex creatures without any supernatural agency involved. They are the ones who cling to a theory known as spontaneous generation - the notion that dead matter can just suddenly pop to life. They…
grrlscientist | May 18, 2009tags: religion, creationism, bananas, pineapples, masturbation, streaming video
This informative video discusses the banana and why it is a creationist's nightmare. Conclusion: gawd wishes humans to masturbate, so get beating, everybody! [10:16]
pharyngula | May 15, 2009A nice, specific request: name a gene that shows no signs of an evolutionary origin.
The argument has long been highly asymmetric. Scientist find a gene, and what do they do? Figure out what it does, and dig into the databases to find its relatives within that organism or in other species. Creationists claim genes can't be created without the intervention of a designer, and what do they do? Nothing.
tfk | May 13, 2009In his inaugural address, President Obama promised to "restore science to its rightful place." What exactly that place was became a subject of much discussion in the blogs, and we learned more on March 9, 2009, when the President issued a memorandum ordering agency heads to develop policies, under supervision of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), headed by John Holdren, the President's science advisor. The order noted that "Science and the scientific process must inform and guide decisions of my Administration on a wide range of issues," and emphasized that "[t]he public…
pharyngula | May 12, 2009Oh, Ben Stein, I shake my fist at you in rivalry. The infamous apologist for Republican criminality, idiotic economics, and creationist inanity got to present a commencement address to a famous university.
As it happens, I'm going to be out of town for a few days now — I'm off to deliver a commencement address myself. Yes, it's another travel day for me, I'm afraid.
Should I be jealous? Stein got to speak at Liberty University. I'm speaking at the Keck School of Medicine at USC. I might be a teensy bit ahead. After all, this is what Richard Dawkins had to say:
"Many of the questioners…
sa smith | May 11, 2009Shorter Luskin (comments, not in height): DIFRENT JEANS MAEK DIFRENT TREAHS TEHEREFORE JESUS!!! DIRP!
You know how we always laugh at the fact Creationists dont ever have degrees in biology? This illustrates one of the many, many times it would be handy for Caseytits to have taken a couple bio classes in college.
Darwins Tree of Life is a metaphor. It is very clearly a metaphor in Origin of Species:
The green and budding twigs may represent existing species; and those produced during former years may represent the long succession of extinct species. At each period of growth all the growing…