creationism
pharyngula | May 11, 2009Charles Pierce has expanded an essay into a full blown book on Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), soon available in fine bookstores everywhere, and I recommend it highly. You might be wondering what Idiot America is, and he explains it well.
The rise of Idiot America, though, is essentially a war on expertise. It's not so much antimodernism or the distrust of the intellectual elites that Richard Hofstader teased out of the national DNA, although both of these things are part of it. The rise of Idiot America today reflects — for profit…
pharyngula | May 9, 2009
I've been doing it wrong. I was looking over creationist responses to my arguments that Haeckel's embryos are being misused by the ID cretins, and I realized something: they don't give a damn about Haeckel. They don't know a thing about the history of embryology. They are utterly ignorant of modern developmental biology. Let me reduce it down for you, showing you the logic of science and creationism in the order they developed.
Here's how the scientific and creationist thought about the embryological evidence evolves:
Scientific thinking
An observation: vertebrate embryos show striking…
pharyngula | May 9, 2009I like the title of this post: Texas School Board votes on the age of the Universe. In case you were curious, the board decreed 11:3 that maybe it isn't the age all those egghead physicists, geologists, and astronomers say it is.
pharyngula | May 8, 2009VenomFangX is one of those semi-legendary creationists, one so inane that it's hard to believe. He had a website where he kept all of his ridiculous youtube videos, but it's about to disappear. If you go there now, this is what you'll see:
Oh, wow, that's going to leave a psychological scar.
As long as we're talking smack about creationists, don't forget to click on this link and help me win an iPod Touch from Eric Hovind. Click it lots.
pharyngula | May 8, 2009The smug and rather imbecilic face in this video belongs to Casey Luskin of the Discovery Institute, who was interviewed on a conservative talk show, Fox & Friends. Watch it at your peril. Like the recent Matthews/Tancredo incident, it's two people who know nothing about science babbling at each other.
At the beginning, the host says,
Your main problem with science books is that they take a one-sided look at evolution.
No one seems to notice that this is a show that claims to be examining a "white-hot controversy" with one guest discussing only the Discovery Institute's position. Hmmm.…
mikethemadbiologist | May 7, 2009I've never understood how Bill Maher, who gets it so wrong on vaccination, gets it so right on evolution. Nonetheless, he hits this piece about evolution and influenza out of the park (except for referring to evolutionary biology as 'Darwinism'):
pharyngula | May 7, 2009Chris Matthews, who has lately been hammering the Republicans for their problem with science in general and evolution in particular, had a guest on to 'debate' the issue: Tom Tancredo, the ignorant Republican congressman who ran for president in the last election, and was one of the candidates who proudly announced that he did not believe in evolution. It was awful. Two people who know nothing about the science babbling at each other. While Matthews' heart might have been in the right place, he was more interested in stammering out apologies for believing a god might have guided evolution,…
gregladen | May 6, 2009It's just too much of a leap! But don't worry, Texas Educators have it under control.
I love the way she says Jump, like with two syllables. Good thing the slack jawed yokels are in charge down in Texas. We would not really want Texans to stop being as stoopid as they'all are, they would not be as cute!!!!
gregladen | May 6, 2009According to Texas Education Expert!
She knows because she looked at some web sites!!!!!!!!! Holy Crap!!!!
gregladen | May 6, 2009... according to Texas education experts.
Of course, everyone in Texas is a moron. Apparently.
tsmith | May 5, 2009
Now if he could just get his science straight when it comes to vaccination...but perhaps this mean he's changed his views on the germ theory?
(H/T Louis)
evolvingthoughts | May 5, 2009Asks MSNBC's Chris Matthews of the GOP's Mike Pence. The latter dances around it, trying to avoid asserting what science knows to be true, but this raises an interesting problem: does one have to "believe" in evolution? I mean it's a physical process (the "fact" side) which has a number of explanatory models (the "theory" side). I don't believe in facts; I deal with them. And I don't believe in explanations; I am satisfied with them (or not, as the case may be). This is not about belief, which implies that acceptance of the satisfactory nature of evolutionary explanations is somehow…
pharyngula | May 5, 2009Chris Matthews ask Representative Mike Pence a simple question — "Do you believe in evolution?" — and Pence spends 5 minutes squirming avoiding giving an answer. He changes the subject repeatedly, to global warming and stem cells, and tries to pretend that the Republican party doesn't have a serious problem with an anti-science agenda, which he himself is demonstrating.
I have to commend Matthews, too: he bulldogs that question and won't let it go. Let's see more of that from our media, please.
gregladen | May 3, 2009The podcast for today's radio discussion with Fellman, Scott and Laden is available.
A bit about the history of the NCSE; cultural relativism in the science education movement; Greg disses bench scientists again; The appeasement question; A phone call from a famous Pharyngulistum; Science standards; Local control. The Minnesota Science Standards. An intelligently designed buffet and the question of "alternative curriculum."
Go listen, and come back and comment.
sa smith | May 3, 2009The jokes write themselves.
Oklahoma City Engineering Club invited 'Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education' big-wig Vic Hutchison at their next meeting. It was actually kind of nice-- Biologists make fun of the engineer-->Creationist connection (aka the Salem Hypothesis), and here in OKC we have an engineering group happy to hear about biology! They even had Dr. Fincke speak a while back! Yay!
Yeah, you know that couldnt last.
The Creationists in OKC Engineering Club finally had enough. They threw a tantrum, and Vic was 'disinvited' from speaking.
I regret to inform you that I…
gregladen | May 3, 2009... In public schools. According to one Federal Judge in the US, not much.
A Mission Viejo high school history teacher violated the First Amendment by disparaging Christians during a classroom lecture, a federal judge ruled today.
James Corbett, a 20-year teacher at Capistrano Valley High School, referred to Creationism as "religious, superstitious nonsense" during a 2007 classroom lecture, denigrating his former Advanced Placement European history student, Chad Farnan.
The decision is the culmination of a 16-month legal battle between Corbett and Farnan - a conflict the judge said…
pharyngula | May 2, 2009I guess we have our own little anti-blasphemy principle operationally at work in the US. Look what can get you in trouble with the law now:
A Mission Viejo high school history teacher violated the First Amendment by disparaging Christians during a classroom lecture, a federal judge ruled today.
James Corbett, a 20-year teacher at Capistrano Valley High School, was found guilty of referring to Creationism as "religious, superstitious nonsense" during a 2007 classroom lecture, denigrating his former Advanced Placement European history student, Chad Farnan.Â
I am astounded that Corbett was…
pharyngula | May 2, 2009Ugh. Steve Austin, creationist geologist, is coming to Roseville to debate the age of the Grand Canyon on 13 May. He's going to be engaging a local "evolutionist" who I don't know — Steve Johnson — who I will trust to have the facts, but still — more geologists need to show up in the audience, because Austin is an ignorant clown who will put on a show to pander to a crowd that will mostly be even more ignorant than he is.
Debates are bad idea because they tend to put ludicrous claims on an equal footing with solid science. Sometimes we have to do them, because you've got to bring the argument…
pharyngula | May 1, 2009Ray Comfort has made a post on the swine flu. You know already what kind of idiotic tripe he's going to trot out.
The spread of the so-called 'swine flu' demonstrates yet again how useless and sometimes deadly a mutation can be. Furthermore, as the infection spreads around the world, the search for an antidote is desperately sought, but the very fact that the virus is seen as something to be opposed actually supports the Biblical view of this world. It is always good and right to oppose sickness, but in evolutionary terms, why don't humans simply resign themselves to it and allow the strong…
pharyngula | May 1, 2009I'm stuck in an airport in Cleveland waiting for some flight delays to clear up, but I am feeling cheerful. Don McLeroy is in trouble, and the Texas legislature is considering some revamping of their peculiar system.
The legislative session so far has not been kind to the State Board of Education.
Senate confirmation of Board Chairman Don McLeroy, R-College Station, is dead in the water, the Nominations Committee chairman said Thursday.
The House of Representatives approved a constitutional amendment Monday that would move the investment decisions about the $17.5 billion Permanent School…