creationism
pharyngula | December 29, 2008I've been seeing this argument a lot lately: it's a brand of exceedingly indiscriminate relativism that is being prominently peddled by Answers in Genesis.
Creationists and evolutionists, Christians and non-Christians, all have the same evidence--the same facts. Think about it: we all have the same earth, the same fossil layers, the same animals and plants, the same stars—the facts are all the same.
The difference is in the way we all interpret the facts. And why do we interpret facts differently? Because we start with different presuppositions; these are things that are assumed to be true…
pharyngula | December 27, 2008An amusing take on my battle with the Creation "Museum": it was me against Jesus.
The good news is that I won. I had an edge, though, in that I'm not an imaginary being.
pharyngula | December 27, 2008First of all, I have to point out that sometimes, amazingly cool people are incredibly stupid about biology. Case in point: Jack Kirby was an evolutionary ignoramus.
Now that's just sad. Of course we share this world with related forms of life — we've been looking for years, and what would be a disturbing enigma would be if we found a species that was not related to every other species on the planet. So I'm afraid those panels contain three characters, every one of whom is babbling complete drivel. Still, you have to concede that Jack Kirby was a major influence on comic book art, and…
pharyngula | December 25, 2008Go ahead, guess. Would you be surprised to learn that Warren is a creationist?
I believed that evolution and the account of the Bible about creation could exist along side of each other very well. I just didn't see what the big argument was all about. I had some friends who had been studying the Bible much longer than I had who saw it differently...Eventually, I came to the conclusion, through my study of the Bible and science, that the two positions of evolution and creation just could not fit together. There are some real problems with the idea that God created through evolution... My…
pharyngula | December 23, 2008Since I professed that Intelligent Design creationism is zombie pseudoscience, but that creationism was far from dead, people were wondering what new slogan or tactic will emerge. It's already here! It's been lurking about for a few years now, and Glenn Branch and Eugenie Scott discuss the new tactic at some length.
The magic words are, of course, "academic freedom".
Those words in the hands of creationists are used the way Republicans name bills: exactly contrary to the actual content. "Academic freedom" bills have been getting pushed into legislatures all across the country by — you…
pharyngula | December 22, 2008Allen MacNeill makes an interesting observation: those little eruptions of ID creationism on college campuses, the Idea Centers, all seem to be moribund, and he pronounces the college ID movement dead.
I quite agree. I think Intelligent Design as a whole is a zombie philosophy at this point — it's dead, its brain is rotting, and it has no glamor or appeal to most people anymore. It's still shuffling about, and it will continue to get mentioned now and then as people struggle to find some pretense of a non-religious motive for creationism, but really, we're all just waiting for someone with a…
pharyngula | December 21, 2008The outraged email from creationist fans of Ken Ham and the Creation "Museum" continues apace. Most of it is forgettable and repetitive — I'm usually accused of being against free speech, as if I had somehow barred the doors of that temple of foolishness in Kentucky, or had personally gagged Ken Ham — but this one stands out for it's opening insult. I am deeply offended. But then I read further, and it seems this poor man is simply incoherent and deeply confused, instead.
Mr. Myers,
I understand that you are creationist - that loves God and real authentic science....right!
Since you so…
laelaps | December 19, 2008When the topic of creationism in science classrooms comes up these days, the 2005 Dover trial inevitably comes up, but earlier that same year everyone was worrying about science standards in Kansas. This earlier confrontation is the focus of a documentary film released onto DVD, Kansas vs Darwin, which takes a look at the controversy that erupted over science in that state. Here's the trailer;
I haven't seen it yet (I only just found out about it a few moments ago!), but it looks pretty good. It seems similar to the PBS special on the Dover trial, particularly in terms of focusing on the…
mikethemadbiologist | December 18, 2008It's truly odd to hear a creationist make a population genetics argument--an idiotic one no less. Rick Warren, evangelist and who will be leading the invocation at Obama's inauguration, says the following about homosexuality:
Warren, a creationist, believes that homosexuality disproves evolution; he told CNN's Larry King in 2005, "If Darwin was right, which is survival of the fittest then homosexuality would be a recessive gene because it doesn't reproduce and you would think that over thousands of years that homosexuality would work itself out of the gene pool."
The stupidity permeates…
pharyngula | December 17, 2008Some online news organization has revivified the Cincinnati Zoo/Creation "museum" controversy, and they have blamed me for it all. Thank you, thank you, I appreciate the credit, but really, it must be shared with the thousands of people who responded with their letters, and particularly with the zoo administrators, who so quickly saw the folly of forming an affiliation with an anti-science/anti-education organization like Answers in Genesis.
However, Mark Looy of the Creation "museum" generously credited me by name as the ringlea…um, criminal mastermi…uh, instigator of the campaign to…
razib | December 13, 2008Acceptance of Evolution & belief in God, over at Secular Right. Here's my conclusion:
... In any case, I think the two observations I would make is that Roman Catholicism's acceptance of evolution shows, as those nations tend to be above the trendline. And, Communism really, really, messes a nation up. I doubt that the rejection of evolution has as much to do with Lysenkoism as it does with overall underdevelopment....
But, you should go read the whole thing as there are charts that will likely interest....
pharyngula | December 13, 2008Cruel, cruel readers. Everyone is sending me links to this recent episode of The View, in which four women babble inanely about something or other. In this case, it's evolution. Do you people like to see me suffer? This was horrible.
OK, Whoopi Goldberg is wishy-washy, rather than stupid: she argues for some vague kind of deistic intervention at the big bang, then evolution is the mechanism for creating life. Elisabeth Hasselbeck, though…allow me to paraphrase. 'Really cool handbags and shoes have, like, designers, so really cool people must have a designer, too, even greater than Gucci and…
pharyngula | December 12, 2008A student, Brandon Creasy, submitted an opinion piece on evolution to the school news magazine. The principal, Kevin Bezy, rejected it and has held up publication of the magazine until it is revised. Bezy explains himself, and it's the usual kind of weasely nonsense that makes me very snarly in the morning.
When asked his opinion of evolution and how that may have factored into the situation, Bezy declined to discuss his feelings on the theory. He said he considers that irrelevant to the matter, believing it important to remain unbiased when making decisions.
I don't give a good greasy…
evolvingthoughts | December 11, 2008... shh, not so loud or everyone will want one.
Here's a piece by Darksyde at Daily Kos in which he reports the outgoing EPA chair (who has overseen all manner of bad science and decisions, although that may not be his own fault) as saying
"It's not a clean-cut division [between evolution and creation]. If you have studied at all creationism vs. evolution, there's theistic or God-controlled evolution and there's variations on all those themes."
It seems to me that theistic evolution is not exactly about God controlling evolution, although there may be plenty of biblical warrant for God…
pharyngula | December 10, 2008The Secular Alliance of Indiana University took a field trip to Ken Ham's Creation "Museum"…and they made a video!
SAIU trip to the Creation Museum from Secular Alliance on Vimeo.
Now nobody else needs to go. I suspect the nosh at the Waffle House at the end was the highlight of the expedition.
tfk | December 10, 2008Gristmill reminds us that They are called nonprofits for a reason ...:
It's the end of the year, and if your inbox is anything like mine, you've received a deluge of end-of-year donation requests from your favorite nonprofits.
On behalf of my brethren nonprofit directors, let me share some insight into current nonprofit funding dynamics before you hit the delete button.
First, this was an extraordinary election year. Obama, for example, set fundraising records, and while individual donations are not necessarily a zero sum game, let's take you for an example. Maybe you are thinking -- hey, I…
pharyngula | December 10, 2008
The Institute for Creation Research has a charming little magazine called "Acts & Facts" that prints examples of their "research" — which usually means misreading some scientific paper and distorting it to make a fallacious case for a literal interpretation of the bible. Here's a classic example: Chimps and People Show 'Architectural' Genetic Design, by Brian Thomas, M.S. (Note: this is not the peer-reviewed research paper implied by the logo to the left — that comes later.) The paper is a weird gloss on recent work on CNVs, or copy number variants. Mr Thomas makes a standard creationist…
laelaps | December 10, 2008
Up until about three years ago, I had never even heard of creationism or intelligent design. I thought that, for as long as I could remember, evolution had been agreed upon as the way in which life on earth came to exist in its present form. I was wrong, and at my first introduction to creationism I dove into the literature of groups like Answers in Genesis and the Institute for Creation Research to find out why they believed what they did. I didn't agree with them, but at least it was interesting.
It didn't take long for me to get bored, and the more I learn about the history of creationism…
pharyngula | December 10, 2008
Oh, boy — get out the model airplane glue and little bottles of paint: you can build a model of Noah's Ark! And it's only $74! (The price of plastic models has sure gone up since I used to buy them with my lawn mowing money).
This injection molded plastic model kit measures over 18 1/2" long and includes 3 separate interior decks with embossed wood texture and many details including ramps and animal cages and corrals. The kit offers several building options. Modelers may display the Ark in cross section to reveal the internal decks or in the full-hull version. Additional building options…
pharyngula | December 10, 2008Ken Ham of the Creation "Museum" linked to an old thread from June, prompting a sudden influx of dull-witted creationists regurgitating old canards. Normally I wouldn't mind — the poor dullards don't get much outlet on the creationist sites, which typically prohibit any kind of expression from their flocks — but in this case we've also got lots of fierce godless evolutionists who see an opportunity to sharpen their claws. That means the old thread is at a roiling boil and is now over 1300 comments, which is a bit excessive.
I'm closing that thread and inviting them to come here to carry on…