creationism
gregladen | May 14, 2008 Emperor Han Aidi Keep an eye on the hanging tree. There will be a fresh astronomer hanging there soon. Mark my words.
This story is sometimes told:
During the reign of a particular emperor in China, the role of the historian was becoming more significant. An historian sat in the Emperors throne room and recorded events, as faithfully as possible, and the Emperor paid close attention to this process.
One day, the Emperor sentenced a man to be beheaded, and the man was executed immediately. However, it was not entirely clear that this was an act of justice or an act of anger. The…
sa smith | May 13, 2008We all secretly wish for it.
We all are afraid to say it, haunted by screams of 'EVILUTION BE DED IN 10 YRZ!'.
But seriously, I think Professional Creationism is a dying profession.
1-- Inability to adapt to the genomic revolution.
Everything in biology is now 'connected'. Whats the first thing you do when you identify a new gene, but dont know its function? BLAST it to see if it looks like something identified in another organism! Think the immune system cant evolve? Really? We find Ig domains all over the place! Not convinced? How about finding an ancestral protein in sea urchins?…
gregladen | May 13, 2008There is a point that I've been trying to make for the last few weeks now, off and on, and it is not working. So I'm going to try something new. Please bear with me, and consider the following three scenarios regarding the idea that the Earth is Round (or, possibly, flat):
Please ask yourself: Which of these scenarios is best? Which is least desirable?
Scenario A: Divided Opinion
Maureen: "I think the world is round."
John: "I think the world is flat."
A public opinion poll indicates that fifty percent of those polled believe the world is round, the other fifty percent believe the world…
sa smith | May 13, 2008As PZ reported, my bestest bestest friend in all of Oklahoma has escaped from her cage again. You remember her 'HOMOZ IS GUNNA KILLLLLLL USSSS!!!' rant? That rant also included, you guessed it, "EVILUTION IS GUNNA KILLLLLL USSSSS!!!:
Another practical benefit of Christianity was the elevation of knowledge, of learning, of science, okay, of the arts.
...
... he believed that we needed to have a society that was based upon Christian principles because elevation of science, elevation of knowledge is very important if you're going to have an informed public. And I believe it was Thomas Payne…
gregladen | May 13, 2008Is a semi-organized effort to 'crash' obnoxious internet polls ethically acceptable? Is it boring? Is it stupid? I sometimes ask myself that question.
But it's complicated and will take a while to work out. In the mean time, PZ Myers points out this poll regarding the recent suggestion by a Maine school board member to drop evolution from the science classroom in his district.
(Left side bar, two-thirds of the way down)
pharyngula | May 13, 2008Remember Sally Kern, the Oklahoma legislator who loves God and hates homosexuals? She had earlier sponsored something called the Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act, a ghastly piece of legislation that would require teachers to pass any old crap a student turned in, as long as the student said it was his religious belief — it prioritized belief over evidence. That bill died in a senate committee, fortunately.
But now it has been resurrected! The language from the earlier bill has been inserted into Oklahoma House Bill 2633.
A controversial provision in House Bill 2633 states that "…
tfk | May 12, 2008Hilzoy quotes Steve Benen, quoting Roll Call:
After months working behind the scenes, House Republican leaders this week will finally start rolling out their rebranding effort aimed at rallying the party around a comprehensive policy and message agenda.
Titled “Reasons to Believe,” the plan is meant to provide House Republicans with a sales pitch to voters by focusing on four issue areas: the economy, energy, health care and security.
And already we've got a list of 8 myths about it.
Yes, the Republican party has named its brilliant new plan after a crackpot creationist group, but at least…
pharyngula | May 12, 2008So what are they doing having their own creationist troubles? It just goes to show that this isn't just a problem for southern yokels in Florida and Texas — it's an epidemic all over the country.
The specific problem in this case is a ignorant kook who has been made director of School Administrative District 59 and has decided to flout the state standards and expectations for science classes. Look at this fellow's arguments:
Matthew Linkletter of Athens says that both are merely theories that represent "personal beliefs and world views," rather than proven science. Linkletter suggested during…
sa smith | May 11, 2008There was some talk on anonymous blogging on SciBlogs a while back. I wasnt here at the time, so Im going to pipe up now.
I dont blog anon or with a pseudonym. Im Abbie Smith. I chose not to blog anon because if someone REALLY wanted to out me, it wouldnt be that hard, and 'Abbie Smith' is common enough it provides a slight buffer against stalkers. Some people have expressed concerns-- "Arent I worried someone will read my blog, not like me, and not hire me??" "What does your school think?" "What does your boss think??"
If you are saying controversial things under a pseudonym, those are…
razib | May 10, 2008Via The Corner, Turkish Islamic author given 3-year jail sentence:
Controversial Turkish Islamic author Adnan Oktar was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday for creating an illegal organization for personal gain, state-run Anatolian news agency said.
...
Oktar, born in 1956, is the driving force behind a richly funded movement based in Turkey that champions creationism, the belief that God literally created the world in six days as told in the Bible and the Koran.
Istanbul-based Oktar, who writes under the pen name Harun Yahya, has created waves in the past few years by sending out…
sa smith | May 10, 2008
This is a repost from the old ERV. A retrotransposed ERV :P I dont trust them staying up at Blogger, and the SEED overlords are letting me have 4 reposts a week, so Im gonna take advantage of that!
I am going to try to add more comments to these posts for the old readers-- Think of these as 'directors cut' posts ;)
WHOO! Classes over! Scary 'wait for grades' time begins... But Im finally going to get to jump into an ERV series Ive been wanting to do for a while! It will hopefully turn into a great resource for all you science defenders when you encounter a Creationist online/real life…
sa smith | May 9, 2008Because I grew up in rural MO, people are surprised to hear the first Creationists I started debating were Islamic Creationists. Yes, through the wonders of the intrawebz, on a forum completely unrelated to Evolution, I ran across some nutty Muslims singing praises of Harun Yoshi or Yomama or something stupid like that.
Just in case youre wondering what Captain Dembski and the DI Brigade would do if the US was a theocracy, I heard lots of fun rumors about how Harun Yanawannadingdongs gang in Turkey ran prostitution rings and blackmailed people who wouldnt do what they wanted, and all sorts…
gregladen | May 9, 2008NCSE Press Release:
House Bill 923 was among the hundreds of bills that died in the Alabama legislature "because they did not pass in the house where they were introduced," the Associated Press (May 7, 2008) reports. The latest in a string of "academic freedom" bills aimed at undermining the teaching of evolution in Alabama, HB 923 purported to protect the right of teachers in the state's public schools (including both K-12 and colleges and universities) to "present scientific information pertaining to the full range of scientific views in any curricula or course of learning," especially with…
mikethemadbiologist | May 9, 2008As I've mentioned before, one of the things that always mystifies me about creationists (most, anyway) is that they seem to be stuck in a scientific time warp: there's no recognition that any new progress has been made since 1859.
Of course, if creationists did recognize the progress that's been made since 1859, then they might not be creationists anymore. The reason I raise this is that John Timmer, at Ars Technica, summarizes what he learned about natural selection at a Rockfeller symposium about evolution:
Natural Selection: Explore Evolution [the Discovery Institute's 'biology' textbook…
pharyngula | May 9, 2008This is the Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve website — it looks exactly like the kind of organization I would support, a community effort to protect a local wildlife area. They lobby, they educate, they offer opportunities to hike and experience nature.
One problem: it's in Florida. That seems to mean the organization is infected with stupidity and cowardice.
As part of their educational mission, they were going to have a speaker come in next last Febrary, Dr Lorena Madrigal of the University of South Florida. She studies genetics and human evolution, and was going to speak on 12 February,…
pharyngula | May 8, 2008Guess what? He didn't like it, nosir.
"Expelled" is a shoddy piece of propaganda that props up the failures of Intelligent Design by playing the victim card. It deceives its audiences, slanders the scientific community, and contributes mightily to a climate of hostility to science itself. Stein is doing nothing less than helping turn a generation of American youth away from science. If we actually come to believe that science leads to murder, then we deserve to lose world leadership in science. In that sense, the word "expelled" may have a different and more tragic connotation for our…
sa smith | May 8, 2008This is a repost from the old ERV. A retrotransposed ERV :P I dont trust them staying up at Blogger, and the SEED overlords are letting me have 4 reposts a week, so Im gonna take advantage of that!
I am going to try to add more comments to these posts for the old readers-- Think of these as 'directors cut' posts ;)
I like to make fun of how crappy traditional media has become as much as the next person, but I also hate it when people complain about how bad something is, without offering positive, constructive criticism. Examples of what is right, so the offending parties can improve…
gregladen | May 8, 2008 You Can't Hide
...I landed a job in Kansas. Finally, a state with some horse sense! But even here the Darwinian octopus had insinuated its fetid tentacles, depriving the good and open-minded high school students of the state the right hear to both sides of the story. Even when they provided a forum for polite discussion of both sides of the issue, presided over by some of the most learned and free-thinking right-wingers in the state, still they turned up their noses....
I always suspected this ... The clues were subtle, but they were there. Have a look.
esiegel | May 7, 2008The American Association of Physics Teachers just published a study of 1,000 likely U.S. voters about science, religion, evolution, and creationism. The results are frightening. Here are some of the "highlights" of their study:
38% of Americans are in favor of the teaching of religion in public school science classrooms.
65% of Americans do not think that it is an important science goal to understand the origin and diversity of biological life on Earth.
47% of Americans believe that the earliest humans lived at the same time as the dinosaurs.
21% of Americans do not believe that the…