Culture War
laelaps | June 24, 2009
Since the early 20th century, at least, young earth creationists have attempted to blame Charles Darwin for genocide, world wars, and whatever political movements seemed most threatening at one time or another (i.e. communism). What Darwin is faulted with changes with the times, but most recently young earth creationists have focused on hot topics from Darwin's own era: racism and slavery. From the Answers in Genesis tract Darwin's Plantation to the upcoming (and unethically produced) documentary The Voyage That Shook the World, creationists claim that Darwin's evolutionary vision undermined…
purepedantry | January 29, 2009I was struck by this post over at the Well blog. In spite of media attention, teens are not engaging in more sex:
The news is troubling, but it's also misleading. While some young people are clearly engaging in risky sexual behavior, a vast majority are not. The reality is that in many ways, today's teenagers are more conservative about sex than previous generations.
Today, fewer than half of all high school students have had sex: 47.8 percent as of 2007, according to the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, down from 54.1 percent in 1991.
A less recent report suggests that teenagers are…
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…
laelaps | November 28, 2008
When the topic of "animal rights" comes up here on Sb, it is often in the unfortunate context of a recent terrorist attack on a lab or researcher's home. These events are deplorable, but we should take care to remember that it was not that long ago that cruelty to animals, in the colleges and in public, was a regular thing.
In an interview held on WHYY's Radio Times held earlier this year, host Marty Moss-Coane discussed the treatment of animals during the "long 18th century" with author Kathryn Shevelow, whose book For the Love of Animals covered just that topic. You can listen to the…
laelaps | July 3, 2008Remember Christina Comer, the woman who was expelled from her job at the Texas Education Agency for merely forwarding an e-mail about a talk by Barbara Forrest? According to reports released yesterday she is suing the TEA and Education Commissioner Robert Scott for illegally and unconstitutionally firing her from her position. What is most pleasing to see, though, is that the suit is specifically fashioned to instigate change; to overturn the absurd "neutrality" requirement the TEA imposed on creationism and to get Comer her job back. This isn't about getting compensation for damages and…
laelaps | June 20, 2008
As I was skimming through Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies (1863), a book that injects a fair amount of Lamarckian evolution into a children's moral fable (the character Mother Carey "make[s] creatures make themselves."), I came across a section that made me grin.
During the course of the story the protagonist Tom is told that he needs to go see the Gairfowl, an old Great auk bird of high breeding (the Great auk just having become extinct in 1852. Thanks to Allen for the correction about the meaning of "Gairfowl."). I do not know what Kingsley thought of the evolution of birds (T.H.…
laelaps | June 1, 2008Those of you who stopped by this blog on Friday afternoon might have quickly glimpsed a post that is now missing. There's a good reason for that. I had noticed that in May at least three books about theistic evolution/the "theology of evolution" were released (Creation and Evolution: A Conference With Pope Benedict XVI in Castel Gandolfo, The Deep Structure of Biology: Is Convergence Sufficiently Ubiquitous to Give a Directional Signal, and Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution) and I made a few snarky comments about them. Being that I haven't read any of them I didn't…
laelaps | May 7, 2008A commercial about global climate change;
And there's one with Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich, too;
I haven't had much time to poke around the site as yet, but wecansolveit.org is the homepage of the We campaign, an extension of the Alliance for Climate Protection that Al Gore started in 2006. The campaign is primarily hoping to cause a sea change in public understanding about global climate change to bring the public up to date on issues that scientists have known for years. From a FAQ found on the website;
The We campaign is a nationwide effort to engage and mobilize the American people…
laelaps | December 14, 2007I'm sure that there are cases all over the world every day like this one that are generally ignored, but case of a creationist who killed a biomedical scientist during an argument over evolution has made a few of my fellow bloggers take notice. While it might be tempting to point at creationists and say "See! They're murderous theists!" details about the stabbing are sparse. According to a report about the incident from The Age, Alexander Christian York (the creationist) killed Rudi Boa (the scientist), Boa being on vacation with his girlfriend. All three were camping at Blowering Holiday…
purepedantry | August 17, 2006Lawrence Krauss has this essay in the NYT where he argues against irrational exuberance about the recent school board elections in Kansas and the ouster of some Creationist school board members. Money quote:
I have recently been criticized by some for strenuously objecting in print to what I believe are scientifically inappropriate attempts by some scientists to discredit the religious faith of others. However, the age of the earth, and the universe, is no more a matter of religious faith than is the question of whether or not the earth is flat.
It is a matter of overwhelming scientific…