Discovery Institute

I've been a critic of Arianna Huffington's massive group blog, The Huffington Post, since three weeks after it first blighted the blogosphere. That's when I first noticed that the "health" section (such as it is) of HuffPo had already become a wretched hive of scum and anti-vaccine quackery, something I began documenting again and again and again and again and again over five years ago, before Salon.com and Rolling Stone flushed their credibility right down the crapper with Robert F. Kennedy's infamous conspiracy mongering about thimerosal in vaccines. Indeed, I continue to document the…

It has often been written on this blog and elsewhere that the mark of a true crank is hatred of the scientific consensus, be it consensus regarding the theory of evolution, the science that says homeopathy is impossible, anthropogenic global warming; various areas of science-based medicine; or the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Perhaps the most famous expression of distrust of a scientific consensus is the famous speech by Michael Crichton, in which he famously said: Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science…

tags: Intelligent Alien Design, Discovery Institute, Gordon J. Glover, Casey Luskin, humor, parody, satire, Canadian cartoon, streaming video This video is a hypothetical dialogue between Gordon J. Glover and the official spokesperson of the Intelligent Alien Intervention Institute on Science NEWS. They discuss the Academic Freedom legislation that recently became law in Louisiana and how it might also help various theories of Paleo-Contact to be taught alongside mainstream archaeology in the public science classroom. Hint to the humor-impaired: this video is a parody mocking Intelligent…

..that even when you try diligently to separate the politics of religion vs. creationism and to say again and again that religion can go along its merry way as long as it stays out of the science classroom, people like Casey Luskin will still find the words in your rhetoric to accuse you of attacking religion. Back in May, Genie Scott appeared with me and Lynn Fellman on Atheist Talk Radio, where we discussed science education. Genie is the director of the National Center for Science Education. In a recent posting on the Discovery Institute web site, Casey Luskin makes the contrast between…

Back in 2001 The Discovery Institute paid for advertisements with a list of a hundred scientists who disputed the theory of evolution via natural selection. A notable feature of their list is that the vast majority of the people were not biologists. Now The Cato Institute has paid for advertisements with a list of a hundred scientists who dispute the scientific consensus about global warming. A notable feature of their list is that it contains only a handful of climatologists. There's Lindzen, Spencer, Michaels and ... well that's about it. Of the 619 contributing authors of Working Group…

Abe: I got a riddle for you, Sol. What's green, hangs on the wall, and whistles? Sol: I give up. Abe: A herring. Sol: But a herring isn't green. Abe: So you can paint it green. Sol: But a herring doesn't hang on the wall. Abe: Put a nail through it, it hands on the wall. Sol: But a herring doesn't whistle! Abe: So? It doesn't whistle. Borrowed from Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes Everyone knew it was coming; Ben Stein goes on Bill O'Reilly's show and says that intelligent design has a religious agenda and is concerned with showing people the "…