Intelligent Design
gregladen | January 5, 2008Christian Creationists are accusing scientists of being defensive, ignorant, reprehensible, and troubling. They might be right.
The NAS just published the latest version of its book on Evolution and Creationism (free, by the way: Your tax dollars at work) and we are now seeing the trickle of reaction from the largely creationist Christian community turn from a trickle to a drizzle.
I myself think it is a good book, but I believe they made two very important (and closely linked) errors. First, they should not have discussed creationism at all. It should be a book about evolution, with a…
gregladen | January 4, 2008An update on the hearings.
Florida Citizens for Science intones You made an impression. Congratulations! The hearings seem to have gone well, and the violation of the constitutional rights by christian fundamentalists of public school children of Florida may have been averted.
From tampabay.com:
A committee of teachers, scientists and others worked for months to update the current standards, which were written in 1996 and do not mention the word "evolution." Its revamp has won solid reviews from teachers and scientists. But some conservative Christians object, saying the standards should…
gregladen | January 3, 2008Thoughtful analysis on a recent poll regarding Evolution vs. Creationism.
gregladen | December 22, 2007I generally dislike year end reviews ... they make me nervous somehow. But this is one I truly enjoyed and strongly recommend:
The Year in ID - 2007 Edition.
Twelve months ago I offered a roundup of the "advances" made by the intelligent design movement in 2006, a month-by-month roundup which differed significantly from the assessment of John West. I had started to do the same for this year, but quickly realized that the ID movement achieved absolutely nothing over the past twelve months....
Sounds strange? It should. It is from Stranger Fruit. Here.
gregladen | December 18, 2007I wanted to point out two interesting posts both having to to with the nature of knowledge, or as we call it here in Minnesota (where the "k" in "Knute" is proudly pronounced).
The first is The Problem with Google's Knol Initiative (aha, you see, there's that "k" again...). This is about Google's idea of starting up it's own version of Wikipedia. Pierre Far of BlogSci questions the wisdom of Google's approach. The Google version of a wiki that is an encyclopedia promises to be better because it will recruit, and rely on, expertise. However, Far suggests that this could backfire, and asks…
gregladen | December 17, 2007But fails to recognize it. Again.
Just moments ago, the Discovery Institute posted a commentary on a paper that came out some time ago on dog evolution. I wrote about that paper because it made me laugh out loud (LOL). Indeed, I wanted to share this again, so I reposted my earlier post just moments ago.
The new DI post is by Casey Luskin. I've misplaced the URL, sorry. Anyway, it turns out that the Discovery Institute is pretty sure that Artificial Selection is Intelligent Design, with the breeders being the Intelligent Agent. Of course, they are correct. Intelligent Design is real…
gregladen | December 15, 2007Otherwise known as Intelligent Design (the "g" is hard).
Billy loves science. So he's going to hell where the Nazi's live.
gregladen | December 14, 2007Given the latest efforts in Texas and Florida (and elsewhere) to push religious views into the science classroom, I thought it might be helpful to remind everyone of this blood curdling story.
Dover gets a million-dollar bill
That's $1M less than what law firm says it's owed
CHRISTINA KAUFFMAN The York Dispatch
Article Last Updated: 02/22/2006 12:29:04 PM EST
Legal fees for thousands of hours of attorney services and a six-week trial: $1 million.
Damages paid to 11 parents whose rights were violated in the Dover Area School District: $1 each.
A sense of closure: Priceless.
The Dover Area…
gregladen | December 14, 2007Egads!
I was so excited about Mark Borrello's editorial at the MNCSE site, that I totally overlooked This Editorial by MNCSE executive director Jim Curtsinger!
This is bad, because it was Jim who told me about Mark's editorial. What you have to understand is that Mark is a little guy. He's pretty wiry and tough, so I wouldn't want to scrap with him, but I could probably hold my own. Jim, on the other hand, is a big scary guy and would easily do serious damage if he got mad enough at me.
OK, so there's the link... Forgive me Jim.
A taste of J.C.'s editorial:
Borrello's analysis of West's…
gregladen | December 14, 2007You will remember our blogospheric reactions to John West's talk at UMN (John West can Play the Violin But Not the Fiddle on my blog, and John West at the McLaurin Institute on Pharyngula for Scienceblogs.com, as well as In Which I Meet John West at Tangled Up in Blue Guy and here at Amused Muse).
Well, the brilliant and tenaceous Mark Borrello, a key operative with the Minnesota Citizens for Science Education, has written an excellent editorial on the topic on the MnCSE site, entitled Dancing with the Disco Institute.
gregladen | December 13, 2007The rock formation depicted here is believed to have been built by the giant Fin McCool (a.k.a. Fionn Mac Cumhaill) as a causeway to Scotland allowing the giant Benandonner to cross over so the two could engage in a competition of strength. However, a newly formed group called the "Causeway Creation Committee" now asserts that the rock formation is the result of the Noachian Flood.
From the Causeway Creation Committee's web site:
In the interests of the truth and equality the Causeway Creation Committee desires that any new visitor centre at the Giant's Causeway should include a display and…
gregladen | December 12, 2007This is an amazing story, and unfortunately, it is probably being repeated again and again across the country. It begins with a parent who does not want his daugther exposed to science, which is pretty common, but leads to a startling revelation about the local school board. Startling, but I'm afraid, probably not at all uncommon either.
In Pymatuning Valley Local School District, in Andover, Ohio, a "concerned" parent, Frank Piper, questioned the school board about the teaching of science in the middle school, where his daughter is enrolled.
Specifically, he is
concerned because the…
gregladen | December 11, 2007... From conservative Mac Johnson, on Intelligent Design; Student-Run Anchor of Rhode Island College Executive Editor Jessica Albaum on Huckabee the Hate-able ; and the Star Telegram's OpEd by Alan Leshner on science standards in Texas....
Intelligent Design, and Other Dumb Ideas
A few short years ago, nobody had ever heard of "Intelligent Design" (ID). Today it is alleged to be one of the hot button issues of our times, the latest front in the culture wars. The sudden prominence of ID is traceable, in my opinion, to two factors.
One is that, even ten years ago, ID had enough confidence…
gregladen | December 7, 2007There was a time, not so long ago, when you could "Google" the terms "Greg Laden" and "Idiot" and get, well, besides the several thousand hits about me being an idiot and stuff, an Amazon.com page for "The Idiot's Guide to Human Prehistory by Greg Laden"
This is a book I never wrote. But the publishers wanted me to. However, there were complications. The first complication was that I found out (from an excellent source) that the owner of the company had "a problem" with evolution, and I came to believe it was likely that certain things would be changed prior to publication. In…
gregladen | December 6, 2007The Testimonial:
I have been abducted by aliens for years... the Thought Screen Helmet, invented by an expert, has stopped the unwelcome visitations and has raised me and my family`s quality of life. Therefore I highly recommend it.
The Product:
From Geekology
gregladen | December 2, 2007The Courier Journal is a regular normal every-day newspaper out of Louisville, Kentucky. James K. Willmot is a normal every-day former science teacher at a Goshen Kentucky school. He works in a lab now in Britain, but he's from Louisville. The following Op Ed in the Courier-Journal by James Willmot should be sobering for anyone living in the readership zone of that paper, or anyone with kids in the area:
There is a great educational injustice being inflicted upon thousands of children in this country, a large percentage of whom come from the Kentucky, Ohio and, Indiana areas. The source…
gregladen | December 2, 2007Here we have another example of the link between Christian religion, Creationism, and Dishonesty. This time, it is in the post-game analysis of John West's talk at the University of Minnesota, posted on the Discovery Institutes's Web Site.
The post by Bruce Chapman, who was not at the talk, is based on "two calls" Bruce got about the talk. It is full of lies and misinformation, which are pretty much obliterated in this post by PZ Myers, which appeared on the Internet only moments ago.
What I find most amazing is this: West was asked explicitly if he was making a link between the early…
gregladen | December 1, 2007John Lynch is reporting:
ID supporters seem to like Antony Flew, the one-time atheist philosopher who has apparently seen the light and become a deist. They have awarded him the Phillip Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth, they have lauded his latest book, and Bill Dembski exclaims "God bless Antony Flew!" But at the risk of raining on the parade, there's something that Bill needs to realize - the fearless Flew seems to have a very ambivalent attitude (to put it mildly) to eugenics.
Prometheus Books recently published its New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, a work to which I provided an entry on…
gregladen | November 29, 2007The blog Afarensis brings us an amusing yet at the same time disturbing discussion of the Discovery Institute's Casey Luskin concerns about the reliability of Wikipedia as a source of information for students.
This is hysterically funny because of the fact that Casey Luskin and all the others at the Discover Institute are a pack of bald faced liars.
Or is it simply the case that the Discovery Institute does not fare well on Wikipedia.
The Discovery Institute is a think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design and its Teach the Controversy…
gregladen | November 20, 2007Well, no news there... but this really irks me. There is this great piece of biological simulation video that came out of Harvard last year ... I've posted bits of it here and there. Well, according to PZ Myers at Pharyngula,
what would a group of good Christians with the aim of renewing American culture do? Simple. Steal the video...They are shameless thieves..