Intelligent Design
gregladen | August 16, 2010Therefore, we should teach that as fact in schools, right?
I think this might be old. But still relevant.
gregladen | August 15, 2010Genie Scott's recent talk at an Atheist Alliance International conference. The title: "Who Pulled the Stake Out? The resurgence of young-earth creationism". Event date: 9-28-2007
gregladen | August 13, 2010An episode from KTEH's Uncommon Knowledge series: "Darwin under the Microscope: Questioning Darwinism". Dr. Genie Scott goes toe to toe with creationist Dr. William Dembski. Air date: 12/7/2001
gregladen | August 12, 2010Chronic infection is, in a way, the new emerging infectious disease. Many pathogens are relatively tenacious when they infect elderly individuals or individuals who are otherwise not fully immunocompetent, and such individuals are, thanks to modern medical technology and practice, more common in the population. Resistant bacteria can cause chronic infection. It is interesting to see more research oriented specifically towards the problem of chronic infection as a problem in and of itself, and a paper just out by Hannan, Mysorekar, Hung, Isaacson-Schmit and Hultgren, in PLoS Pathogens, is…
gregladen | August 12, 2010... can be found here, in this talk by William Phillips speaking at the AAAS:
at 1:08. The implication is that we will only see grief if we don't give religious people the origin of life and the origin of the universe. Presumably we fire the scientists working on these issues.
I found this in a post on related topics: Tact not entirely decided upon at Thinkers' Podium.
gregladen | August 11, 2010Wyoming, which is a pretty stupid state sometimes, although you don't hear about it too often because almost no one lives there, has a candidate for governor who
... wants teachers to be required to teach creationism. "I think it is as valuable a theory as any other theory."
... is opposed to abortion even in the context of rape.
... in what the Casper Star-Tribune called "A momumental display of bad judgement" he advocated for leniency for his friend Ty in a rape case. Ry is now serving 60 years in the pen for raping a Casper woman in her home.
In a poll conducted nearly two weeks ago,…
gregladen | August 9, 2010An adjunct community college professor had a bit of a problem when it came time to teach evolution, according to certain sources:
Student Bryan Jaden Walker wrote on his blog, ... that the professor "glossed over the scientific explanation very quickly (less than 20 seconds), then explained Creationism for about five minutes (5,000-year-old Earth, no evolution, etc)."
...
"Evolution was not taught at all in his class," Weis said. "When he hit that unit, instead of discussing it himself he had a single slide that had both creationism and evolution. When I spoke up and asked him about it, he…
gregladen | August 4, 2010For now. This just in from the National Center for Science Education:
Creationism won't be taught in the public schools of Livingston Parish, Louisiana -- at least not yet. The Baton Rouge Advocate (August 1, 2010) reports that "The Livingston Parish School Board won't try to include the teaching of creationism in this year's curriculum, but has asked the School Board staff to look at the issue for possible future action." At a July meeting, inspired by the Louisiana Science Education Act, the board formed a committee to explore the possibilities of incorporating creationism in the parish'…
gregladen | August 2, 2010... from the National Center for Science Education.
Click the picture to get the PDF of Darwin's Universe: Evolution from A to Z
.
gregladen | July 30, 2010This one is very much worth the effort. Stop here first for some instructions on strategy, then go here to do this thing.
UPDATED!!!!!
Holy crap! The Kent Hovind poll started out looking like this:
What do you believe about evolution?
It's a religion.
* It's a fact!
* It's a reasonable scientific theory.
Then it changed to:
What do you believe about CREATION?
It's a religion.
* It's a fact!
* It's a reasonable scientific theory.
Huh.
gregladen | July 29, 2010Barbara Forrest, author of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design, has a major blog post addressing the current maneno in Louisiana. A Parish school board there wants to place creationism on equal or higher footing than evolution. Read Barbara's piece here.
gregladen | July 26, 2010Unless they are stopped which, frankly, does not seem very likely.
The Livingston Parish School Board, in Louisiana, is poised to enthusiastically support the introduction of creationism into the school curriculum as a requirement, and possibly even toss out evolution. You people in Louisiana are truly a bunch of morans*. You do know that, right?
Barbara Forrest, author of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design, has written a letter that you may want to read about the school board's intentions, and the NCSE has a detailed press report here.
Here's the thing that is so…
gregladen | July 16, 2010.... because your proof of your god is falsified by science. But that is not a problem that science has. It is a problem that you have. It is also not a problem that the Secular Public School System in the US has. Unless you make it so.
This explored in a recent iNewp piece:
As many biblical literalists maintain, evolution says there is no plan (or Planner) for life; it's random, just one damned thing after another, everything passing and changing (except maybe things like sharks, horseshoe crabs and cockroaches). Nothing's permanent, nothing is special, including us. They contrast…
gregladen | July 14, 2010And we need your help to move it. Please click here so the global network of DNS servers knows that you want to visit the MnCSE. You should really visit the site anyway, it's very cool, even if you are not a Minnesota. I love the graphic thingie on the top of the right sidebar .... click the picture to learn an interesting thing about evolution or related topics.
So? What are you waiting for? Click here!
And, if yo are a parent, teacher, student, or academic interested in excellent science education in Minnesota, bookmark the site and come back often.
Thank you very much, that is all.
gregladen | July 13, 2010Speaking of Accommodationism and New Atheism and stuff, check out this 10 year old discussion:
gregladen | July 9, 2010And we're talking about bigots and creationists in Alberta, which I figure is more or less the Canadian equivalent of Texas .... the dumbest province in the Great White North.
Starting this coming school year, parents will be able to "opt" their children "out" of certain lessons, such as those that deal in any way with Teh Gay, or with religion. Apparently, it is thought that science that conflicts with religion will be counted as religion, so that means kids can get out of science classes.
And I would not assume that this applies only to evolution. Math, physics, all of it conflicts with…
gregladen | July 6, 2010This topic came up a couple of times during SkepchiCON. I'll be blogging about that later. But for now, I thought you might find this interesting.
gregladen | July 6, 2010Although I quickly add that I've not been reading much on the Internet this morning, but stilll ..... There is this item in HuffPo ... Jesus and the Evolution of the Species by Stanley Knick, PhD:
This is not about whether you believe in God, or whether you believe in evolution. It is not about whether you believe that Jesus is the Son of God. If you believe in God, fine. If not, fine. If you believe evolution is real, fine. If not, fine. This is not about what you believe, or what I believe. It is about the idea of Jesus, and the idea of evolution, and what these two ideas might have to say…
gregladen | July 6, 2010Apparently, it is OK for a government agency to insist that its employees consider religious explanations for natural phenomenon as equal to scientific ones in the context of science education.
In a decision issued on July 2, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a lower court's decision that the Texas Education Agency's policy requiring "neutrality" of its employees when "talking about evolution and creationism" is not unconstitutional.
This idiotic decision is contrary to a lot of other case law and won't stand. But we will have to fight over this one.…
gregladen | June 8, 2010Considering how right wing SC is, this is rather remarkable. Here's the details:
Can teachers be "allowed" teachers to "help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and weaknesses of existing scientific theories pertinent to the course."
like, as in, teach evolution?
Not in South Carolina!
Or, can a law be enacted that requires the state board of education to "examine all curriculum in use in this State that purports to teach students about the origins of mankind to determine whether the curriculum maintains neutrality toward…