Intelligent design/creationism
oracknows | March 7, 2006After all the violence and controversy over the Danish cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed, why is nobody protesting this real blasphemy?
tsmith | March 5, 2006...by Christians.
I've mentioned before that I'm on the Answers in Genesis mailing list. In addition to the junk mail it gets me (as described in the post linked above), I also get their monthly newsletter, describing new events in the "culture war" and asking for money. This month's version is just too precious. More below...
The newsletter is devoted to trashing the clergy letter project and especially Evolution Sunday. For those unfamiliar with the latter, a quote from their website:
On 12 February 2006 hundreds of Christian churches from all portions of the country and a host of…
oracknows | February 27, 2006
I love blog carnivals.
In fact, I love 'em so much that I hosted four of them took one over when its creator decided to retire from blogging.
But here's one that PZ, RPM, Afarensis, and all of the other ScienceBloggers inclined to defend evolution will want to wander over to see just how inane some creationist arguments can be. Indeed, the Pooflinger has already targeted them for some particularly ripe debunkings:
Yesterday marked the launch of an entirely new carnival over at Radaractive called, amusingly, the "Darwin Is Dead" carnival. Oh yeah: and it began with a whopping five (count…
tsmith | February 24, 2006A lot on my plate this morning, but if you've not seen these already from yesterday, check out Respectful Insolence, where Orac has a post on using chemical castration as a treatment for autism. Just when you think things couldn't get any crazier...
PZ also has a post drawing your attention to a statement in this week's Science magazine: Medicine needs evolution.
The citation of "Evolution in Action" as Science's 2005 breakthrough of the year confirms that evolution is the vibrant foundation for all biology. Its contributions to understanding infectious disease and genetics are widely…
tsmith | February 16, 2006Just wanted to point you to these posts over at Mike's blog, regarding Jimmy Stewart, a former physicist and candidate for State Representative in Ohio's 22nd District: Dublin and Clintonville. I don't know him from Adam and so this doesn't constitute an endorsement in any way, but apparently he's reaching out to the blogosphere for both questions on his positions, and, of course, support. Mike's already asked him some questions (including ones about intelligent design and overall science education in Ohio's schools), and I submitted some as well that have reportedly been passed along.…
tsmith | February 15, 2006Oh yeah, baby--Richard has the dish over on Panda's Thumb:
Ohio is no longer on the Disco Institute's list of favorite states for pilgrimages. Late this afternoon, by an 11-4 vote, the Ohio State Board of Education stripped out the intelligent-design creationist "critical analysis of evolution" benchmark, indicator, and lesson plan from the 10th Grade Biology curriculum.
Tthe resolution had four main parts:
1. Eliminate the "critical analysis of evolution" benchmark and indicator from the Science Standards.
2. Eliminate the "Critical Analysis of Evolution" model lesson plan from the Model…
tsmith | February 14, 2006PZ and Ed have both mentioned this NY Times article suggesting that Ohio's about ready to cut out its cancer that are the Jon Wells-inspired "critical analysis of evolution" from their lesson plan. Richard Hoppe of Ohio Citizens for Science has been following the story over on Panda's Thumb--for example, here and here most recently). I'll be in Ohio later this week; hopefully some celebratin' will be in order. Keep your eye on it.
Also from over at PT, Reed shares an interview with Massimo Pigliucci, who's been holding Darwin Day celebrations since 1997 and helped to popularize them.…
tsmith | February 14, 2006This article appeared in Science last week, regarding evolution (and it's "challengers") on college campuses:
For decades, polls have indicated that close to half of the U.S. adult population is skeptical of the basic tenets of Darwinian evolution. Although more educated people are more likely to endorse evolution, a college degree is no guarantee that the graduate agrees with Darwin.
Provine himself has been surveying his Cornell students since 1986, when he started teaching an evolution course for nonbiology majors. He says that for many years, about 70% of students held views somewhere…
tsmith | February 12, 2006As PZ mentioned, today would be Charles Darwin's 197th birthday. To celebrate, Mike over at The Questionable Authority is putting together a mini-carnival of posts on evolution. Specifically, he asked how those of us who are scientists use evolutionary theory in our work.
Personally, I'm a bit of a hybrid. I'm a microbiologist by training (my PhD is in microbial pathogenesis and gene regulation), but I loved epidemiology as an undergrad, and so did post-doctoral work in that area--and now am officially titled and "infectious disease epidemiologist". But, I'm still a lab rat rather than…
tsmith | February 10, 2006 Chris has been excoriating Tom Bethell (author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science") over on The Intersection and elsewhere (see, for example, here, here, and several posts here). However, since he's not yet done a takedown on Bethell's chaper on AIDS (titled "African AIDS: a Political Epidemic"), he suggested I have a go at it. Man, I knew the book would be bad, but it reaches a whole new level of terrible.
Bethell's central thesis will be familiar to anyone who's read the anti-HIV arguments by Peter Duesberg and others. As the chapter title suggests, Bethell claims that…
tsmith | February 1, 2006The Discovery Institute's Wedge document has been quite a boon to those seeking to show that their motivations are political and religious instead of scientific, though the DI has said it's not a big deal. Today, the Seattle Weekly has run a story on it, including the history of how it came to be leaked in the first place. PZ has a write-up.
Intelligent Design
tsmith | January 30, 2006I wrote up a critique of an article DI mouthpiece Casey Luskin wrote regarding avian influenza back in October. I don't know whether Luskin ever read my post; at the time, trackbacks to the DI site weren't working. But I'd guess I'm not the only one who pointed out the abundant mistakes in his article, which advanced the thesis that avian influenza wasn't a good example of evolution. He has since written a response to critics here (warning: .pdf file), correcting one of his errors in the original article (and making a confusing mess out of things).
Luskin's original thesis was that…
tsmith | January 29, 2006I meant to get online yesterday, but hubby had to work all day so it was just me and the kiddos--so we just played all day and I didn't bother to get to a computer. Anyhoo, I've missed a few things. I know this was linked on a few other of my virtual neighbor's websites, but in case you didn't see it, DarkSyde over at DailyKos has an interview with Welsey Elsberry of the NCSE (and a founder of Panda's Thumb). Like Ken Miller, Wesley is a Christian and a staunch defender of keeping nonsense like Intelligent Design out of our classrooms.
Second, the Challenger disaster. Seed asked for…
tsmith | January 27, 2006Just a reminder about this upcoming event at Iowa State University:
Why Intelligent Design Is Not Science
Robert M. Hazen is the Clarence Robinson Professor of Earth Science at George Mason University, and a scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Geophysical Laboratory. He received his M.S. in geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from Harvard University. Dr. Hazen is the author of over 240 articles and 16 books, including the most recent Genesis: The Scientific Quest for Life's Origin; Why Aren't Black Holes Black? and the…
tsmith | January 20, 2006Check out tonight's InfidelGuy radio program (airs at 8PM EST) featuring Barbara Forrest.
Dr. Barbara Forrest, author of "Creationism's Trojan Horse" reappears on the program to discuss her thoughts about design, evolution, and the recent court case heard in Dover, Pennsylvania. Dr. Forrest provided key testimony at the trial herself, and we'll hear first hand how it all unfolded!
(Hat tip to ELGS over at Internet Infidels Discussion Board).
tsmith | January 19, 2006Buridan of Buridan's ass has some discussion about Vedic creation in America (Short EvoWiki blurb on vedic creationism.), linking an article that claims
Prominent I.D. theorists (Philip Johnson, Michael Behe) and some Catholic creationists have endorsed Vedic creationism.
Afraid of kickin' anyone outta that tent, ain't they?
Intelligent design, creationism
tsmith | January 13, 2006 I know some of you out there do this. You've spent so many hours asking your creationist friends to define a "kind," or explaining why the "tornado in a junkyard" or "watchmaker" analogies are hopelessly flawed, that you're beginning to see flagella and mousetraps in your sleep. I mean, look at poor Nick. Kid can't even hear the word "truthiness" without having visions of IDists dancing in his head. I caught myself doing this today, too.
I listen to a lot of country music. (Yeah, yeah, go ahead and mock. I'm used to it). Couple that with 1) the fact that I live in Iowa, where there's…
tsmith | December 20, 2005kay, after going through the whole Kitzmiller decision last night, and damn, it's good. Really, incredibly good. This should be required reading. Jones' disgust at the whole thing comes through loud and clear. On page 29:
Although proponents of the IDM (Intelligent Design movement) occasionally suggest that the designer could be a space alien or a time-traveling cell biologist, no serious alternative to God as the designer has been proposed by members of the IDM, including Defendant's expert witnesses.
He discussed this at length, clearly connecting the dots between the Discovery Institute,…
tsmith | December 20, 2005Plaintiffs Prevail
The much-awaited decision in the Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District is now available.
The 139 page document finds for the plaintiffs.
Judge Jones finds that "intelligent design" is not science. The DASD ID policy violates both purpose and effect prongs of the Lemon test, and also violates the Pennsylvania constitution.
Much more here, here, and here, and I'm sure more will follow. (Update: Ed has a "thank you" list here, and Mike mentions others here. As someone who got to watch a bit behind the scenes, there was definitely an amazing amount of work that went…
tsmith | November 20, 2005...and has spawned some press coverage, here in the Ames Tribune and here in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, making us the first state to have faculty from all Regent universities speak out against intelligent design. I'll briefly address some of the comments.
In the first article, U of I physics professor (and signer of the DI's "Scientific dissent from Darwinism" petition) Fred Skiff elaborates one giant strawman:
"It's part of science to consider what blinders you might be wearing," Skiff said. "Materialists put conditions on science that things can only exist if they satisfy materialism. I…