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Education

Recounting the Risks of Critiquing Darwinism
September 12, 2004
Lynn Vincent has an article in World Magazine This Week recounting the tribulations suffered by Roger DeHart when he tried to include material critical of Darwinism in his high school biology classroom in Burlington, Washington.  (His story is featured in the film Icons of Evolution.)  It tells how the NCSE pressured two schools to forbid […]
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Education

Kansas Elects Two ID-Friendly School Board Members
August 6, 2004
According to John Calvert writing for Access Research Network, Kansans defeated two pro-evolution candidates for the state school board, electing instead Kathy Martin and Steve Abrams who both oppose the “evolution-only” policy.     Martin won against Bruce Wyatt, an incumbent who based his entire campaign on the need to keep intelligent design or creation […]
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Education

In the Last Days There Shall Be Scoffers
July 28, 2004
Current Biology this week contains two entries either attacking creationism or exalting Charles Darwin.1,2  Nigel Williams reports on the 100th birthday of Ernst Mayr (see 07/02/2004 headline), and his “tireless campaign against creationism”: Ernst Mayr, the renowned evolutionary biologist and champion of Darwin, celebrated his 100th birthday earlier this month by leading a scathing attack […]
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Education

Darwinists Fight Over Niche Construction Theory
June 9, 2004
According to the Sacramento Bee last week, Roseville teachers who rejected the “Quality Science Education Policy” (see 06/04/2004 headline) did so because “there are no scientifically valid arguments against the theory of evolution.”  They must not be reading Nature.     In the current June 10 issue,1 three scientists say there has long been “vigorous […]
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Education

Darwinists Continue to Stifle Opposition
June 4, 2004
Sacramento ABC News reported that the Roseville school district voted 3 to 2 against the “Quality Science Education Policy” after months of debate.  The policy would have provided supplementary materials critical of Darwinian evolution.  Even a compromise position considered Tuesday night was rejected.  The proposal had been submitted by a parent who felt students should […]
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Education

Academic Freedom Applied Unequally
June 1, 2004
In the June ICR Impact article, Dr. Jerry Bergman tells a tale of two professors.  One, a philosophy professor, has full academic freedom to dismantle the religious faith of his students (one of his converts was Michael Shermer, now editor of Skeptic Magazine).  The other, a Christian anatomy professor, was forbidden by the courts to […]
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Education

Montana Schools Not Allowed to Question Darwinism
May 13, 2004
“Objective origins” is against the law in Darby, Montana (see 02/27/2004 headline).  A policy change proposed by a local minister would have encouraged students to “analyze scientific strengths and weaknesses of existing scientific theories, including the theory of evolution.”  It didn’t lose because of a vote on the policy, or because of the threats of […]
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Education

Italy Waffles on School Darwinism
April 29, 2004
It’s not just an American thing; the politicians and scientists in Italy, also, are polarizing around Darwin.  The education ministry just dropped a requirement to teach evolution in elementary and middle schools as part of a major overhaul of education guidelines.  A news brief in the April 28 issue of Science1 claims that pressure “may” […]
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Politics and Ethics

Eugenics Documentary Opens at Holocaust Museum
April 22, 2004
Michael Ollove at the Baltimore Sun reports on a new exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Museum entitled Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race.  The exhibit shows a 1937 Nazi propaganda film that invokes the law of natural selection as support for weeding out the unfit.  Ollove writes, The narrator declares that “we humans have sinned […]
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Dumb Ideas

Federal Judge Rules Evolution Must Be Taught As Fact, Not Theory
April 9, 2004
It sounds like open-mindedness is illegal in Georgia, on the face of it.  Federal judge Clarence Cooper is allowing a lawsuit against the Cobb County school district to go to trial.  Their crime has been to insert warning labels in biology textbooks that state, simply, This textbook contains material on evolution.  Evolution is a theory, […]
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Education

Evolutionists Violate Church-State Separation
April 2, 2004
John G. West thinks he has the NCSE in a hammerlock.  The evolution-only advocacy group, headed by Eugenie Scott, has used religious arguments to promote evolution on their new “Understanding Evolution” website (see 02/29/2004 entry).  West, an associate director of the Discovery Institute, writing for National Review, claims they are violating their own principle of […]
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Education

Evolution Battle Heats Up in Ohio
March 10, 2004
CNN has reported that the Ohio school board voted 13-5 in favor of an optional set of lessons called “Critical Analysis of Evolution.”  The usual opponents are lining up on both sides; some scientific organizations are claiming it is a “religious effort cloaked as science,” but others consider it a victory for students and for […]
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Education

How to Prevent Youthful Violence
March 4, 2004
EurekAlert posted a finding by University of Washington sociologists that “Family discipline, religious attendance, attachment to school cut levels of later violence among aggressive children.” Do we really need scientists to tell us the obvious?  Everyone seems to know this except secular researchers.  Solomon and Paul can tell the University of Washington all they need […]
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Education

Evolution 101: Pro-Evolution Educational Website Opens
February 29, 2004
Berkeley has a new website for educators and students named Understanding Evolution.  For students, it presents topics on (1) Nature of Science, (2) Evolution 101, (3) Evidence, (4) Relevance of Evolution, (5) Misconceptions, and (6) History of Evolutionary Thought.  For teachers, there is additional material on (6) Teaching Evolution, (7) Overcoming Roadblocks, (8) Potential Pitfalls, […]
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Education

How Science Reports the School Controversies Over Darwinism
February 27, 2004
In the Feb. 28 issue of Science,1 Constance Holden reports on the battles over Darwinism vs. creationism in schools across the United States.  The tone is one of military alarm.  Here is the score as Science sees it (emphasis, underlining and brackets ours): Georgia school officials took a big step back from opening the door […]
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