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Education

NAS President Calls on Scientists to Defend Darwinism
March 24, 2005
The man who described a cell as “a factory that contains an elaborate network of interlocking assembly lines, each of which is composed of a set of large protein machines” (see 02/10/2003 entry) now wants his fellow scientists to oppose efforts to attribute this factory to design.  Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of […]
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Education

Echoes of Columbine: Belief in God Brings Bullet
March 21, 2005
Grief counselors have been dispatched to Red Lake High School in Minnesota, says Fox News, after a rampage by a neo-Nazi student left 10 dead and 14 wounded.  In a manner reminiscent of Columbine, according to MSNBC News, 17-year old killer Jeff Weise admired Hitler’s views on racial purity and was deep into goth culture […]
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Education

Agnosticism Loses: Arkansas Science Must Be Atheistic
March 18, 2005
Updated 05/08/2005:  “What I’m trying to do here is not to deal directly with the existence or non-existence of God, but restore to science the agnostic viewpoint that there could be or could not be rather than the dogmatism that actually currently exists… that absolutely precludes the existence of God.”  These were the words of […]
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Education

SETI Outreach Director: “Teach Evolution”
February 11, 2005
Evolution is the foundation of biology, geology, and astronomy, claims Edna Devore, Director of Education and Public Education for the SETI Institute.  Writing in Space.Com, she finds it hard to believe evolution is controversial (see 12/14/2004 and 11/30/2004 entries).  Why, just look out the airplane window; it’s obvious.  “Evolution is fundamental to modern biology, geology […]
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Education

Teachers Getting Reluctant to Teach Evolution
February 1, 2005
Cornelia Dean in the New York Times worries that, to stay out of trouble, more and more biology teachers are avoiding the discussion of evolution. Dean quotes someone who claims “the practice of avoiding the topic was widespread, particularly in districts where many people adhere to fundamentalist faiths.”  But why would teachers fear discussing it […]
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Education

Editorials Lukewarm to ID, but Not as Hot to Darwin
January 31, 2005
A subtle shift seems to be taking place in media coverage of intelligent-design controversies in school boards across the country.  Darwinists used to be the unchallenged kings of the hill.  Alternatives, whether creationism or intelligent design, were disqualified before they reached the starting gate.  It also used to be “open season” on anti-Darwinists.  No vituperative […]
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Education

Newspaper Editorials Lead Revolt Against King Charles
January 24, 2005
Some columnists and editorial writers are gaining boldness to attack the Darwin-only rule in science education.  Some examples: Senator Rick Santorum (R., Pennsylvania) in The Morning Call advocated a balanced approach to teaching evolution. Brian Fahling in The Union Leader took up the charge to defend Georgia’s “critical thinking” stickers (see 01/13/2005 entry). Neal McCluskey, […]
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Education

Critical Thinking Outlawed in Georgia School District
January 13, 2005
A federal judge has ordered the stickers removed from Cobb County, Georgia biology textbooks that encourage students to think critically when examining the theory of evolution (see 11/08/2004 entry), according to Yahoo News.  The attorney defending the stickers tried to argue that science and religion are not mutually exclusive, and that the school board was […]
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Education

Dover, PA Administrators Will Read ID Statement
January 11, 2005
In a compromise aimed at relieving recalcitrant teachers, the Dover, Pennsylvania school board decided that administrators will read a four-paragraph statement about evolution and intelligent design (ID) to high school students for any teachers that want to “opt out” of the new policy (see 11/04/2004 headline).  The decision, according to the York Daily Record, was […]
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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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