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Intelligent Design

Can Scientific Journals Perpetuate False Ideas?
March 17, 2006
An unusual paper appeared in PNAS this week.1  Four social scientists from Columbia and Yale argued that scientific papers can actually perpetuate false ideas rather than correct them.  The abstract says that an influential paper can generate momentum that becomes merely cited as fact by subsequent authors: We analyzed a very large set of molecular […]
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Dumb Ideas

The Darwin Empire Strikes Back
March 14, 2006
It would seem the ID republic is imprisoned on its own ice-world of Hoth, scrambling to escape as the empire has mobilized its machinery against the rebels.  The AAAS, for instance, held its “Evolution on the Front Line” event in St. Louis and has posted its weaponry on its Center for Public Engagement with Science […]
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Bible and Theology

Ararat Anomaly Photo Released
March 11, 2006
To follow up on an old story, a satellite photo of the so-called “Ararat Anomaly” has been released (see 08/23/2001 entry).  The photo taken by the Quickbird 2 satellite shows what is most likely a rock ridge.  Some hunters for Noah’s Ark were eager to see high-resolution photos of this area; others thought whatever it […]
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Education

Analysis:  The Dover Decision
March 10, 2006
Dr. Kevin L. Anderson of the Creation Research Society wrote an analysis of Judge Jones’ decision in the Kitzmiller v. Dover School District case.  Since this appeared in a members-only newsletter, Creation Matters, we sought and obtained permission to reproduce it: Click Here.     A very different view was expressed by David Johns (School […]
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Education

Anti-ID Media Resorts to Mockery, Misrepresentation
March 2, 2006
Evolution News, a blog of the Discovery Institute ID think tank, was launched in 2004 to try to correct misrepresentation in the media.  It never seems to have a shortage of material (see their 3/2/2006 post).  Even though the Discovery Institute maintains public documents on its website defining what intelligent design is and what it […]
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Politics and Ethics

Lest We Forget: Website Recalls Horrors of Eugenics
February 28, 2006
The American Holocaust Museum has a website, “Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race.”  It discusses how Hitler’s Germany depended on currently popular scientific ideas of eugenics to try to create a master race, and in the process, eliminate the unfit – millions of them.  The website was mentioned in Science this week. The website profiles […]
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Bible and Theology

Epitaph: Dr. Henry M. Morris, Jr. (1918-2006)
February 25, 2006
The man considered the “father of the modern creationist movement,” a prolific author, scientist and founder of the Institute for Creation Research (ICR), died Saturday night at age 87 after a series of small strokes.  An announcement at Answers in Genesis said his mind was sharp till shortly before the end.     Dr. Henry […]
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Education

Darwinists Rattle Sabers Against I.D.
February 24, 2006
Has there ever been a controversy among scientists more acrimonious than the current one over intelligent design?  It seems all the big science Goliaths are determined to eradicate intelligent design from the earth, yet the I.D. Davids are standing their ground.  “History is written by the victors,” wrote Henry Gee in Nature this week (see […]
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Birds

March of the “Selfish Darwinians”?
February 23, 2006
Penguins: are they moral models, or evolutionary examples?  Ever since last year’s surprise blockbuster documentary March of the Penguins, the well-dressed seabirds and their harsh lives have provoked empathy and commentary.  Marlene Zuk (UC Riverside) took issue in Nature1 with those who try to moralize about monogamy from taking their cues only from the movie.  […]
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Biology

Alien Engineering: Is It Intelligent Design?
February 16, 2006
The SETI Institute finished airing a 2-part series on the History Channel called Alien Engineering (it will be rebroadcast on Feb. 18).  The series, featuring SETI Institute scientists Seth Shostak and Frank Drake, asks the following questions: Prepare for an exercise in imagination.  Suppose that an alien spacecraft crashed in the desert and we humans […]
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Education

Ohio School Board Votes Down Critical Analysis of Evolution
February 15, 2006
In more apparent fallout from the Dover case, the Ohio State Board of Education (OSBE) voted 11-4 to strike language from the high school science standards that stated simply, “Describe how scientists continue to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory.”  The same standards specifically mentioned that intelligent design would not be taught.  No […]
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Darwin and Evolution

Liberal Pastors Rally to Defend Darwin on “Evolution Sunday”
February 11, 2006
Imagine this scene at a local church in your community: Our text for this morning’s sermon is taken from Origin of Species, chapter 15: “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet […]
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Education

Darwinists Bemoan Creation/ID Obstinance, Strategize to Improve Darwin Image
February 10, 2006
The journal Science devoted three articles in eight days to the intelligent design controversy.  Last week, Yudhijit Bhattacharjee used warfare metaphors in a report from Kansas:1 battle, attack, defenders juxtaposed with talk of tiptoeing gently around voters’ concerns about voting in “godless atheists” to the school board.  He spoke of “moderates” like Harry McDonald and […]
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Education

Schools Discipline Rowdy ID Proponents
February 9, 2006
It’s been awhile since we checked into American science classrooms and school board meetings.  What’s going on with the movement for “teaching the controversy” about Darwinism? Midwest: Unexplained Panic Attacks:  Casey Luskin of Discovery Institute has documented the spread of “False Fear Syndrome” from Kansas to South Carolina and Ohio to Wisconsin.  Late word has […]
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Dumb Ideas

More on “Literary Darwinism”
February 7, 2006
Harold Fromm in Science1 reviewed Gottschall’s new book on literary Darwinism (see 01/27/2006 entry).  Like Gottschall, he argued that an evolution-informed approach to literary criticism is superior because it provides quantifiable certitude: For years, scholars in the literary humanities have struggled to achieve at least a semblance of the certitude possible in the sciences, although […]
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