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Politics and Ethics

Naturalism Extends Into All Realms of Scholarship
April 30, 2007
Defenders of evolutionary theory typically argue that their ideas are merely scientific approaches to explaining biological objects.  Why, then, are evolutionary approaches extended to intangible realms, like psychology, ethics, criminal law, politics, religion, character and morals?  Here are some recent examples to think about: Evolution and the Criminal Mind:  In a paper this month in […]
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Genetics

Evolution to the Rescue for Abused Ape
April 5, 2007
The UK Guardian reports that Austrian courts are being asked to grant human status to an ape to allow it to sue a company for importing it into Austria for medical research.  In 1999, New Zealand granted “non-human hominid” status to apes to protect them from maltreatment, but this case attempts to give full human […]
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Health

Adult Stem Cells Form Heart Valve
April 4, 2007
The BBC News reported that part of a heart valve was grown from stem cells.  The article did not state till halfway down the page that the feat was achieved with adult stem cells, not embryonic stem cells. Everybody knows that the big battle over stem cells revolves around the ethics of using human embryos […]
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Dumb Ideas

Were Australopithecines Violent?  Should Humans Not Be?
March 12, 2007
One wonders how a scientist could infer behavior from skeletal dimensions, but David Carrier (U of Utah) believes he can visualize that evolutionary ancestors of humans were good fighters.  A report on EurekAlert begins, “Ape-like human ancestors known as australopiths maintained short legs for 2 million years because a squat physique and stance helped the […]
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Bible and Theology

Nature Recommends Trimming the Bible
March 8, 2007
People act violently when they think God sanctions violence, thinks Brad Bushman, a social psychologist from U. of Michigan.  Heidi Ledford wrote in Nature1 that he and others like Hector Avalos (Iowa State) propose editing Scripture.  “Avalos has proposed a radical solution to theologically inspired violence � cut the violent passages out of the scripture.”  […]
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Education

The Evolution of School Boards
February 27, 2007
A press release from Michigan State University encourages scientists to run for school boards on a pro-evolution platform.  Alarmed that 40% of students are doubting evolution, Jon Miller encourages his fellow evolutionists to get involved in improving “science literacy.”  He sees this as a necessary counter to “other special interest groups, often conservative or religiously […]
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Media

History Highlight: The Two Wilberforces
February 25, 2007
Those seeing the new movie Amazing Grace (opened Feb 2, 2007) about England’s long political battle to end slavery may not realize the family connection of the film’s hero with the controversy over Darwinism. William Wilberforce, the champion of abolition who brought an end to the slave trade as depicted in the film, had a […]
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Bible and Theology

Darwinism and the Valentine’s Day Massacre
February 14, 2007
“Romance, schmomance,” snarls the title of press release on EurekAlert from the Association for Psychological Science.  “Natural selection continues even after sex.”  Not only is natural selection driving the mating process in humans, in other words, but it continues even down to the level of sperm cells competing to reach the egg.  Instead of love, […]
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Bible and Theology

Highlights from Biblical Archaeology News
February 9, 2007
As an intelligent-design science, archaeology continues to interpret the actions of human intelligence from the observation of physical artifacts.  Here are some recent stories bearing on Bible history and archaeology. Battle of the Ages:  Science had a special section on Jerusalem archaeology in the Feb 2 issue.  Andrew Lawler1 critiqued the spectacular claim that the […]
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Media

Haeckel Given Soft Gloves in Nature
February 8, 2007
How should a scientist’s career be evaluated if he was a known fraud?  How also if he promoted views that fanned the flames of racism and genocide?  Here’s what Philip Ball said about Ernst Haeckel in Nature:1 Reckoned to have been instrumental to the introduction of darwinism to Germany, Haeckel has also inspired generations of […]
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Media

Skeptics Society Apology Illustrates Christian Virtue
January 21, 2007
Some evolutionists leaped onto a press release from a group named PEER last December that claimed national park rangers at Grand Canyon were obeying some new policy under pressure from the Bush administration that did not allow them to claim the canyon was millions of years old (see 01/11/2007, bullet 2).  This was supposedly related […]
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Education

Evolutionists Fret Over Persistent Creationism
January 11, 2007
Fretting and fuming over the persistence of creationism (and belief in God, which usually accompanies it), evolutionists are trying to come up with ways to combat it.  This presupposes that they are not listening to the arguments of the creationists. Ambassadors for Darwin:  In an editorial in Science Jan. 12, editor Alan Leshner encouraged scientists […]
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Politics and Ethics

Non-Embryonic Stem Cells Found in Amniotic Fluid
January 9, 2007
A vast source of possibly pluripotent stem cells without ethical problems has been discovered in amniotic fluid by scientists at Wake Forest University.  Ronald Green of Dartmouth is hoping the science pans out, according to National Geographic News.  He said, “We are very much in need of ‘ethically universal’ lines [of stem cells] that anyone […]
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Education

Is Legal Hammerlocking the Way to Win a Scientific Controversy?
January 6, 2007
The cartoon stereotype of a scientist as an unbiased truth-seeking nerd wearing a white lab coat is hard to reconcile with some recent events.  Not that the cartoon stereotype was ever realistic, but the row over Darwinism vs Intelligent Design (ID) shows just how biased and unethical certain people and organizations can behave in support […]
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Bible and Theology

Article:  What Hath Galileo Wrought?
January 4, 2007
For the PhysicsWeb site, philosopher and historian Robert B. Crease (State U of NY at Stony Brook) wrote a “Critical Point” article called “The Book of Nature.”  He discusses Galileo’s contention that there is a Book of Nature separate from the Book of Scripture that can be investigated on its own through the language of […]
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