Politics and Ethics – Page 93

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Does Ethics Emerge From Genes Alone?

April 21, 2004

Gene Robinson wants to get us “beyond nature and nurture” in discussions of behavior. Robinson, of the Department of Entomology and Neuroscience at the University of Illinois in Urbana, wrote an essay in the April 16 issue of Science1 that suggests it is not “either-or” but “both-and” – both genetics and the environment affect the […]

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 […]

Politics and Ethics

Scientific Elitism Trumps Democracy

March 12, 2004

They don’t want it, but they’re going to get it. Britons have expressed outrage and anger over genetically-modified foods, such as pesticide-resistant maize, reports Jim Giles in Nature.1 But the government has listened to scientists who have assured government ministers it is safe. On March 9, they approved commercial planting of GM maize “in the […]

Politics and Ethics

Science Journal Editors Face Accountability

March 4, 2004

This quote by a journal editor comes from a news item in the Mar. 4 issue of Nature:1 “Like everybody else, we are much more interested in other people’s accountability than we are in our own,” explains Richard Smith, editor of the British Medical Journal (BMJ), who helped to draft the new code. “Editors are […]

Bible and Theology

How Darwinians Approach the Golden Rule

February 22, 2004

Is nothing sacred? Gretchen Vogel has written a piece on “The Evolution of the Golden Rule” in the Feb. 20 issue of Science.1 Jesus Christ and most religious teachers have taught the Golden Rule as a moral principle and a sacred duty, but to Darwinians, it must have evolved like everything else. Yet […]

Bible and Theology

Was the Nobel Denied to a Creationist?

February 9, 2004

Rick Weiss, writing in Smithsonian Magazine (Dec. 2003), analyzes Raymond Damadian’s “prize fight” over the 2003 Nobel for Physiology and Medicine (see 11/10/2003 and 10/10/2003 entries). He suggests the possibility that one of the main reasons was Damadian’s views on creation. A Nobel spokesman denies it, but Weiss wonders: But it is difficult not to […]

Early Man

Evolutionists Publish Racist Book

February 6, 2004

“Disturbing” is how Robert N. Proctor (Penn State) describes a new book by two prominent evolutionists in the Feb. 5 issue of Nature.1 The book is Race: The Reality of Human Differences by Vincent Sarich and Frank Miele (Westview, 2004), and Proctor has a lot of politically correct diatribe to heap on it, though reluctantly: […]

Darwin and Evolution

Why Darwin Is Like Yoda, and Darwinism Like Marxism

February 4, 2004

Homage for the master is palpable in John Vandermeer’s review (Science, Jan. 23)1 of a thick new book entitled Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution by Odling-Smee, Laland and Feldman (Princeton, 2004). Vandermeer seems almost worshipful in his opening lines: The nascent germ of many novel ideas in biology can be traced directly or […]

Education

Legality Argument

February 3, 2004

The Discovery Institute has posted remarks by David DeWolf, a law professor, to the Darby, Montana School District. He addresses concerns that have been raised about the legality and constitutionality of a proposed change to their science policy that would permit “teaching the controversy” about origins in the science classroom. Has it come to this, […]

Education

Minnesota Debates Darwin Teaching

January 22, 2004

Minnesota is next in line in the Darwin wars. This science framework writing committee has taken the unusual step of submitting two drafts to the legislature, a majority report with the usual Darwin-only rule, and a minority with two improvements, according to Seth Cooper of the Discovery Institute: The first benchmark improvement proposed by the […]

Politics and Ethics

Damadian Gets Consolation Prize

December 11, 2003

Calling Raymond Damadian a “Nobel protestor,” Nature Science Update reported that, as predicted, he did not get the Nobel Prize at Wednesday’s ceremony in Stockholm. The Nobel Committee does not change their decisions. “But Damadian will not end today empty-handed,” Helen Pearson for NSU reports. “A Swedish inventors’ group called Id�-Forum, based in �rnsk�ldsvik, is […]

Politics and Ethics

Editorial: The Cult of the Prize

December 3, 2003

In a letter to the editor in the Dec. 4 issue of Nature1, historian Robert Marc Friedman (U. of Oslo) asks, “Is science losing out in the race for recognition?” The race for honors, he feels, is diminishing science: Raymond Damadian’s public dispute (see “Physician launches public protest over medical Nobel” Nature 425, 648; 2003) […]

Education

Judge Rules ID Unconstitutional

December 20, 2002

Judge John E. Jones III gave his ruling on the Dover school board case in favor of the plaintiffs, as expected. His wording against the board was strident, even accusing them of lying about their religious motives for including intelligent design (ID) as an alternative to evolution. He spoke of the “breathtaking inanity” of the […]

Cell Biology

Stem Cell Breakthrough

November 20, 2002

Stem cells from skin cells: it’s all over the news – see EurekAlert 1, EurekAlert 2, EurekAlert 3, EurekAlert 4, National Geographic News, BreitBart.com, BBC News 1, BBC News 2, MSNBC and and PhysOrg for sample reports. Two teams working independently, one in Japan and one in America, were able to tinker with just four […]

Bible and Theology

Biblical History News

August 20, 2002

Little by little, the archaeologist’s spade helps shed light on Biblical history – that is, when not hindered by wars and conflicts. Biblical Archaeology Society published some interesting news on its website and in the Sept-Oct issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. Royal portrait: The magazine contains a report by renowned Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay of […]

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