Darwinism and Evolution

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Evolutionary Science Reporting Battles Creationists

October 24, 2007

If creationism is so discredited as to not warrant any further discussion, some science writers are sure going out of their way to refute it. Some recent examples: Eye of the Hydra: Little sea creatures known as hydrae have light-sensitive molecules called opsins, reported Science Daily. Scientists think the opsin proteins, which exist all over […]

Dumb Ideas

The Simpsons Producer Treats Evolution as Fact

July 26, 2007

The TV cartoon The Simpsons was praised for its “greatness” in, of all places, the premiere scientific journal Nature.1 Michael Hopkin interviewed “Executive producer Al Jean, the show’s head writer and a Harvard mathematics graduate.” One of the questions was, “One episode in which the show does take sides is the one in which Lisa […]

Bible and Theology

Stupid Evolution Quote Prizes

April 27, 2007

The Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week goes to Mark Gladwin (04/25/2007) who said something the gentler sex will probably wince at: “Study the pregnant women, because that’s where you’ll see evolution in action.” No offense intended, we hope. A runner-up goes to Deborah Charlesworth, who in Current Biology April 17 named Darwin as a […]

Uncategorized

Darwinian Assumptions Questioned

March 31, 2007

Sometimes common knowledge is not knowledge at all. We sometimes are surprised to find out that things we had always heard turn out not to be true: for instance, the claim that Humphrey Bogart said “Play it again, Sam” in Casablanca, that humans only use 10% of their brains, that carbon-14 dates things millions of […]

Fossils

Life Out of Place, Life Out of Time

December 13, 2006

Evolutionists have a standard timeline based on Darwin’s “tree of life” that indicates when complex life forms should have appeared. What happens when the wrong animal shows up in the wrong place or time? The theory is never falsified; it is just accommodated to the new data, as simply as rearranging branches on a Christmas […]

Education

Evolution Back on Federal Funding List

September 1, 2006

Boy, that was a close call. Evolution research almost got dropped from federal funding. Turns out it was an accidental oversight. Science Daily reported that the oversight “sparked heated protests from academics and evolution supporters” who “expressed fears that the omission might have been part of an attack on Darwinian evolution by religious groups.” […]

Bible and Theology

Creation-Evolution Controversy in the News

December 16, 2005

Darwin, Genesis, Paul Mirecki, disclaimer stickers, Kansas and intelligent design continue to be searchable keywords in news reporting about science education. Mirecki’s got a fight on his hands: The embattled U of Kansas prof who was going to ridicule intelligent design (ID) in a religion class till his inflammatory email surfaced (11/29/2005), and who later […]

Bible and Theology

The Rhetoric of Mockery

November 21, 2005

Some recent stories illustrate that human rhetoric has evolved from sophistry to philosophy – then back again. (In ancient Greece, sophistry was criticized of being nothing more than the art of making your opponent look foolish. Socrates, among others, questioned the value of such exercises and tried to elevate rhetoric to higher purposes.) The rise […]

Dumb Ideas

A Just-So Story Digest

November 5, 2005

For your weekend reading entertainment, here is a collection of recent science stories that rely more on imagination than evidence, in the tradition of Kipling’s Just-So Stories for children. How the Brown Dwarf Sowed Planet Seeds: Apai et al. in Science found magic crystals, hidden by the six brown dwarfs, that turn into planets over […]

Education

Dover Darwin Defenders Provide After-Game Impressions

November 3, 2005

Like a TV commentator with the MVPs in the locker room after a big game, Geoff Brumfiel in Nature1 interviewed two pro-evolution witnesses who testified in the Dover trial. Brumfiel asked Ken Miller and Kevin Padian what it was like, what they had to do to get ready, how the lawyers treated them, and what […]

Education

Educator Suggests Inoculation Technique Against Creationism

November 1, 2005

Give them some ID, then swamp it with counter-arguments. That’s the new method of “educational intervention” that Stephen Verhey of Central Washington University has found most effective in overcoming college student objections to evolution, reported EurekAlert. Verhey tested 103 students with prior exposure to creationism. He assigned the book Icons of Evolution by Jonathan Wells, […]

Education

Intelligent Design War Rages

October 24, 2005

Because of the high-profile Intelligent Design trial in Dover, Pennsylvania, the news media and scientific societies are all discussing Darwin vs Design with fervor. Surprise, Surprise: AP reports that the Dover school board did not expect the uproar when it drafted its policy allowing alternatives to Darwinism to be heard; see LiveScience.com. MSNBC News also […]

Education

Darwin on Offense I: Museums

October 17, 2005

What’s the solution to decreasing belief in evolution? More evolution. That’s the message of an article by Lisa Anderson from the Chicago Tribune published online by Yahoo News, “Museums take up evolution challenge.” Natural history museums around the country are mounting new exhibits they hope will succeed where high school biology classes have faltered: convincing […]

Education

Darwin on Offense II: Strategy Sessions

October 17, 2005

The Geological Society of America, normally concerned with technical details of rocks and how many millions or billions of years old they are, devoted two “expansive sessions” at its annual meeting Oct 16-17, with 24 separate presentations dealing with strategies to oppose intelligent design (ID). Their press release portrays ID advocates as “trained attackers,” using […]

Bible and Theology

Creation-Evolution Contest in Grand Canyon: New York Times Prints Eyewitness Report

October 6, 2005

New York Times reporter Jodi Wilgoren explored “parallel universes” along the Colorado River this summer (here for multimedia version). She rode a raft with a creationist group led by Tom Vail for several days, then rode with another party led by evolutionist Eugenie Scott. Her experiences with these two groups illustrated the stark contrast between […]

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