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Dumb Ideas

Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week:  Astrobiology Takes on I.D.
April 26, 2006
The Center for Astrobiology at the University of Boulder is hosting a symposium today entitled, “Fossils and Genes: Exploring the Evolution of Life.”  Douglas Futuyma (State University of New York) calls Evolution the “most important theory in biology.”  By his own admission, though, it is a theory filled with paradoxes: Evolution is both a fact […]
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Education

The Politics of Darwinism: Dictate, Slander, Block
April 21, 2006
In a state of panic over the rise of intelligent design and creationism, most scientific societies supporting Darwinism are doing what their opponents feel is doomed to fail: avoiding, at all costs, a fair and intellectual debate about the evidence.  Instead, many pro-Darwin forces issue prepared statements, misrepresent their opponents, and use legal maneuvering to […]
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Dumb Ideas

Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week:  Scientists, Learn Darwinism on TV
April 18, 2006
In Current Biology, Kenneth E. Sawin of Wellcome Trust Center for Cell Biology at Edinburgh University was interviewed about his career.  One of the questions was, “What are the big ideas for you now?”  Here is part of his answer: Another thing that I think about, which may be more ethereal, is that cell biologists […]
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Intelligent Design

How Dry I.D.
March 27, 2006
Greg Schirf of Wasatch Brewery is riding the wave of publicity over the intelligent design controversy in Utah.  He came out with a new “intelligently designed” beer: Evolution Amber Ale.  The press release expresses his alarm over the alleged erosion of separation of church and state, but how serious (or sober) he was may be […]
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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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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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Intelligent Design

Darwin Dissed in His Own Homeland
January 26, 2006
One would think Brits would cherish their guru Darwin, but he didn’t come out all that well in a poll, reports BBC News.  More than half the population doesn’t believe in the theory of evolution, results showed, and 39% said either creation or intelligent design best explains their view on the origin and development of […]
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Amazing Facts

Why Your Brain Has Gray Matter, and Why You Should Use It
January 13, 2006
Vertebrate brains have an outer layer of “gray matter” over the inner “white matter.”  Why is this?  “By borrowing mathematical tools from theoretical physics,” a press release from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory announced, two researchers found out. Based on no fewer than 62 mathematical equations and expressions, the theory provides a possible explanation for the […]
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Dumb Ideas

Darwin Hits Home: Adultery Rationalized
January 8, 2006
USA Today began an article with a steamy picture of a man and a woman embracing.  As could be expected, they are not married; reporter Sharon Jayson began, “Some men cheat on their partners.  So do some women.  Now researchers say it is more than a wandering eye that might cause a woman to stray.”  […]
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Education

A Foxhole Anthology: News from the CrEv Trenches
December 30, 2005
If Judge Jones or the NCSE thought for a minute that the Dover ruling would bring an end to the ID wars, the news media should clear up any miscalculations.  Here is a clearinghouse of recent headlines: Peruse Pyrrhus:  “Pyrrhic victory” is a phrase used by John West, Pat Buchanan on Real Clear Politics and […]
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