Religion & Law

Theism and Evolution

Posted on November 16, 2008
Elliot Sober hasn't just written the book, Evidence and Evolution, that I have been humping over the past few months, on the subject of Intelligent Design Creationism. He also has a number of scholarly articles on the subject available on the web here...

Metaphysics of Biology

Posted on November 15, 2008
.A thought:The usual line of argument endorsed by most critics of ID and other forms of creationism is that science in general, and evolutionary biology in particular, makes no commitment to metaphysical naturalism. Metaphysical naturalism is typically construed as [Michael] Ruse describes it: as an ontological thesis, stated with a priori certainty, about the absolute non-existence of entities other than those posited by our current scientific theories...

Fit To a Tee

Posted on November 15, 2008
Debating creationists on the topic of evolution is rather like trying to play chess with a pigeon ? it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory.Troy Britain of Playing Chess With Pigeons is selling t-shirts with, of course, a message...

To Save a Mockingbird

Posted on November 14, 2008
The finches of the Galapagos are much more famous, even being given the general appellation "Darwin's finches," but the mockingbirds were more important. It was the mockingbirds that first started Darwin thinking that species might not be stable:When he arrived on San Cristobal Island (then known as Chatham), he immediately saw that the mockingbirds were similar to ones he had collected in South America...

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Help Bailout Texas

Posted on November 14, 2008
The NCSE has an article up about the upcoming border skirmish in Texas between the inhabitants of Reality and the natives of Fantasyland. Once again, a few Texas Rangers are needed to fight off those who would ignore the law and try to steal the most precious possession of children, a good education:NCSE encourages anyone who is ready, willing, and able to testify in defense of the proper treatment of evolution and the nature of science to register to testify...

Heavenly Visions

Posted on November 13, 2008
Greg Laden, at his fiendishly cleverly named blog, Greg Laden's Blog, is speculating on an increase in pareidolia events now that the European Union is changing its rules about selling "ugly" produce.You know what pareidolia is ... when the image of Mother Teresa shows up in a cinnamon bun ...

A Tale to Pinto a Donkey

Posted on November 12, 2008
I suppose I should preface this with the statement that I really admired Stephen Jay Gould's take on science and his writing. Also, The Panda's Thumb is one of my favorite blogs. But the fact is that Gould's use of the panda's thumb as an argument in favor of science and against creationism was deeply flawed...

Digging the Truth

Posted on November 11, 2008
The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology has issued a statement about the grossly misnomered "Louisiana Science Education Act," urging the citizens and legislators of Louisiana to repeal it:The Act was drafted under the guise of ?academic freedom? and appeals to cherished values of fairness and free speech...

Controlling Helplessness

Posted on November 10, 2008
A new study by Northwestern University researchers has found that superstitions may arise as a reaction to the feeling of a lack of control which, in turn, causes persons hunt for patterns and meaning from the random events in our everyday lives.The Chicago group found that making experimental subjects remember a time when they lacked control actually changed the way they viewed the world, and created a temporary need to see patterns where none existed...

Fallout

Posted on November 09, 2008
Here is a hopeful sign, found in The Baltimore Sun:Diane Butler, who finished fourth in the contest for three seats [on the county school board], said campaign literature distributed by third-place finisher Allen Dyer was taken out of context and distributed without her permission...

Ignorance is Strength

Posted on November 08, 2008
Oh, look! Casey Luskin, the Gofer General of the Discovery Institute's anti-science division, has a new title! Now he is "an education policy analyst"! Funny, I knew that Luskin has a law degree and a Masters in "Earth Science," but I can't find where he has any training in education...

Another Vote for a Quality Candidate

Posted on November 08, 2008
Brian Switek of Laelaps, as well as Smithsonian magazine's new blog, Dinosaur Traking, is one of the 20 finalists in the 2008 Blogging Scholarships and has a shot at winning $10,000.Brian's work at Laelaps is some of the best writing on the history of science you'll find in the blogosphere, such as his recent post on the rise of anti-evolutionism resulting from the post-World War I revelation by biologist Vernon L...

Coming to a Consensus on Crichton

Posted on November 08, 2008
By now you've probably heard of the death of Michael Crichton. You've probably also heard some grandiose talk about his "significance" as an author and purveyor of science to the masses. Normally, I would not try to rain on that parade. Most everyone, upon death, deserves a paean or two from admirers and judicious silence, for a while at least, from critics...

Creative Teachers

Posted on November 07, 2008
Britain's Teacher TV, a website and TV station for teachers, emailed a survey to 10,600 education professionals, of which 1,210 responded. Out of that figure, 248 science teachers responded. Disturbingly, out of the science teachers, 18%:... said they thought creationism or intelligent design should be given the same status as evolution in the classroom, although this question did not specify whether it was referring to science lessons or the curriculum in general...

A New Voldemort?

Posted on November 06, 2008
Having polished off God, has Richard Dawkins decided to go after a much tougher opponent?I would like to know whether there's any evidence that bringing children up to believe in spells and wizards and magic wands and things turning into other things ? it is unscientific, I think it's antiscientific...

Return of the Jedi

Posted on November 05, 2008
.Darth Vader overcomes the Dark Side at the end..

Lower Education

Posted on November 05, 2008
Oh, wait! Republicans do want to fund education!As the US election campaign wound up, Republicans apparently made a last-minute bid to get an Oxford academic to help scupper Barack Obama's chances. Peter Millican, a philosophy don, was contacted about using software he had devised to "prove" that Obama's autobiography had been ghostwritten by a former terrorist...

Mr. President

Posted on November 04, 2008
..

Now Is the Time

Posted on November 03, 2008
Because if you don't, you can be sure people like this will:Remember freedom of speech? Remember when it was okay to speak about your beliefs to other believers and share those beliefs in discussion (public or private) because your freedom to speak about whatever was guaranteed...

Cultural Counterrevolutionary

Posted on November 02, 2008
An enemy of the people has been identified and forced to confess his counterrevolutionary activities!A former Republican Secretary of State and one of John McCain's most prominent supporters offered a stunningly frank and remarkably bleak assessment of Sarah Palin's capacity to handle the presidency should such a scenario arise [in a National Public Radio interview]...

First Annual Ferric Patella Award1

Posted on November 01, 2008
John Freshwater is (but, hopefully, not for long) a middle-school science teacher in Mount Vernon, Ohio, who I've written about before. He is in the process of being fired by the school board for, among other things2, teaching creationism/Intelligent Design in his classes...

Another Elitist Identified!

Posted on November 01, 2008
Here is Cynthia Tucker of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, discussing if Sarah Palin is the "future" of the Republican Party or Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal might be:Jindal's credentials make him sound like the obvious savior for a party desperately in need of a image transplant...

Life, the Universe, and Everything

Posted on October 31, 2008
It seems that Douglas Adams was wrong. The answer appear to be "10."

Figuring Figurers

Posted on October 31, 2008
Razib Khan of Gene Expression has a short piece up at the Guardian about the errors of those who use statistics while wearing glasses of their favorite tint. While he notes that predictions that Europe will soon be dominated by Muslims are wrong, he focuses on those who predict it will soon be atheistic: Conservative commentator Mark Steyn declares that Europe will soon be dominated by Muslims...

Science, History and Politics

Posted on October 30, 2008
Peter McKnight of the Vancouver Sun has a multi-part series, that can be accessed here, about religion and science that looks pretty good so far:Part I: Coupling of science and religion;Part II: Religion in disguise;Part III: Hitting a brick wall; andPart IV: The tension between science and religion...

Natural Method

Posted on October 29, 2008
I've already linked to Dr. Steven Novella's two part response to what appears to be a shift in emphasis, at least, in the Intelligent Design Movement's war against science. As Larry Moran says:As a general anti-science strategy, it's easy to see why the mind-body problem is resurfacing...

Slapstick Education

Posted on October 28, 2008
David Bradley is a clown.However, Bradley, the current vice-chairman of the Texas State Board of Education, is a bigoted and dangerous clown:"Do you know what the Democrat for State Board of Education supports?" reads the handout, which was disseminated at a recent gathering of the Golden Triangle Republican Women and trumpeted earlier this year at a Republican senatorial convention...

Lonesome Hawk

Posted on October 27, 2008
Would someone fire up Bobby Vinton's "Mr. Lonely" on the victrola?The Harvard Crimson has a piece about the perceived, by some, under-representation of conservatives on the faculty. One of them is government Professor Harvey C. Mansfield, who: ... explained the presidential race in terms of his book "Manliness," which mourns the lack of manliness in a "gender neutral" society...

Nearer, My God, to Thee

Posted on October 26, 2008
Heh!Maybe John McCain is learning what most of the rest of us already suspect about Sarah Palin.According to CNN, Sarah's not about to play "good soldier" in a campaign that's looking more and more like the political version of the Titanic.Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin "going rogue...

Bad Elitist! Bad!

Posted on October 26, 2008
Doonesbury..

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