… can be found here, in this talk by William Phillips speaking at the AAAS:
Tag Archives: Intelligent Design
Teabagger Ron Micheli and the Wyoming Governor’s Race
Wyoming, which is a pretty stupid state sometimes, although you don’t hear about it too often because almost no one lives there, has a candidate for governor who
- … wants teachers to be required to teach creationism. “I think it is as valuable a theory as any other theory.”
- … is opposed to abortion even in the context of rape.
- … in what the Casper Star-Tribune called “A momumental display of bad judgement” he advocated for leniency for his friend Ty in a rape case. Ry is now serving 60 years in the pen for raping a Casper woman in her home.
Continue reading Teabagger Ron Micheli and the Wyoming Governor’s Race
Creationist College Prof Will Not Return to Classroom
An adjunct community college professor had a bit of a problem when it came time to teach evolution, according to certain sources:
Student Bryan Jaden Walker wrote on his blog, … that the professor “glossed over the scientific explanation very quickly (less than 20 seconds), then explained Creationism for about five minutes (5,000-year-old Earth, no evolution, etc).”
…
“Evolution was not taught at all in his class,” Weis said. “When he hit that unit, instead of discussing it himself he had a single slide that had both creationism and evolution. When I spoke up and asked him about it, he claimed there was no evidence for either, but they are just different world views.”
Continue reading Creationist College Prof Will Not Return to Classroom
Livingston Parish Saved from Creationists
For now. This just in from the National Center for Science Education:
Creationism won’t be taught in the public schools of Livingston Parish, Louisiana — at least not yet. The Baton Rouge Advocate (August 1, 2010) reports that “The Livingston Parish School Board won’t try to include the teaching of creationism in this year’s curriculum, but has asked the School Board staff to look at the issue for possible future action.” At a July meeting, inspired by the Louisiana Science Education Act, the board formed a committee to explore the possibilities of incorporating creationism in the parish’s science classes. The committee is not expected to report its findings in time for the board to take any action for the 2010-2011 school year; the board’s president Keith Martin explained, “We have decided not to try to hurry up and rush something in for this year.”
Marjorie Esman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, told the Advocate that the decision to teach creationism would be not only doomed to failure but expensive. “If they were to do it, they could anticipate that any litigation would result in them not only losing, but having to pay enormous legal fees,” she said. “They would be wasting a huge amount of taxpayer money on a battle they can’t win.” The board’s attorney confirmed that it would be unconstitutional for the schools to teach creationism. Meanwhile, board member David Tate, who broached the possibility of teaching creationism at the previous board meeting, commented, “We don’t want litigation, but why not take a stand for Jesus and risk litigation.”
Darwin’s Universe: Evolution from A to Z (a free excerpt)
… from the National Center for Science Education.
Click the picture to get the PDF of Darwin’s Universe: Evolution from A to Z
.
Own The Poll UPDATED (Or, more proof that Christian = Liar)
This one is very much worth the effort. Stop here first for some instructions on strategy, then go here to do this thing.
UPDATED!!!!!
Holy crap! The Kent Hovind poll started out looking like this:
What do you believe about evolution?
It’s a religion.
* It’s a fact!
* It’s a reasonable scientific theory.
Then it changed to:
What do you believe about CREATION?
It’s a religion.
* It’s a fact!
* It’s a reasonable scientific theory.
Livingston, LA School Board To Implement Discovery Institute’s “Academic Freedom” Law
Barbara Forrest, author of Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design
Louisiana Parish will Legally Require Creationism in Public Schools, May Ban Evolution
Unless they are stopped which, frankly, does not seem very likely.
Continue reading Louisiana Parish will Legally Require Creationism in Public Schools, May Ban Evolution
Religion has a major conflict with science, but does this conflict also exist within the sciences?
…. because your proof of your god is falsified by science. But that is not a problem that science has. It is a problem that you have. It is also not a problem that the Secular Public School System in the US has. Unless you make it so.
This explored in a recent iNewp piece:
Minnesota Citizens for Science Education has a New Home!!!
And we need your help to move it. Please click here so the global network of DNS servers knows that you want to visit the MnCSE. You should really visit the site anyway, it’s very cool, even if you are not a Minnesota. I love the graphic thingie on the top of the right sidebar …. click the picture to learn an interesting thing about evolution or related topics.
So? What are you waiting for? Click here!
And, if yo are a parent, teacher, student, or academic interested in excellent science education in Minnesota, bookmark the site and come back often.
Thank you very much, that is all.
God, Darwin … or Both?
Speaking of Accommodationism and New Atheism and stuff, check out this 10 year old discussion:
Continue reading God, Darwin … or Both?
Dumb Canadians Get to Maintain Dumb Standards for their Dumb Kids
And we’re talking about bigots and creationists in Alberta, which I figure is more or less the Canadian equivalent of Texas …. the dumbest province in the Great White North.
Continue reading Dumb Canadians Get to Maintain Dumb Standards for their Dumb Kids
Are creationists dumb or not?
This topic came up a couple of times during SkepchiCON. I’ll be blogging about that later. But for now, I thought you might find this interesting.
HuffPo Religion and Science: the stupidest thing I’ve read on the internet all morning
Although I quickly add that I’ve not been reading much on the Internet this morning, but stilll ….. There is this item in HuffPo … Jesus and the Evolution of the Species by Stanley Knick, PhD:
This is not about whether you believe in God, or whether you believe in evolution. It is not about whether you believe that Jesus is the Son of God. If you believe in God, fine. If not, fine. If you believe evolution is real, fine. If not, fine. This is not about what you believe, or what I believe. It is about the idea of Jesus, and the idea of evolution, and what these two ideas might have to say about each other and about us.
US 5th District Court Slaps Evolution and Reason Upside the Head
Apparently, it is OK for a government agency to insist that its employees consider religious explanations for natural phenomenon as equal to scientific ones in the context of science education.
In a decision issued on July 2, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision that the Texas Education Agency’s policy requiring “neutrality” of its employees when “talking about evolution and creationism” is not unconstitutional.
This idiotic decision is contrary to a lot of other case law and won’t stand. But we will have to fight over this one.
Elections matter. Because elections determine who gets to be judge.
Details here at NCSE