Tag Archives: Creation Science

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.”

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.


Huh.

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, has a major blog post addressing the current maneno in Louisiana. A Parish school board there wants to place creationism on equal or higher footing than evolution. Read Barbara’s piece here.

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:

Continue reading Religion has a major conflict with science, but does this conflict also exist within the sciences?

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.

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.

Continue reading HuffPo Religion and Science: the stupidest thing I’ve read on the internet all morning

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