Hearings will be held today in Jacksonville and early next week in Miramar Florida to determine if the word “evolution” will be integrated into the school science curriculum. Continue reading Florida: The Whole World is Watching →

It is fun, and appropriate, to slam local newspapers that uncritically regurgitate yahooistic creationist rhetoric. But when the local papers display fits of rational thinking, we should praise them. Continue reading Thank you, St. Petersburg Times →

Visitors to the Institute for Creation Research Web page can quickly deduce that the organization, founded in California and recently transplanted to Dallas, is a Christian group dedicated to spreading the doctrine of divine creation of the world and challenging the teaching of evolution as fact in public schools.An advisory committee to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recommends that the group be allowed to confer master’s degrees in science education for teacher candidates. This indefensible action would be the equivalent of allowing an institute of faith-healers to issue advanced medical degrees. …

Read the rest here…Texas Redeems Itself!Thanks, Tex, for the tip!

The Texas Newspaper Star-Telegram has published a series of barely articulate rants regarding evolution (hat tip IIDB). Continue reading Texas Newspaper Favors Creationists →

You already know about the controversy in South Carolina. Now is your opportunity to put in your two cents. Continue reading South Carolina Textbook Controversy →

Two years ago, the S.C. state school board introduced creationist-friendly language into its science standards, mainly on the urging of Republican State Senator Mike Fair. This was part of the Wedge Strategy, and involved including language to “critically analyze” evolutionary theory. They were highly criticised at the time. Continue reading South Carolina Board of Education Considers Creationism →

… and some other stuff. Like sodomy.

The AH Trust intends to spend seven million dollars to build a theme park and studio to “promote the account of the creation recorded in the biblical book of Genesis and to combat what it sees as the malign influence on society of Darwin’s theory of evolution” and to produce Christians films and TV shows. Continue reading More on Euro-Creo Themepark →

St. Bernard Dog

I woke up this morning to see headlines such as the following in my newsreader:Study Casts Doubt on Creationism … and St. Bernard Study Casts Doubt on Creationism….It turns out that the shape of the dog’s head has evolved over time, and that this can only be explained by evolution.The study looked at 47 St Bernard skulls over a 120 year period, and analyzed these in the context of ancient written specifications for the breed.

“We discovered that features stipulated in the breed standard of the St Bernard became more exaggerated over time as breeders selected dogs that had the desired physical attributes,” said Dr Klingenberg.”In effect they have applied selection to move the evolutionary process a considerable way forward, providing a unique opportunity to observe sustained evolutionary change under known selective pressures.”The findings, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences tomorrow (Wednesday), are based on studies of St Bernard skulls donated by Swiss breeders to the Natural History Museum in Berne.[source]

Well, I must say that is very cool, but it is about as intensive and insightful as the average undergraduate thesis that I’ve supervised, and much less impressive than the best, especially the most recent one done by Betsy Burr, which examines selected variation across a sample of several thousand rodents.What is nice about this study is the way it is reported. It is utterly obvious that this study defies the tenets of creationism, as does every single study involving evolutionary biology. I’d love to see this become the standard for science reporting in the future. For example, here is my version, using this new standard, of several other headlines that are sitting in my newsreader from the last 24 yours or so: Continue reading Creationism Doubtful? What a surprise! →

Creationists plan British theme parkThe latest salvo in creationism’s increasingly ferocious battle with evolution is about to be fired in Lancashire. Not in a fiery sermon preached from the pulpit, but in the form of a giant Christian theme park that will champion the book of Genesis and make a multi-media case that God created the world in seven days.The AH Trust, a charity set up last year by a group of businessmen alarmed by the direction in which they see society heading, has identified a number of potential sites in the north west of England to build the £3.5m Christian theme park….The 5,000-capacity park will be the first of its kind in Britain, but not in the world. In Orlando, Florida, hundreds of thousands of visitors make pilgrimages to the Holy Land Experience, where they can see a bloodied Jesus forced to carry his cross by snarling Roman soldiers….

[source]

From the NCSE:

Over two weeks after it was first reported that Christine Comer was forced to resign from her post at the Texas Education Agency, apparently because she forwarded a brief e-mail announcing a lecture on “intelligent design” by Barbara Forrest, the state’s newspapers continue to provide a steady stream of news and commentary. And groups with a stake in the integrity of science education in Texas continue to voice their concern. As the Austin American-Statesman (December 14, 2007) observed in its latest story, “The controversy over Comer’s departure put the agency’s scientific credibility at risk at a time when Texas is trying to attract star researchers and scientists for a growing biomedical and biotech industry, and just before the State Board of Education begins developing new science standards next month.”

Read the entire press release here.