The Discovery Institute has updated its list of supposedly "eminent" scientists who have signed a statement disagreeing with "Darwinism". The list now has over 500 names. One of them is not Robert Davidson, who I wrote about back here: Davidson was a scientist and Christian who felt that he was bamboozled into signing the lilst, especially since he believes in … Read More
Promises, Promises
Bush, 1/14/05: We want to increase the Pell Grants by $100 a year over — $100 per year over the next five years. Bush, 2/2/05: [W]e’ll make it easier for Americans to afford a college education, by increasing the size of Pell Grants. A year later, the president has completely backed away from his promises. The President’s FY ‘07 budget … Read More
“Intelligent” Design Loses Again
This time in Ohio: The Ohio Board of Education voted 11 to 4 Tuesday to toss out a mandate that 10th-grade biology classes include critical analysis of evolution and an accompanying model lesson plan, dealing the intelligent design movement its second serious defeat in two months. The board, which became the first in the nation to single out evolution for … Read More
New GOP Majority Leader No Fan Of Evolution
As reported here, John Boehner, the new Republican leader of the House, teamed up with another Ohio Republican (Steve Chabot) to push an attack on evolution. In a 2002 letter (PDF format), Boehner writes: "Public school students are entitled to learn that there are differing scientific views on issues such as biological evolution." Yet another Republican who doesn’t understand the … Read More
Vatican Gets It Right
That’s it. Sign me up for the Catholic Church. ROME, Jan. 18 – The official Vatican newspaper published an article this week labeling as "correct" the recent decision by a judge in Pennsylvania that intelligent design should not be taught as a scientific alternative to evolution. "If the model proposed by Darwin is not considered sufficient, one should search for … Read More
The Latest in The Intelligent Design Wars
The pig just got a new coat of lipstick. Having suffered a legal and political setback in Dover, Pa., the intelligent design battle shifts to Calilfornia. It appears that the The El Tejon Unified School District has approved a new class: An initial course description, which was distributed to students and their families last month, said "the class will take … Read More
John Avarosis Is Thinking Today
You can read his post here, or my summary below. John points out that proponents of intelligent design argue that, even if ID is flawed, schools should "teach the controversy". And to do that, they argue, schools need to inform students as to what intelligent design actually is. "Give the students all the arguments for Darwinism and intelligent design, and … Read More
Breaking News: From The War On Evolution Front Lines
CNN and MSNBC have "breaking news" that the federal judge in the Dover, PA "intelligent design" case has issued an opinion. Details are coming, but it appears to be a victory: "intelligent design" cannot be taught in Pennsylvania schools. Frankly, I’m not celebrating. I’m still too embarassed as an American that this is even an issue. UPDATE: MSNBC has the … Read More
Ugly Fundies
The University of Kansas professor who was planning to offer a course entitled "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies", withdrew the course after getting beaten up by two religious fundamentalists. He also quit his post as chairman of the University of Kansas religious department. Except he didn’t quit. He was forced to resign. This is … Read More
Red State News In Brief
Tennessee: Ex-preacher forces his wife into prostitution so they can have Christmas money. Arkansas: Baptist minister’s wife, a schoolteacher, tells the black children in her class that they are descended from the devil. But she’s not racist, she says. But all kidding aside, this is one of the saddest news stories I’ve ever read.
Report From Dover, PA
The non-online New Yorker had a good article about the machinations of the Dover, Pennsylvania school board who wanted to insert a religious-based curriculum into the public schools, including the teaching of intelligent design. Fortunately, the American Taliban on the school board were voted out of office, and the curriculum nonsense was put to an end. But the New Yorker … Read More
University of Kansas Course Cancelled
Back here, I wrote that a religion professor at the University of Kansas (the state where the intelligent design debate is taking place) was planning to offer a course entitled "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies.” According to this article, the professor decided to cancel the course yesterday. Oh, and somethng else happened yesterday, too: … Read More
Everything’s Out Of Whack In Kansas City
…but they haven’t gone as fer as they can go. A group of concerned parents in the Blue Valley School District want to ban certain books from the high schooler English curriculum. The petition objects to the "quality of the books", although as far as I can tell, literary "quality" is measured largely by the number of polite words (the … Read More
University of Kansas To Offer Course on Intelligent Design
I guess the University of Kansas has had enough of local school board in Kansas trying to wedge creationism into the public school curriculum: LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) – Creationism and intelligent design are going to be studied at the University of Kansas, but not in the way advocated by opponents of the theory of evolution. A course being offered next … Read More
God To Dover, PA: “You’re On Your Own”
As I discussed here, the town of Dover, PA sent a strong message to members of their local school board who wanted to stick intelligent design into the public school science curriculum. And that message was "You are no longer on the local school board." Yup, all eight pro-I.D. board members were voted out of office. Well God, it seems, … Read More