Category Archive

I was going to do a good news/bad news post, but Tristero at Hullabaloo beat me.  What follows is (mostly) his: Win Some, Lose Some Good news: All eight members up for re-election to the [Dover] Pennsylvania school board that had been sued for introducing the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in biology class were swept … Read More

Too busy to blog, but I’ll blogwhore a great post from The Abstract Factory entitled "The only debate on Intelligent Design that is worthy of its  subject": Moderator: We’re here today to debate the hot new topic, evolution versus Intelligent Des— (Scientist pulls out baseball bat.) Moderator: Hey, what are you doing? (Scientist breaks Intelligent Design advocate’s kneecap.) Intelligent Design … Read More

I love this opening paragraph from the New York Times story about the "Intelligent Design" case in Dover, PA: A leading architect of the intelligent-design movement defended his ideas in a federal courtroom on Tuesday and acknowledged that under his definition of a scientific theory, astrology would fit as neatly as intelligent design. Yes, professor.  And that’s the problem.  Astrology … Read More

Regrettably, I have not been able to follow the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial as closely as I would have liked.  (The case relates to the teaching of "intelligent design" in Pennsylvania public schools). But I do recommend this rant by Plutonium Page at The Next Hurrah, discussing the ID defense "expert" who doesn’t know the concept of scientific method from … Read More

Interesting testimony in the Dover, Pa case, where legal challenges are being made to the Dover School Board’s decision to promote intelligent design in public education. ID proponents argue, very disingenuously, that intelligent design is NOT creationism dressed up in new clothes.  (More background here). Here’s proof of the bullshit.  An expert reviewed early drafts of "Of Pandas And People", … Read More

That’s the title of the textbook about "intelligent design" — the book that the religious right wants in schools to counterpoint the teaching of evolution. People like me insist that "intelligent design", aside from not being science at all, is merely creationism in new clothes.  ID proponents say that "intelligent design" is a theory entirely different from creationism (because it … Read More

The following is "Lesson Number Five" from the Creation Museum’s webpage for kids: "Hi! My name is Matt and this is my sister Laura. We grew up around the Creation Evidence Museum. Our dinosaur friends name is Muncher. This page will teach you about many of the things we have learned about how God created the world. Join us as … Read More

Intelligent Design in schools comes to the courtroom.  Keep an eye on this case.  The New York Times sets the stage: DOVER, Pa., Sept. 23 – Sheree Hied, a mother of five who believes that God created the earth and its creatures, was grateful when her school board here voted last year to require high school biology classes to hear … Read More

Thank God there’s at least one state that gets it: To borrow a line from Dorothy: We’re not in Kansas anymore. Unlike the Kansas School Board, which earlier this summer approved allowing educators to teach theories in addition to evolution that explain life on Earth, the Utah Board of Education on Friday unanimously approved a position statement supporting the continued … Read More

The Discovery Institute has a list of 400 scientists who doubt the central tenets of Darwin’s theory of evolution (or, at least the Discovery Institute says the scientists doubt evolution).  Here’s the current Discovery Institute list in PDF format. And here’s a profile on one of those scientists, Robert C. Davidson (he’s on page ten of the above list, 4th … Read More

The New York Times has an excellent backgrounder on the Discovery Institute, the right-wing think-tank that has propelled intelligent design to the fore: SEATTLE – When President Bush plunged into the debate over the teaching of evolution this month, saying, "both sides ought to be properly taught," he seemed to be reading from the playbook of the Discovery Institute, the … Read More

Spot on.

Intelligent design proponents, having created a bogus controversy about intelligent degisn vs. evolution, argue that the only fair thing to do — now that there is a "controversy" — is to teach both theories.  Yeah, bullshit: