Education

Here’s an interesting article in the NYTimes regarding science education in Texas. Laura Beil, the author, outlines the long-standing (pre-Dover) attempt by critics of evolutionary theory to teach the theory’s “strengths and weaknesses.” Although mandating that the weaknesses of evolutionary theory be taught falls well short of attempts to mandate the teaching of intelligent design, this too is unacceptable with hardcore evolutionists such as the National Center for Selling Evolution (NCSE). Their strategy to counter it? Treat any attempt to teach weaknesses of evolutionary theory as stealth creationism, therefore as religion, and therefore as unconstitutional. This approach, however, may backfire. The NCSE cannot simply deny that there are any known weaknesses to evolutionary theory, because laundry lists outlining failures of Read More ›

Scientific Consensus? – That Global Warming is Natural – and BENEFICIAL?!
Dr. Arthur Robinson will be announcing Monday that over 31,000 scientists reject’s IPCC’s contention of anthropogenic global warming. They further hold that the natural global warming is beneficial. The site gives an excellent summary of supporting research. This cite and its history are instructive on the methods to overturn the ruling paradigm and media mentality. ——————–

ADVISORY: Dr. Arthur Robinson (OISM) to Release Names of over 30,000 Scientists Rejecting Global Warming Hypothesis

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Alex Harris and Brett Harris are challenging the status quo with: Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations, garnering a Foreward by Chuck Norris, 2008, Multnomah Books ISBN-10: 1601421125. What might the prospects be for a hard cover manifesto challenging teenagers to work hard by two 18 year olds? Astonishingly it reached #5 on Amazon on March 25th.The Harris’ launched TheRebelution.com. It has already received 16 million hits. They just finished a Rebelution conference for youth attended by 2,200 at one stop of a seven stop tour. Read More ›

At the Beyond Expelled worldview conference, Nancy Pearcey explored the impact of evolution vs ID. She describes skeptic Michael Shermer’s conversion to evolution & Scarlett Johansson’s acting on belief in evolution.
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The intelligent design of life

Nancy Pearcey tells crowd that Darwinism has evolved into more than just a theory (with VIDEO)
Rachel Kyler, Thursday May 8th, 2008

NICEVILLE — Not religion pitted against science, but philosophy against philosophy.

In a truly liberal education system, that’s how academic Nancy Pearcey says educators would approach intelligent design and the theory of evolution.

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Judge Jones (the former liquor control board director famous for his involvement with Frog Beer) ruled in 2005 that it was unconstitutional for teachers in the Dover school district to question Darwinism. Jones viewed himself as the person who would settle the question of Darwinism for all time an eternity. He even went on the talk show circuit boasting of his brilliant cut-and-paste of ACLU opinions.

Thankfully Jones does not speak for all of the United States, and his cut-and-paste ruling apparently has not been able to stifle the first amendment rights of students in other states.

Casey Luskin reports in Florida House and Louisiana Senate Pass Evolution Academic Freedom Bills.

Academic Freedom bills have now passed both the Florida House of Representatives and the Louisiana State Senate. The bills protect the rights of teachers to teach controversial scientific theories objectively, where scientific criticisms of scientific theories (including evolution) can be raised as well as the scientific strengths. The Darwinists in those states do not like this. First Florida Darwinists called academic freedom “smelly crap.” Then Louisiana Darwinists called academic freedom protections a “creationist attack” that is “Just Dumb.” Most recently Florida Darwinists used the “enlightened British will laugh at us argument” to oppose academic freedom. All I can say is, you heard it here first: “For the Darwinists who oppose the bill, this battle is about falsely appealing to people’s emotions and fears in order to suppress the teaching of scientific information that challenges evolution.”

A star of Expelled, biologist Caroline Crocker, will be making an appearance at:

McLean Bible Church
8925 Leesburg Pike
Vienna, Virginia
12:30 PM
Sunday, April 27, 2008

I hope to meet some of you at Dr. Crocker’s talk!

Caroline Crocker is the Executive Director of the IDEA Center, an organization devoted to supporting pro-ID students and faculty at universities, high schools, and various other locations.

In 1999, there was only one IDEA club. By 2006, there were 30 IDEA clubs throughout the world and a central headquarters in San Diego known as the IDEA Center.

With the appointment of Caroline Crocker as Executive Director in 2008 and her appearance in the movie Expelled, the IDEA Center is now poised to recognize as many as 1000 IDEA clubs!!!
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[Note: This article is an excerpt of what was originally published on Evolution News and Views as a 3-part series, linked as follows: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.  For the full article, see http://www.discovery.org/a/4689.] Scientific American has a long history of opposing intelligent design (ID), so it comes as no surprise that they have tasked their columnist Michael Shermer with the job of attacking Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Michael Shermer is the founder of Skeptic Magazine, who loves to boast about how evolution liberated him from belief in God. In fact, he does just that in his article attacking Expelled, opening it by saying: “In 1974 I matriculated at Pepperdine University as a born-again Christian who rejected Darwinism and Read More ›

Today’s front page story (above the fold) in the Waco Tribune refers to the recent rash of tenure denials at Baylor as a “massacre.” For today’s story and other press on it, go to the following links: * “Faculty ‘Massacre’” story in Waco Trib [4.3.08] * Chronicle of Higher Education [4.2.08] * Denyse O’Leary’s Analysis at UncommonDescent [3.31.08] * World Magazine Confirms BP Story [3.28.08] * Baylor Lariat Editorial [3.28.08] * Baptist Press Interprets Tenure Denials [3.25.08] * Waco Trib Breaks Story [3.24.08] * Baylor Tenure Stats for 2008, 2007, and 2006 (see below) With regard to today’s front page story, two small points deserve exposure. First, from the story: Baylor spokeswoman Lori Fogleman … wouldn’t discuss whether a form Read More ›

Rich Akin, CPA and CEO of Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Integrity (PSSI), has reported to its membership the completion of a successful five-city educational event, titled What Darwin Didn’t Know, in Spain this past January.

A week prior to the first event the national newspaper El País published a full page article that portrayed these presentations as the Americans bringing creationism to Spain. While riddled with distortions and inaccuracies, the article listed a link to the on-line registration site. The article also carried the times and locations of each event and even placed next to the article the poster prepared to advertise the events, likely increasing attendance.

This article acted like an alarm, awakening and riling up the Darwinists, who immediately began a campaign of intimidation against the locations where the events were scheduled. Read More ›

In my neighborhood in Southern California, a high school student has filed suit against a history professor who openly and consistently disparages Christianity in the classroom. Note that this teacher is “faculty adviser to the Free Thinking Atheist and Agnostic Kinship student club.” Question #1: Why is no discussion of scientific challenges to Darwinism permitted in high schools, when open hostility to Christianity is? Where is the ACLU when you really need them? Question #2: Why are atheists and materialists the only ones who qualify as “skeptics” and “free thinkers”? I used to be an atheist and materialist, but when confronted with the evidence, I became skeptical of atheism and materialism. I became a free thinker.

I’m pleased to announce the IDEA Center’s new Executive Director has just rolled out her own website:

IntellectualHonesty.info

I met with Dr. Crocker recently at a screening of the movie Expelled. She will be featured prominently in the movie!

The Darwinists have framed the ID debate as being about what should and should not be taught in the public school science classroom. I speculate that the debate over the public school classroom is another example of Bulverism.

As I pointed out here, the real issue is whether life is designed. If so, most every other question pales in comparison. And also lost in the Darwinist Bulverism is whether individuals in universities will have the chance to answer the question of design for themselves, and whether these individuals will have the freedom to tell others what they discover.

The whole time I was a part of the GMU IDEA club, our club officially refrained from taking a position on what should or should not be taught in science classes both in the public schools and universities. Not that the issue was unimportant, but the issue was not to be the focus of IDEA at GMU. In fact, I personally have lobbied that for the time being, instead of the science classroom, ID and creation science could be discussed and studied elsewhere. [See: My correspondence with Eugenie Scott on ID in the universities.]
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Could Florida’s Darwinian regulations be “evolving” from “fact” to free inquiry? In More on the vote on evolution and Florida’s new science standards Leslie Postal reports that teaching Evolution in schools is now mandated, but officially as the “scientific theory of” Evolution.

Will students now be able to seriously study evolution as “a scientific theory” – with all the testing, probing, and skepticism required by the scientific method? Or will they be Expelled for exercising their unalienable rights to free speech? – that founded the Declaration of Independence (which heads the US Codes Organic Laws) and are preserved by the First Amendment.
In a Special Report on the American Spectator Ben Stein writes::

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A thoughtful article by a perceptive engineer. A good example of priming the Origins Debate pump. —————————— Let’s open minds, textbooks to intelligent design theories Intricacies of Earth life-forms, microscopes challenge evolution ideas Gordon Rose, Letter, Indianapolis Star Dec. 15, 2007 “In our school systems today, science, with its dramatic and continual advancement in knowledge, has to be one of the most interesting as well as important subjects being taught. Strangely enough, it is here that we are teaching unchallenged, the biggest lie in education — the theory of evolution. Not that the theory shouldn’t be taught — it should, simply because it is believed to be true by so many scientists. But the latest research with modern tools such Read More ›

Friday Five: William A. Dembski by Devon Williams, associate editor, CitizenLink.org ‘Are there patterns in biological systems that would point us to intelligence?’ Leading scientist and mathematician William A. Dembski has devoted years to researching intelligent design. He is a research professor in philosophy at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and has been featured on the front page of The New York Times. He has appeared on numerous radio and television broadcasts, including Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show and ABC’s Nightline. Dembski talked to CitizenLink about his latest book, The Design of Life — which he co-authored with Jonathan Wells. 1. What is intelligent design? The study of patterns in nature that are best explained by intelligence. But the focus is Read More ›

Chris Comer’s firing was briefly discussed on this blog here. Today the Dallas Morning News had a front page (above the fold) about her case (go here). Below is the offending email that got her fired. As you read it, keep in mind that The Center for Inquiry is a virulently atheistic organization (see here for a conference they did in November). In reading the email below, ask yourself: What if someone in the same position as Chris Comer forwarded an email about a forthcoming talk by Ken Ham at a “fundamentalist church” in which he would recommend teaching creationism in public schools?