Education

When reading the following, remember that string theory is taught and discussed in physics courses. Also ask yourself whether Gross’s criticisms apply to evolutionary theory — is it “missing something absolutely fundamental”?

Nobel laureate admits string theory is in trouble
10 December 2005
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg18825293.700.html

“WE DON’T know what we are talking about.” That was Nobel laureate David Gross at the 23rd Solvay Conference in Physics in Brussels, Belgium, during his concluding remarks on Saturday. He was referring to string theory – the attempt to unify the otherwise incompatible theories of relativity and quantum mechanics to provide a theory of everything. Read More ›

Shirley L. Tilghman, Princeton University’s president, happens also to be a molecular biologist. Now she joins the ranks of Cornell’s Hunter Rawlings in attacking ID.

Tilghman criticizes intelligent design
By Matt Davis
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/12/09/news/14090.shtml

In a lecture at Oxford University last week, President Tilghman
pointed out potential clashes among science, politics and religion and
defended Darwinian evolution against the challenges presented by
proponents of intelligent design. Read More ›

Twenty years ago: Darwinian biology teacher challenges students with “overwhelming evidence” for evolution, and students who believe in creation/design are left feeling confused and intimidated. The present day: Darwinian biology teacher is forced to expend a lot of energy finding plausible answers to all the challenges that ID-informed students are levying against evolution.

Earlier today I blogged on Kristof’s piece yesterday in the NYTimes. Here’s another perspective: http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/12/feb94/cultures.htm

For an excellent illustration of why we are indeed in a culture war, look here: http://itsfunnyhoney.com/page.php?id=47.

Here’s an email from someone I banned from this blog. If you can’t see why I’ve lost all patience with people like this, then you need to be spending your time elsewhere in cyberspace. William, Is there the slightest possibility you might ‘open’ your ID forum to dissenting views? You have some very dedicated apostles stroking your online ego, and insulating these young scientists from the ‘Borg’ is very Christian of you indeed; however, to many of us on the ‘outside’ your questionable editing practices suggest little more than self-aggrandizing censorship. You are a curiosity, your theory a religious oddity, and your ‘designer’ is wearing your hat. Respectfully, [snip] As for this blog’s commenting policies, go here and here.

[From a colleague and friend:] D’aucuns disent aveugle l’horloger qui a concu la vie, mais c’est son horologe qui nous frappe tous de cecite: les uns aveugles par tant d’intelligence, les autres etant les pires aveugles parce qu’ils n’en veulent rien voir. [Some call blind the watchmaker who conceived of life, but it is his watch that strikes all of us blind: some are blinded by so much intelligence, others are blind in the worst way because they do not wish to see it at all.] —Rosine Chandebois, Pour en finir avec le darwinisme [To Be Done With Darwinism] (Editions Espaces, 1993). (Chandebois is an experimental embryologist at the University of Marseille.)

Thomas Lessl: Science and Rhetoric
Interviewed by Paul Newall
http://www.galilean-library.org/lessl.html

Thomas Lessl is Associate Professor in the Department of Speech
Communication at the University of Georgia. His work involves the rhetoric
of science, looking in particular at the meeting of science with the public
sphere. I was fortunate enough to be able to ask him some general questions
about rhetoric as well as focusing on its role in scientific debate.

“… the scientific culture of [the nineteenth century] was committed to
evolutionism long before any scientific theory of development appeared”

PN: How would you define rhetoric and why should we study it?

TL: Most simply I would define rhetoric as the art of public communication.
Anyone who engages in public communication is practicing the art of
rhetoric. Art can also mean a body of principles pertaining to its
practices, and this is true of rhetoric as well. Read More ›

Here’s the home page of the professor offering this course: http://members.aol.com/pmirecki/pmcv.htm

U. of Kansas Offers Creationism Study
Tuesday, November 22, 2005

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,176354,00.html

LAWRENCE, Kan. — 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. Read More ›

Science friction: God’s defenders target 3000 schools
By Linda Doherty and Deborah Smith
November 14, 2005

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/11/13/1131816809073.html

Up to 3000 schools have been targeted in a DVD blitz aimed at challenging Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in favour of an “intelligent designer”. Read More ›

UI faculty sign on against intelligent design in science
By William Dillon, Staff Writer
11/16/2005

http://www.zwire.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=15586126&BRD=2700&PAG=461&dept_id=554314&rfi=6

More than 150 faculty members at the University of Iowa have signed a statement denouncing the use of intelligent design in science. Read More ›

Intelligent Design: Official statement on false and misleading information published in the Wall Street Journal today.*

By Charles L. Harper, Jr., Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation.

*[Monday November 14th, 2005. Article by Daniel Golden:
At Some Colleges, Classes Questioning Evolution Take Hold.]

Today the WSJ ran a front page story mentioning the John Templeton Foundation in a way suggesting that the Foundation has been a concerted patron and sponsor of the so-called Intelligent Design (“ID”) position (such as is associated with the Seattle-based Discovery Institute and the writers Philip Johnson, William Dembski, Michael Behe and others). This is false information. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The John Templeton Foundation has provided tens of millions of dollars in support to research academics who are critical of the anti-evolution ID position. Any careful and factual analysis of actual events will find that the John Templeton Foundation has been in fact the chief sponsor of university courses, lectures and academic research which variously have argued against the anti-evolution “ID” position. It is scandalous for a distinguished paper to misinform the public in this way. Read More ›

President’s Veterans Day Speech

By President George W. Bush

TOBYHANNA, PENNSYLVANIA — Thank you all for coming, please be seated. Thanks for the warm welcome. I’m glad to be back in Pennsylvania, and I’m proud to be the first sitting president to visit Monroe County — especially pleased to see so many military veterans with us today. Those who have risked their lives for our freedom have the respect and gratitude of our nation on Veterans Day and on every day. Read More ›

Pennsylvania Voters Oust School Board That Backed Intelligent Design 11-09-2005 12:39 AM By MARTHA RAFFAELE, Associated Press Writer DOVER, Pa. — Voters came down hard Tuesday on school board members who backed a statement on intelligent design being read in biology class, ousting eight Republicans and replacing them with Democrats who want the concept stripped from the science curriculum. http://phoenix.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D8DOQFOO3

Paul Nelson will be giving a seminar on ID at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara (UAG) on Friday the 18th of this month: