Society

One of the most common objections to design thought is the idea that it is about the improper injection of the alien  supernatural into the world of science. (That is itself based on a strawman misrepresentation of design thought, as was addressed here a few days ago.)

However, there is an underlying root, a common distortion of the origins of modern science, which Nancy Pearcey rebutted in a  2005 sleeper article as headlined, that deserves a UD post of its own.

Let’s clip the article:

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Lest there be any lingering doubt about how far Darwinians might go in the enforcement of the dogma, it now appears that even beauty pageant contestants are not immune to consequences for failing to toe the Darwinian line. Contestants in this year’s Miss USA pageant are being asked questions about whether evolution should be taught in public schools. Fox News reports:

In on-camera interviews set to be posted on the official Miss USA website, 2011 pageant hopefuls are being asked if they believe evolution should be taught in schools, and if they would ever pose for nude photographs.

[This post will remain at the top of the page until 5:00 pm EST today, June 10. For reader convenience, other coverage continues below. – UD News]

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A fine tuning and multiverse advocate, Martin J. Rees, today won the 2011 Templeton Prize. The astrophysicist with no religion won the Prize originally “for Progress in Religion.”
The 2011 Templeton Prize was announced today.

LONDON, APRIL 6 – Martin J. Rees, a theoretical astrophysicist whose profound insights on the cosmos have provoked vital questions that speak to humanity’s highest hopes and worst fears, has won the 2011 Templeton Prize.
Rees, Master of Trinity College, one of Cambridge University’s top academic posts, and former president of the Royal Society, the highest leadership position within British science, has spent decades investigating the implications of the big bang, the nature of black holes, events during the so-called ‘dark age’ of the early universe, and the mysterious explosions from galaxy centers known as gamma ray bursters. Read More ›

Jane Harris-Szovan’s book, Eugenics and the Firewall (when social Darwinism hit the Canadian province of Alberta), has been getting lots of attention, here for example, and here. She notes,

If you’re wondering why only the left is interviewing me, then you need to learn a bit about who runs my province. [Not the left. – d., 😉 ] Still, l it makes me sad, that the Christian and right wing media are running away from this issue like ‘fraidy cats. I expected it, but I am sad that I was right.)

The embarrassment here is that eugenics in Alberta was spearheaded by evangelical Christians, including a premier whose soubriquet was “Bible Bill.” The left has a stake in exposing this scandal, not the Christian groups. But it’s time someone did, just to clear the air.

It’s interesting to reflect on how seductive the idea must have been back then. I doubt you’d get any prominent Christian leaders on board for compulsory sterilization today. Read More ›

Here is the “Edge World Question Center”, a leading materialist think tank, with 2011’s Question: THE WORLD QUESTION CENTER James Flynn has defined “shorthand abstractions” (or “SHA’s”) as concepts drawn from science that have become part of the language and make people smarter by providing widely applicable templates (“market”, “placebo”, “random sample,” “naturalistic fallacy,” are a few of his examples). His idea is that the abstraction is available as a single cognitive chunk which can be used as an element in thinking and debate. The Edge Question 2011 WHAT SCIENTIFIC CONCEPT WOULD IMPROVE EVERYBODY’S COGNITIVE TOOLKIT? The term ‘scientific”is to be understood in a broad sense as the most reliable way of gaining knowledge about anything, whether it be the Read More ›