Month: February 2005
Times of India Endorses Teaching the Controversy
One of the world’s top newspapers, The Times of India, is running an editorial encouraging greater openness in how Darwin’s theory is taught. The Times, which sells more than a million copies a day, asks: In any case what’s so wrong in expecting schools to make the teaching of evolution more rigorous by bringing up its drawbacks and examining areas of controversy it shares with the people who are promoting an alternative theory called intelligent design, or ID? If only editorialists at The New York Times and The Washington Post were as open-minded.
Sternberg, Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back
Recall that Richard Sternberg, former editor of the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, permitted the publication of an essay by Stephen Meyer arguing that intelligent design was the best explanation for the Cambrian Explosion of animal forms. When it appeared, major science journals and media outlets launched a smear campaign against Sternberg, questioning his motives and claiming he violated the journal’s procedures. Sternberg, a man with two Ph.D.s in evolutionary biology and a distinguished record of scientific publication and achievement, eventually felt so much heat that he hired an attorney. Happily, one major media outlet, The Wall Street Journal, broke ranks by publishing an op-ed last week laying out Sternberg’s side of the story. In it, Sternberg’s supervisor, Read More ›
Public floods Kansas board with input on science standards
The Intelligent Design Network’s John Calvert has provided us with this first-hand account of Tuesday’s meeting where the public could share their opinions with the Kansas SBOE on proposed revisions to the state’s science standards. Report on a public debate about evolution Last night I went to the public meeting at Schlagel High in Kansas City, Kansas. It focused on the Kansas Science Standards and Proposals by the Harris group to increase their objectivity in the area of origins. I thought there would be a crowd, but not 400. The place was packed. Even if I wanted to speak, the line that had been open for speakers was closed well before my arrival. They cut off the list at 60 Read More ›
The Church of Darwin excommunicates a heretic
Canadian science journalist Denyse O’Leary (author of By Design or By Chance) has a short blog about the Church of Darwin’s continued haranguing of besieged Smithsonian scientist Richard Sternberg. Pondering Sternberg’s blacklisting at the Smithsonian O’Leary wonders: “How many Americans who would never under any circumstances condone behaviour like that pay taxes to support it?” O’Leary also has been doing a periodic series of fine rebuttals of National Geographic’s recent homage to Darwin.
Blog Readers Get Newspaper to Correct Erroneous Coverage of Caldwell Civil Rights Suit
After our blog highlighted errors in a news article about Larry Caldwell’s civil rights suit, so many people contacted the newspaper in question (the Press-Tribune) that the paper responded by contacting Caldwell. “As a testament to the power and value of your evolution blog,” Caldwell recently told us, “the Press-Tribune was getting so many complaints from around the country about the errors in their reporting that they contacted me and asked if I wanted them to correct any errors. The editor then invited me to write this letter.” Larry’s letter can now be read online, here. Kudos to the readers of this blog!