Is the Pope Catholic?

If you are in Rome this spring you can find Vatican “holy cards” of Pope Benedict XVI for sale at souvenir stands around St. Peter’s and throughout the city. The selected quotation on the card is from the Pope’s first homily (largely ignored by the Western media, needless to say), wherein the Holy Father stated, among other things, that “We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution.”Hundreds of thousands of these little cards in myriad languages have been distributed already. They are very popular. If Europe recovers from materialism the work of Pope Benedict XVI will have been a major medium of change. No doubt the Pope will be denounced as a heretic by the Darwin faithful, especially Read More ›

Traipsing Into Evolution Book Release Event Notes

Below are excerpts from some notes I used during a book release event for Traipsing Into Evolution on May 16, 2006. (Jonathan Witt previously posted his notes here): As I first read the Kitzmiller decision, I kept having this strange sensation of déjà vu: Where had I heard all these types of arguments before? Then I remembered: I’d heard them during plaintiffs closing arguments which I witnessed live on the final day of the trial–arguments which were based upon a false, straw definition of ID, and misconstrued much evidence about ID. We could spend hours talking about this, so in 4 minutes, here are the primary problems with what Judge Jones said about science in the decision. First Judge Jones Read More ›

Bloomberg’s Blooper; it’s a “Beaut'”

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg gave one of those suddenly vogue commencement addresses–the kind where you ingratiate yourself to the graduates, in this case at Johns Hopkins Medical School, by reference to specific professors and courses they no longer will have to endure. This rhetorical tactic will be a recognized mortar-board cliché by next year, but it probably was a great crowd pleaser in Baltimore yesterday.

“Missing Links” and “Unfilled Gaps” Cause Selman v. Cobb County Case to be Vacated and Remanded

Today the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued its ruling in the Selman v. Cobb County case, which vacated and remanded the prior ruling of a federal district court. By vacating the problematic ruling, this could be a step towards the vindication of the right of school districts to teach evolution objectively. The 3-Judge panel found that until “missing links in the documentary chain have been provided” (pg. 33) which would remedy “the unfilled gaps in the record” (pg. 43), they cannot determine if trial court Judge Cooper was correct to find that: “in light of the sequence of events that led to the Sticker’s adoption, the Sticker communicates to those who endorse evolution that they are political outsiders, while Read More ›

Federal U.S. Appeals Court Decision To Throw Out Judge’s Ruling Against Evolution Disclaimers on Textbooks in Cobb Co. Georgia Applauded by Discovery Institute

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has thrown out the trial court decision ruling that evolution disclaimers on science textbooks were unconstitutional. For more information visit Discovery Institute’s Cobb County Trial resource page here. In a unanimous decision the federal three-judge panel –including both Democratic and Republican appointees– stopped short of deciding the constitutionality of the stickers, and instead sent the case back to the trial court judge with instructions to hold more evidentiary hearings on the issue. “This decision is a victory as it throws out the problematic ruling from the trial court,” said Casey Luskin, an attorney with the Discovery Institute. “Essentially, the appellate judges found that some of the findings of the lower court Read More ›