Florida Evolution Academic Freedom Bill Moves Forward

The Florida Academic Freedom bill has moved forward today past Florida’s Senate Judiciary Committee. It has now been approved by both Senate committees and will soon get a vote on the floor of the Florida Senate. Unfortunately, the Florida newsmedia continues to misrepresent the bill, as the Orlando Sentinel wrongly claimed that, under the bill, “Florida teachers could mention religious theories about human origins.” The Florida newsmedia seems to be taking their talking points directly from Florida Citizens for Science. If one reads the text of the bill, it’s clear that it only protects the teaching of “scientific information” and does not cover the teaching of religion. Darwinist groups have attacked the academic freedom bill as being “smelly crap” or Read More ›

Watch The Devil’s Delusion Online

C-Span has already posted video of Dr. Berlinski’s recent talk in Washington, DC on his new book, The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions.David Berlinski’s response to the new atheists and their scientific pretensions is engagingly literate and thoughtful — if you missed it when it aired this weekend, watch it online during your lunch break.Go to this page and click on “Watch.”

Is ID Falsifiable? Of Course It Is. Its Falsification Is Darwinism

Darwinist Steven Novella asks and answers a question central to the intelligent design/Darwinism debate: is intelligent design falsifiable? Dr. Novella predictably answers in the negative, and concludes that because ID cannot be falsified it is not science. I’ve long thought that the claim of unfalsifiablility of ID is one of the most bizarre claims of Darwinists. But, as we’ll see, there is method to the claim. Let’s take a look at Dr. Novella’s arguments. I’ve condensed them, because he characteristically rambles. He first makes the bizarre claim that design in nature isn’t necessarily intelligent. So the ID proponents are asking the wrong question – always a fatal problem in science. The question is not whether or not there is design Read More ›

“What about evolution is random and what is not?”

Here’s another one for my “you can’t make this stuff up” file. I kid you not, this is a news story about a new peer-reviewed paper in PLoS Biology by Brian Paegel and Gerald Joyce of The Scripps Research Institute which explains that (all emphasis from here on is mine) they have produced a computer-controlled system that can drive the evolution of improved RNA enzymes. I couldn’t write a funnier script if I tried. Sadly, these guys just don’t get the joke. The evolution of molecules via scientific experiment is not new. The first RNA enzymes to be “evolved” in the lab were generated in the 1990s. But what is exciting about this work is that the process has been Read More ›

Springtime for Darwin

[Editor’s Note: This is crossposted at Discovery Blog]Schools are in recess this time of year, so busloads of girls using “like” as a verbal crutch and wise cracking, baggy pants boys are wending their way through the cherry blossoms of America’s capital. In these security-conscious times it is harder than ever to get a tour of the White House or Capitol, so parents and chaperones are quick to steer the young to the Mall.A traditional favorite is the National Museum of Natural History, where for several years now Darwinian fairytales have been presented in an exhibit on mammals that encourages our offspring to have a family reunion with their “relatives”, including chimps, dogs, and mice. Here are strange just-so stories Read More ›