Author: Larry Caldwell
Louisiana: Do Forrest and the NCSE Really Oppose Religious Instruction in Evolution?
Reading Barbara Forrest’s impassioned plea on Richard Dawkins’ website against the Louisiana Science Education Act, one might get the impression she opposes injection of religion in biology classes (even though the Act isn’t intended to do that). Indeed, when I followed the link to her Louisiana Coalition for Science “open letter” to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, I found the following statement, with which I agree wholeheartedly: The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is violated when the government endorses a sectarian doctrine. . . On the other hand, Forrest is on the board of directors of the National Center for Science Education.
University of California Defends Its “Right” to Propagate Pro-Evolution Religious Doctrine
Last month the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments on Jeanne Caldwell’s appeal from the District Court’s dismissal of her lawsuit against the University of California and the National Science Foundation regarding religious statements made on the University of California’s “Understanding Evolution” website. (Full disclosure: Jeanne Caldwell is my wife.) The website, which is programmed and hosted by the University of California in conjunction with the National Center for Science Education, was created with over $500,000 in financial support from the National Science Foundation. The District Court had dismissed Jeanne Caldwell’s lawsuit on the basis of her alleged lack of standing to bring the action. The District Court’s ruling, if upheld on appeal, would Read More ›
How Dare We Demand that Darwinism Be Supported by Actual Scientific Evidence!
If only Darwinists could come up with a body of convincing scientific evidence to support Darwin’s theory: after 150 years of assuring us, such evidence surely must exist. As recently as May of this year, the best that a Darwinist as prominent as Professor Francisco Ayala of UC Irvine could come up with as examples of evolution in action was: (1) bacterial resistance to antibiotics; (2) insect resistance to pesticides; and (3) the evolution of fur coloring of desert rodents. (Ayala, “Darwin’s Greatest Discovery: Design without designer,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (May 2007).) These examples of “evolution” appear to be microevolution in action; none of them even approach the level of one species “evolving” into another species. Read More ›
A More Sensible Solution to Religious Bias in Science
One of the key expert witnesses for the ACLU in the Dover trial was Barbara Forrest, a Professor of Philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University. She recently authored a paper entitled “Understanding the Intelligent Design Creationist Movement: Its True Nature and Goals,” (May 2007) in which a major theme is that, since nearly all of the leading intelligent design proponents are Christians who have expressed a preference for a Christian influenced culture, their scientific efforts cannot be trusted as bona fide science. Forrest’s claim, echoing a common theme of Darwinists, is that since the vast majority of intelligent design promoters are Christians, their scientific work must necessarily be so biased by their religious beliefs as to be compromised. On this basis, Read More ›
Lessons Learned from Haeckel and His Drawings: We Shouldn’t Always Believe What the “Leading Experts” Tell Us about Evolution
Links of Interest: Hoax of Dodos, a response to inaccuracies in Flock of Dodos Haeckel’s Bogus Embryo Drawings (Clip on YouTube) The late Stephen Jay Gould was one of the most prominent and enthusiastic cheerleaders of biological evolution during the later decades of the Twentieth Century. As a Harvard professor who published many scholarly articles and books and taught biology, geology and the history of science, Gould was often viewed as a spokesperson for science and one of the most prestigious scientists in the world. As a frequent essayist in the popular press, Gould was also well known to the general public. To the consternation of fellow Darwinists, Gould often told the truth about Darwin’s theory of natural selection and Read More ›