Category: Culture
MSNBC does creditable review of students’ anxieties over evolution
This is my second post in 2 days praising media articles which get this issue right. Let there be no mistake: the Evolution News & Views blog is not a “media complaints desk.” It’s a place for objective analysis–and we just try to call the balls and the strikes as we see them! MSNBC’s Current Magazine article by Victoria Bosch (“Monkey Business“), manages to objectively discuss the question of how doubters of Darwin are treated in college science classes. The article sensitively talks about how students who are skeptical of Darwinism cope with the issue. It was also gratifying that Niall Shanks at Wichita State professes to require only that students simply understand–not fully endorse–Darwinian evolution. Not only is it Read More ›
Excellent Pieces in The New Republic and The New Criterion take aim at Scientism
The New Republic and The New Criterion have excellent pieces discussing the debate over Darwin. The former explains how Darwinism has become a brand of scientism in the eyes of many leading proponents. The latter takes aim at the science of Darwinism itself, comparing it to a dogmatic faith which makes claims beyond what is warranted from the evidence. Monkey and Morals In Monkey and Morals, Gertrude Himmelfarb, the distinguished professor emeritus of history at City University (N.Y.), explains that some Darwinists such as E. O. Wilson and James Watson have an anti-religious agenda in their Darwinian advocacy. Himmelfarb recognizes, however, that some proponents of intelligent design approach this issue with scientific objections to evolution: “Yet others, themselves scientists, insist Read More ›
Academic Persecution of Scientists and Scholars Researching Intelligent Design is a Dangerous and Growing Trend
Academic Persecution of Scientists and Scholars Researching Intelligent Design is a Dangerous and Growing Trend
“There is a disturbing trend of scientists, teachers, and students coming under attack for expressing support in the theory of intelligent design, or even just questioning evolution,” said Robert Crowther director of communications for Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture. “ Discovery Institute hosted a briefing for the media on academic freedom at the National Press Club today, featuring a prominent for his views on intelligent design, Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez of Iowa State University. Read more at Evolution News & Views, online at www.evolutionnews.org.
Violence Is Never The Answer In Intellectual Debate
The debate over evolution just blew out of Kansas and into Oz for one college professor. The Associated Press reports that KU professor Paul Mirecki was beaten up Monday morning. And this just after spending a week in the newspapers for caustic remarks he made belittling religion, Catholics, conservatives, and intelligent design. According to the Associated Press: “University of Kansas religious studies professor Paul Mirecki told the Lawrence Journal-World that two men who beat him were making references to the class that was to be offered for the first time this spring. Originally called “Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies,” the course was canceled last week at Mirecki’s request. “I didn’t know them,” Mirecki said Read More ›
Another College Course on Intelligent Design and Evolution
Another College Course on Intelligent Design and Evolution
Knox College in nearby Galesburg is launching a short course on intelligent design. The professor plans to look at the subject from all points–essentially philosophy, and religion, as well as science– and properly starts back with the Greeks. Read the rest at Evolution, News & Views at www.evolutionnews.org.