Category: Evolution
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 ›
“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 ›
More Troubles in the Tree of Animal Life
In late 2005, three biologists published a study in Science which concluded, “Despite the amount of data and breadth of taxa analyzed, relationships among most [animal] phyla remained unresolved.” In 2008, the relationships among animals are still controversial. A recent news release at Science Daily highlights a new study, “Tree Of Animal Life Has Branches Rearranged.” The story reports, “The study is the most comprehensive animal phylogenomic research project to date, involving 40 million base pairs of new DNA data taken from 29 animal species.” According to the article, the study yielded surprising results: “Comb jellyfish — common and extremely fragile jellies with well-developed tissues — appear to have diverged from other animals even before the lowly sponge, which has Read More ›
What’s in a Word?
Apparently, when the word is evolution, what’s in a word is whatever Darwinists want to put there. On February 29 I predicted that Darwinists would try to take credit for a recent advance in understanding a mechanism of antibiotic resistance, even though the breakthrough owed nothing whatever to Darwinian theory. Not only did Darwinists Ian Musgrave and P. Z. Myers do as I predicted, but the latter also resorted (as usual) to personal insults — calling me “an appalling fraud” who is “too stupid” to understand the issue. I responded on March 5. Not to be outdone by Myers, Darwinist Larry Moran jumped into the fray by calling me an “idiot” who is “completely unhinged” and who “makes a virtue Read More ›
Darwinist Organization Makes Support for Evolution a Test of Intelligence (Updated)
The Wall Street Journal has an article discussing the high scores received by Finnish students in a test measuring science knowledge and intelligence. However, part of the test, which was created by the international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, may be a measure of nothing more than whether a student believes in evolution. For example, see the sample test question, Question 3, Evolution: Which one of the following statements best applies to the scientific theory of evolution? A The theory cannot be believed because it is not possible to see species changing.B The theory of evolution is possible for animals but cannot be applied to humans.C Evolution is a scientific theory that is currently based on extensive evidence.D Evolution Read More ›