Free to Think: Caroline Crocker’s New Book Tells Story of Discrimination Against Intelligent Design

While Chris Comer’s lawsuit made a bogus case for discrimination, there are cases documenting genuine discrimination–against scientists who support intelligent design (ID). One of those incidents took place at George Mason University (GMU), where Caroline Crocker was ousted from teaching biology because she challenged to neo-Darwinian evolution and favorably mentioned ID in the classroom. Dr. Crocker later appeared in Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, but now many more details about Caroline Crocker’s story are revealed in her new autobiographical book, Free to Think: Why Scientific Integrity Matters. Free to Think tells the story of a biology professor who cares deeply about students, received glowing student reviews, wouldn’t compromise her integrity when challenged to disregard anti-cheating rules, and produced high quality curricular Read More ›

Win Signature in the Cell from Anyluckyday.com

Would you read a book that was denigrated as nonsense, “a pile of slop,” and “a silly waste of time”? How about if a member of the National Academy of Sciences told you that same book was “breathtaking and cutting-edge science”? What if other scientists from around the world said the book was a “must read,” “intriguing,” “a fascinating and intellectually stimulating book, and elegantly written”? Then you might begin to suspect that something is up. Of course, that book is Stephen Meyer’s Signature in the Cell, the most controversial and discussed book in the debate over intelligent design and evolution. Now it’s finally available in paperback, and if you don’t already have your copy, you can win one today. Read More ›

Federal Appeals Court Rejects Chris Comer’s Lawsuit Alleging Discrimination Against Evolution

In 2007, Chris Comer was forced to resign from her job at the Texas Education Agency (TEA). She then filed a lawsuit alleging she was forced to “stay neutral on creationism,” and claimed that TEA’s “neutrality” policy violated the First Amendment. We reported last year when Comer lost on summary judgment at the federal district court level. Comer then appealed her case to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which filed its ruling on July 2 upholding the district court’s decision and tossing Comer’s case. The Fifth Circuit held, “we find no evidence to support the conclusion that the principal or primary effect of TEA’s policy is one that either advances or inhibits religion, we conclude that the policy does Read More ›

Sneers and Double Standards Pass for Scholarship in Evolution: Education and Outreach

Pop quiz: Did the following quote come from (A) Panda’s Thumb, or (B) An article in a scholarly journal published by Springer science publishing? “An especially good example of silliness is the ID assertion that natural processes cannot create new genetic information. ID advocates have recently been pushing this line heavily as of late (Meyer 2009)…” If you answered (A), then… …you’re wrong. It came from a recent article by former NCSE staff-member Nick Matzke in the journal Evolution: Education and Outreach — an NCSE-aligned outfit, where apparently such language passes for scholarly argument. But in the words of Jay Richards, “a sneer is not an argument.” Of course Matzke’s reference in the quote from his recent paper is to Read More ›