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Segraves v. California: Anti-Dogmatism Policies Protect Teaching of Evolution, How about Questioning Evolution? (Updated)
In Segraves v. California, a California state court found it legal for a public school to teach evolution. Now, if only California’s anti-dogmatism policy would likewise protect teachers who inform students about scientific dissent from neo-Darwinian evolution. Update: For those who protest me discussing this case, I want to note that I would not have even known of this case were it not for the fact that the NCSE has been touting it and citing it for years on its Ten Major Court Cases about Evolution and Creationism page. 1. SummaryPlaintiff Kelly Segraves, a parent of children in California public schools, challenged the California State Board of Education’s Science Framework that mandated the teaching of evolution.84 Segraves alleged that the Read More ›
Snap, Crackle … Chirp? Or, Looking for Life in All the Wrong Places
The silence is only eerie if you try to listen too hard. Efforts to confirm that there is intelligence elsewhere in the universe have, to put it mildly, fizzled. Each new theory about why we can’t find intelligent life anywhere else in the universe ends up like a damp firecracker: there’s a bunch of crackling in the blogosphere, but there’s never any bang. So. It seems that Paul Davies has published the equivalent of a benign stick of TNT reiterating all the failed attempts, and then coming up with a few new zany ideas. Instead, he might consider reading in Signature in the Cell about the evidence for intelligent design that booms out of DNA right here on this planet.
Seeing Ghosts in the Bushes — Or How to Keep the Theory of Evolution from Breaking Your Heart and Driving You Crazy
What would be evidence against evolution, and very strong evidence at that, would be the discovery of even a single fossil in the wrong geological stratum….But not a single solitary fossil has ever been found before it could have evolved.Richard Dawkins (2009, pp. 146-7) Professor Dawkins is right: you can’t be older than your own grandfather, all country-western songs notwithstanding.
Peloza v. Capistrano Independent Unified School District: Evolution May Be Taught Even if it Conflicts With Religious Beliefs
Peloza v. Capistrano Independent Unified School District is a well-known case from the 9th Circuit in 1994 where a federal court of appeals found that it is legal to teach evolution even if a teacher feels it conflicts with his religious beliefs. While the court was correct to hold that it is perfectly legal to require that evolution be part of the curriculum, unfortunately they expressed no sympathy whatsoever for the millions of Americans who feel that teaching evolution is not religiously neutral. 1. SummaryIn Peloza v. Capistrano, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a teacher can be ordered to teach evolution, even if the theory conflicts with his or her religious beliefs.93 John Peloza, a high school Read More ›
Listen in as Stephen Meyer Debates Peter Atkins on the U.K.’s Premier Radio
UPDATED: Today, Premier Radio UK is airing a debate recorded earlier this week between Signature in the Cell author Stephen Meyer and noted Oxford University chemist and “new atheist” Peter Atkins. The debate is part of the kick off of promotion for Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which arrives in the UK on DVD this month. Both Atkins and Meyer are accomplished scholars with very different viewpoints. The at times testy back and forth between them is as entertaining as it is enlightening. Click here to listen to the debate, which is about an hour long. Dr. Atkins, is a noted critic of intelligent design and author who appeared in Expelled, stating: “Religion, it’s just fantasy … and is evil as Read More ›