Archives
Are Francis Collins, Ken Miller, and Simon Conway Morris Creationists?
Of course not, as we all know. But someone forgot to tell Hector Avalos, a critic of my role in the movie “Expelled.”In a radio debate with me on WHO in Des Moines this morning, Avalos (religion professor at Iowa State University) claimed that Hitler was a creationist. I objected to this ridiculous claim. I countered that Hitler may have believed in a God of some sort who created natural laws, but one of the laws he thought God had created was the law of evolution by natural selection and the struggle for existence. I then quoted from Hitler to demonstrate that he did indeed believe in human evolution. In an extended conversation about evolution on October 24, 1941, Hitler Read More ›
Essential Readings: What’s Darwin Got To Do With It?
What’s Darwin Got To Do With It? A Friendly Conversation About EvolutionBy Robert C. Newman, and John L. Wiester with Janet Moneymaker and Jonathan MoneymakerInterVarsity Press, 2000, 146 pagesISBN: 0-8308-2249-6 Feeling primitive? Unevolved? Inorganic? Then try a bowl of Primordial Soup! What’s Darwin Got To Do With It? is an illustrated friendly conversation about evolution and what science can explain about life. Aimed at younger students, this comic-book style work helps students understand if finch beaks really prove Darwinism is true or if the encoded message in DNA implies an intelligent designer.
10 Books That Screwed Up the World, with a Bizarre Twist
Benjamin Wiker’s latest book, 10 Books That Screwed Up the World: And 5 Others That Didn’t Help, is fantastic. In fact, it’s so great that even people who completely misunderstand his argument want to crib from his notes. That’s the most charitable conclusion I can come up with after reading The List Universe’s “10 Books that Screwed Up The World.” (Catchy title, huh?) There are other conclusions, of course… but I’ll leave those to the reader. Besides taking Wiker’s title and repeating 5 of his selections (Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa, Machiavelli’s The Prince, Hitler’s Mein Kampf, Sanger’s The Pivot of Civilization, and Marx/Engels’ The Manifesto of the Communist Party), as one commenter at The Point astutely observed, they Read More ›
Letter Sets Wall Street Journal Straight on Teaching Strengths and Weaknesses of Darwinian Evolution
HIgh school biology teacher Doug Cowan has a letter in today’s Wall Street Journal responding to a recent article which misreprsented his comments on the debate over how to teach evolution. Science Looks at All the EvidenceMay 17, 2008 Your article “Evolution’s Critics Shift Tactics With Schools” (Currents, May 2) claims that I would “like a legal guarantee [so I] can teach as I see fit.” Actually, I believe in teaching the prescribed curriculum, and I do so. But I don’t think a teacher should be penalized for exploring required topics in greater depth, especially in cases where scientists have different views. One should have the freedom to pursue and teach all the evidence even if it leads to disturbing Read More ›
Evolution Academic Freedom Bill Submitted in South Carolina is Sixth this Year
South Carolina Senator Mike Fair has submitted an Academic Freedom Bill into the South Carolina State Legislature. This is now the sixth academic freedom bill submitted this legislative session, as other bills have been submitted in Florida, Missouri, Michigan, Alabama, and Louisiana. The text of Senator Fair’s bill would require that, “The State Board of Education, superintendents of public school districts, and public school administrators may not prohibit a teacher in a public school of this State from helping his students understand, analyze, critique, and review the scientific strengths and weaknesses of biological and chemical evolution in an objective manner.” Meanwhile, like other commentators, the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) cannot admit that South Carolina’s state science standards require Read More ›