Tag: Neo-Darwinism
Eighty Years of Scopes Monkey Business
Eighty years ago Thursday the famous Scopes Monkey Trial ended in Dayton, Tennessee. Time for a quiz: History tells us that two great lawyers faced off. On the one side was (A) a progressive and a pacifist, an educated man who rejected the idea of a young earth and worried about efforts to peddle racism and eugenics in the South. On the other side was (B) a master orator who defended some flagrantly racist ideas long since discredited by science. Lawyer A sought a full and fair debate over the evidence. Lawyer B used a procedural tactic to shut down the debate so that only his position was heard. Surely Mr. A would be the darling of any contemporary liberal Read More ›
Darwinism is dead! Long live Darwinism!
The World Summit on Evolution just happened earlier this month with less fanfare than one might expect in these days of overhyping Darwin’s legacy. It seems that about 200 biologists gathered in Chuck’s old stomping grounds in the Galapagos to compare notes on neo-Darwinian evolution and breathe some life back into the aging concept. One blogging attendee explained why it had to be kept so hush-hush: “Arrival details were kept under wraps, said one organizer, lest the Creationist community get wind of the fact that so many evolutionary luminaries would be on the same plane to the island.”
An NAS Scientist Breaks Ranks: Urges Kansas to Teach the Controversy over Neo-Darwinism
National Academy of Sciences member Philip Skell has written an open letter to Kansas urging the state to teach the scientific controversy over Neo-Darwinism. As the letter makes clear, he believes the weaknesses in the theory are substantial and relevant. NAS members are elected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research; election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors accorded a scientist.
CSC Policy Position: Teach Scientific Strengths & Weakness of Neo-Darwinian Evolution
Recent events in Kansas have given Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture an occasion to repeat its policy position concerning the teaching of evolutionary theory in public schools. Now a proposed piece of legislation in New York requires another reiteration.To restate the CSC’s policy on teaching evolutionary theory in public schools: we OPPOSE the MANDATING of intelligent design theory in public schools. Intelligent design is a promising scientific theory, but it is nonetheless an emerging theory. A better policy would be for students to learn some of the scientific criticisms of neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory and chemical origin-of-life theories, along with the best scientific arguments favoring those respective theories. Drs. John Angus Campbell and Stephen Meyer lay out such a Read More ›