Posts Tagged ‘intelligent design’
Posted by Reason on October 28th, 2008
When Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, asks for something, you just have to help out. And yesterday the Bad Astronomer asked people who care about science, reason, and defeating creationist attacks on education to blog about the what’s going on in Texas.
The Texas State Board of Education is working on nominations for a six-member panel that will review proposed new science curriculum standards. Half of the nominees are anti-science creationists. Not just any creationists, but among them are the vice-mac daddy of them all: Stephen C. Meyer, VP of the loathsome Discovery Institute, who isn’t even from Texas. Texas Citizens for Science notes that
Texas has hundreds of highly-qualified professional scientists who could have served on the review panel.
These nominations are no coincidence. “Intelligent design advocates on the state board have been maneuvering for months to undermine the teaching of evolution in science classes,” according to the Houston Chronicle. TCS agrees:
It is unfortunate that some SBOE members have such a poor regard for the education of Texas science students that they must resort to pushing their own anti-evolutionist and Creationist religious ideologies into the science standards revision process. What the Texas SBOE is doing perfectly matches what the Kansas SBOE tried to do: force its anti-science ideology onto the students and teachers of our state’s public school system. All Texas citizens who care about education and wish to ensure that their children receive the best science education they can get in a world that requires scientific knowledge and technological skills should be appalled by the reprehensible actions of some of our State Board of Education members.
This one’s for you, Google: the Texas State Board of Education has a creationist agenda.
More odious, perhaps, is that Meyer’s interest in sitting on inter-state science education committees is about more than just pushing the Bible on innocent children. He’s the lead author of Exploring Evolution, a despicable scienceless Trojan horse intended to infiltrate elementary schools and release an attack of nonsense.
Discovery Institute fellows have been attempting to have their arguments against evolution incorporated into the US public school system. EE appears to be part of (that) strategy. In June, Louisiana became the first state to enact a law specifically enabling the use of supplemental materials for the critical evaluation of evolution; similar legislation has been introduced in several other states. EE appears to have been intelligently designed to be the sort of supplemental text that’s appropriate under the Louisiana legislation, and so it’s likely to be making an appearance in classrooms there. But EE may appear in other states, as the approval process for supplementary material is often far less strict than that governing textbooks.
[The above quote was from Ars Technica's excellent and thorough review of Exploring Evolution, "A biologist reviews an evolution textbook from the ID camp". The review explains in depth the core of the creationist argument against Darwin's tree of life, in favour of an orchard (ie the idea that not all life descended from the same source. Man, for instance, was put here by God on the sixth day). Read this if you were hoping Expelled was going to illuminate anything about the intelligent design position.]
So there, Bad Astronomer, another voice is added against the creationist ideologues. What they’re doing is embarrassing and ludicrous. Texas, if you don’t want to be ridiculed as backward hillbillies (or if you don’t want your children to become backward hillbillies), please make a lot of noise about this to your elected officials.
Tags: Creationism, Discovery Institute, evolution, Exploring Evolution, intelligent design, Stepehn C. Meyer, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science
Category: Creationism, Evolution, Politics & Law, Seperation of Church & State
Posted by Reason on July 16th, 2008
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This is nice! National Geographic reports on a paper published this week in Nature on a positively delightful discovery of a transitional flatfish that fills a longstanding gap in the fossil record of this species.
The arrangement & rearrangement of this little sucker’s eyeballs have long been a straw at which creationists grasped, evidencing God or some other intelligence intentionally creating new forms. As usual, the gaps in the record are filled with diligent research, and we see that the form evolved naturally. As predicted.
The thing with the pursuit of truth is that it takes time. You have some info, you look for more, you put it all together. Religion provides instant answers (because they’re, you know, fabricated) and expects the same speed from science. It takes longer than that to find, analyze, and prove facts. I for one am very pleased to meet Mr. Transitional Flatfish.
Tags: Creationism, evolution, intelligent design, proof, Science
Category: Evolution
Posted by Reason on July 2nd, 2008
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I too was part of the Agnostic possee that descended on our local ‘weird movies with no audience’ theatre to see Ben Stein’s finally-arriving-in-our-city epic. As it’s a smaller theatre where you just pay at the door and go in, I bought a ticket for “My Blueberry Nights”, in an effort to divert box-office from Mathis et al. You’re welcome, Kar Wai Wong.
So, no doubt you’ve checked out what amounted to a SciAm microsite devoted to debunking the film, and visited Expelled Exposed for the latest dirt. I’ll leave those far more educated comments to evaluate the science of the film. I just want to say:
1. Wow, did this ever turn into another movie 1/2 way through. I had no idea studying the development of species leads to wanton murder. You would think worshiping random mutation would lead to a certain regard for those with different characteristics than the norm; after all they might be the next big thing in humans.
2. For the 12 millionth time, things have to fit the methodology of science to be included in scientific discussion, and if they don’t (or if the person advocating them doesn’t seem to know the difference), then they belong in a different forum. I’m trying to say “if it isn’t science, it isn’t science“. That needed a whole plodding yet smug documentary’s worth of discussion?
Ben Stein, keep your money. Kar Wai Wong, you can have mine.
Tags: Ben Stein, Creationism, Expelled, intelligent design, reviews
Category: Creationism, Movies/Music/TV
Posted by God Delusion on July 2nd, 2008
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Several members of the Topic Agnostic team went to see Expelled No Intellegence Allowed. There have been a multitude of great reviews about this film, including a website that thorough discusses the major flaws in logic, reason and factual errors that are in the movie, Expelledexposed.com/. Here are a few of my thoughts to add to the list.
First off, this movie did nothing to actually explain what Intelligent Design is! Most of the movie is an attack on “Darwinism”, and really doesn’t do anything to explain what I.D. is other than to say that merely suggesting it to be considered in science has gotten people fired or in trouble with their academic institutions.
Another problem is the focus on”Darwinism”, it is a red herring and a straw man; modern scientists don’t worship or hold Darwin’s theories to be infallible, in fact much of today’s evolutionary science has proved some parts of Darwin’s theories to be true and others to be false. Darwin was a starting point; science advances and throws out things that turn out to be false. So to focus on “Darwinism” like it is some sacred cow of science is dishonest.
Much has been written about the movie making the connection between “Darwinism” and Eugenics, which in this movie was directly linked to Nazi Germany and the killings that happened because of it. Other than being and insulting connection, the facts are that science has advanced since then to have an even better understanding of evolution and “natural selection”; yet we have seen an improvement over time of the treatment and understading of people with mental difficiencies. Where are the mass sterilizatons now? Where are the Eugenics now? To make a connection between Hitlers actions and the understanding of evolution is absurd.
This movie felt like nothing more than propaganda, making huge leaps in logic and using inflammatory images to draw false conclusions. Deliberate attempts are made when a “Darwinist” was on camera to make them seem like “the bad guys”; their lighting was usually darker and more ominous, and the music used behind them was also more ominous.
This movie was not an honest presentation of the events. using terms such as “Big Science” and “Darwinism” do not paint an honest picture.
From browsing the Expelled website, you can see that part of the goal of the films creators are to bring the I.D. subject up in schools as a legitamite course of science discussion, and in the U.S. several states have had I.D. incorporated into their science classrooms as the behest of certain groups that advocate for it. I.D. is religion, and has no place in science, it is really that simple.
While it was good to go see the film for me to see what the fuss was about, I feel dumber for having viewed it.
Tags: Ben Stein, Creationism, Expelled, intelligent design, reviews
Category: Creationism, Movies/Music/TV
Posted by Reason on May 7th, 2008
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Cornell professor and Ars Technica science writer John Timmer addresses the issue of controversy within the study of evolution based on the presentations given at a 2 day seminar at Rockefeller University last week.
Intelligent design-based “academic freedom” bills with the loathsome Discovery Institute behind them are under consideration in nearly half a dozen states. Discovery uses the premise that there is much controversy in the evolutionary sciences to suggest that evolution is a barely accepted theory teetering on the edge of disrepute. Nothing could be further from the truth, as Timmer rigoursly elaborates; the controversies within academia are of intriguing minutia, not the fundamentals of the theory. Good science must always have unanswered questions; it means you’re still thinking and not relying on dogma.
“Evolution clearly has no shortage of controversies. But none of those controversies involve the basic principles of evolution, and all of them operate within a framework where random mutation and selection play a key role in creating diverse species that are related by common descent. It’s clear that the Discovery Institute is trying to introduce controversies that don’t exist, while ignoring those that do.”
Tags: Creationism, Discovery Institute, evolution, intelligent design
Category: Creationism, Evolution
Posted by Reason on April 25th, 2008
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PZ Myers noted a little poll on Expelled’s MySpace page, and would love for you to go cast your vote. Bottom of the left-hand column.
When he posted 2 hours ago, Intelligent Design was winning 3:1…now Science is winning by about 80%. Mean, PZ, mean ;D
Tags: Expelled, intelligent design, polls, PZ Myers
Category: Authors/Books, Creationism, Humor
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