Anti-Creationism
jrosenhouse | November 25, 2007Meanwhile, the Cincinnati newspaper The Enquirer brings us this delightful story about what a smashing success the Creation Museum has been:
Inside, visitors will walk through the Garden of Eden, see dinosaur bones, and watch the solar system unfold as “evidence of God's creativity.”
All of it supporting the idea that God created Earth in six days, that the planet is just 6,000 years old and those dinosaurs traveled on Noah's Ark to survive the Great Flood that created the Grand Canyon.
In the six months since the museum opened, more than 265,000 people have toured the facility built by…
jrosenhouse | November 25, 2007Every so often a mainstream news outlet rediscovers that young-Earth creationists still exist. This leads to bemused, but respectful articles. The most recent example is this article from The New York Times Magazine. It was written by Hanna Rosin.
It's the usual perfunctory effort so typical of this genre. We get paragraphs like this:
Creationist ideas about geology tend to appeal to overly zealous amateurs, but this was a gathering of elites, with an impressive wall of diplomas among them (Harvard, U.C.L.A., the Universities of Virginia, Washington and Rhode Island). They had spent…
jrosenhouse | October 23, 2007I see P.Z. Myers already has the video of Bill O'Reilly's interview with Ben Stein. But just in case you're at work and don't want to get caught watching such filth, I have taken the liberty of providing a transcript below. Read it and weep:
O'REILLY: In the unresolved problems segment tonight, how did life begin? Religious people believe a higher power created the universe; secular progressives say all kinds of things, but God is not in the equation. And some believe, those who subscribe to intelligent design; that is a deity created life; are being persecuted in America. Joining us…
jrosenhouse | October 22, 2007A while back I wrote an opinion piece (PDF Format) for BioScience magazine entitled “Leaders and Followers in the Intelligent Design Movement.” The intent of the essay was to draw a distinction between the rampant dishonesty among the leaders of the ID movement, with their blatantly out of context quotations and cartoon versions of modern science, with the somewhat better behavior I have sometimes encountered from the rank and file ID folks listening to the leaders
The existence of Tom Woodward has shown me that there is at least one further category of ID person. He is certainly not a…
jrosenhouse | October 12, 2007The new issue of the Reports of the National Center for Science Education turned up in my mailbox the other day. As always, it contains lot's of interesting nuggets.
Michael Ruse reviews Sahotra Sarkar's recent book, Doubting Darwin: Creationist Designs on Evolution. The review is well done, by which I mean it says exactly what I would have said were I reviewing the book. (Short version: It's a good book with a lot of sharp arguments, but at times Sarkar's explanations of scientific or philosophical ideas are not as clear as they might have been).
But this was the part that caught my eye…
jrosenhouse | September 21, 2007
Received your latest letter today, and while it was just shy of coherence, I think I can see where your bewilderment lies. From your enclosed diagram, it has become apparent to me that for the past six weeks we have been playing two completely different chess games--myself according to our correspondence, you more in keeping with the world as you would have it, rather than with any rational system of order.
That's from Woody Allen's short story “The Gossage-Vardebedian Papers”. It pretty well sums up my reaction to John Wilkins' lengthy reply to my two previous posts on Ian Hacking's essay…
jrosenhouse | September 21, 2007We now continue our discussion of Ian Hacking's wide-ranging essay on evolution and ID. We left off with Hacking having just completed several paragraphs on the uses of tree metaphors in human history. So far my main criticisms have been with the style, not the substance, of Hacking's essay. His points are good, but his writing style is confusing and offputting.
Alas, now we come to more substantive criticisms.
After praising Kitcher for his explanation of the aptness of the tree metaphor in evolution, Hacking writes:
Nevertheless, it is useful to reflect on difficulties in the present…
jrosenhouse | September 20, 2007Here at ScienceBlogs we often debate the best way of promoting science literacy generally, and an understanding of evolution in particular. Is a calm recital of the evidence a good approach, or does that merely come off as an uninspiring “data dump” to non-scientists? Does the vocal atheist wing of the party scare off moderates, or are they an essential part of any long-term solution? And what role does proper framing play in the public's acceptance of evolution? All worthy questions, and while I certainly have my opinions on the subject, I don't pretend to know the answers.
But there is…
jrosenhouse | September 19, 2007ERV has a must-read series of posts up (Part One, Part Two, Part Three) about William Dembski's latest bit of performance art, this time delivered at the University of Oklahoma. Sounds like things went well for the good guys. Lot's of choice nuggets:
See, the major theme of Dembskis talk was 'evilution cant do this' 'evilution hasn't shown that', 'you know, if someone would just SHOW me the evidence, I'D be an evilutionist!' The other theme was “POOOOOOOOOOOR MEEEEEEEE! POOR CREATIONISTS! EVERYONE IS OUT TO GET US!! I SUFFER SO MUCH BECAUSE OF MY MESSAGE OF TRUTH! POOOOR MEEEEEEEE!!!”…
jrosenhouse | September 6, 2007D. James Kennedy died earlier this week.
Shortly after I moved to Kansas I discovered the local Evangelical radio station. This was my introduction to precisely what Christianity means to very large segments of the South and Midwest. Preacher after preacher blared forth from my speakers, each one doing his darnedest to out-stupid his predecsessor.
And from out of this maelstrom of malarkey came one preacher who towered over all the others. That was D. James Kennedy. With that combination of ignorance and arrogance so typical of his breed, Kennedy would stand before his distressingly…
jrosenhouse | August 27, 2007Perhaps you saw this article from The New York Times last week. It describes some significant new findings in protein evolution:
In work published last year, Dr. Thornton reported how his group reconstructed an ancestral protein of two hormone receptors found in humans. The two, once identical, diverged along different evolutionary paths. One is now part of the stress response system; the other is involved in different biological processes, including kidney function in many animals.
In the new study, the researchers determined the exact positions of more than 2,000 atoms in the ancestral…
jrosenhouse | August 13, 2007Via P.Z., I came across this article, from the Colorado Springs Gazette, about Christian teenagers abdoning their faith upon reaching college:
The trend is known as the “Great Evacuation,” and the statistics are startling to youth ministers.
Studies have shown at least 50 percent -- and possibly as much as 85 percent -- of kids involved in church groups will abandon their faith during their first year in college.
In an attempt to reverse those numbers, Focus on the Family on Saturday hosted “The Big Dig,” a conference aimed at teens and youth leaders. The goal was not just to celebrate…
jrosenhouse | August 10, 2007Sometimes I wonder what it is like to be a blogger for the Discovery Institute. Imagine the strain of getting up every morning, swallowing every ounce of pride and intellectual integrity you might possess, and searching desperately through the media for something, anything, you can present as hostile to evolution or favorable to ID. It's exhausting work. Yet somehow there are folks like Casey Luskin who seem not just able, but actually willing to do it.
On Wednesday I discussed the recent hominid fossils found in Africa, one belonging to Homo habilis, the other to Homo erectus. From the…
jrosenhouse | August 6, 2007Most people remember Sir Arthur Conan Doyle solely as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. But Doyle was actually quite prolific, and wrote a large number of novels and short stories in a variety of different genres. One of these novels was The Land of Mist, published in 1926.
The novel was one of several to feature Professor Challenger, a ferociously talented scientist whose arrogance and combative nature made him very difficult to get along with. In this particular story, Challenger's sidekick, a journalist named Malone, gets caught up in the Spiritualist movement. He witnesses various…
jrosenhouse | July 24, 2007Here's Discovery Institute flak Casey Luskin commenting on an article about evolution posted at MSNBC's website. The MSNBC article is available here.:
Question: What do you do when a theory logically predicts both (a) and not (a)?Answer: Apparently you heavily promote it.
MSNBC recently published two articles promoting Darwinian just-so stories to the public. The first article about the evolution of Waterfowl genitalia contends, “Scientists had speculated that male waterfowl evolved longer phalluses to give them a competitive edge over those not as well-endowed when it came to successfully…
jrosenhouse | July 23, 2007Incidentally, I think Kevin Padian gets things just about right in his review of the three books on the Dover trial. For the record, the three books are Monkey Girl, by Edward Humes, 40 Days and 40 Nights by Matthew Chapman, and The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything, by Gordy Slack.
Here's Padian's summary:
All three books are entertaining and informative reads; on balance the nod goes to Humes for his comprehensive account, although Slack is concise and readable. Another book on the trial, by local reporter Lauri Lebo, is due out next year. It promises even more lively details of this…
jrosenhouse | July 23, 2007Here's William Dembski protesting a recent book review in the journal Nature:
Indeed, the review and its inclusion in NATURE are emblematic of the new low to which the scientific community has sunk in discussing ID. Bigotry, cluelessness, and misrepresentation don't matter so long as the case against ID is made with sufficient vigor and vitriol.
Goodness! Sounds bad. What could have brought that on?
The review in question was written by paleontologist Kevin Padian. He was addressing three recent books on the big Dover trial. You remember that one, right? That was the one where ID, the…
jrosenhouse | July 19, 2007Via David Heddle, I came across this announcement for a conference in Texas entitled “Intelligent Design in Business Practice.” From the announcement:
Successful business leaders are intelligent designers, guiding organizations along innovative paths to achieve ends otherwise unattainable. Intelligent designers are not micromanagers, who short-circuit the freedom and creativity that organizations need to thrive. At the same time, intelligent designers do not encourage unbridled autonomy, which sets organizations adrift, causing them to lose focus and discipline. By striking a proper balance…
jrosenhouse | July 5, 2007The Center for Inquiry offers up this excellent summary (PDF format) of the nature and goals of Intelligent Design Creationism. Its author is philosopher Barbara Forrest, whose expert testimony in the Dover trial played a significant role in the successful outcome of the case. Think of it as the Cliff's Notes version of her excellent book (coauthored with Paul Gross) Creationism's Trojan Horse, coupled with an update on relevant happenings since the book's publication. Well worth a look.
Of course, ID folks react to Forrest the way vampires react to sunlight. Here's William Dembski…
jrosenhouse | July 2, 2007The only parts of the museum I have not reviewed are the bookstore (pretty much what you'd expect) and the men's room (impressively clean). So what conclusions should we draw?
Is this the end of civilization as we know it? No. But it is one more symptom of the disease that has been growing ever since Ronald Reagan started making appeals to religious fundamentalists a standard part of Republican Party politics in the 1980's. Just ponder the fact that AiG had little trouble raising the twenty-seven million dollars needed to build this monstrosity. Consider that now everyone in the…