Discovery Institute's Blog, page 483

Steven Novella on Michelle Bachmann and Teaching Evolution

Steven Novella is commenting on intelligent design supporter Rep. Michelle Bachmann's endorsement of academic freedom.

Novella:

To be fair (this is not a political blog so I want to make sure I don't come off as partisan) bad science is not limited to the Republican party. But there are some issues where they definitely take the lead - and evolution/creationism is one. In some states creationism is on the Republican party platform.

Bachmann said:

"I support intelligent design. What I support is...

Discrimination and the Parallels Between Frank Turek and David Coppedge

This story is becoming too common for a free society. Blogger Max Andrews reports on the Frank Turek discrimination case:

Dr. Turek was hired by Cisco back in 2008 to train in leadership techniques and team building for their Remote Operations Services team. Dr. Turek "was fired as a vendor for his political and religious views, even though those views were never mentioned or expressed during his work at Cisco." What happened was one of the managers in Dr. Turek's program Googled Turek and...

Vestigial Arguments About Vestigial Organs Appear in Proposed Texas Teaching Materials

As documented in our Texas report, the evolution-related instructional materials proposed for use in Texas don't just contain errors about the origin of life or embryology. Some of the publishers also proposed materials that make inaccurate claims about vestigial organs and the evidence for common ancestry.

One curriculum even resuscitates long-debunked claims that the coccyx, appendix, tonsils, and many other functional organs are "vestigial," failing to mention that these organs are now r...

Ross Douthat Knows Jack (Kevorkian)

The New York Times' best essayist, Ross Douthat, has an eloquent commentary on the recently deceased Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

Kevorkian was the hero of the recent hagiographic film You Don't Know Jack, starring Al Pacino as the thanatologist license-revoked doctor.

Douthat describes Kevorkian's media reception following his release from prison:

After his release from prison in 2007, he was treated like a civil rights revolutionary -- with fawning interviews on "60 Minutes," $50,000 speaking...

God & Evolution One of Two Books Named Book of the Year by World Magazine

Congratulations to Jay Richards, who's having an all-star week to kick off his summer. First, his book Money, Greed and God garnered a Templeton Foundation award, and now World Magazine has announced that God & Evolution, which he edited and contributed to, is one of two books named as the publication's Books of the Year for 2011.

This year we're looking at neither the depths of Scripture, nor the surface of politics and economics, but the middle ground: ideas about the nature of man and...

Haeckel's Embryo Drawings Make Cameos in Proposed Texas Instructional Materials

Since the late 19th century, it has been known that some of Ernst Haeckel's embryo drawings were highly inaccurate (they overstate the degree of similarities between vertebrate embyros and ignore the differences). In the 1990s, some influential science journals (discussed below) hosted articles where leading scientists vocally opposed the use of Ernst Haeckel's inaccurate -- even "fraudulent" -- embryo drawings in textbooks. Then, in his 2000 book Icons of Evolution, biologist...

The "Coyne" of the Realm: Gresham's Law in Action

In  Why Evolution is True Jerry Coyne, the evolutionary geneticist who purveys a blog by the same presumptuous name and  darling of the Darwinian lobby, invokes biogeography in support of his misleading title. This article will explain why Coyne's argument is erroneous, his apologetic odd, and the entire effort altogether unfortunate.

It should be stated at the outset that what Coyne really means by "evolution" in his title is Darwinism. That cleared up, Coyne predictably goes to the ...

UK Atheist Finally Agrees to Debate William Lane Craig

An atheist in Great Britain has finally agreed to debate noted philosopher William Lane Craig on the existence of God, but it's not Richard Dawkins. With Dawkins still AWOL, the head of the British Humanist Association has stepped in to vindicate the honor of atheists everywhere:

Toynbee steps in where Grayling & Dawkins fear to
New Atheists urged to put their mouths where their money is

President of the British Humanist Association (BHA), Polly Toynbee, has agreed to debate...

Refuting Intelligent Design, BioLogos Style

One sometimes wonders what the BioLogos Foundation would do if it didn't have intelligent design (ID) as its favorite punching bag.

On its website, the group states that it "addresses the central themes of science and religion and emphasizes the compatibility of Christian faith with scientific discoveries about the origins of the universe and life"--admirable goals with which I would agree. In reality, however, those affiliated with BioLogos seem to devote an inordinate amount of...

Colliding With The Pharyngula: My Encounter With PZ Myers

On the sixth of June, I had the opportunity to attend a lecture presented by PZ Myers (of the University of Minnesota Morris) to Glasgow Skeptics in the Pub. PZ Myers is probably best known for his popular blog, Pharyngula (which bears the tag line, "Evolution, Development, and Random Biological Ejaculations from a Godless Liberal"). He has also acquired somewhat of a reputation for his militant and aggressive stances on evolution and religious belief. The topic of Myers...