Discovery Institute's Blog, page 499

Bills Protecting Academic Freedom on Evolution Multiply in Anticipation of Academic Freedom Day

Across the country legislation is moving forward that will protect teachers and students who want the freedom to discuss both the strengths and weaknesses of modern evolutionary theory.

February 12 used to be universally recognized as the birthday of Abraham Lincoln--a day celebrating freedom. Needing a patron saint, modern Darwin lobbyists have recently converted February 12 into "Darwin Day." At this very time, U.S. Congress's lone atheist is trying to honor Darwin's birth by

NCSE's Eugenie Scott Serves as Chief of Darwinian Thought Police for University of Kentucky Faculty

As reported on ID the Future interview, Martin Gaskell's attorney Frank Manion stated that during the course of Gaskell's lawsuit, it became clear that Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), consulted University of Kentucky (UK) faculty about whether UK should hire Gaskell.

She gave Gaskell a clean bill of health--not because she endorsed hiring Darwin-skeptics, but because at the time she believed Gaskell was a died-in-the-wool...

For Darwin Day: False Facts & Dawkins' Whopper

Darwin Day, February 12, is coming up tomorrow, and we want to do our part to mark the occasion. Much of what Charles Darwin said makes perfect sense to us and is worth celebrating.

Seriously. Take this famous quote, for instance, from Darwin's Descent of Man (1871, p. 385):

False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for everyone takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness...

E-mails in Gaskell Case Show That Darwin Skeptics Need Not Apply to the University of Kentucky

Last month, Martin Gaskell settled his lawsuit against the University of Kentucky (UK) alleging they discriminated against him and refused to offer him a job due to his perceived views on "biology and religion." As we've previously covered here and here, there is much evidence showing that Gaskell faced unfair treatment due to his perceived sympathy for intelligent design and doubts about neo-Darwinian evolution. What we haven't yet shown are some of the direct e-mails cited in...

Survey Suggests Students Should Not be Allowed to "Make Up their own Minds" on Evolution

As we reported, the journal Science recently published a survey which underreports the number of Darwin-doubting science teachers, instead finding that 28% of teachers are "Advocates of evolutionary biology," 13% are "Advocates of creationism," and 60% are "Advocates of neither." (Strange that their percentages add up to 101%.) Discovery Institute in fact does not support mandating intelligent design, and does not support teaching creationism. Rather, we think teachers should teach the...

David Brooks' Bizarre Evolutionary Psychology Misunderstands the Mind

The most famous scientist of our age, Stephen Hawking, in the opening paragraph of his most recent book The Grand Design (!) poses the standard Big Questions -- How can we understand the world? What is the nature of reality? Where did it all come from?

Guest writer James Le Fanu's most recent book, Why Us?: How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves, is published by Vintage. Readers will also want to review David Klinghoffer's series on Le Fanu:Who Is James Le Fanu? Part I...

Humility in the Classroom? What a Concept!

A cognitive psychologist at SUNY-Oswego, Roger Taylor, has a new book out, Epistemology and Science Education: Understanding the Evolution vs. Intelligent Design Controversy (Routledge). He counsels educators that, rather than seeking to indoctrinate students with Darwinism, better to humbly allow them to judge and evaluate the evidence for themselves, excluding neither Darwinism nor intelligent design as a "scientific theory." What a novel concept!

Professor Taylor, either a very brave man...

Evolution Education Survey Underreports Darwin-Doubting Teachers

A new paper in the journal Science reports results of a survey of how science teachers cover evolution. Titled "Defeating Creationism in the Courtroom, But Not in the Classroom," the paper laments that more teachers aren't pushing neo-Darwinian evolution in a dogmatic fashion, even attacking one teacher who dared to suggest, "Students should make up their own minds" on evolution.

The survey forces teachers to fit into 1 of 3 categories: "Advocates of evolutionary biology," "Advocates ...

The Martin Gaskell Case: Not an Isolated Incident

With David Coppedge's case being just the latest, there is a long line of Darwin doubters who have been discriminated against. David Klinghoffer has a published a piece at NRO's The Corner,

Klinghoffer writes:

This is no isolated incident. An enormous, largely hidden transformation has taken place in what we mean when we speak of "science." For centuries, the free and unfettered scientific enterprise was fueled by a desire to know the mind of God. "The success of the West," writes...

How Microscopy Hastened the Demise of Darwinism

Alfred Russel Wallace, co-discoverer of evolutionary theory, broke with Darwin over Wallace's increasingly pronounced conviction that blind material forces lack the power to generate intricate biological structures. Wallace pointed to, among other things, the origin of life itself as a mystery that Darwin's idea seemed incapable of resolving. Reading science historian Michael Flannery's fascinating and concise new biography, Alfred Russel Wallace: A Rediscovered Life, I wondered...