Creationism

We’ve purchased a few of these designs, at 25% off… I didn’t get them in time for TAM6, but I wore the element one this weekend. Kat and I each have one of the “because we know that dinosaur bones were really planted by beelzebub” shirts, and I’ve got the “because we know that the earth sits on giant elephants which in turn ride on an even gianter turtle” one along with the “because we know that the real periodic table of elements only numbers five” shirt.

Barbara Forrest has an excellent article describing the passage of the recent “academic freedom” stealth creationism bill in Louisiana that’s was just signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal and will no doubt serve as a model for other states. She discusses the Louisiana Family Forum, which is behind the bill, as well as the involvement of the Discovery Institute.

The fourth episode of the ApostAZ podcast is now out, and this time I contributed a segment on “Lucy”’s knee joint. Episode 004: Atheism and Freethought in Phoenix- Squared by Greydon Square. Happy Freuder’s Day. Inappropriate Teachers and the Children They Burn. Philly Coalition of Reason creates the Sign of the Times, wow. Science and Skepticism Segment by Jim Lippard, “Lucy’s Knee Joint”. Fleshing Out the Humanity of Godlessness. Check it out. (BTW, correction to the podcast: there’s a reference to Kenneth Starr that should be a reference to Ken Lay of Enron–but he died of a heart attack, not a suicide or fake suicide like Samuel Israel III. And the quotation about “nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution” is from Theodosius Dobzhansky. ApostAZ talks about EquallyYoked.com, which this blog has discussed here.)

Tom Willis, the creationist responsible for the bogus claim that Donald Johanson found “Lucy”’s knee joint at a great distance from the rest of the skeleton (CC003 in Mark Isaak’s Index to Creationist Claims), says that evolutionists should be “violently expelled” from the United States–or at least denied the right to vote: The arrogance displayed by the evolutionist class is totally unwarrented. The facts warrent the violent expulsion of all evolutionists from civilized society. I am quite serious that their danger to society is so great that, in a sane society, they would be, at a minimum, denied a vote in the administration of the society, as well as any job where they might influence immature humans, e.g., scout, or youth, leader, teacher and, obviously, professor. Oh, by the way… What is the chance evolutionists will vote or teach in the Kingdom of God? ...

New Scientist reports that a poll of 2000 high school teachers in 2007 with 939 respondents found that 2% did not cover evolution at all, the majority spent 3-10 classroom hours on evolution, about a quarter reported spending some time on creationism or intelligent design, and of those, 48% (12.5% of the respondents) taught it as a “valid, scientific alternative to Darwinian explanations for the origin of species." 16% of high school science teachers in the sample said that they believed human beings were created in their current form by God within the last 10,000 years. Teachers who believed in young-earth creationism spent 35% fewer hours teaching evolution than other teachers. The study in question, from PLoS Biology, may be found online. Further summary may be found at Pharyngula. ...

The National Center for Science Education has a new YouTube video about how they proved in the Dover trial that the “intelligent design” in the book Of Pandas and People was simply old-school creationism under a different name.

Turkish creationist “Harun Yahya” (pseudonym for Adnan Oktar) has been sentenced to three years in prison for “creating an illegal organization for personal gain," according to Reuters: Oktar had been tried with 17 other defendants in an Istanbul court. The verdict and sentence came after a previous trial that began in 2000 after Oktar, along with 50 members of his foundation, was arrested in 1999. In that court case, Oktar had been charged with using threats for personal benefit and creating an organization with the intent to commit a crime. The charges were dropped but another court picked them up resulting in the latest case. ...

Charlie Black, a senior advisor to the McCain campaign, lent his name to and helped arrange the bizarre March 23, 2004 event on Capitol Hill in which Rev. Sun Myung Moon was crowned King of America and declared himself to be the Messiah. Rev. Moon is a very powerful, wealthy man who has been regularly supported at public events by people such as former President George H. W. Bush and evangelical Christians like Tim and Beverly LaHaye (he helped found the Institute for Creation Research through his Christian Heritage College, co-author of Left Behind; she is the head of Concerned Women for America) and Jerry Falwell. Jonathan Wells of the Discovery Institute is a member of Moon’s Unification Church, which makes DI another organization where evangelical Christians join hands with members of Moon’s cult. Most of these people probably don’t agree with Moon’s nonsense, but they like his money and aren’t above prostituting themselves in order to receive some of it. UPDATE (May 13, 2008): More on Charlie Black, from FiretheLobbyists.com: Charlie Black, McCain’s senior counsel and spokesman, began his lobbying career by representing numerous dictators and repressive regimes ...

Brown University biology professor, textbook author, and Catholic Ken Miller has written an op-ed about “Expelled."

Bush’s head of the Office of Special Counsel at the Department of Justice, Scott Bloch, has had his offices and home raided by the FBI. The FBI raided his offices in D.C. yesterday, seizing computers and shutting off email. Bloch himself was interviewed. It’s not clear exactly what prompted the raid, but Bloch has long been under fire for refusing to investigate claims of discrimination based on sexual orientation. There are also allegations that he has retaliated against employees and obstructed investigations. Bloch also has a tie to the Sternberg case, the crown jewel of “Expelled,” in that one of his like-minded appointees, James McVay, a man with no previous experience in employment law, whistleblower law, or federal sector work, took on the Sternberg case and wrote a preliminary report on it despite having no jurisdiction. His preliminary report managed to draw conclusions in contradiction to the actual evidence. UPDATE: The New York Times also covers the story. UPDATE (October 27, 2008): Scott Bloch has been fired. UPDATE (March 30, 2011): Scott Bloch has been sentenced to a month in jail for destroying evidence on his computer. ...