Academic freedom bills
Evolution Academic Freedom Bill Submitted in South Carolina is Sixth this Year
South Carolina Senator Mike Fair has submitted an Academic Freedom Bill into the South Carolina State Legislature. This is now the sixth academic freedom bill submitted this legislative session, as other bills have been submitted in Florida, Missouri, Michigan, Alabama, and Louisiana.
05.15.08
Darwin bluff
Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini interview, from Telic Thoughts
I think that abandoning Darwinism (or explicitly relegating it where it belongs, in the refinement and tuning of existing forms) sounds anti-scientific. They fear that the tenants of intelligent design and the creationists (people I hate as much as they do) will rejoice and quote them as being on their side. They really fear that, so they are prudent, some in good faith, some for calculated fear of being cast out of the scientific community.
Designer’s emulation
From UD: Emulating the “Appearance” of Design in Nature
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Evolution in reverse gear
Rapid, Dramatic ‘Reverse Evolution’ Documented In The Threespine Stickleback Fish
ScienceDaily (May 15, 2008) — Evolution is supposed to inch forward over eons, but sometimes, at least in the case of a little fish called the threespine stickleback, the process can go in relative warp-speed reverse, according to a study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and published online ahead of print in the May 20 issue of Current Biology.
05.14.08
Darwin and Nietzsche
Darwin, Nietzsche, and Hitler: Evolution of the Ubermensch
by Benjamin Wiker
Conservative rant on Darwin/Nietzsche hits the nail on a few points.
It is forgotten that Nietzsche shows with crystal clarity the change in mood after Darwin. Compare him with Kant. Nietzsche was both influenced by Darwin, and hid that influence behind a critical stance. This disastrous influence was transmitted to many in the subsequent two generations, an influence liberal Nietzscheans are at pains to deny. But the effect is there with a vengeance.
Outrageous misjudgment of Wallace
Darwin: a case of natural selection
Alfred Russel Wallace remains an obscure naturalist; more proof of survival of the fittest
Terence Kealey
This essay is an outrageous misjudgment of Wallace, but it is revealing of the tactics or mentality of Darwinists. Apparently anything goes in the promotion of ideology, truth being a casualty, survival of the fittest rules beyond truth.
First, Wallace is not so unknown: it is part of the propaganda campaign to say he is completely unknown. He may not have the celebrity status of Darwin’s false fame, but his achievement is clear in any truthful history of science that deals with the real facts: the famous Ternate letter, the conspiracy in the background to cheat him of his priority, and the subsequent downplaying of his honest insight that natural selection theory was inadequate to explain human evolution.
Saying that he is secondary here is a distortion. Science is about truth, and the truth is that he was a victim of chicanery and should be considered the real founder of modern evolutionary theory. Read the rest of this entry »
With a grain of NaCl
I, too, think we could do with a little scientific literacy. Read the rest of this entry »
05.13.08
Academic propaganda monopolies
Baylor tenure controversy: Here’s a dollar, google me a scholar - and other news.
The IDM’s obsession with tenure suggests their wish for equal domination, not theories of evolution. Better off as outsiders?
Genetic dimmer switch
One gene, many shapes
By Tia GhoseMay 13th, 2008Web edition A genetic dimmer switch fine-tunes leaf variation in tomato plants
05.12.08
African eve?
So was there an African Eve? Perhaps but, despite progress, we do not really know very much about our origins yet. It is perhaps a bit like trying to predict the picture represented by a 5,000 piece puzzle - where we do not have the picture on the box - after discovering a few matching pieces in various places. We are influenced not only by what we see in the few pieces filled in but by what we want or expect to see in the vastly greater blank spaces.
Self-organization, description and theory, and…the eonic effect
James comments on Self-organization
Your impatience with ’self-organization’ is understandable. The problem, of course, is that the ID people have also said as much, and are critical of self-organizatin as too mechanistic. Actually, I think the problem is more one of expectations. And that work is not likely to prove the solution to the evolution problem in general. Nonetheless, it points to the next step on the ladder, unfortunately a difficult step: e.g. explaining the origin of life. Clearly a case of ’self-organization’, but how explain self-organization?
However, self-organization as a ‘descriptive fact’ is one thing, ’self-organization’ as a theory another.
Check out the ‘eonic effect’, a clear, definite, and spectacular case of ’self-organization’, speaking descriptively, but I can’t think of any current theory of such footing the bill.
Render unto Darwin…
Render Unto Darwin That Which Is Darwin’s
The German chemist August Kekulé fell asleep in his study after a fruitless struggle to identify the chemical structure of benzene. He dreamed of a snake eating its own tail and awoke instantly. The dream gave him, through the ancient language of symbolism, the circular structure of the benzene ring that had eluded his conscious mind. The dream may have had its basis in Kekulé’s experiments, but it was the nonrational that brought him his discovery.
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3QD interviews Richard Dawkins
Three Quarks Daily
Reposted from: Dawkins site
http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2008/05/3qd-interviews.html
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“Intolerance toward opponents of evolution”
Stanislaus State professor laments intolerance toward opponents of evolution
When Curtis Grant, a retired history professor from California State University, Stanislaus, was watching Ben Stein’s satirical documentary, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” he thought of another CSUS professor, Richard Weikart.
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Exposing the Darwinian Paradox
Expelled: Exposing the Darwinian Paradox
Many of you have probably seen or at least heard of Ben Stein’s documentary film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The film tackles allegations of suppressed academic freedom within American universities and attempts to demonstrate that any scientist who dares to question the Darwinian explanation of life on earth is sure to end his or her academic career. Read the rest of this entry »
Galapagos
Galapagos (DVD)
Narrated by Tilda Swinton
With a running time of 150 minutes this BBC/National Geographic documentary on the legendary Galapagos Islands is a milestone cinemagraphically dazzling exploration of the setting that gave Darwin his most complete evidence for the theory of evolution.
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Carter: Gaza
The Human Rights Crime in Gaza
By Jimmy Carter, The Guardian. Posted May 12, 2008.
A million and a half human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world — we can’t sit idly by.
05.11.08
What is natural?
Evolution: What is ‘Natural’?
Richard Dawkins
Reposted from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU884Q2iUmE&watch_response
New Scientist & Greenpeace Science debates
Publication Date: 21 Mar 2007
Science, technology and our future: the big questions
Publication date: 16th April 2002
Summary
What is ‘natural’?
Richard Dawkins pointed out that nature is Darwinian and dominated by the short-term greediness that is required within competitive ecosystems to pass on one’s genes. Humans are no different and are dominated by those instincts, but with our complex brain-power we have the ability to rise above these destructive tendencies and be a good steward to the planet and ourselves.
Comment on Weikart debate
Interesing comment on Weikart issue
Check out this commenter’s blog:
http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2008/05/10/the-wrong-stuff-on-purpose-weikart-misquotes-darwin/
Ostracism W/out Nat Selection
Piattelli-Palmarini: Ostracism W/out Nat Selection
Friday, 9 May 2008, 12:20 pm
(See also Mazur on Kauffman: here
Column: Suzan Mazur
Piattelli-Palmarini: Ostracism W/out Natural Selection
by Suzan Mazur
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