Texas Previews a Huckabee Presidency
Sun Dec 02, 2007 at 11:17:16 AM PDT
The state of Texas this week offered Americans a preview of a Mike Huckabee presidency. In Austin, the veteran science director of the Texas Education Agency was forced to resign after coming under withering assault by creationism advocates. Judging by his words and deeds, the former Arkansas Governor and Baptist minister promises a similarly grim future for the teaching of evolution and the scientific method in the United States.
Pseudoscience Saturday! Intelligent Design Trial Ends
Fri Nov 04, 2005 at 07:25:25 PM PDT
It's been an exciting, even climactic final week of the hit trial,
Kitzmiller et al vs. Dover School District, the
second trial in less than a century to determine whether America will fully join the Enlightenment. Closing arguments were on Friday, but "Pseudoscience Saturday" just has a special ring to it. (Read about the final day of the trial at the first link above.)
Below the flip, then, the "myth" of separation of church and state, the magical evolving designed amoeba, and other entertaining and alarming Ignorance on Display!
Intelligent Design Judge Eats Witness's Lunch
Wed Nov 02, 2005 at 09:22:02 PM PDT
Have you exhausted your Harry accolades?
Tired of hoping for sudden news of Rove's indictment?
Or maybe, like me, you just like to snort through your nose at gun-totin' fundy rednecks who are waiting for the rapture.
Whatever your symptoms, I have the cure! Pull up a chair, pop open a beer, and watch as Judge Jones scares the beJeezus out of a witness for the defense. At issue is a check for $850, some amateur money laundering, and whether Beethoven really evolved from pond scum.
But first, the back story...
Something Stupid This Way Comes, Or How Conservatives Hate Science
Tue Oct 18, 2005 at 11:15:14 AM PDT
(Cross-posted at The Next Hurrah)
Newsflash from Pennsylvania! I'm talking about intelligent design fiction masquerading as science, for the edification and edumacation of them youngsters, in the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial, where the defense has called in its lead "expert" witness:
Charles Darwin's theory of evolution came under sustained attack in federal court here [Harrisburg, PA] Monday as biochemistry professor Michael J. Behe argued that the theory fails to account for the complex biological machinery that scientists find in the corners of the human cell.
Behe, who teaches at Lehigh University, is one of the intellectual founding fathers of "intelligent design," which holds that aspects of life are so complex as to be best explained as the work of a super-intelligent designer.
"The appearance of design in aspects of biology is overwhelming," Behe told the court. "Intelligent design is based on observed, empirical, physical evidence from nature."
I'm sorry, but what the hell are you talking about, Professor? I thought I signed up for a science course, not story hour. Calling you to testify as an "expert" in the life sciences is like calling a CSI fan to testify in a murder case.
Ahem, pardon me. I apologize for the digression. Shall we return to the subject at hand? The Washington Post article outlines the background of the case:
Behe is the lead defense witness in a trial that has drawn national attention since it began three weeks ago. Last year, the school board in Dover, Pa. -- a small town south of Harrisburg -- voted to require high school biology teachers to read to students four paragraphs that cast doubt on Darwin's theory of evolution and say that intelligent design offers an alternative theory for the origin and development of life.
Eleven parents sued to block the school board's action. The parents' lawyers, along with prominent scientists and philosophers, have argued that intelligent design is biblical creationism draped in new clothing. They note that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled -- most recently in 1987 -- that religion-tinged scientific theories have no place in public schools.
More below the fold.
