Eugenie Scott is a physical anthropologist who as director of the National Center for Science Education travels the United States warning audiences about the threat of creationism and unmasking its various guises. Intelligent design, according to her, is currently the most sinister of these guises. Scott has developed a standard shtick, which includes not only some well-worn arguments against creationism Read More ›
During the first three decades of the 20th century the eugenics movement thrived in the United States and throughout much of the Western world. Meaning “good in birth,” eugenicists believed that society could improve the physical, mental, cultural, and social health of humanity through selective breeding techniques that would eventually eliminate feeblemindedness, epilepsy, criminality, insanity, alcoholism, and pauperism. This utopia Read More ›
“It’s the economy, stupid.” This cry of the 1992 Clinton campaign now appears to be appropriate as we enter 2001. Recent data from the United States, and from the rest of the world as well, strongly indicates that global economic growth is rapidly declining. The economic situation requires quick action not only in the United States but also constructive action Read More ›
This essay makes three main arguments: (1) By crafting a document that took seriously the fallibility of human nature, America’s Founders created a government that has withstood the political passions that have destroyed so many other regimes throughout human history. (2) By refusing to sanction even the hint of an official state religion in their new Constitution, the Founders encouraged Read More ›
To American evangelicals, the new century seemed anything but hospitable. Many Americans had stopped going to church. Some openly doubted Christianity, preferring to place their hopes in reason alone rather than a God who intervenes in human affairs. The nation’s cities were turning into havens of crime, promiscuity, and alcoholism. Radical social reformers dotted the landscape, attracting enthusiastic interest, if Read More ›
Should Pennsylvania’s science standards be changed? Draft language for the standards is expected to go before the state legislature early in 2001. According to standards adopted in 1998, students are expected to “know” that “organisms arose from materials and life forms of the past” because of “evidence of evolution in the form of fossils . . . embryological studies and Read More ›
QUALCOMM’S CDMA, already the leading wireless technology in North America, is now poised to triumph in the next era of wireless. To explain why, let us revisit the now-legendary cocktail party that Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs long ago conceived as an analogy for cellular systems. At the party, several guests have paired off in conversation. But for each listener the Read More ›