http://www.townhall.com/columnists/phyllisschlafly/ps20020206.shtml How the subject of evolution is treated in the classroom has emerged again as a source of controversy, this time in the Ohio State Board of Education. Until now, Ohio public schools have not mandated any direct teaching about the subject. “Standards” is the new fad sweeping across schools today, and the Ohio legislature has ordered that the Ohio Read More ›
On Tuesday, September 25, 2001, Professor Kenneth Miller of Brown University issued a press release entitled “A ‘Dying Theory’ Fails Again,” available here: www.ncseweb.org/resources/articles/3071_km-3.pdf In this document, Miller claims that the Discovery Institute (DI) tried to “smear” PBS’s Evolution series when the DI charged that program with making a false statement about the universality of the genetic code. Miller also Read More ›
The PBS documentary “Evolution” has generated a cultural debate that its producers expected. Critics of the eight-hour production issued a poll to try to prove the public disagreed with the program, which was the fall’s top opener Monday on public television. The Discovery Institute, a public policy organization in Seattle, commissioned a public poll finding that eight in 10 Americans Read More ›
What’s Darwin got to do with it? When it comes to evolution, quite a bit! But many people don’t understand Darwin, creationism and intelligent design. Here’s a book that makes sense of it all! A group of scholars, teachers, writers and illustrators have teamed up to create an easy-to-read introduction and critique to this important issue. You’ll enjoy the lively Read More ›
In a memorable scene from the movie The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman’s parents throw him a party to celebrate his graduation from college. The parents’ friends are all there congratulating him and offering advice. What should Hoffman do with his life? One particularly solicitous guest is eager to set him straight. He takes Hoffman aside and utters a single word — Read More ›
Robert E. Hemenway, chancellor of the University of Kansas, declared war on creationism in his essay ("The Evolution of a Controversy in Kansas Shows Why Scientists Must Defend the Search for Truth," Opinion, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 29). He characterized the Kansas Board of Education as wishing to destroy the idea that the public schools should be a source of truth or certainty, and quoted various hyperbolic comments that gave the impression that the board had discarded science in favor of the Book of Genesis. His worries are greatly exaggerated, but there is much to be said for the remedy he proposes. Read More ›
A Chinese paleontologist lectures around the world saying that recent fossil finds in his country are inconsistent with the Darwinian theory of evolution. His reason: The major animal groups appear abruptly in the rocks over a relatively short time, rather than evolving gradually from a common ancestor as Darwin’s theory predicts. When this conclusion upsets American scientists, he wryly comments: Read More ›
In this scientific age, it is impossible to quarantine the claims of science. They invariably leak into other cultural domains. So we should attend to what scientists tell us. Sometimes it is quite important. For instance, in The Meaning of Evolution, George Gaylord Simpson repeats what is surely the “official” dogma of the contemporary scientific guild: “Man is the result Read More ›