Teach the Controversy

In their recent Opinion article in TREE1, Eugenie Scott and Glenn Branch argue that teaching students that there is a scientific controversy about the ‘validity of evolution’ is ‘scientifically inappropriate and pedagogically irresponsible’. In so doing, Branch and Scott assume that they have critiqued my position on the teaching of evolution. But they fail to define their terms and engage the Read More ›

NOTE: On Monday, 11 March 2002, Stephen Meyer and Jonathan Wells of the Discovery Institute submitted the following Bibliography of Supplementary Resources to the Ohio State Board of Education. These 44 scientific publications represent important lines of evidence and puzzles that any theory of evolution must confront, and that science teachers and students should be allowed to discuss when studying Read More ›

When students study Darwin’s theory of evolution, should they learn only about its strengths, or should they also hear about its weaknesses? And should they learn about the best current evidence for evolution, or should they study outdated examples that have been discredited by the scientific community? Those are the real issues Discovery Institute has raised with the Texas State Read More ›

An ECPA 2003 Gold Medallion Finalist! Phillip E. Johnson pries the lid off public debate about questions of ultimate concern — questions often suppressed by our society’s intellectual elite. Moving far beyond matters of creation and evolution, Johnson outlines the questions we all ought to be asking about the meaning of human history, the limits of scientific inquiry, religion and Read More ›

Praising the adoption Thursday night of a policy encouraging the “discussion of disputed views” about evolution in Cobb County, Georgia schools, Discovery Institute President Bruce Chapman called the decision “a victory for academic freedom and good science education” and faulted critics of the policy for “trying to mischaracterize the controversy as a battle over religion.” “The policy adopted by the Read More ›

The believers in Darwinian evolution who currently dominate our educational establishment think that all students — even those headed for careers in auto mechanics or real estate — should believe, as they do, that all of us are descended from ape-like creatures through genetic accidents and survival of the fittest. Promoters of this doctrine have recently been urging the Ohio State Read More ›

Cynical lawyers have a maxim: When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you have the law on your side, argue the law. When neither is on your side, question the motives of the opposition. The latter seems to be the strategy of die-hard defenders of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, now that the State Board Read More ›