Wiker

Part 1: The Limits of Scientism The public conversation about the evidence for design in nature has grown more heated of late even as it has grown more complicated. While newspaper reporters continue to serve up easily digestible sound bites, the controversy has developed into one far more variegated than any simple clash between evolution and creationism, let alone science Read More ›

Original We tend to consider speculation about extraterrestrials to be a recent phenomenon, a task forced on us by the scientific knowledge we’ve gained during the last century. It’s rather surprising, perhaps, to find out that the debate about whether there is extraterrestrial life stretches back just shy of two and a half millennia. Given the antiquity of the question, Read More ›

A recent Zogby International poll found that 65 percent of Ohioans believe “Biology teachers should teach Darwin’s theory of evolution, but also the scientific evidence against it.” Only 19 percent favored biology teachers teaching just Darwin’s theory and only that evidence which supports it. What do these numbers mean? On the most obvious level, for every one Ohioan who wants Read More ›

An important part of the current controversy over the theoretical status of evolutionary theory concerns its moral implications. Does evolutionary theory undermine traditional morality, or does it support it? Does it suggest that infanticide is natural (as Steven Pinker asserts) or is it a bulwark against liberal relativism (as Francis Fukuyama argues)? Does it rest on a universe devoid of Read More ›