My latest article has been posted on AlterNet, Why the Anti-Science Creationist Movement Is So Dangerous. In it, I survey the history of the modern creationist movement, point out how it's completely captured one of America's two major political parties, and illuminate the larger ideological goals that lie behind the assault on evolution. Read the excerpt below, then click through and see the rest! A few weeks ago, Jon Huntsman torpedoed his candidacy for the Republican presidential … [Read more...]
Tax Breaks for Ignorance
August 26, 2011 By 13 Comments
As you doubtless already know, America is suffering through an unprecedented economic disaster. With millions of people jobless and millions of homeowners underwater, the economy is stagnant and its prospects are dim. Which is why, in these hard times, nothing is more important than shoveling more taxpayer dollars into the gaping maw of the fundamentalist carnival sideshow: A group of private investors and religious organizations is hoping to build a Bible-themed amusement park in Kentucky, … [Read more...]
Creationist Target Practice
August 6, 2011 By 201 Comments
Yesterday, someone calling himself Rev. Skeens posted the following comment. I rejected it since it had no perceptible connection to the post it was submitted under, but then I had second thoughts. Granted that this is beginner-level stuff and hardly challenging, but it's been a while since we honed our debating skills on an actual creationist around here, so I thought it might be entertaining to throw it out there and use it for target practice. Who wants to have a go? Secular archeologist's … [Read more...]
Fighting Creationist Pollution of Science Classes
February 16, 2011 By 9 Comments
This past weekend was Darwin Day, an international celebration of science and reason in the name of the one person who did more than possibly anyone else to clarify humanity's position in the natural universe. Alas, the great man's legacy is still threatened by religious ignorance: Researchers found that only 28 percent of biology teachers consistently follow the recommendations of the National Research Council to describe straightforwardly the evidence for evolution and explain the ways in … [Read more...]
Bowing to the Text
November 29, 2010 By 23 Comments
By way of The Panda's Thumb, I came across this story that just had to be shared. Regular readers of this site are probably familiar with the arch-creationist William Dembski, one of the founders of the intelligent-design movement. When I last wrote about him, I mentioned that he, like other creationists who insist their work is motivated strictly by science and not religion, has somehow ended up at a conservative Christian seminary - in Dembski's case, the Southwestern Baptist Theological … [Read more...]
Creationists Flee from Criticism
July 18, 2010 By 26 Comments
A few weeks ago, I was alerted by a Google alert to a post, "Conversation With An Atheist", on the site Everyday Christian. Since I'm always interested to find Christians who want to converse with atheists, to see what they have to say about us and to us, I checked it out. It turned out to be a fairly run-of-the-mill creationist argument by a Christian apologist named Jack Wellman. Since my interest was piqued, I posted a comment in reply to Mr. Wellman, and then another when he responded (you … [Read more...]
The Case for a Creator: Redefining Science
July 12, 2010 By 20 Comments
The Case for a Creator, Closing Thoughts The theory of evolution not only explains and unifies a vast range of scientific observations, it's given rise to an enormous, fruitful research program by predicting where we should look in order to find all kinds of phenomena of interest. One of the most famous examples is how Charles Darwin predicted that the earliest human ancestors would be found in Africa, which turned out to be 100% correct. Based on observing flowers from Madagascar, Darwin also … [Read more...]
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