2008

According to a Science Daily news release, engineers are turning to marine biology for insight into building better turbine blades and wings. The article reports that “[t]he shape of whale flippers with one bumpy edge has inspired the creation of a completely novel design for wind turbine blades. This design has been shown to be more efficient and also quieter, but defies traditional engineering theories.” Apparently small bumps on the leading edge of the flippers create vortices as the whale moves through the water, and this uneven flow “help[s] to generate more lift without the occurrence of stall, as well as enhancing manoeuvrability and agility.” The authors of the article seem cognizant of the unwanted design overtones, and thus lead Read More ›

Rick Richman, editor of Jewish Current Issues, has an article in American Thinker about Neo-Atheism and the response to it from three different authors, including CSC senior fellow David Berlinski. In April, David Berlinski, a secular Jew and well-known skeptic of Darwinism, who holds a Ph. D. in Philosophy from Princeton and has written widely on mathematics and science, published “The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions.” The book defends religion by attacking atheism’s attempt to enlist science in its cause.The book is written with Mr. Berlinski’s characteristic literary verve. To a Nobel Prize scientist’s argument — offered at a conference on “science, religion and reason” — that “for good people to do evil things, [it] takes religion,” Berlinski Read More ›

In an op-ed in Scotland’s The Journal, student Simon Mundy connects the flak over Michael Reiss to Matt Damon’s comments on Sarah Palin, pitying them both for being used by the intelligent design lobby (those cruelly powerful IDers!) and warning that ID “is coming perilously close to respectability.” Quell horreur! But the best is at the very end, where Mundy writes: The right to a dissenting opinion lies at the heart of our society. But future generations will not thank us for undermining scientific theories that have been proven beyond all reasonable doubt. In other words, we have a right to our dissenting opinion, just so long as it doesn’t undermine (I think Judge Jones would prefer the term “disparage,” Read More ›

For a most enlightening take on the Michael Reiss situation, listen to Casey Luskin’s interview with Steve Fuller on ID the Future podcast: ID the Future PodcastOn this episode of ID the Future, CSC’s Casey Luskin is joined by Dr. Steve Fuller, a professor of sociology at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. Dr. Fuller shares his perspective on the recent forced resignation of the former Director of Education at the Royal Society, Michael Reiss. Reiss is an ordained Anglican Priest, has a doctorate in biology, is currently a professor of science education at the Institute of Education at the University of London, and is widely regarded and respected as an expert in science education. Reiss stepped down Read More ›

The McCain-Obama sex education for kindergartners flap doesn’t seem to be going away. Despite the best efforts of the traditional news media to deny reality, the facts have been trickling out thanks primarily to alternative media outlets like National Review Online (here and here), The Weekly Standard, and Rush Limbaugh.

But there is a whole lot more to this story that hasn’t been widely reported yet—and it needs to be.

As I documented in chapters 12 and 13 of my book Darwin Day in America, there is a growing movement in the United States to provide explicit sex education to very young children. It’s a movement that thoughtful parents have every right to be disturbed about. What is scandalous is the way “mainstream” reporters are doing their best to make sure nobody finds out what is actually being proposed.

First, a recap of the current brouhaha: The flap started earlier this month when the McCain campaign aired an inflammatory ad accusing Senator Obama of supporting a bill in the Illinois legislature that would have required comprehensive sex ed for children starting in kindergarten. For days, the ad was denounced by most major media outlets as a contemptible lie. Too bad the journalists making such claims didn’t bother to read the legislation for themselves. Had they done so, they would have seen that the bill for comprehensive sex education supported by Sen. Obama clearly proposed expanding instruction about sexually transmitted diseases from grades “6-12” to grades “K-12” (see pages 1, 5, and 9 of the bill).

What has yet to be widely reported is that the bill supported by Obama is part of a much broader campaign by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) to implement its radical Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education: Kindergarten through 12th Grade in school districts across the nation. The SIECUS guidelines make clear that sex ed for kindergartners is precisely what the mainline sex education lobby wants right now, and last year the Obama campaign itself cited the SIECUS guidelines as an example of the kind of “age appropriate” sex education that Sen. Obama favors.

According to the SIECUS standards, children starting at age 5 are supposed to be taught about vaginal intercourse (p. 26), homosexual relationships (p. 29), same-sex marriage (p. 39), masturbation (pp. 51-52), unwanted pregnancies (p. 61), AIDS (p. 65), and other sexually transmitted diseases (p. 63). That’s right, all this starting at age 5. If you don’t believe me, read the SIECUS guidelines for yourself. One can support “age appropriate” sex education (as I do) without embracing SIECUS’s intrusive effort to force five-year-olds to deal with all manner of explicit topics.
Unfortunately, SIECUS is far from a fringe organization. It is the leading “mainstream” sex education group in the United States. That’s not to say it doesn’t have a pretty sordid history. As I recount in detail in my book, SIECUS was founded by partisans of evolutionary biologist Alfred Kinsey, who revolutionized sexual morality by attempting to apply a reductionist Darwinian approach to human sexuality.

Darwin Day in America, by John West, has garnered praise and driven Darwinists crazy with it’s overwhelming preponderance of evidence showing that Darwinian biology and reductionist science have been used to degrade American culture over the past century through their impact on criminal justice, welfare, business, education, and bioethics. It is in the area of eugenics that West has really exposed the devastating — and dehumanizing — consequence of Darwin’s evolutionary ideas. A new review of DDA in the New Oxford Review gives a good overview of the book, but examines most closely the portions dealing with eugenics. Writes reviewer Anne Barbeau Gardiner: Scholars today place the blame for the eugenics debacle on politicians, but West finds it more accurate Read More ›

Late last night I posted my final rebuttals to the NCSE on OpposingViews.com. This makes 12 total rebuttals for the pro-ID side and zero for the anti-ID side (though Americans United did post a sur-rebuttal tellingly titled “You Lost the Case — Get Over It“). Here are my links to my latest rebuttals: (Note: The OpposingViews.com website has had a nasty habit of losing footnotes, so some footnotes may be missing. I’m told they will be fixing this problem soon.) In my second rebuttal to the NCSE, I refute a Darwinist YouTube video that the NCSE cites to attack the Scientific Dissent from Darwinism list. I periodically get e-mails from people asking about this video. A closer look easily shows Read More ›

In his book Darwin’s God: Evolution and the Problem of Evil, biophysicist Cornelius G. Hunter explains that in Darwin’s day, some of the most commonly used arguments for evolution were theological arguments, not scientific. It seems that little has changed in the past ~150 years. Last year we reported that UC Irvine evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala was making religious arguments for evolution. Likewise, in a recent news article, George Coyne, a Catholic priest, reportedly said people should oppose intelligent design (ID) and accept evolution because ID allegedly “belittles God.” While reflecting upon his new crusade, Coyne said, “I am going to, for better or worse, take on the intelligent design movement in this country … I’m not going to apologize Read More ›

If you watch baseball then you are probably familiar with the time-honored tradition of a team president or general manager expressing on Tuesday night after a game how they stand 100% behind the manager, who is summarily fired on Wednesday morning. Such statements of support are almost always a signal that the end is near for a team’s manager. Consider this statement in The Times last Friday, reportedly issued by the Royal Society in the wake of Prof. Michael Reiss, a biologist and the Society’s director of education, suggesting discussion of creationism in science classes to explain how it isn’t science, but Darwinian evolution is. “A spokesman for the organisation, which counts 21 Nobel Prize winners among its Fellows, confirmed Read More ›

The recent comments by a Royal Society scientist and education expert about creationism being taught in science classes in the UK have got PZ Myers’ panties all in a bunch. Of course, Myers’ panties are used to being in a bunch because it doesn’t take much to get his dander up.

To be clear Discovery does not support the inclusion of creation science in science curricula. However, teaching both the strengths and weaknesses of a scientific theory, such as Darwinian evolution, is a far cry from teaching creationism, or any other alternative views.

For Myers it is too much for anyone to even suggest discussing creationism with the intent to knock it down, and ultimately to uphold a dogmatic view of the Darwinian orthodoxy.

This is an important distinction that is blurred by most people who advocate that tired old slogan, “teach the controversy” or “teach both sides”. There is only one side, the pattern of the evidence. There are, of course, cases where the evidence is still open to interpretation, and there it is appropriate to present a more ambiguous answer and explain how scientists are still working to resolve the problem.

Indeed, we have long argued to follow the evidence where it leads. And in regards to science education policy specifically:

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