Robert Crowther

[Note: For a more comprehensive defense of Ben Stein’s documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, please see: NCSE Exposed at NCSEExposed.org] Over at alivingdog.com, blogger Gord Wilson has just posted a lengthy interview with the lead writer of Expelled, Kevin Miller. The interview is enlightening on several levels, and covers a wide range of topics from media suppression, to the lawsuits against the film, to Richard Dawkins appearance. Well worth reading. G: I would say what his argument doesn’t explain is Richard Dawkins. It doesn’t explain why he’s so passionate, why he’s so smart, why he writes so well. And if he’s right, the game’s over.K: Why does it matter to him? I came to that question over and over. Why Read More ›

We are teaming up with the IDEA Center (Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness) to help students in starting IDEA chapters on their campuses. Such campus clubs are a fun and educational way for students to examine all sides of the debate over evolution. Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness (IDEA) Clubs are student-initiated clubs that foster academic freedom as students learn about scientific evidence that supports intelligent design and also learn about modern evolutionary theory. IDEA Clubs are a growing network of student-led clubs on university and high school campuses around the United States with thirty new chapters formed to date. Visit www.ideacenter.org or e-mail Brian Westad at brianw@ideacenter.org for information on how you can start an IDEA club in your Read More ›

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On Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday (February 12, 2009), students everywhere can speak out against censorship and stand up for free speech by defending the right to debate the evidence for and against evolution. Let’s turn Darwin Day into Academic Freedom Day.

As regular ENV readers are aware, we just launched the grassroots Academic Freedom Day campaign. Our goal is to transform the bicentennial of Darwin’s birth on Feb. 12, 2009 from an uncritical celebration venerating Darwin to a day that highlights the need for academic freedom to debate the evidence for and against Darwinism. As a follow-up to the release of Expelled this year, we want to continue to raise awareness of efforts by Darwinists to stifle scientific inquiry at all levels, and we want people to sign the Academic Freedom Petition. The centerpiece of our campaign is the website www.academicfreedomday.com.

Announcing the Academic Freedom Video & Essay Contest

Darwin once wrote,

A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question.

That famous quote will be the touchstone for students to communicate their support for academic freedom to explore the evidence for and against Darwinian evolution. The video and essay contest is open to high school and college students and will be judged based on creativity, accuracy, and persuasiveness. One grand-prize winner will be announced and have his or her entry officially unveiled at academicfreedomday.com on Academic Freedom Day, Feb. 12th 2008. For details on entering the contest, go to: www.academicfreedomday.com/actUp.php.

We need your help in promoting the contest to ensure that as many students as possible hear about it and are able to participate.

Here are five things that you can do to help us promote the Academic Freedom Day Video & Essay Contest:

[Note: For an extensive response to critics of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, please see: NCSE Exposed at NCSEExposed.org]Here’s something you can do to help support academic freedom: Bring Ben Stein to your campus by scheduling a screening of the provocative documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. We can help students obtain a license to show Expelled featuring Stein or the documentary Icons of Evolution featuring biologist Jonathan Wells (based on the bestselling book of the same name). Each film highlights the fight to maintain academic freedom in academia and the sciences for those who speak out against Darwinian evolution.This is a high-profile event that will raise the issue and help foster discussion on your campus. Screening a movie will attract a Read More ›

Looking for a simple way to stand up for academic freedom on Academic Freedom Day? Let people know you support academic freedom by wearing an Academic Freedom Day t-shirt on February 12th, 2009. T-shirts come in a variety of styles and sizes and are inexpensively priced. Click here to browse the shirts and order one for yourself. Don’t stand up alone. Get your friends and classmates to order t-shirts and organize an Academic Freedom Day event at your school, church, or organization. If you need ideas for what you can do to celebrate Academic Freedom Day, here’s a list of five things to do. Or, you can e-mail us at academicfreedom@discovery.org. And you can suit up your dorm or bedroom Read More ›

As part of our efforts to support academic freedom on evolution, we are teaming up with the IDEA Center (Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness) to help students in starting an IDEA chapter on their campus. Such campus clubs are a fun and educational way for students to examine all sides of the debate over evolution. IDEA Clubs are student-initiated clubs that foster academic freedom as students learn about scientific evidence that supports intelligent design and also learn about modern evolutionary theory. IDEA Clubs are a growing network of student-led clubs on university and high school campuses around the United States with thirty new chapters formed to date. Visit www.ideacenter.org or e-mail Brian Westad at brianw@ideacenter.org for information on how you Read More ›

In Texas, the far-left activist organization Texas Freedom Network is working overtime to try to gut the state’s science standards. This week the Texas State Board of Education holds their regularly scheduled meeting and it seems the TFN will try and whip up a mob to lobby the board when they discuss the proposed update of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for science. TFN is parading a push-poll survey of scientists they did recently. They emailed over 1,000 scientists and science professors at Texas universities and less than half replied. Still, TFN is trumpeting that of the replies they did get, nearly all were in complete lock step with the Darwin-only lobby. As Casey Luskin pointed out in Read More ›

The Waco Tribune has an opinion piece today from one of the scientists selected as an expert reviewer of Texas’ science standards. Charles Garner, a chemist at Baylor, writes: As the Texas Education Agency reviews the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, a controversy has developed about language in the current TEKS, which states: “The student uses critical thinking and scientific problem-solving to make informed decisions. The student is expected to analyze, review and critique scientific explanations, including hypotheses and theories, as to their strengths and weaknesses using scientific evidence and information.” This language promotes critical thinking skills. It has been in the TEKS for years. The TEKS guidelines are working fine and Texas students receive some of the best science Read More ›

The liberal Darwin lobby group Texas Freedom Network has just published a push-poll of scientists titled, “Survey of Texas Faculty: Overwhelming Opposition to Watering Down Evolution in School Science Curriculum.” You might think this is good news, that there are a majority of scientists and professors who support the current TEKS which require students to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories.

Instead, TFN means exactly the opposite. Let me point out that THEY are the ones who want gut the state’s science standards and water down the teaching of evolution. They want to remove the strengths and weaknesses language, language that has been in the TEKS for over a decade.

What is stunning is the TFN’s jackbooted thuggery of threatening parents! Parents reading this should be enraged that liberal anti-science censors are now making veiled threats against any student that doesn’t toe the Darwin party line.

“Many of these science faculty members almost certainly help determine who gets into our state’s colleges and universities,” Eve said. “Their responses should send parents a clear message that those who want to play politics with science education are putting our kids at risk.”

Sounds ominous, doesn’t it?

As for TFN’s “findings,” there’s nothing new here. As usual it’s misleading, misrepresentative and misses the point.
The report highlights five key findings from the survey: