Science and Culture Today | Page 1307 | Discovering Design in Nature

Floyd & Mary Beth Brown at Townhall.com understand what really happened in Louisiana when Gov. Jindal signed the LSEA, calling it “an important blow for academic freedom.” Their news analysis piece, “Evolutionists Fear Academic Freedom,” gets it right: academic freedom is a common-sense approach with bipartisan support, evolutionists are truly afraid of the scientific challenges to Darwinism that critical thinking might lead to, and the mainstream media (in this case, the New York Times in an editorial) works to discredit Darwin skeptics and apply national political pressure on local and regional decision-makers: One would think legislation which allows an environment that promotes “critical thinking” and “objective discussion” in the classroom would please everyone — it did the bipartisan group of Read More ›

CSC’s John West has a very good piece at National Review Online today. Defending the Louisiana Science Education Act, West echoes the themes and ideas that he wrote about in his book Darwin Day in America, pointing out that in today’s schools political correctness, not critical thinking, is what most students are learning.

Note: This is part of a series of posts excerpted from my book, Billions of Missing Links: A Rational Look at the Mysteries Evolution Can’t Explain. The adhesive used by barnacles is among the strongest in the world. It is reported that a layer merely 3/10,000 of an inch thick can support a weight of 7000 pounds. This relative of the shrimp and crab glues its head down and keeps its feet up to catch the next meal. Its adhesive sets in water at any temperature and will not dissolve in most acids, bases, and solvents. Fossil records suggest it has been used by barnacles unchanged for 400 million years. Nothing seems to be known about its intermediates before that. Read More ›

There are literally dozens and dozens of pro-ID websites and blogs on the internet. Every once in a while, I like to highlight the ones that I visit either on a regular or occasional basis. I’m sure there are other good ones, so if you have any suggestions please send them to me at cluskin@discovery.org. In no particular order, here’s the list: Non-English Pro-ID Websites:

Noted astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, whose academic freedom was trampled at Iowa State University for being a proponent of intelligent design theory, has taken a new teaching and research position as an associate professor in the physics department at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. Grove City College is a completely independent, Christian, liberal arts college that is ranked among some of the best colleges and universities in the nation.

Click here to listen.

Next time someone tells you intelligent design is “based on religion,” you might point him to American Founder Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence. As I explain in a special July 4th edition of ID the Future, Jefferson not only believed in intelligent design, he insisted it was based on the plain evidence of nature, not religion.

Ironically, the critics of intelligent design often think they are defending the principles of Jefferson. The National Council for the Social Studies, for example, claims that intelligent design is religion and then cites Jefferson’s famous Letter to the Danbury Baptists calling for a “wall of separation” between church and state. The clear implication is that Thomas Jefferson would agree with them that intelligent design is religion. A writer for Irregular Times goes even further, insisting that “the case of Thomas Jefferson makes it quite clear that there was not a consensus of support among the authors of the Constitution to allow for the mixing of religion and government to support theological doctrines such as intelligent design.”

The following information was suppressed by Louisiana Advocate reporter Will Sentell in his story titled “La. alone with controversial science law.”

Contrary to Sentell’s report, Louisiana is definitely not alone in promoting the critical analysis of evolution.

This background information was sent to Mr. Sentell after he interviewed Casey Luskin of Discovery Institute and before he filed his article. But he apparently didn’t want to let the facts get in the way of his story:

STATE AND LOCAL POLICIES SUPPORTING CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF EVOLUTION

As of 2008, eight states have adopted statewide laws or science standards that (1) encourage or require critical analysis of evolution or (2) protect the freedom of teachers to present scientific criticisms of evolution. In addition, in at least three states, local school districts have adopted such policies.

[UPDATE: Previously there was a mistake in the quote indicating Missouri was the state with the law regarding evolution. This has been corrected to Mississippi.]

The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge Louisiana today published a front page story about Louisiana’s new law regarding teaching of evolution that contains a completely false statement in the lead.

The paper reported an unnamed official stated that “Louisiana is the only state in the nation that has enacted a law that could change the way evolution is taught in public schools.” Louisiana recently enacted the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA) which protects teachers that encourage critical thinking and objective discussion about evolution and other scientific topics.

“The reporter at the Advocate was given information before his story was published that shows this is a false statement,” said Robert Crowther director of communications for Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture. “In fact, Mississippi has had a state law similar to Louisiana’s since 2006, and many states have statewide science standards and local school district policies that either encourage or even require critical analysis of evolution.”
Discovery Institute provided a four page document that included information on the state law enacted in Mississippi in 2006 which reads:

“No local school board, school superintendent or school principal shall prohibit a public school classroom teacher from discussing and answering questions from individual students on the origin of life.” House Bill No. 214, enacted into law in 2006.

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The groundbreaking textbook, Explore Evolution: The Case For And Against Neo-Darwinism (Hill House Publishers 2007), continues to make inroads in science education. Recently Kirkus Discoveries issued a fair and favorable review of Explore Evolution saying: “through succinct language and extensive use of illustrated sidebars and summary boxes, an impressive amount of terrain is covered in a colorful and lively fashion.” You can read the full review here. Explore Evolution is unique among biology textbooks because it focuses on the evidence and arguments for and against the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution. The book has been carefully structured to help students and teachers weigh the evidence and engage in informed debate. And now there are new companion curriculum materials to help educators Read More ›

Note: This is one of a series of posts adapted from my book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design.The new war is not about evolution and creation, but about Darwinism and something called ‘intelligent design.’ Intelligent design maintains that it is possible to infer from empirical evidence that some features of the natural world are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than unguided natural processes. Since ID relies on evidence rather than on scripture or religious doctrines, it is not creationism or a form of religion. ID restricts itself to a simple question: does the evidence point to design in nature? ID does not deny the reality of variation and natural selection; it just denies that Read More ›