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Columbia, SC — After months of debate, today the South Carolina Education Oversight Committee unanimously ratified high school biology standards requiring students to understand why “scientists continue to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory.” The South Carolina State Board of Education adopted the standards unanimously last month, and submitted them to the EOC for approval. South Carolina’s new evolution standard does not require teaching the theory of intelligent design. The biology standard approved requires students to be able to, “Summarize ways that scientists use data from a variety of sources to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory.” This falls under the overall biology standard which says that “The student will demonstrate an understanding of biological evolution Read More ›

Judge John Jones world tour continues on with no sign of the Judge slowing down. This Knight-Ridder story appeared in Kansas today and one wonders if the Judge can be far behind. By his own count he’s done ten speaking gigs just recently, many of them commencement speeches. None in Dover though.

Judge Jones knew full well that the eyes of the world were upon him during the Dover case, and so chose that moment to deliver a “civics lesson.”

Jones said he had no agenda regarding intelligent design but, rather, was taking advantage of the worldwide interest in the case to talk about constitutional issues important to him.
“I’ve found a message that resonates,” he said. “It’s a bit of a civics lesson, but it’s a point that needs to be made: that judges don’t act according to bias or political agenda.”

But, they should act according to evidence and testimony presented, which clearly Jones did not.

Columbia, SC — The South Carolina Education Oversight Committee (EOC) will vote Monday, June 12, on whether to give final approval to science standards for biology that require students to summarize how scientists “investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory.” The standards were approved unanimously by the South Carolina Board of Education on May 31. Four other states (Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and New Mexico) already have science education standards encouraging critical analysis of evolution.

“Darwin’s theory should be taught as a theory open to scientific scrutiny, not as an orthodoxy that cannot be questioned,” said Casey Luskin, Program Officer for Public Policy & Legal Affairs at Discovery Institute. “South Carolina’s new biology standards, if adopted, will improve science education by encouraging full disclosure of all the relevant scientific evidence, including evidence critical of Darwin’s theory.”

I think it was George Patton who said, “If everybody’s thinking the same thing, then nobody’s thinking.” And I believe that’s the problem with this Darwinian thinking that puts all the eggs in one basket.

Oh, those ignorant people who criticize Darwinism … this guy’s probably a Christian fundamentalist, right? Determined to ignore science and establish a theocracy.

Below are the notes for my comments at the Traipsing into Evolution book party held at Discovery Institute yesterday. There the four authors discussed Judge Jones’ lengthy opinion in the Dover intelligent design trial, and touched on some of the highlights from the book, which was our response to his opinion.

British philosopher Antony Flew, “once considered the most prominent defender of atheism in the English-speaking world,” is scheduled to accept the Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth from Biola University today:

The new journalistic standard that politically incorrect views do not need to be represented, let alone reported fairly, was on full display on today’s NPR Morning Edition coverage of a teachers convention in California where a class was taught on how to teach evolution. Reporter Gloria Hillard did a fine job of hyping what was, in fact, a small gathering and allowing evolutionist Prof. Ken Miller plenty of time to define the issue of intelligent design.If you want to know the opposition view, go to the Answers in Genesis creationist website for further information on the topic, he suggested. Wasn’t that nice of him? There was no attempt whatever to have a contrary point of view heard. Usually NPR at Read More ›

Dr. George Coyne, the University of Arizona astronomer and Jesuit priest who is also head of the Vatican Observatory has been speaking to whatever Darwinist group will have him on the topic of why intelligent design “belittles God” and should be opposed by Catholics, who, indeed, should welcome Darwin’s theory in all its glory. Coyne has infinite Christian charity and patience for Darwinists who diss God, but none at all for his co-religionists who doubt Darwin.

A news article last week in the National Catholic Register that merely reported Coyne’s provocative views sparked a spate of letters this week (April 30-May 6 issue–not yet available online) rebuking Dr. Coyne for misrepresenting ID (among other things he called it “a fundamentalist movement”) and for attacking Cardinal Schoenborn of Austria. The cardinal, of course, has emphasized the Church’s longstanding commitment to the reality of design in nature and has pointed out the folly of full-blown Darwinism. At the end of the extensive letters column the editors make clear that they were not endorsing Coyne’s views. In fact, they state, “Our editorial position…is very close to that of the Discovery Institute.”