NewsTrust - Evolution Debate - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Greatest Country in the World, or Biggest Joke? TN Educators Can Soon Teach Students Total Nonsense

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By BooMan - Apr. 05 (Opinion) - They've taught evolution in Tennessee for my entire life, and I'm 42 years-old. I guess they're still going to teach evolution in Tennessee's schools, but now they are also going to teach whatever the hell they want, including that evolution is a pile of b.s. Their moronic governor is going to sign a new law

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Existence of Tea Party Candidates Casts Doubt on Evolution

Sun, 17 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

TruthDig - By Andy Borowitz: - Oct. 17 (Comedy News) - Two of the theory of evolution’s most vociferous doubters, Sarah Palin and Christine O’Donnell, may be living proof that Darwin was wrong, leading scientists believe.

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Survival of the Kindest

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Psychology Today - By Dacher Keltner - Feb. 11 (Review) - Two hundred years ago on February 12, Adam Gopnik writes in Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life, two pebbles -- Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln -- were dropped into the sea of life. Their ideas and forms of eloquence have redirected the currents of humanity. One current of Darwin's thought is well-known. His theory of evolution by natural selection would require new genesis stories about the origins of life forms, less arrogant notions about man's place in the great chain of being, and a rethinking of our species as one in flux—and with rather hairy relatives. Less well-known is a second current of Darwin's thought -- his conception of human nature. Think of Darwin and "survival of the fittest" leaps to mind, as do images of competitive individuals -- collections of selfish genes -- going at one another bloody in tooth and claw. "Survival of the fittest" was not Darwin's phrase, but Herbert Spencer's and that of Social Darwinists who used Darwin to justify their wished-for superiority of different classes and races. "Survival of the kindest" better captures Darwin's thinking about his own kind.

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How Congress Trumps Darwin

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By George Will - Feb. 08 (Opinion) - "Descended from the apes!" exclaimed the wife of the bishop of Worcester. "Let us hope that it is not true, but if it is, let us pray that it will not become generally known." An American majority resists such an annoying notion, endorsing the proposition that "God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years." Still, evolution is a fact and its mechanism is natural selection: Creatures with variations especially suited to their environmental situation have more descendants than do less well-adapted creatures.

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Social Networks Are Like the Eye

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Edge - By Nicholas A. Christakis - May. 21 (Interview) - social networks are like the eye. They are incredibly complex and beautiful, and looking at them begs the question of why they exist, and why they come to pass. Do we need a kind of just-so story to explain them? Do they just happen to be there, for no particular reason? Or do they serve some purpose -- some ontological and also pragmatic purpose?

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Ron Paul Doesn't Accept Evolution

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

TruthDig - Dec. 23 (Opinion) - The one and only anti-war Republican presidential candidate didn't raise his hand when asked who doesn't believe in evolution, but it turns out he may have wanted to. In this clip, Paul responds to a question about the incident by saying that it was an "inappropriate question," but that "I think it's a theory--theory of evolution--and I don't accept it." Paul hasn't been hiding his religious convictions. He wrote back in 2003 that the "secular Left" has been waging a war on religion and Christmas and that "[t]he notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers."

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Did Republicans Evolve From Earlier Forms of Life?

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 16:53:56 -0700

Balkinization - By jack Balkin - Jun. 11 (Opinion) - Following the launch of Sputnik, the United States invested considerable sums in science education and research both at the university level and in elementary and secondary schools in order to create a generation of young scientists and promote scientific research. The primary motivation for these reforms was to assist space and military research, but the long term benefits of the fifteen or so years while the Sputnik-era reforms lasted were considerable. Not only did these reforms produce more scientists and more innovation, but it also led to more Americans from all walks of life understanding and respecting the achievements of science and technology. Unfortunately, the money and political will for scientific education began to dry up after men first landed on the Moon. The result was predictable: a slow and steady degradation in the average American's understanding of science, and a reduction in resources and preparation for young people to become scientists. Luckily we have benefited from people from other countries who have come to America to do university research. But it seems clear that we cannot adopt this strategy of importing well-educated students from other lands forever. We must attend to our own children's education.

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Unscientific American: US Almost Last in Understanding Evolution

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 09:03:41 -0800

Huffington Post - By RJ Eskow - Jan. 18 (Opinion) - Americans rank next-to-last on a survey of 34 nations' acceptance of evolution as a scientific fact. (See the chart, below.) Our awareness of this scientific reality has actually gone down over the past 20 years, no doubt as a result of the so-called "intelligent design" movement and other Christian fundamentalist campaigns. In fact, frequent churchgoers in the US are most likely to doubt evolution. How will their children - and ours - become the great scientists, doctors, and engineers of tomorrow?

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