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

The Republicans are now the anti-science party

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Sep. 04 (Opinion) - Jon Huntsman Jr, a former Utah governor and ambassador to China, isn't a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination. And that's too bad, because Mr Hunstman has been willing to say the unsayable about the Republican party in the United States, namely, that it is becoming the "anti-science party". This is an enormously important development. And it should terrify us. To see what Mr Huntsman means, consider recent statements by the two men who actually are serious contenders for the Republican nomination: Rick Perry and Mitt Romney.

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My Take: Jesus would believe in evolution and so should you

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By Karl W. Giberson - Apr. 10 (Opinion) - Jesus once famously said, “I am the Truth.” Christianity at its best embodies this provocative idea and has long been committed to preserving, expanding and sharing truth. Most of the great universities of the world were founded by Christians committed to the truth—in all its forms—and to training new generations to carry it forward. When science began in the 17th century, Christians eagerly applied the new knowledge to alleviate suffering and improve living conditions. But when it comes to the truth of evolution, many Christians feel compelled to look the other way. They hold on to a particular interpretation of an ancient story in Genesis that they have fashioned into a modern account of origins - a story that began as an oral tradition for a wandering tribe of Jews thousands of years ago. This is the view on display in a $27 million dollar Creation Museum in Kentucky. It inspired the Institute for Creation Research, which purports to offer scientific support for creationism.

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Christine O'Donnell Clip: "Evolution Is a Myth"

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

CBS News - Sep. 25 (Interview) - After last week's viral video clip in which the Republican Senatorial nominee from Delaware spoke of having "dabbled into witchcraft," Bill Maher lobbed another blast from Christine O'Donnell's past on his show last night. In a clip from the Oct. 15, 1998 episode of his old ABC series, "Politically Incorrect," O'Donnell is shown saying "Evolution is a myth." When Maher challenged her to justify the anti-science statement, O'Donnell says, "Well, then why aren't monkeys still evolving into humans?" Last week Maher said that he would air more clips of O'Donnell from his old show until she agreed to come onto his HBO series, "Real Time." "It's like a hostage crisis: Every week you don't show up . . . "

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Divine Impulses: Richard Dawkins on 'the arrogance of religious persons'

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Sally Quinn - Dec. 07 (Interview) - The atheist and author of a new book on evolution talks with On Faith's Sally Quinn about how evolution may have led to religion and belief in God.

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The life lessons of Burning Man

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Mark Morford - Aug. 28 (Opinion) - As I've been lured back to the sweltering, dusty sexed-up madness that is Burning Man again this year -- my sixth time -- by a gaggle of delicious friends, I am hereby reminded of a few hundred truths, half-truths, outright lies and astonishing epiphanies offered up by the world-famous, Christian-feared, beautifully debauched, sensory overloaded, impossible-to-describe art-survivalist-camping-rave megaspectacle now underway in the remote Nevada desert.

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10 Worst Evolutionary Designs

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - By David Wolman - Jul. 30 (Review) - 1 Sea mammal blowhole. Any animal that spends appreciable time in the ocean should be able to extract oxygen from water via gills. Enlarging the lungs and moving a nostril to the back of the head is a poor work-around. 2 Hyena clitoris. When engorged, this "pseudopenis," which doubles as the birth canal, becomes so hard it can crush babies to death during exit. 3 Kangaroo teat. In order to nurse, the just-born joey, a frail and squishy jellybean, must clamber up Mom?s torso and into her pouch for a nipple. 4 Giraffe birth canal. Mama giraffes stand up while giving birth, so baby?s entry into the world is a 5-foot drop. Wheeee! Crack. 5 Goliath bird-eating spider exoskeleton. This giant spider can climb trees to hunt very mobile ...

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Fossil Ida's great big?family | Colin Tudge | Comment is free

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Colin Tudge - May. 19 (Comment) - – what she tells us about Charles Darwin; and what she can tell us about our attitudes to nature and our own survival on this Earth. So many years after her death, this humble creature could help to restore a little sanity in a world that seems to have run short of it.

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Reporting From the Front Lines of the Texas Evolution Debate

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - By Juli Berwald - Apr. 01 (Opinion) - Just hours before the Texas State Board of Education held its final hearings on the science education standards that would be put in place for the next decade, I set my kitchen timer for three minutes. I practiced my testimony among open jars of peanut butter and jelly strewn about from making kids' lunches. Ding. I still had my conclusion to read. What could I cut? For months I had been slinking around the controversy in Texas. I had gone to every public hearing, sitting on the floor in the back of the packed room. Behind rows of folding chairs, I had gotten to know the voices, if not the faces, of the board members. At issue was the wording of a science standard that states students must be taught the "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution. Since Kansas passed similar legislation in 2005 and Dover, Pennsylvania, in 2006, scientists have viewed these three words as a means for inserting the creationist theology that goes under the name "intelligent design" into science classes.

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Creationism Feels Right, but That Doesn't Make it So

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By Jesse Bering - Mar. 22 (Review) - Presently I’m attending a small symposium on “Belief and Reason” at Trinity College, Cambridge, being sponsored by the Perrott-Warrick Fund. It’s a rather intimate affair with mostly cognitive scientists discussing the latest research and theory on everything from paranormal beliefs to free will to the placebo effect. One of the standout talks Monday was by Yale psychologist Paul Bloom, who gave a presentation titled “Is Religion Natural?” He focused on the puzzling case of creationist beliefs.

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The Forces That Shaped A Young Charles Darwin

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

NPR - By LIane Hansen, Keith Thomson - Feb. 01 (Interview) - To honor Charles Darwin — born 200 years ago this month — Weekend Edition Sunday and the NPR science desk are launching a series called "Darwin 200." In the first installment, Keith Thomson, author of The Young Charles Darwin, talks about his early influences. [10 min 45 sec]

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The Darwins' marriage of science and religion

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Deborah Heiligman - Jan. 29 (Opinion) - Although they never were able to see eye-to-eye on the question of religion and God, they were able to reach their hands across the gulf. In the end, each of them accepted and, it seems, truly understood what the other believed. If it is a sign of intelligence to be able to hold two opposite thoughts or opinions in your head, then it is a mark of a successful marriage to be able to truly see the other person's point of view. This is also the mark of a successful society.

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Equating evolution with atheism will turn Muslims against science

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Salman Hameed - Dec. 12 (Opinion) - The next battle between science and Creationism is likely to take place in the Muslim world, argues Salman Hameed today in the US journal Science. Here, he suggests how scientists should approach the debate

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Darwin's no help on the origins of greed

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Nick Cohen - Nov. 16 (Opinion) - The posters outside the Natural History museum's Darwin exhibition have a wary feel. They show the old boy shushing at the passers-by with a forefinger over his lips and a worried look in his eyes. Inside, the curators explain how he sat on his theory of evolution for fear of its social consequences with the help of a letter he wrote to his friend, Joseph Hooker. In 1844, 15 years before he found the courage to publish On the Origin of Species, he said: 'I am almost convinced that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable.'

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Animal Intelligence and the Evolution of the Human Mind

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By Ursula Dicke, Gerard Roth - Aug. 31 (Review) - Key Concepts: * The human brain lacks conspicuous characteristics--such as relative or absolute size--that might account for humans' superior intellect. * Researchers have found some clues to humanity's aptitude on a smaller scale, such as more neurons in our brain's outermost layer. * Human intelligence may be best likened to an upgrade of the cognitive capacities of nonhuman primates rather than an exceptionally advanced form of cognition.

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A Natural Selection

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Olivia Hudson - Jul. 22 (Opinion) - For although we tend to think of evolutionary change as being something that only takes place over the course of millions of years, it isn't. It's going on here, now, all around us. So, this week, I thought I'd round up some examples of recent evolutionary change in nature. (What do I mean by recent? Within the last 40 years.)

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Turn the other cheek, or pop him on the nose?

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Mark Kurlansky - Apr. 20 (Opinion) - In 1933, Mohandas K. Gandhi wrote this about his strategy of nonviolent activism, which he called the law of love: "The law will work just like the law of gravitation will work, whether we accept it or not." I think he was right. History, from ancient China and the early Christians all the way up to the dismantling of the Soviet Union and the end of apartheid in South Africa, shows that it does work. You would think that after Gandhi's uprising in India, and after the civil rights movement in a violent and hateful American South, no one would ever again doubt that fact. And yet, even today, the most common response to nonviolence, as though it has never been tried, is, "Nice idea, but will it work?"

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Monkeys Hear Voices

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By Pascal Belin - Apr. 08 (Opinion) - The use of vocalizations, such as grunts, songs or barks, is extremely common throughout the animal kingdom. Nevertheless, humans are the only species in which these vocalizations have attained the sophistication and communicative effectiveness of speech. How did our ancestors become the only speaking animals, some tens of thousand years ago? Did this change happen abruptly, involving the sudden appearance of a new cerebral region or pattern of cerebral connections? Or did it happen through a more gradual evolutionary process, in which brain structures already present to some extent in other animals were put to a different and more complex use in the human brain?

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Some Suggestions for Improving Biology Textbooks

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 13:13:44 -0700

ScienceBlogs.com - By Mike the Mad Biologist - Jun. 26 (Opinion) - Well, they're not my suggestions, they're David Hillis' But they are still pretty good.... In the June 2007 issue of Evolution, Hillis writes about how to make general biology textbooks discuss evolution better. He has a list of ten suggestions, and I thought it would be interesting to go through them (italics original; boldface mine; I cut a great deal of text*): 1) Demonstrate that evolutionary research is current and ongoing.... Post-Darwinian findings also present an excellent opportunity to teach about the process of science, and to show that the methods of evolutionary biology are the same approaches used in other areas of science. 2) Clarify that evolution is not a synonym for natural selection.... Creationists like to build a straw man by equating "evolution" with "natural selection," and then pointing out that natural selection is not the only mechanism of change. This error of falsely equating "evolution" with "natural selection" should be theirs, not the textbook's. This is my favorite item: 3) Use fresh examples.... I thought if I read one more description of peppered moth evolution I would scream. Creationists attack these examples as "icons" of our field, and although their criticisms are often absurd, they are right to criticize the books for always using the same examples. If students are presented with the peppered moth example in every biology course they take (and most are), they begin to think that this must be one of a few examples of evolution by natural selection observed by humans. There are a myriad of other examples published in the scientific literature, and many of them are much more relevant to the students' lives than is the color of moth wings. It helps for students to read different examples to illustrate principles such as natural selection each time they take a new biology course.

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Big mistake

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 02:05:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Richard Dawkins - Dec. 27 (Opinion) - First, the age of the Earth. McIntosh thinks, on biblical authority alone, that it is less than 10,000 years. We establishment fuddyduddies think, using mutually corroborating evidence from many sources including several different radioactive isotopes in the rocks, that it is about 4.6 billion years. I shall not say here why I think we are right and McIntosh wrong. Instead, I shall simply calculate the magnitude of the difference between the two estimates. We of the "establishment" think the Earth is 460,000 times older than McIntosh's estimate. It is as though McIntosh estimated the height of a man as 6 feet and then accused the rest of us of believing that the same man was 460,000 times as tall, or 521 miles. Or, looking the other way, it is as though McIntosh looked at the establishment geographers' measurement of the distance from New York to San Francisco and claimed that the true distance from sea to shining sea was 460,000 times smaller, namely about ten yards. Maybe McIntosh is right and all the rest of us wrong. All I have done here is calculate how spectacularly wrong we would be, if McIntosh is right.

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