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To Be Loved or Feared: Doctor Who, part IX

By Gabriel Mckee

…event. Another approach to explaining the miraculous can also be found in science fiction, including Doctor Who: technology. Arthur C. Clarke’s third law is famous, but it deserves to be recalled here alongside the other two. Clarke said in his essay “Hazards of Prophecy”: 1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is probably wrong…

Congressional Inaction Leaves Stem-Cell Research At Risk

By Lauri Lebo

…ing rebuke to the Obama administration and its attempt to circumvent sound science and federal law, which clearly prohibits federal funding for research that involves the destruction of human embryos. The Court recognized that since the law is unambiguous, so must be its ruling. In his statement, Perkins then goes on to make a litany of assertions that grossly misrepresent the scientific issues behind the debate, so I won’t reprint them. Charmaine…

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Still Sound

By Lauri Lebo

…Darwin didn’t know about!” Of course Charles Darwin didn’t know everything about evolution. Darwin didn’t know about a lot of things related to his theory of natural selection. Genetics didn’t even exist as a science at the time he developed it. But since the publishing of Origins of Species 101 years ago, the scientific understanding of the way evolution works has only grown and remains the foundation of modern biology. Now, once again, the media…

This Narrative of Death that is So Powerful Among Us

By Daniel Schultz

…of it like that, but that’s a marvelous illustration of what we’re talking about. Dan: About how pervasive it is. And I’m sure you know from your time in the church how that kind of infects the church, so you have to have the flag in the church, you have to recognize those patriotic holidays in worship and salute the men and women in the service. Walter: The biggest Presbyterian church in Atlanta—I think 14,000—I don’t know whether they still do,…

Tea Partiers Fall Back on Religion to Deny Reality of Climate Change

By Lauri Lebo

…ustries, which have for decades waged a concerted campaign to raise doubts about the science of global warming and to undermine policies devised to address it. The article makes clear the oil industry’s financial influence on the Tea Party movement, noting support from groups like Americans for Prosperity, which was founded and largely financed by oil industry interests. However, the most fascinating aspect of the article is how, when asked to exp…

Answers in Genesis Seeks Tax Breaks for New Theme Park

By Lauri Lebo

…ntives would be unconstitutional in that it would involve excessive entanglement with religion. “The larger question is should the state be promoting a religious enterprise like this—especially one that only serves to dumb down science education in the state. It’s a sad comment on our times that states are so desperate for jobs that they will align with an enterprise like this that elevates a blind adherence to biblical literalism over accepted sc…

Indonesian Volcano Update: Yes, it’s a Religion Story…

By Mark Woodward

…parts of the story. But, in all fairness, the PBS story was intended as a science report. The reporter told us that he was very surprised to discover that it was also a religious story. There is another story that PBS did not tell that is genuinely remarkable. Almost no one in Yogyakarta panicked. Hundreds of people spontaneously mounted informal relief efforts coordinated by text message and on Facebook. Religious and civil society groups, and g…

Teacher Who Burned Cross into Student’s Arm Fired

By Lauri Lebo

…posters of the Ten Commandments and bible versus and teaching students in science class that evolution is a lie. After the parents of Zachary Dennis complained to the district about the burn on their son’s arm way back in December 2007, the district began an investigation, in which Freshwater’s religious proselytizing was revealed. Freshwater fought the district’s attempts to fire him. The burning incident also led to a civil court case that was…

To: Discovery Institute;
Re: Creationist Tactics Pre-Dating the Exposure of ID as a Fraud

By Lauri Lebo

…. For an example of their promotion of intelligent design in public school science class, see their 1999 booklet Intelligent Design in Public School Science Curricula: A Legal Guidebook. Also, in the case of Dover, Discovery initially sent pro-ID DVDs, such as Signature in the Cell, to school board members. But when it looked like the case was headed for a First Amendment trial that they would inevitably lose, they dropped back to urging board mem…

Tennessee Anti-Evolution Update

By Lauri Lebo

…d weaknesses of evolutionary theory,” Fowler wrote last month in an op–ed in the Chattanoogan. But “strengths and weaknesses” are merely code words to try to water down the teaching of evolution. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, has issued a statement against the bill: “Asserting that there are significant scientific controversies about the overall nature of these concepts [i.e., global warming and evolution] when there are…