Teach Intelligent Design dishonestly!

Darksyde takes on the teaching of creationism in Missouri…let’s see if readers here are clever enough to see the dishonesty in this quote.

[Mike] Riddle had been invited to Potosi High and John A. Evans Middle School by Randy Davis, superintendent of the Potosi-RIII school district, and his board to discuss science with science students. During an hour-long presentation, Riddle … prodded the students to question established scientific principals and theories and encouraged them to think about a career in science.

Questioning scientific principles and theories is a good thing, and it’s also good to encourage students to study more science, so what’s the problem? The problem is that the speaker is a representative from Answers in Genesis, the young earth creationist organization, and he’s using the language differently than scientists do. When we say we should teach good science, we mean that there should be an emphasis on evidence and rational interpretation of the work. When AiG says “good science,” they mean a kind of Christian apologetics that cherry-picks data to arrive at a predetermined conclusion, that the Earth is 6000 years old. He isn’t urging students to do science, he wants them to get out there and corrupt a process that contradicts his theology.

This is the new way of creationism: embrace the trappings and the language, which have favorable associations to most people, and use them to advance ideas contrary to good science. It’s creationism in a lab coat.

A reader from Kansas sent in another slogan, prominently displayed on a billboard:

TEACH DARWIN HONESTLY!

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Simpsons joins the fray

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News from The Panda’s Thumb: tonight, The Simpsons is all about the creationist pseudo-controversy, and Lisa gets arrested as an evilutionist. Let’s all tune in!

I was unimpressed. There were a few good barbs thrown at the creationists, but in the end the matter is settled by something trivial (Homer looks like an ape; yet again, the lazy Simpsons trope of the stupid Homer resolves the story), and of course they caved and pandered to the false dignity of the dominant tribal superstition. Eh.

Wind!

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Jerome a Paris has a first-rate overview of wind power on Daily Kos. I’m in a windy part of the world where this form of energy has great potential, and there is much local enthusiasm for wind turbines. Our first one is up just north of town, where I can sometimes catch a peek of it from my neighborhood when the trees aren’t all covered with leaves and where we always see it as one of the landmarks as we’re driving into town. I think they’re beautiful. Coal plants may be less obtrusive when they can be kept distant, but I’d rather see a row of wind turbines on a ridge than a smokestack on the far horizon.

DaveScot, defender of terrorism…as long as you do it one innocent at a time

DaveScot, the lunatic who rants at Dembski’s blog, has just posted an appalling complaint. He’s been falsely sliming Kevin Padian as a racist, and now he’s attacking Padian for saying that the religious fanatics who kill abortion doctors are contemptible. You read that right: you are not allowed to regard anti-abortion extremists who murder in their cause as bad people, or DaveScot will whine about how you are a bigot who hates Christians.

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Not my kind of atheist, nor any kind of liberal

This is embarrassing. The Atheist Law Center, which I had never heard of before but from its website looks like it is mostly supporting the right stuff (OK, except for the weird calendar reform business), was founded by a guy named Larry Darby, who has since resigned. He is now running for attorney general of the state of Alabama, as a Democrat…with some very strange views.

Tyson said aside from his views on race [he wants to “reawaken white racial awareness”] and the Holocaust [he’s a denier], Darby also has publicly advocated legalizing drugs and shooting all illegal immigrants.

I repudiate this guy’s views. While atheism is not incompatible with kooks like Darby, his positions definitely contradict the principles of the Democratic Party, I can at least say that he’s no Democrat, and I should think the Alabama Democratic Party should refuse to endorse him, even if by some fluke he should win the primary election.

(via Atheist Revolution)

Vanity google games

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I didn’t think of this one, Dustin did—but take a look at this comparison of search volume for “pharyngula” vs. “discovery institute”. There’s perspective for you: one wild-eyed guy with a blog is gaining on a whole gang of creationists with millions of dollars in funding and a machine to churn out press releases.

There’s an idea…to catch up more, maybe I need to call myself the Pharyngula Institute and start faxing press releases to the newspapers.

Google games

Check out this amusing discovery on Stochastic—there’s this new tool on Google, Google Trends, that lets you compare the frequency of various searches. A silly creationist got all thrilled because searches for “Intelligent Design” beat searches for “Darwinism”.

You know where this is going. “Darwinism” is a term used by creationists, not scientists or anyone who knows more than diddly-squat about biology. Run a search for evolution, biology, and science vs. creationism and intelligent design, and the insignificance of the creationists becomes obvious. Once again, the designists are caught fudging the data, and once again, we can see the triviality of their games.

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Note that “creationism” and “intelligent design” barely rise above the baseline.

As you might guess, though, throw sex into the mix, and the evolution-creation debate shrinks away. A little perspective is always useful!

Scary evil Christians

Everybody must have read Michelle Goldberg’s “Kingdom Coming: the Rise of Christian Nationalism” by now, right? This quote from George Grant, one of the big guys with televangelist D. James Kennedy, is simply chilling:

Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ — to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.
But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice.
It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.
It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.
It is dominion we are after.
World conquest. That’s what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish. We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less…
Thus, Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land — of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ.

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