Free Republic

A comparison of peoples' views in 34 countries finds that the United States ranks near the bottom when it comes to public acceptance of evolution. Only Turkey ranked lower. Among the factors contributing to America's low score are poor understanding of biology, especially genetics, the politicization of science and the literal interpretation of the Bible by a small but vocal group of American Christians, the researchers say. “American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except perhaps the Islamic fundamentalist, which is why Turkey and we are so close,” said study co-author Jon Miller of Michigan State University. The researchers combined...

Evolution reversed in mice The mouse looks the same but has an ancient gene US researchers have taken a mouse back in time some 500 million years by reversing the process of evolution. By engineering its genetic blueprint, they have rebuilt a gene that was present in primitive animals. The ancient gene later mutated and split, giving rise to a pair of genes that play a key role in brain development in modern mammals. The scientists say the experiments shed light on how evolution works and could lead to new gene therapy techniques. "We are first to reconstruct an ancient...

The question of what happened before the Big Bang long has frustrated cosmologists, both amateur and professional. Though Einstein's theory of general relativity does an excellent job of describing the universe almost back to its beginning, near the Big Bang matter becomes so dense that relativity breaks down, says Penn State physicist Abhay Ashtekar. "Beyond that point, we need to apply quantum tools that were not available to Einstein." Now Ashtekar and two of his post-doctoral researchers, Tomasz Pawlowski and Parmpreet Singh, have done just that. Using a theory called loop quantum gravity, they have developed a mathematical model that...

As the August 1, 2006, Kansas primary elections approach, evolution is a burning issue. The state board of education is at the center of the furor, of course; in November 2005, the board voted 6-4 to adopt a set of state science standards that were rewritten, under the tutelage of local "intelligent design" activists, to impugn the scientific status of evolution. The standards were denounced by a host of critics, including a group of 38 Nobel laureates (PDF), the National Science Teachers Association, the National Academy of Sciences, the , the American Institute for Biological Sciences, the committee that wrote...

State Board of Education panel may look at guidelines for classroom discussion of science controversies Less than five months after evolution won a round in the State Board of Education, some board members want to reopen the debate. Colleen Grady, a board member from the Cleveland suburb of Strongsville, wants to add guidelines to the state science standards for teaching on such topics as evolution, global warming, stem-cell research and cloning. Grady said she views her proposal as a compromise to ensure that differing views are considered when teaching such hot-button issues. "We would provide a template so schools would...

Virtually all the chattering-class attention has targeted Coulter's comments disparaging the "Jersey Girls" or (this past weekend) a charge that she plagiarized a few sentences. On the latter point, Coulter can defend herself. But a quick scan of one of the sentences in question shows wording that is easily different enough to pass the smell test on that issue. The "Jersey Girls" are four widows whose husbands died on 9/11. Coulter excoriates them for using their family tragedies to promote a left-wing political agenda. Whether one would have used exactly the same words to make the author's point (who can...

A Seattle-based research group that advocates intelligent design said today it will campaign to educate Kansans that the science standards approved by the State Board of Education are sound. “Kansas citizens need to have accurate information about what the science standards do,” said John West, associate director of the Center for Science & Culture for Discovery Institute. West said the group will start an information campaign over the Internet immediately and possibly start a radio campaign. He declined to say how much the center would spend. The decision puts the Discovery Institute in the center of hotly-contested State Board of...

When the New York State Assembly's legislative session ended on June 23, 2006, Assembly Bill 8036 died in committee. If enacted, the bill would have required that "all pupils in grades kindergarten through twelve in all public schools in the state ... receive instruction in all aspects of the controversy surrounding evolution and the origins of man." A later provision specified that such instruction would include information about "intelligent design and information effectively challenging the theory of evolution." The bill was never expected to succeed; its sponsor, Assemblyman Daniel L. Hooker (R-District 127), was reported as explaining that his intention...

In a veiled attack on creationism, the world's foremost academies of science on Wednesday called on parents and teachers to provide children with the facts about evolution and the origins of life on Earth. A declaration signed by 67 national academies of science blasted the scriptural teaching of biology as a potential distortion of young minds. "In various parts of the world, within science courses taught in certain public systems of education, scientific evidence, data and testable theories about the origins and evolution of life on Earth are being concealed, denied or confused with theories not testable by science," the...

If the ACLU happens to sue your small hometown and then demands $1 million dollars for their lawyers, would you call them generous and charitable? Strangely enough, that's exactly what they’ve done to the small town of Dover, Pennsylvania. Following the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State's (AUSCS) federal trial court victory in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board (M.D.Penn. 2005), the ACLU recently announced it would "generously" demand only $1 million in costs and attorneys fees. Why $1 million you may ask? According to the ACLU’s Eric Rothschild, “We think it’s important that the public...

How long will Darwin continue to repose on his high but perilous pedestal? I am beginning to wonder. Few people doubt the principles of evolution. The question at issue is: are all evolutionary advances achieved exclusively by the process of natural selection? That is the position of the Darwinian fundamentalists, and they cling to their absolutist position with all the unyielding certitude with which Southern Baptists assert the literal truth of the Book of Genesis, or Wahabi Muslims proclaim the need for a universal jihad against ‘the Great Satan’. At a revivalist meeting of Darwinians two or three years ago,...

PDF PDA Full Text Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited E-mail When Letters Appear Find Similar Articles Religious arguments have permeated debates on the role of the law in medical practice at the beginning and the end of life. But nowhere has religion played so prominent a role as in the century-old quest to banish or marginalize the teaching of evolution in science classes. Nor has new genetics research that supports evolutionary theory at the molecular level dampened antievolution sentiment.1 Requiring public-school science teachers to teach specific religion-based alternatives to Darwin's theory...

Scientists use quantum gravity to describe the universe before the Big Bang.Scientists may finally have an answer to a "big" question: If the Big Bang was the beginning of the universe, what could have caused it to happen? Using a theory called "loop quantum gravity," a group led by Penn State professor Abhay Ashtekar has shown that just before the Big Bang occurred, another universe very similar to ours may have been contracting. According to the group's findings, this previous universe eventually became so dense that a normally negligible repulsive component of the gravitational force overpowered the attractive component, causing...

South Carolina (AP) -- The state Board of Education on Wednesday rejected a state panel's proposal to change high school standards on evolution by calling on students to "critically analyze" the theory. Science teachers had complained that although critical analysis is part of all science, the wording was really a backdoor attempt to force educators to teach religious-based alternatives. In a 10-6 vote, board members agreed. The Education Oversight Committee, a school reform panel made up of lawmakers, teachers, parents and other community members, recommended the change last month. Panel member Senator Mike Fair, R-Greenville, has said it was intended...

Churches urged to back evolution By Paul Rincon BBC News science reporter, St Louis US scientists have called on mainstream religious communities to help them fight policies that undermine the teaching of evolution. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) hit out at the "intelligent design" movement at its annual meeting in Missouri. Teaching the idea threatens scientific literacy among schoolchildren, it said. Its proponents argue life on Earth is too complex to have evolved on its own. As the name suggests, intelligent design is a concept invoking the hand of a designer in nature. It's time to...

Prof. Johnson is considered to be the father of the Intelligent Design movement. What follows is known as The Wedge Strategy, authored by Johnson. In the words of the recognized father of the ID movement...ID is religion.

Creation and Evolution in the Schools A few years ago it was "Creation Science" they were trying to teach in the schools. Creation Science was an attempt by fundamentalist Christians to give the Genesis account, as interpreted by them, a scientific veneer. But it was only that -- a thin surface -- and any student who actually believed that Creation Science had anything to do with science would have been educationally crippled. Now the controversy is between advocates of the theory of Intelligent Design vs. strict Darwinists. And some people want you to think it's the same argument. It isn't....

A rural school district agreed to stop teaching a religion-based alternative to evolution as part of a court settlement filed Tuesday, a legal group said. Frazier Mountain High School will stop teaching a philosophy class discussing the theory of "intelligent design" this week and won't teach it in the future, said Ayesha N. Khan, legal director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Officials at the El Tejon Unified School District were not immediately available for comment. A federal judge in Fresno had been scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday afternoon on whether to halt the class midway...

Cosmic Fingerprints: Evidence of Design RTB Regional Conference February 10-11, 2006 Charleston, SC Has a testable Creation Model solved the mystery of cosmic beginnings? Does the theory of evolution conflict with the most recent scientific data? World renowned astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross and Internationally respected biochemist Dr. Fazale "Fuz" Rana think so. These two scientists have developed a model for creation that is testable, falsifiable and predictive. For the first time in more than 80 years, this innovative approach catapults the evolution/creation debate from science vs. religion to science vs. science. As currently formulated, popular theories of origins are not...

Darwinists must be an endangered species. How else to explain their 80-year need for court protection to ensure their survival? In 1925, an ACLU-driven defense team in the Scopes-Monkey Trial wanted a court to declare that laws forbidding the teaching of evolution were unconstitutional. In recent weeks, in a courtroom in Dover, Pa., the same organization applauded a judge’s ruling that the teaching of ideas contrary to evolution, in this case Intelligent Design, were unconstitutional. The same ACLU that once advocated for free and open discussion in schools is working to see it stifled today. Its website boasts, “Intelligent Design...