Today's Bob Jones "Biology for Christian Schools" Howlers

Posted by Mike Dunford on September 16, 2007

I’ve been continuing to put some time into criticizing Michael Behe’s expert report on the creationist texts involved in the California Creationism Case. This is a slow process, partly because I’m also working on other projects and partly because it’s difficult to read the Bob Jones “Biology for Christian Schools” text without encountering a range of unpleasant side effects. I’ve been fighting the increased blood pressure and the nausea, and soldiering on. Along the way, I’ve encountered some real gems that I thought I’d share with you.

Today, I’m going to give you two quotes: one on Darwin, and one on sexually transmitted diseases. The two are connected only by the surreal nature of what’s being said. As you read them, please remember that this is material that’s being taught to high school students, and that the folks who are teaching this stuff are suing the University of California, because for some strange reason UC doesn’t think that people who have been taught this stuff have adequately completed an actual college preparatory class in biology. All quotes are taken from the most recent (3rd) edition of the text. I’m transcribing by hand, so unless indicated otherwise, all typos are mine.

Read more (at The Questionable Authority, where comments can be left):

Explore Evolution: The Discovery Institute's winsome creationist textbook

Posted by Nick Matzke on August 5, 2007 | Comments (255) | TrackBack (0)

A blogger has an interesting report on the event that the Discovery Institute just held for teachers at Biola (Bible Institute of Los Angeles) University in order to promote their newest disguise for creationism, the textbook sneakily entitled “Explore Evolution.”

I’m sure it’s a just coincidence that the very first person to blog this event – this no-way-it’s-creationism-no-sirree event – did it from the Old Earth Creation Homeschool blog and works for the old-earth creationist ministry Reasons to Believe.

Anyway, here’s the interesting bit:

Continue reading  “Explore Evolution: The Discovery Institute's winsome creationist textbook”

Field trip to the Creation Museum

Posted by Tara Smith on June 21, 2007 | Comments (19)

I was back in Ohio last week to celebrate my grandparents’ 60th wedding anniversary. While I was in the area, a number of the PT regulars also met up south of Cincinnati to take our own tour of Answers in Genesis’ Creation Museum. (Wesley has a picture of the group here; I’ll also try to scan in another “official” picture tomorrow).

My brain still hurts. My thoughts on everything over at Aetiology (with photos, of course).

Irony of the day: John Mark Reynolds

Posted by Nick Matzke on April 9, 2007 | Comments (26) | TrackBack (0)

Few things are more ironic than young-earth creationist John Mark Reynolds (theologian at Biola, Discovery Institute fellow, leader in the ID movement) lecturing scientists about truth, stubborn facts, and having an “open philosophy of science.” If there’s an earthquake in LA today, it won’t be the tectonic plates shifting, it will be the simultaneous detonation of thousands of irony meters. How does the man get up in morning, when young-earth creationism is as hopelessly false on the empirical facts as anything ever has been in the whole history of science, and when the fundamentalist movement’s promotion of young-earth creationism is perhaps the biggest example of systematic fraud ever perpetrated on the American public? If you ever need an example of an ID advocate blathering lip service about “truth”, while shamelessly disregarding it in practice at the exact same time, here you go.

An Evolutionary View of Kinds

Posted by Henry Neufeld on May 19, 2006

This may be a little “old hat” for many of you. After all, how many ways can I find to say, “Don’t try to get science from your Bible”? But with that risk let me direct you to An Evolutionary View of Kinds on Threads from Henry’s Web. Leave your comments there. This article is the result of reading some of Alvin Plantinga’s work on theistic science, a concept I find pretty dangerous.

Of Storks and babies: Teach the controversy

Posted by Pim van Meurs on April 22, 2006 | Comments (121)

Steve Jones, the award-winning geneticist and author, argued that suggesting that creationism and evolution be given equal weight in education was “rather like starting genetics lectures by discussing the theory that babies are brought by storks”.

Link

Edenomics 101

Posted by Tara Smith on March 14, 2006 | Comments (31)

I mentioned yesterday that Mike had a post on the war on epidemiology. That might sound a bit strange–doesn’t have quite the ring to it as Chris’s book. But, never fear, epidemiology is indeed under attack–or, at least, it’s being redefined by young earth creationists.

In a pair of articles published in the esteemed journal, Creation Research Society Quarterly, Jeffrey Schragin has put forth his argument that “the Bible’s epidemiology is scientifically sound” and that the “Creation Health Model (CHM) offers a more comprehensive understanding of health and disease than standard molecules-to-man evolutionary theory.”

(Continued at Aetiology)

Intelligent Design to be taught at University of Kansas

Posted by Pim van Meurs on November 22, 2005 | Comments (344)

Fox News reports that Professor Paul Mirecki will be teaching a class on intelligent design.

The class, titled “Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies” will be taught in the religious studies department of the university.

Continue reading  “Intelligent Design to be taught at University of Kansas”

Making Satire Redundant

Posted by Steve on July 20, 2005 | Comments (35)

The satirical newspaper The Onion has an “Onion in History” feature whereby they present back issues with wild headlines about past events.  This week’s “Onion in History” is an issue dated July 20, 1925, and contains a headline blaring, “SCOPE’S MONKEY TRIAL RAISES TROUBLING QUESTION:  IS SCIENCE BEING TAUGHT IN OUR SCHOOLS?”

It contains a few amusing articles, but sometimes the reality of the situation is bad enough that it’s impossible to exaggerate.  Below the fold, we’ll compare an excerpt from one of the “joke” articles with an actual report from the ongoing Creation Mega Conference.

Continue reading  “Making Satire Redundant”

Bible Code TV Debate Saturday June 4th

Posted by Dave Thomas on June 3, 2005 | Comments (36)

PAX Television has a weekly show called Faith Under Fire, hosted by Lee Strobel, a “former investigative journalist for the Chicago Tribune turned apologist” according to a recent article that discusses Strobel’s pro-ID views.

http://www.biblecodedigest.com/img/0605BCDFaithUnderFire.gif

On the episode for Saturday, June 4th, one segment discusses the Bible Code:

“Secret codes. You saw them in National Treasure. You read about them in The Da Vinci Code. Is it possible that there are actually secret codes in the Bible! And if there is some kind of code in the Bible, why is it there? Two mathematicians debate the existence of Bible codes. Insurance actuarial consultant Ed Sherman, author of the Bible Code Bombshell, says he tried to disprove the code notion but ended up being convinced of its authenticity. Physicist Dr. Dave Thomas the author of Skeptical Odysseys and a member of the Committee for Scientific of Claims of the Paranormal, remains unconvinced….”

If you’re curious as to how a Panda’s Thumb blogger does against Ed Sherman, tune in.  If you miss it, the debate between Thomas and Sherman continues on the Web.

Dawkins' Gift to Kansas

Posted by bhumburg on May 24, 2005 | Comments (198)

Richard Dawkins has penned another good article on evolution. Read through it and we’ll discuss it on the flipside.

Continue reading  “Dawkins' Gift to Kansas”

Evolution - from Carnivore to Herbivore?

Posted by Dave Thomas on May 5, 2005 | Comments (61)

Say hello to Falcarius utahensis.
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050504/050504_dino_vlg_11a.vlarge.jpg

This creature was becoming a herbivore (plant-eater), but fossils described in today’s Nature indicate his (or her) ancestors were most definitely carnivorous (meat-eaters).

The story can be read on-line here.  Here’s the significant “bite”:

Caught in the act of evolution, the odd-looking, feathered dinosaur was becoming more vegetarian, moving away from its meat-eating ancestors.

It had the built-for-speed legs of meat-eaters, but was developing the bigger belly of plant-eaters. It had already lost the serrated teeth needed for tearing flesh. Those were replaced with the smaller, duller vegetarian variety.

‘I doubt seriously this animal could cut a steak with that mouth,’ said Utah state paleontologist James Kirkland, one of those who discovered the bones of the beast in east-central Utah.

This relates to the never-ending creationism saga in several ways, including one that shows an important distinction between Evolution and Creationism:

Creationists insist that, if creatures changed their eating habits in the past, it was from herbivores (before the Fall, when the Creation was Good) to carnivores (after the Fall, and the introduction of sin and death into the world).

Continue reading  “Evolution - from Carnivore to Herbivore?”

An Open Letter to John C. Bilello, or More Data for the Salem Hypothesis

Posted by Jeff on May 4, 2005 | Comments (7)

I attended part of a talk by creationist John C. Bilello in Waterloo, Ontario recently.  I’m not a biologist, but even with my amateur’s understanding of biology I could tell it was the usual nonsense, consisting of misinformation, misconceptions, and quote mining.  Every argument he presented has been refuted dozens of times.  Probably yet another refutation of this tired nonsense is pointless, but at least I can document Bilello’s presentation here.

Continue reading  “An Open Letter to John C. Bilello, or More Data for the Salem Hypothesis”

Creationism really is behind it all

Posted by Nick Matzke on March 27, 2005 | Comments (193)

http://www.armageddonbooks.com/kidguide.jpgEveryone check out “The Apocalypse Will Be Televised” by Gene Lyons at Harper’s Magazine. Lyons reviews the Left Behind series, a wildly popular set of novels that portray, in Tom Clancy style, the Rapture and Armageddon according to dispensationalist beliefs.  The antichrist is the head of the U.N. and looks like Robert Redford, the jews must convert or die, that kind of thing.  The novels are by prominent fundamentalist Tim LaHaye, who also helped found such notable organizations as the Moral Majority and the Institute for Creation Research (see the Who’s who of prophecy page on LaHaye).

It turns out that creationism is more closely tied to modern fundamentalist prophecy interpretation than I had previously appreciated.  I’ll quote the most relevant passages from Lyons’ article.

Continue reading  “Creationism really is behind it all”

Newest expert on evolution: Judge Roy Moore

Posted by Tara Smith on March 24, 2005 | Comments (40)

Everyone’s favorite defender of the 10 Commandments, Roy Moore, has spoken out against evolution on MSNBC’s “Hardball.”

Continue reading  “Newest expert on evolution: Judge Roy Moore”

Natural Reading

Posted by Henry Neufeld on January 6, 2005 | Comments (32)

Those of us involved in the debate about evolution are often amazed at how little impact the enormous evidence for evolution has on anti-evolutionists.  Each piece of positive evidence is treated in isolation and belittled, while every open question is treated as proof of the demise of evolution.  Positive scientific evidence for special creation is absent, yet every perceived weakness of the theory of evolution is regarded as positive evidence for special creation.  There is a reason for this, which will not come as a surprise to most readers of The Panda’s Thumb, but I want to say it again as part of the foundation for what I am about to write.  The issue from the creationist point of view is really religious and not scientific, and this is true whether one is advocating young earth or old earth creationism, or even intelligent design.  If we did not have a story of creation in the sacred literature of the dominant religious tradition in America, and if that story was not being taken as some sort of scientific evidence, the debate would not be between special creation and evolution, but rather would be between the dominant understanding of evolution and various modifications that might be made to it.

Further, the status of the evidence provided by the Bible is elevated above that of scientific evidence.

Continue reading  “Natural Reading”