Daylight Atheism » Creationism

Why the Anti-Science Creationist Movement Is So Dangerous

Ebonmuse — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:49:11 +0000

This essay was originally published on AlterNet.

A few weeks ago, Jon Huntsman torpedoed his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination by making the following announcement:

To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call ... [visit site to read more]

New on AlterNet: Why Creationism Is Dangerous

Ebonmuse — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:52:27 +0000

My latest article has been posted on AlterNet, Why the Anti-Science Creationist Movement Is So Dangerous. In it, I survey the history of the modern creationist movement, point out how it's completely captured one of America's two major political parties, and illuminate the larger ideological goals that lie behind the assault on evolution. Read the excerpt below, then click through and ... [visit site to read more]

Tax Breaks for Ignorance

Ebonmuse — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:49:42 +0000

As you doubtless already know, America is suffering through an unprecedented economic disaster. With millions of people jobless and millions of homeowners underwater, the economy is stagnant and its prospects are dim. Which is why, in these hard times, nothing is more important than shoveling more taxpayer dollars into the gaping maw of the fundamentalist carnival sideshow:

A group ... [visit site to read more]

Creationist Target Practice

Ebonmuse — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 19:50:56 +0000

Yesterday, someone calling himself Rev. Skeens posted the following comment. I rejected it since it had no perceptible connection to the post it was submitted under, but then I had second thoughts. Granted that this is beginner-level stuff and hardly challenging, but it's been a while since we honed our debating skills on an actual creationist around here, so I thought it might be entertaining to throw it out there and use it for target practice. ... [visit site to read more]

The Language of God: Intelligent Design

Ebonmuse — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 15:40:11 +0000

The Language of God, Chapter 9

By B.J. Marshall

The subtitle to this chapter is "When Science Needs Divine Help," which immediately sets up a couple of problems. First, is Collins asserting that Intelligent Design (ID) is science? Second, where does divine help fit in with the application of the scientific method? In response to the first, Collins concludes that ID is not science. He doesn't really address the second problem. That second problem brings to mind a quote by ... [visit site to read more]

The Language of God: YEC is Dumb

Ebonmuse — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 23:09:50 +0000

The Language of God, Chapter 8

By B.J. Marshall

I can summarize this chapter by quoting Collins himself: "Thus, by any reasonable standard, Young Earth Creationism [YEC] has reached a point of intellectual bankruptcy" (p.177). He spends the bulk of this chapter providing reasons why YEC is horribly flawed, and then he concludes with a "plea to reason" that is anything but.

Sadly, I don't think Collins does enough (anything, really) to debunk YEC other than saying it's ... [visit site to read more]

Fighting Creationist Pollution of Science Classes

Ebonmuse — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:43:38 +0000

This past weekend was Darwin Day, an international celebration of science and reason in the name of the one person who did more than possibly anyone else to clarify humanity's position in the natural universe. Alas, the great man's legacy is still threatened by religious ignorance:

Researchers found that only 28 percent of biology teachers consistently follow the ... [visit site to read more]

The Language of God: Intellectual Dishonesty

Ebonmuse — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:30:07 +0000

The Language of God, Chapter 6

By B.J. Marshall

Collins begins Part III of his book, entitled "Faith in Science, Faith in God," by trying to wrap his mind around why evolution is so difficult for some religious people to get. He recalls an experience where he was at a men's dinner at a Protestant church discussing how faith and science can mesh. All was well until the senior pastor was asked whether he believed in the literal story of Genesis. The priest carefully chose his ... [visit site to read more]

Bowing to the Text

Ebonmuse — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:49:52 +0000

By way of The Panda's Thumb, I came across this story that just had to be shared.

Regular readers of this site are probably familiar with the arch-creationist William Dembski, one of the founders of the intelligent-design movement. When I last wrote about him, I mentioned that he, like other creationists who insist their work is ... [visit site to read more]

Creationists Flee from Criticism

Ebonmuse — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:38:57 +0000

A few weeks ago, I was alerted by a Google alert to a post, "Conversation With An Atheist", on the site Everyday Christian. Since I'm always interested to find Christians who want to converse with atheists, to see what they have to say about us and to us, I checked it out. It turned out to be a fairly run-of-the-mill creationist argument by a Christian apologist named Jack Wellman.

Since my interest was piqued, I posted a ... [visit site to read more]

The Case for a Creator: Redefining Science

Ebonmuse — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:49:46 +0000

The Case for a Creator, Closing Thoughts

The theory of evolution not only explains and unifies a vast range of scientific observations, it's given rise to an enormous, fruitful research program by predicting where we should look in order to find all kinds of phenomena of interest. One of the most famous examples is how Charles Darwin predicted that the earliest human ancestors would be found in Africa, which turned out to be 100% correct. Based on observing flowers from Madagascar, ... [visit site to read more]

Weekly Link Roundup: Net Drama Edition

Ebonmuse — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:17:20 +0000

The intertubes are exploding with drama this week! I'm still catching up on a backlog of reading material myself, but I thought I'd post about the more notable news items.

• First off, I just have to mention this because it's such delicious schadenfreude: Chris Mooney, atheist-basher extraordinaire, had a commenter earlier this year named Tom Johnson who claimed to be a scientist and wrote about how rudely and viciously he'd seen atheist professors treat their Christian colleagues. ... [visit site to read more]