Monkey Girl

Darwin Days and Nights

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:37:53 PST

The crowd was enthusiastic and large -- over 600 -- at my Monkey Girl Evolution vs. Intelligent Design talk at Washington State University. The questions were spirited and almost all good -- and, most encouragingly, there was a great deal of commonsense puzzlement expressed by students, who wondered just why some Americans -- nearly half, according to various polls -- felt science contradicts their faith.

“I think it’s very much possible that you can believe in evolution and still have your own religious beliefs,” bioengineering student Shantel Martinez told the Daily Evergreen afterward. “And it shouldn’t be so hard for our world, our country, to not have issues about it.”

One idea in particular seemed to resonate with the gathering: that the promoters of putting the supernatural theory of Intelligent Design into high school science classes were, in effect, trying to role back the Enlightenment and reject the scientific method. Most of those present seemed to think that was not a very good idea.

My presentation was part of a weeklong observance of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. The folks at WSU pulled out all the stops and put on a very interesting series of presentations. The big finish was a showing of 1966's One Million Years B.C., starring a scientifically inaccurate pairing of cavemen, dinosaurs, and Raquel Welch -- chosen by the WSU organizers because, they say, the film's lack of scientific authenticity is on par with the critics of evolution depicted in Monkey Girl.

The Boss on Evolution: We're Counting on It

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:57:03 PST

I hadn't heard this one before. Judge John E. Jones III reported during our joint Darwin Week appearance Saturday at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History that Bruce Springsteen followed Jones' famous case, Kitzmiller v. Dover -- the intelligent design versus evolution case portrayed in Monkey Girl.

During an August 2005 concert, The Boss quipped to his audience:

In Dover, PA, they're not sure about evolution. Here in New Jersey, we're countin' on it.

All in all, it was a terrific event in Santa Barbara, held in a jewel of a museum, with a passionately engaged audience that wanted to discuss issues of scientific integrity, religious freedom, judicial independence and the source of this endlessly evolving conflict between science and faith in America. Judge Jones and I shared the stage "in conversation" about the case and the broader implications of Jones's ruling, which found that intelligent design was fundamentally religious, not scientific. That finding compelled him to throw out the Dover School Board's policy of teaching intelligent design and criticizing evolutionary theory in high school biology classes -- the policy violated the Constitution's Establishment Clause.

If there was a consensus at the gathering, it was that America desperately needs improved science and civic education as a means of avoiding conflicts such as Dover's. In Jones' courtroom, it was revealed that the school board members who voted to mandate intelligent design in the classroom had little understanding of the the theory of evolution they rejected, nor the intelligent design proposition they embraced.

Our conversation was impromptu, but I did have a short prepared introduction to the event that I'll post a bit later. Meanwhile, he's an excellent post, The Persistent Divisiveness of Darwin, about the case and Monkey Girl from Michael White over at ScientificBlogging.

Darwin's 200th

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:33:52 PST

In prepping for Darwin Week events in Santa Barbara and at Washington State University, I've come across several excellent resources for those who wish to learn more about the theory of evolution and its alternatives on Charles Darwin's 200th Birthday. Here are a few highlights:

Darwin's Living Legacy (Scientific American)
Monkey Girl Fact vs. Myth Evolution FAQ
Understanding Evolution (Berkeley)
American Museum of Natural History Online Darwin Exhibit
Evolution and the Constitution
Kitzmiller vs. Dover Decision (Evolution vs. Intelligent Design)
Wikipedia Intelligent Design page (thoroughly sourced)
Science Wars: Should Schools Teach Intelligent Design (AEI)
Intelligent Design Wedge Strategy document

Evolution v. ID Reviewed

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:03:51 PST

Spectrum, the Seventh Day Adventist magazine, reviews three books today on the Kitzmiller v. Dover case -- the modern-day Scopes Monkey Trial that found the teaching of intelligent design to be an unconstitutional introduction of religion into public schools. The books reviewed are Bleached Faith by Steven Goldberg, Only a Theory by Kenneth Miller, and Monkey Girl by yours truly. Spectrum praises all three, and implicitly takes ID advocates to task.

I am impressed by the perspective that this evangelical Christian publication takes here, embracing as ingenious America's unique take of religious freedom -- that it is designed to protect worshippers from secular interference, and the country at large from the tyranny of theocracy. The reviewer, David Pendleton, concludes: "We are blessed to live today in a society where, as Humes and Miller implicitly remind us, we can pursue truth of science and Truth of Savior free of persecution by the government."

Of Monkey Girl, he writes:

Edward Humes’ ...is the most readable of the three books and chronicles the ID controversy of Dover, Pennsylvania, as only a journalist can.... Humes arrives at a position not unlike that of the late Stephen J. Gould’s NOMA (non-overlapping magisteria). That is to say, there is no clash between the scientific method and faith, because they deal with separate aspects of reality. The objects of faith (i.e., virtues, values, morals, matters of the spirit) are not readily amenable to measurement by the instruments of science.

"Science doesn’t rule out the supernatural – it doesn’t rule out God as a cause – because scientists are small-minded or conspiring to cover up evidence of design, as creationism and ID often allege. Science rules out the supernatural because it is science that is limited, whereas God is not." (p 267)

New Monkey Girl Readers Guide

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:50:20 PST

In a springtime ritual repeated in thousands of communities across the country, the school board in Dover, Pennsylvania, convened for the seemingly innocuous task of adopting new science texts. Instead, Dover became the first school district in America to mandate the teaching of a new and controversial blend of science and the supernatural known as “intelligent design.” This 21st century take on creationism attempts to poke holes in evolutionary theory with a vision of a universe designed by a guiding intelligence – while avoiding any mention of God or the Bible. Could this new approach pass constitutional muster? Was it legitimate science or artful sham? The maelstrom that followed became the subject of a media fixation, a sensational trial, a town torn down the middle, and a still-raging national debate over a seemingly eternal conflict: What happens when science and religion collide?

With my new Monkey Girl Readers Guide, your book group or class can explore the cases presented by both sides in this modern-day Scopes Monkey Trial, examine the implications for scientific progress, religious freedom, and public school reform, and learn more about the characters depicted in Monkey Girl. Enjoy!

Darwin Week at WSU

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:38:11 PST

I've been asked to speak about the evolution wars, Monkey Girl and the Kitzmiller case during Darwin Week at Washington State University in Pullman, part of an international series of events during Charles Darwin's birthday week.

I'll be signing copies of Monkey Girl at WSU's Community Union Building Wednesday Feb. 18 in advance of my 7 p.m. presentation, so come by a bit early and say hello.

Borders Book Club Reads Monkey Girl

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:54:07 PST

The Borders Book Club Pick of the month for nonfiction is Monkey Girl.

Here's the handy Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion & the Battle for America's Soul Readers' Guide to stimulate discussion about the evolution-intelligent design-creationism conflict in our schools and culture.

UCSB Arts & Lectures Series: In Conversation with Judge John E. Jones III

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:12:37 PST

2008/2009 Lectures
Judge John E. Jones & Edward Humes
Saturday, February 14, 2009 @ 2pm
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Judge John E. Jones II and I will be discussing the evolution-intelligent design case, Kitzmiller vs. Dover, as part of the University of California-Santa Barbara Arts & Lecture Series. For ticket information and more, click here. The lecture will be followed by a Q&A and a Monkey Girl signing. Meanwhile, check out my evolution/intelligent design myth buster.

Monkey Girl events update, Twitter link

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:34:34 PST

I just updated my page at BookTour.com with information about the latest Eco Barons and Monkey Girl book events; the newest additions are talks and signings at Washington State University Feb. 18, and Book Passage in Corte Madera on March 16.

You can also follow the latest Eco Barons news through my new Twitter page.

The Story Evolves

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:38:14 PST

The losing side in the epic evolution versus intelligent design case, Kitzmiller vs. Dover, has spent the last three years revisiting the case. Brown University biologist and Kitzmiller expert witness Ken Miller explains over at The Loom.

Flunking Expelled

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:28:40 PST

The Chicago Sun Times' Roger Ebert has posted a detailed review of the Ben Stein intelligent design advocacy film, Expelled. This is the anti-evolution film that the New York Times described as a "a conspiracy-theory rant masquerading as investigative inquiry," and which was promoted by an offer of cash payments of up to $10,000 to schools that sent classes to see the film. I had an interesting discussion with one of the film's producers while touring for Monkey Girl.

According to Ebert:

Expelled is not a bad film from the technical point of view. It is well photographed and edited, sometimes amusing, has well-chosen talking heads, gives an airing to evolutionists however truncated and interrupted with belittling images, and incorporates entertainingly unfair historical footage, as when it compares academia's rejection of Creationism to the erection of the Berlin Wall.

....This film is cheerfully ignorant, manipulative, slanted, cherry-picks quotations, draws unwarranted conclusions, makes outrageous juxtapositions (Soviet marching troops representing opponents of ID), pussy-foots around religion (not a single identified believer among the ID people), segues between quotes that are not about the same thing, tells bald-faced lies, and makes a completely baseless association between freedom of speech and freedom to teach religion in a university class that is not about religion.

The American Dream Evolves

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:05:07 PST

Rosa Parks sat in 1955.
Martin Luther King walked in 1963.
Barack Obama ran in 2008.
That our children might fly.

From an election email, as quoted by Roger Cohen in the NY Times.

Ohio Trip

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:24:33 PDT

I met a very bright and engaged audience this week at Ohio State University, where I was speaking about the Evolution Wars and the broader conflict between science and faith in America. It's usually a good sign when the house is packed for your lecture -- especially when they're there after the free food is gone -- but these OSU students and other residents of Columbus were more than just present. They were plugged in, energized, and had some great questions and comments following my Monkey Girl presentation, which focused on the misconceptions and deceptions behind America's seemingly endless clash between faith and reason.

Ohio has been a major battleground state in the Evolution Wars, with the latest uproar stemming from allegations that a public school science teacher in the Columbus area was not only baldly proselytizing in class about creationism and intelligent design while deriding the required lessons on evolution, but also allegedly burned a cross into at least one students' arm with a high-voltage lab tool, a small version of the Tesla Coil.

Yet, as has happened in other communities, some students and families have rallied in defense of this "preacher teacher." Other kids who complained or who failed to support the teacher were mocked by some of their classmates and taunted for being "atheists." (This same taunting behavior in Pennsylvania during the intelligent design controversy gave me the title of my book, Monkey Girl.)

One questioner at my lecture really cut to the heart of the matter: Why is the conflict so ugly, and why can't the scientific community and the faith community find some common ground?

There are several answers to this: America's terribly poor science and civics education is leaving ill far too many of us ill-informed. But the idea that seemed to resonate the most with the audience was one that only recently came to me by virtue of my work on my next book, due out in March, Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet:

A quarter century ago, the Endangered Species Act was passed by Congress -- unanimously by the Senate -- and signed by Republican President Richard Nixon as a bipartisan measure to save nature, or as some put it at the time, to preserve God's creation. Both parties wanted credit for the landmark measure, liberals and conservatives alike. They had a common goal, and were proud of it.

Today, the Endangered Species Act is portrayed by the right as a far-left tool of destruction and government overreach; it has been targeted for destruction and evasion by the conservative movement. How did we get from bipartisan consensus to open warfare?

The reason, I believe, is that we have moved away from striving for common goals that all sides of the political spectrum could agree upon, in this case, saving nature. This shared goals approach was rare, but it happened on some of the most important issues. Today, the focus is never on shared goals, but on opposing ideology. Process, not product, is all that matters.

The same unproductive ideological divide that exists with the Endangered Species Act lies behind the science and faith conflict. Yet there, too, the focus could be on the shared goals of science and religion: to answer vital questions. Science limits itself to seeking natural explanations of nature; religion addresses the much broader areas of the supernatural and the spritual. And when you look at it that way, and you see the questions asked by science are so very different from those posed by religion -- non-overlapping magisteria, as Steven Gould once described it -- you see there need be no conflict at all.

Monkey Girl on YouTube

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:23:56 PDT

Well, through the magic of YouTube, my talk on evolution, intelligent design and the famous Kitzmiller v. Dover case at the University of Pennsylvania bookstore has turned up online. It provides an overview of the case, the context, and the characters I write about at length in Monkey Girl.

The video above is the first of eight parts up on YouTube. My speech about the evolution wars in Kansas and Pennsylvania, delivered at the Dole Center at the University of Kansas, is available in one handy file here, thanks to Skepticat.

The Kitzmiller case is especially relevant today, as the state of Louisiana is about to embark on similar constitutional battle with an "academic freedom" bill intended to put intelligent design and creationism back in public schools.

And this is after evolution WON in court?

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:13:11 PDT

It's been more than two years since the Kitzmiller Case threw Intelligent Design out of a Pennsylvania public school, revealing it as a form of religious creationism intended to undermine the teaching of the science of evolution -- the subject of my book, Monkey Girl.

Now comes a survey of American high school biology teachers published in PLOS Biology that suggests the courtroom victory -- and the overwhelming evidence of Intelligent Design advocates as false prophets -- has not filtered into our public schools.

Among the survey's findings:

Nearly a quarter of public school biology teachers include an hour or more of teaching on Intelligent Design (ID) or creationism.
48% presented ID as a scientifically valid alternative to evolutionary theory -- a contention that was smashed by the evidence in Kitzmiller.
49% inform students that many reputable scientists believe ID is a scientifically valid alternative to Darwin -- another false claim exposed in by the evidence in Kitzmiller.
While only 2% excluded evolution entirely in their classes, more than 1 in 6 teachers omit mentioning human evolution.
16% of public school biology teachers are young-earth creationists who believe humans appeared in their present form in the past 10,000 years (a proposition that 48% of the general American public accepts). This group of teachers spends much less time teaching evolution than other teachers.

The evidence of Intelligent Design's lack of scientific rigor (and its intellectual dishonesty in insisting it is not a form of religion) was overwhelming in the Kitzmiller case. But predictions that ID faced imminent demise based on that verdict were dead wrong -- ID and creationism are alive and well in our public schools, and certainly in the general population. And the study also suggests that poor training for high school science teachers is helping perpetuate the notion that Intelligent Design is a valid scientific idea, rather than the religious and supernatural proposition that it truly is. Nothing wrong with believing in it -- that's First Amendment 101. The problem is trying to misrepresent that religious belief as science in public schools.

According to PLOS Biology: "Our study suggests that requiring all teachers to complete a course in evolutionary biology would have a substantial impact on the emphasis on evolution and its centrality in high school biology courses. In the long run, the impact of such a change could have a more far reaching effect than the victories in courts and in state governments."

Honors for Monkey Girl

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:02:46 PDT

Just got word that Monkey Girl received honorable mention in the 2008 Silver Gavel Awards from the American Bar Association. The award recognizes "outstanding efforts to foster public understanding of the law." First place was Jeffrey Toobin's The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, so I'm in fine company. Thanks, ABA!

LA Times Festival of Books

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:41:16 PDT

I'll be on the Moments that Defined America panel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Sunday, April 27, 10:30 am, at UCLA's Haines Hall (festival map here). Also on the panel are authors Douglas Brinkley (The Great Deluge), Michael Eric Dyson (April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King's Death and How it Changed America), and Bruce Watson (Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind). The panel moderator will be Elizabeth Taylor, book editor of the Chicago Tribune.

We'll all be signing books afterward, but if you miss me then, come on and visit between 1 and 2 pm at the Angel City Press booth, where I'll be joining some of the other authors to sign My California, the bestselling anthology of travel and adventure essays edited by Donna Wares, the proceeds of which go to the California Arts Council to support writing and arts programs for children.

Talk Radio Evolution.... on Talk Radio!

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:36:33 PST

I just finished discussing evolution, intelligent design and Monkey Girl on Tropical Currents on the NPR affiliate in Miami, Florida, one of the evolution war’s latest hotspots. (Florida just put the word “evolution” in its teaching standards for the first time – a mere 83 years after the Scopes Monkey Trial.) The show was pretty hot, too, given that I learned, five minutes before air time, that it was not a simple interview but a point-counter-point with Mark Mathis, the producer of a new ID promotional film called, Expelled, which apparently paints ID proponents and evolution critics as Galileo-like martyrs of science.

This put me in the position of having to rebut live the very thing I’ve been writing about – the cartoon version of evolutionary theory I call “Talk Radio Evolution.” This is the phony straw-man used by creationists and ID proponents to paint a false portrait of mainstream science as some far-out, atheistic, immoral fairy tale that says life arose through random chance, that man abruptly appeared where monkeys once stood, and that scientists are closed-minded, dogmatic liars conspiring to poison young minds and to drive the heroic “ID theorists” out of academia.

I’ll put up a link to the audio once it’s posted, but the short of it was, I responded:

Intelligent Design was shown to be a religious idea, not science, in the landmark Kitzmiller vs. Dover case I examine in Monkey Girl.
Evolution was shown in that same case to be well-supported and critically important science, and that it had been observed in the laboratory, the fossil record, through genome analysis, and in computer simulations -- none of which can be said about ID.
Such supernatural explanations for life and nature as ID may be fine for church and dinner-table discussions, but not public school science classes.
Even the star of the ID movement, biochemist Michael Behe, admitted that for Intelligent Design to be considered science, the very notion of a scientific theory would need to be redefined so broadly that astrology would qualify as science as well.

The very cordial host of the show, Joseph Cooper, asked Mr. Mathis if he thought allowing ID into public school classrooms would open the door to other fringe ideas, such as holocaust denial. Where do we draw the line? Mathis had no good answer.

This is the same fellow who PZ Myers over at Pharygula says interviewed him for a more even-handed sounding film called Crossroads, which apparently ~~evolved into~~ was re- designed as Expelled.

My one regret is that I didn’t have a chance to toss in a mention of Ambulocetus, the “walking whale,” when Mr. Mathis was asserting a lack of proof of one species evolving into another. So I've shared a nice shot of one here, courtesy of Kevin Padian’s presentation in the Kitzmiller case.

Monkey Girl Book Lotto Winners

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:57:01 PST

Wow, what a great response to the Monkey Girl book lotto over at CaliforniaAuthors.com! Thanks to everyone who entered, and to the winners, Cheryl Shepherd-Adams and Janice Theriot, who should be getting their signed copies of the new Monkey Girl paperback any minute.

Free Books! Monkey Girl Book Lotto

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:01:05 PST

To kick off the new paperback edition of Monkey Girl, officially out February 19, CaliforniaAuthors.com is sponsoring a Book Lotto, and they're giving away two autographed copies of my book. Now you've got no excuse not to delve into this story of a modern-day Scopes Monkey Trial and America's seemingly endless conflict between science and faith.

The drawing is Friday, and it's free. So click on over to the West Coast's leading literary site, CaliforniaAuthors.com, and enter to win your copy of Monkey Girl.

Monkey Girl Paperbacks Are Here!

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:05:22 PST

A great big box arrived at my doorstep today: the first shipment of the paperback edition of Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion & the Battle for America's Soul. The paperback arrives at a time of continuing controversy across the nation about the teaching of evolution, creationism and its close cousin, intelligent design. I'll be posting more about that shortly.

Meanwhile, here's a column I wrote for the LA Times that summarizes some of the key issues in Monkey Girl, and explains my own theory of Talk Radio Evolution.

And here's a sampling of reviews of Monkey Girl, just to whet your appetite:

Washington Post: Gripping... a talent for narrative and an eye for detail... As Edward Humes describes in this lively and thoughtful book, Dover - like Dayton, Tenn., during the 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial" - became a proving ground for clashing beliefs about the origins of life and constitutional questions about the separation of church and state.

LA Times Book Review: Humes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, has opened my eyes. I only wish I could close them again... Monkey Girl is full of vivid descriptions and interesting facts... Humes especially shines in his careful explication of the history of this larger fight over how human beings arose and what God's role - if any - was in their creation.

Chicago Tribune: Why Americans continue to pit religion against science... is the question at the heart of Edward Humes' compelling Monkey Girl... Clearly based on exhaustive reporting that takes the reader from the hard benches of a Harrisburg, Pa., federal district courtroom to the kitchen tables of Dover families whose children were taunted as "monkey girls." ...Humes may be the most successful so far in making a complicated issue accessible and in putting human faces on both sides of the evolution divide.

Seattle Times: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward Humes tells the riveting story of how a sleepy Pennsylvania town became the focus for the biggest fight over the teaching of evolution in the public schools since the Scopes Monkey Trial itself. Humes does a terrific job of evenhandedly laying out the history... His writing is vivid, memorable and engaging, and a welcome breath of common sense in an area dominated by zealots and table pounding.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Humes' fast-moving, richly detailed book reads like a suspense novel.

Michael Shermer, Why Darwin Matters: A must read for anyone who cares about science, education, and liberty.

Judge John E. Jones III, Kitzmiller vs. Dover: Humes' remarkable and balanced narrative has captured the essence of this complex and emotional dispute. When discussing the trial I have frequently found myself saying that to truly understand it, you had to be there. Humes' compelling book accomplishes just that.

Prof. PZ Myers, Pharyngula: This book reads like a novel. Even though I knew how it would turn out, I had to keep going... I knew there was a first-rate dramatic story in the Dover trial, and Edward Humes has written it. Now I'm just waiting for the movie.

The Belief Addiction

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 09:39:19 PDT

As much as I loved Al Gore's new book, The Assault on Reason, I think he missed an important aspect of America's growing problem with reality. It isn't merely that we're weathering daily, politically motivated assaults on rationality, but that we as a people have become addicted to the comfort of false beliefs -- ranging from a belief that the Old Testament's literal account of creation is more credible than modern science, to the persistent belief that Republicans are stronger on national defense than Democrats.

(Pop Quiz: What party was in power when both World Wars were won, when the GI Bill was passed, when the Cuban Missile Crisis was defused, and when the Veterans Administration was transformed from a cruel joke to a model of excellence that strengthened our military? And what party's leaders opposed standing up to Hitler, opposed aiding our WW II allies, cut and run from Vietanam and Lebanon, destroyed the VA and reduced premier military hospitals to monuments of moldering neglect, and ignored dire warnings one month before 9-11 that Osama Bin Laden was preparing to attack the U.S.?)

At the risk of stating the obvious, this is a classic example of a belief widely held not because of evidence, but in spite of it. And the irrational, angry, defensive behavior of addiction all too well explains this penchant for magical thinking.

My new essay on our addiction to false beliefs -- and the dire fate that awaits us if the public and the media don't start waking up and smelling the bull -- is up at the Huffington Post. Here's a taste:

While our political press obsesses on Fred's trophy wife, John's haircut and Hillary's cleavage, a far more revealing political milestone has passed with barely a ripple: the moment when ten Republican candidates for president, during the first in their endless series of sort-of debates, were asked if they believed in evolution. Three would-be leaders of the free world raised their hands to say no.

The revelatory aspect of this has nothing to do with the evolution versus creationism debate per se... What's most important is the question itself: Do you believe in evolution? It is at once unintentionally illuminating and profoundly stupid, and the fact that a panel of elite journalists and ten major presidential candidates alike failed to recognize this should shock and worry us all... Americans too often prefer pleasing beliefs, even false ones, over knowledge, and we cling to them not with the tenacity of a warrior, but with the sick obsession of an addict....read more

No Test Left Behind

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 23:58:20 PDT

Linda Perlstein's new book Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade is a revealing, up-close look at the harrowing and often negative impact the No Child Left Behind Act has had on American education. It's a worthwhile read, despite a few flaws, because it illustrates the human impact of policies that sound good in the abstract, but that, in reality, elevate measurement of education over education itself. The result, as Tested shows, is neither pretty nor desirable.

Here's a brief excerpt from my LA Times review:

The endless regimen of testing, drilling, report filing, student bribing and student berating that Perlstein describes could only have been conceived by politicians and ideologues who rarely set foot in actual public schools (and would never subject their own children to the Frankenstein classrooms their policies have created)...
The goal, Perlstein shows, is to limit teaching to ideas, skills and knowledge that can fit inside the confines of a multiple choice test. Teachers must follow a strictly paced and worded script that even mandates what classroom posters can be hung. Students are similarly regimented: Creativity and spontaneity only get in the way of data collection. And so the author treats us to the awful moment when bright kindergartners identifying long vowel sounds are told to stop -- because rigid lesson plans say they are supposed to know only short vowel sounds.

Showdown at Tejon

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 14:38:11 PDT

My latest magazine article moves from the evolution wars to the climate-change war, as I report on plans to develop a new city and luxury resort north of Los Angeles, carved out of a unique and mostly untouched California wildlands.

An epic battle over property rights, conservation and global warming is unfolding now on the Tejon Ranch, one of the world' biodiversity "hotspots." The sprawling ranch is twelve times the size of Manhattan, home to a long list of endangered species, and the single largest piece of private property in the state, where irreplaceable habitats and wildlife corridors are being weighed against billions in potential profits. The original article, in California Lawyer Magazine, is not available online, but you can read an adaptation here.

Monkey Girl at LA Times Festival of Books

contact@edwardhumes.com (Edward Humes) — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 17:10:44 PDT

Divided We Stand: Facing Tough Issues is the title of the panel discussion I'm joining Saturday April 28 at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on the UCLA campus. The tough issue I'll explore during the discussion is the culture-war conflict between science and faith, a never-ending battle that seems to spill over into almost every pressing issue of the day, from abortion and stem-cell research, to education policies, to global warming, to national security, and, of course, to the Evolution Wars, the subject of my latest book, Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion and the Battle for America's Soul.

My fellow panelists are Douglas Brinkley, author of the Hurricane Katrina chronicle, The Great Deluge, Eyal Press, author of Absolute Convictions, and Krista Tippett, host and producer of the public radio weekly show, Speaking of Faith. The moderator is Matt Miller, host of NPR's Left, Right and Center.

You can find us at Haines Hall 39 at 12:30, near the center of campus, next to Royce Hall.

Before the panel starts, I'll be visit beginning at 11 am with a gaggle of terrific California authors as we sign copies of My California: Journeys by Great Writers, the best-selling anthology that raises money for arts and writing programs for kids. Look for us at the Angel City Press booth, number 332, on the main drag facing Royce Hall.