EvolutionBlog

Evolution at Wheaton

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:21:31 -0500

I am currently reading the book Believers: A Journey into Evangelical America by Jeffery Sheler, published in 2006. There is a chapter about Wheaton College in Illinois, which is generally considered one of the best, if not the best, evangelical college in the nation. Sheler recounts part of a conversation he had with Dorothy Chappell, dean of natural and social sciences.

“Our students are recognized as among the best,” she said. “That must say something about our program. We don't teach Christian science here. We teach science, period. It's the same science as the University of Illinois teaches, or the University of Chicago.”

Sounds good, but things soon start getting weird.

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My Review of Galileo Goes to Jail

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:15:01 -0500

In a couple of recent posts I have mentioned the book Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths About Science and Religion edited by Ronald Numbers. Since I have now finished reading it, I figure it is time for a proper review.

Short review: Mixed. As a compendium of interesting facts about the history of science and religion the book works rather well. The myth/reality format, however, is not always successful.

Longer review below the fold.

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My Review of Creation

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:45:44 -0500

Blogging will continue to be sporadic for a while, sorry about that. But having dragged myself down to Washington D.C. last weekend to see the new movie Creation, I figured I should at least get a blog post out of it.

Short review: Excellent! Completely engrossing, and historically accurate on the important things.

Longer review, and minor spoilers, below the fold.

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Science as Religion's Rebellious Child

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:52:37 -0500

Here's a quote from the book Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths About Science and Religion:

In Augustine's influential view, then, knowledge of the things of this world is not a legitimate end in itself, but as a means to other ends it is indispensable. The classical sciences must accept a subordinate position as the handmaiden of theology and religion -- the temporal serving the eternal. The knowledge contained in classical sciences is not to be loved, but it may legitimately be used. This attitude toward scientific knowledge cam to prevail throughout the Middle Ages and survived well into the modern period. Augustine's handmaiden science was defended explicitly and at great length, for example, by Roger Bacon in the thirteenth century, whose defense of useful knowledge contributed to notoriety as one of the founders of experimental science.

That's historian David Lindberg. For the record, the “myth” he was addressing was, “That the Rise of Christianity was Responsible for the Demise of Ancient Science.” But that's not really what interests me about this.

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Leno to Host WHCD

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:02:32 -0500

Well, this is just great:

The White House Correspondents Association has picked Jay Leno -- also known as this week's most publicly unpopular stand-up comic -- to headline the White House Correspondents Dinner in May.
An NBC rep confirmed the invitation to The TV Column.

To be clear, the association asked Leno weeks ago -- when he was simply the host of a prime-time show that was failing five nights a week. But when he appears at the annual Washington bash -- which over the past few years has become a Hollywood petting zoo -- Leno will be the guy who pushed aside Conan O'Brien to become the newly returned host of NBC's “Tonight” show. He has also been the butt of pretty much every other late-night talk-show host's jokes for the past couple of weeks.

Splendid visual, don't you think? President Obama sharing a stage with the comedic embodiment of big corporations screwing the little guy. (Yes, in this context Conan O'Brien is the little guy, forty million dollar severance package or not.)

Of course, the WHCD is an obscenity to begin with. If you are not familiar with it you should be picturing the final scene of Animal Farm, the one where the other animals can no longer tell the difference between the pigs and the humans. The picture of supposed journalists yukking it up with the politicians they are supposed to be covering is not very pleasant.

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Maddow States it Plain

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:43:59 -0500

I thought Rachel Maddow had a very smart take on the fallout from the Massachusetts Senate race. I've placed a lengthy excerpt below the fold.

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Department of Low Standards

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:38:22 -0500

Just in case you were thinking that religious institutions have not always bathed themselves in glory in their relations with science, here's Ronald Numbers to set you straight:

Historians of science have known for years that White's and Draper's accounts are more propaganda than history. ... Yet the message has rarely escaped the ivory tower. The secular public, if it thinks about such issues at all, knows that organized religion has always opposed scientific progress (witness the attacks on Galileo, Darwin, and Scopes). The religious public knows that science has taken the leading role in corroding faith (through naturalism and antibiblicism) . As a first step toward correcting these misconceptions we must dispel the hoary myths that continue to pass as historical truths. No scientist, to our knowledge, ever lost his life because of his scientific views, though, ... the Italian Inquisition did incinerate the sixteenth century Copernican Giordano Bruno for his heretical theological notions. (Emphasis in original)

That's from the introduction to his recent edited anthology, Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths About Science and Religion.

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Massachusetts Fallout

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:46:52 -0500

Here's a prominent Democratic congressman commenting on the effect of the Massachusetts Senate race on health care reform:

I have two reactions to the election in Massachusetts. One, I am disappointed. Two, I feel strongly that the Democratic majority in Congress must respect the process and make no effort to bypass the electoral results.
If Martha Coakley had won, I believe we could have worked out a reasonable compromise between the House and Senate healthcare bills. But since Scott Brown has won and the Republicans now have 41 votes in the Senate, that approach is no longer appropriate.

I am hopeful that some Republican senators will be willing to discuss a revised version of healthcare reform because I do not think that the country would be well-served by the healthcare status quo. But our respect for democratic procedures must rule out any effort to pass a healthcare bill as if the Massachusetts election had not happened.

Going forward, I hope there will be a serious effort to change the Senate rule which means that 59 votes are not enough to pass major legislation, but those are the rules by which the healthcare bill was considered, and it would be wrong to change them in the middle of this process.

Some Blue Dog pseudo-Democrat? No. That was Barney Frank, one of my heroes in the Congress.

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Home Again

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:28:59 -0500

After a lengthy trip that involved not just planes and trains, but automobiles as well, I made it back from San Francisco in one piece. Yay! The conference was a big success, both mathematically and socially. Saw lots of old friends, which is, after all, the point of the conference, and also hopefully made some new ones.

As the sign says, this was the 2010 Joint Mathematics Meetings. The “Joint” refers to the joint sponsorship between the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America. No Monty Python jokes, please. Roughly speaking, the AMS deals with the research side of the profession, while the MAA does the educational side.

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To San Francisco!

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:18:31 -0500

Winter term classes started on Monday here at JMU, so I figure this is a good time to get out of dodge! I will be participating in the 2010 Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Francisco. Yay! And while I'm there I expect to take a quick train ride over to Oakland to visit the National Center for Science Education. Double yay!

Should be a fun trip. Regular blogging will resume when I return next week.

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Scott Wins NAS Public Welfare Medal

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:06:08 -0500

A well-deserved honor:

The National Academy of Sciences Council has selected Eugenie C. Scott to receive its most prestigious award, the Public Welfare Medal. Established in 1914, the medal is presented annually to honor extraordinary use of science for the public good. The Council chose Scott for championing the teaching of evolution in the United States and for providing leadership to the National Center for Science Education (NCSE).
Scott, a physical anthropologist by training, became the first executive director of the National Center for Science Education in 1987. Beginning with a loose network of supporters scattered around the country and a few private grants, she has developed NCSE into the nation's leading advocate for the teaching of evolution in public schools. Through lectures, television appearances, and articles, she has explained the process of scientific inquiry and defended science education against creationist challenges. Scott and the NCSE have served as pro bono consultants in state and federal court cases on science standards, including the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial in which the teaching of intelligent design was held by a federal court to be unconstitutional.

“Eugenie Scott has worked tirelessly and very effectively to improve public understanding of both the nature of science and the science of evolution,” said Ralph J. Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences. “She makes the case for science again and again.”

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Newton on Science Denial

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:08:20 -0500

The Huffington Post is not usually the go-to place for intelligent commentary on scientific issues, but sometimes they come through. Go have a look at this essay by Steven Newton, Project Director for the National Center for Science Education.

Science requires conclusions about how nature works to be rooted in evidence-based testing. Sometimes progress is slow. But through a difficult and often frustrating process, we learn more about the world.
Science denialism works differently. Creationists are unmoved by the wealth of fossil, molecular, and anatomical evidence for evolution. Global-warming denialists are unimpressed by mountains of climate data. Denialists ignore overwhelming evidence, focusing instead on a few hoaxes, such as Piltdown Man, or a few stolen e-mails. For denialists, opinion polls and talk radio are more important than thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles.

Denialists often appeal to the ideal of fairness, arguing schools should "teach the controversy" and address "evidence for and against" science, as in then-Sen. Rick Santorum's proposed amendment to the No Child Left Behind bill in 2001. But they apply the ideal selectively to science they dislike: evolution, climate change, vaccines. They hope to cloak themselves in the mantle of science without being restricted by its requirements.

If denialists had evidence disproving global warming or evolution, they could submit it to scientific conferences and journals, inviting analysis by scientists. But, knowing their arguments don't hold water, they spread misinformation in arenas not subject to expert scrutiny: mass-market books, newspapers, talk radio, and blogs.

Good stuff. Go read the rest.

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On the Other Hand, That Was in New York

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:50:55 -0500

Of course, the focus of that last post was a development in New York City, which is considerably more civilized than most of the country. In rural Mississippi things do not seem quite so cozy. This is from a reader of Andrew Sullivan's blog:

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Atheists Invited to Interfaith Breakfast

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:36:43 -0500

Here's an encouraging story:

Ken Bronstein was excited to notify us of a great coup: six members of his organization, the New York City Atheists, attended Mayor Bloomberg's annual Interfaith Breakfast this weekend. It's believed to be the first time nonbelievers have been invited, as nonbelievers, to the event.
We asked Bronstein why atheists would even want to attend an Interfaith Breakfast, seeing as they don't, in point of fact, have faith.

“Oh, we have faith,” Bronstein told us. “Just not in God.”

A spokesman from the Mayor's office confirmed that the Mayor had invited the guests as members of NYC Atheists, and “in his remarks did certainly welcome those who, while not professing a particular faith, do love the city, recognizing the importance of working together for the common good of the people of New York City.”

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More on Science/Religion Disputes

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:57:18 -0500

My post about science/religion disputes has prompted responses from my SciBlings Bora Zivkovic and Mike Dunford (here and here respectively. Since they are among my favorite bloggers, it pains me to have to disagree with them. Alas, disagree I must.

I will begin with Bora, since I fear he has misunderstood my central point. The starting point of my post was my disagreement with this statement from Thomas Dixon:

Historians have shown that the Galileo affair, remembered by some as a clash between science and religion, was primarily about the enduring political question of who was authorized to produce and disseminate knowledge.

Bora characterizes my objection to this statement as follows:

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