It passed the House Education Committee last year but failed to be heard on the floor of the House. It can still be heard on the House floor this year. The bill promotes dishonest anti-science claims and would allow objectively false, unscientific materials to be presented in public school science classes. It was copied, almost […]
David Grow
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Wrong again
Claiming authority from a long-dead scientist is nonsense. Louis Pasteur was a great scientist in large part because of his commitment to methodological naturalism. He rejected religious supernatural explanations for natural phenomena. Pasteur disproved spontaneous generation, the idea that organisms appear fully formed. What he disproved was special creationism, not evolution. Furthermore, there is no […]
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Blinded to science
Certainly, this must be a serious concern for Oklahoma. How concerned is the Legislature? Anti-science creationist inspired bills — House Bill 1551 authored by Sally Kern and Senate Bill 1742 by Josh Brecheen — are currently being considered. These would ostensibly promote “critical thinking, logical analysis and open and objective discussion of scientific theories,” primarily […]
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‘Kern is wrong’
By now, everyone should know quoting evolutionary scientists out of context to misrepresent the intent of their comments is a standard, dishonest tactic of creationists. It’s called “quote mining.” Here’s what Steven J. Gould said about one of his most commonly misrepresented passages: “Since we proposed punctuated equilibria to explain trends, it is infuriating to […]
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Rev. Steve Kern misrepresents science
Factual evidence shows the Cambrian “explosion” took 80 million years. To say all phyla developed nearly simultaneously and suddenly is ignorant. Microevolution is just the beginning of macroevolution. Contending macroevolution does not occur is absurd and laughably in conflict with the facts. Large-scale evolutionary change occurs over geologic time scales — millions of years. Biologists […]
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Real ‘science’
The word “theory” in the context of science means “a coherent group of general propositions used as principles of explanation for a class of phenomena.” Phenomena are described by facts. The facts describing evolutionary phenomena are vast and diverse. It is a scientifically established fact that life has changed sig nificantly over time and that […]
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‘Controversy’ response
He says “Innovation is the product of investigation.” Well, no. Knowledge is the product of investigation. Let’s investigate and apply some critical thinking to the Rev. Kern’s comments. He suggests something is deliberately off-limits when it comes to investigating evolution and that all “junk DNA” has function. He insinuates science misunderstands “junk” DNA and assumptions […]
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Creationist legislation dishonest to the core
These bills demonstrate the authors’ ignorance of science and established law. More importantly, they will damage our children. These bills are dishonest at their core. They purport to eliminate religious discrimination in public schools and grant academic freedom, allowing teachers to present the so-called “full range” of scientific views, including “valid criticisms” of scientific theories, […]
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Scam suspends rational thought
Judy Wesselhoft’s letter, “Kids deserve better,” Dec. 16, 2009, spews ignorance. The evidence is vast and diverse that speciation occurs over time and that all species have a common ancestor. It comes from every discipline of biology ” embryology, phylogeny, homology, genetics, paleontology, evolutionary development and on and on. No amount of personal incredulity, denial […]