Digital Sextant

via Pharyngula

My favorite answer on the Talk Origins archive. Creationist claim: Homosexuality is considered acceptable and even desirable by most evolutionists, who point out that homosexuality is common in many species. Evolutionist respose: 3. The Biblical objection to homosexuality is hypocritical, because those who condemn it do not condemn just as vigorously other prohibited behaviors such [… Read More]

I got this Nova special from Netflix because I was hoping to get a bit of a sense of what the people were like who were involved in the case.  In that regard, it didn’t disappoint.  Being Nova, they were pretty pro-science, but the ID proponents who were willing to talk did get to make [… Read More]

by Jerry Coyne As y’all know, I follow the evolution / ID culture war pretty closely, but it occurred to me a while back that I had very little actual understanding of the science behind evolution. After reading Coyne’s book, I realize that I had more than I knew I did, but that I was [… Read More]

As y’all know, I’m currently at day 6 of double-fatherhood. It’s pretty awesome, as expected. But I’m sure you miss all the commentary I spew on what media I watch. We had Finn at an excellent local hospital with nice delivery rooms that have AV setups so you can do whatever the mommy wants, be [… Read More]

Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America’s Soul by Edward Humes Getting ready to read the three books I’d picked out to read about ID and the Dover case (the other two are The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything and Only a Theory), I suspected this one would be the best, because the [… Read More]

by Dave Freedman A decent thriller in, as the cover reminds us multiple times, the vain of Jurassic Park and Jaws.  Freedman does a good job in the last third of the book, particularly.  The beginning is a bit slow, especially his character development, which feels a bit like a made-for-TNT movie.  In fact, this [… Read More]

Evolution, Intelligent Design, and a School Board in Dover, P.A. by Gordy Slack Another interesting book about the IDiocy in Dover. Slack doesn’t obfuscate his leanings (he’s a materialist with no belief in the supernatural at all), but also softens his perspective by explaining that his father is a born-again Christian Creationist whom Slack seeks [… Read More]

See if you can pick it out. Context: P.Z. Myers grouses about some claims made in an article profiling “Intelligent” Design.  The boldfaced sentence is the claim being made by the article. IDists are correct to say love is not an illusion. Scientists say this. Frankly, this is the most dumb-ass argument in a whole [… Read More]

Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul by Kenneth Miller. With some of my birthday money, I picked up this book by Ken Miller, a Brown University biologist whose textbook was so “Darwinist” that it prompted the Dover board of education to try and weasel ID into the curriculum as a counterpoint.  [… Read More]

By Greg Bear More and more, in the last few years, I’ve come to enjoy good hard SF books by folks like Robert Sawyer. I’m going to have to add Greg Bear to my regular reading list. Darwin’s Radio is excellent. The book supposes that the punctuated equilibrium theory of evolution is actually correct, and [… Read More]