These days I usually steer clear of creationists. The reason is that I know that I am not going to change any “pure” creationist’s mind in a couple of hours. Creationists almost by definition have closed minds. They start with a religious premise that is assumed to be true and then try to weave evidence [...]
A very disappointing piece of news has just emerged; the most promising vaccine for HIV has just failed to show any significant effects. Researchers had pinned their hopes on the trial of the vaccine, which involved more than a thousand volunteers. The titlehead of the news piece announcing this in Science was a revealing photo- [...]
Why is Michael Behe so intent on embarrassing himself? It is one thing to subscribe to a point of view, perhaps even unsupported by any evidence whatsoever, but it’s quite another to be simply and solidly wrong. It seems that yet again, that’s what Behe is, in his new book (or actually old book in [...]
A pretty amazing debate has been going on in the webpages of Amazon.com. But first, a little about what it is about. The webpage is the one displaying Michael Behe’s “Darwin’s Black Box”, a book that has stirred up unnecessary muck, although not unpredictably. Behe is a biochemist with some credible credentials, but incredible assertions. [...]
A disturbing article from the latest issue of Nature (subscriber link) documents the audible noises that creationist groups in Europe have been starting to make, to try to force creationism into science curricula. The trend is most evident in Turkey, and Italy also is in the throes of a similar debate. While the movement is [...]