As far as possible I try to avoid writing about the teaching of evolution and opposition to climate change in this country because of their overly politicized nature, but this piece in the NYT is one that no one can wisely ignore. It details a growing movement to conflate rejection of evolution with rejection of [...]
Two hundred years ago this day, Charles Darwin was born. The vision of life that he created and expounded on transformed humanity’s perception of its place in the universe. After Copernicus’s great heliocentric discovery, it was Darwin’s exposition of evolution and natural selection that usurped human beings from their favoured place at the center of [...]
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 [...]