There are times I’m proud of my species, there are times I’m certain we are doomed. This is neither of those, but it’s a depressing reminder that ancient fables still have an unhealthy grip on our primate psyches: [Read more…]
I was born in Lexington, but moved to Austin decades ago as a kid with the first wave of IBM immigrants traveling from blue grass to lone stars. Austin’s great, but Kentucky to Texas is not exactly a political improvement for a budding rational atheist. Because sadly, in many ways they’re the same, including creationism: [Read more…]
Related to the Second Law of Thermodynamics argument against evolution discussed here yesterday is one equally intimidating for the non mathematically inclined that goes “a mutation can never increase genetic information, ergo evolution is impossible.” Like the second law deal it can sound real complicated. But surprisingly, if you’re smarter than a first-grader, the ‘no new info’ argument is super easy to falsify. [Read more…]
For us science wonks thermodynamics is the study of heat and work and those properties of substance related to heat and work. But for creationists, it’s the basis for a prized whopper endlessly passed off as fact in the fundamentalist jihad against natural history. A recent editorial offers up the classic zombie lie: [Read more…]
Most of the time the discussion between creationists and everyone else centers on science. Creationists feel they can discredit the science and weaken acceptance of evo, we knock down the zombie lies hoping they will come to their sense. But theologically, they can’t do that, ever, and still be consistent: [Read more…]
Some old bones have stirred up new hope among the gullible that Jesus really did live, die, and live again (Wouldn’t that mean he didn’t die though?). It’s all based on some radiocarbon dating and molecular analysis of genetic material that Christians may now suddenly find irrefutable: [Read more…]
The controversial Creationist Museum will be putting up billboards in several large cities this summer hoping to cash in on gullible tourists. Some critics say the move is aimed at the helpless children of the willfully ignorant: [Read more…]
This is Don McElroy, the guy who used to run the Texas Schoolboard, stating he believes dinosaurs and humans walked side by side. Technically, he might be right — if one accepts that modern birds evolved from raptorial dinosaurs. A view McElroy would have a hard time accomodating. But what’s more interesting are McElroy’s reasons for believing this. Intelligent design creationists make a big dog and pony show about how empirical evidence is the sole crtieria in their rejection of evolutionary biology, or the age of the earth. But so many of them, like McElroy, just can’t keep their yaps shut about the real reason: his specific, narrow religious beliefs.
The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science — and Reality by Chris Mooney
Publisher Wiley; available on Kindle
During the darkest days of the Bush era, science writer Chris Mooney made a big splash in the publishing world with his first book detailing the Republican war on science. This month his newest effort, what could be nicknamed the Republican brain on science, hit the shelves. In it you will find Mooney is a stickler for detail, always important in any book on science, especially one with a bold title. But this is no clinical read, the book is a blast right off the bat, framing the main subject marvelously in the juiciest claims and tastier bits of conservative pseudoscientific lore readers here have come to lovingly know and ridicule. [Read more…]
Interesting analysis on the Book of Revelations from the New Yorker. I don’t know enough to judge this take, but I bet some readers here do. Longish excerpt below: [Read more…]