Month: January 2009
Surprise Texas Board Action on Evolution Completely Missed by Media
Apparently there weren’t many reporters who stayed for the entire Texas Board of Education meeting today. That’s the only conclusion I can draw from the slew of utterly misleading stories this afternoon and evening from the Associated Press, the Dallas Morning, and other media outlets claiming that those of us who favor critical analysis of modern evolutionary theory in the classroom suffered a big “defeat” in Texas today. It’s true that the Board narrowly rejected a motion to preserve the language in the current science standards calling for students to study the “strengths and weaknesses” of scientific theories. But that’s only half of the story. Later in the afternoon, the Board amazingly passed a series of amendments to the actual Read More ›
Texas State Board of Education Votes To Require Students to Analyze and Evaluate Evolution
AUSTIN, TX–The Texas State Board of Education today voted to require students to analyze and evaluate common ancestry and natural selection, both key components of modern evolutionary theory. The surprising vote came after the Board failed to reinstate language in the overall science standards explicitly requiring coverage of the “strengths and weaknesses” of scientific theories. “The Texas Board of Education took one step back and two steps forward today,” said Dr. John West of the Discovery Institute. “While we wish they would have retained the strengths and weaknesses language in the overall standards, they did something truly remarkable today. They voted to require students to analyze and evaluate some of the most important and controversial aspects of modern evolutionary theory Read More ›
Question for Self-Proclaimed tree of life “expert” David Hillis
Looks like David Hillis, the self-proclaimed “world’s leading expert” on tree of life phylogeny didn’t get the memo.Media experts who prepare business leaders, public figures and so on to meet the press always remind their charges to read the newspaper. Never go before the media, or a state board of education, not having at least read the headlines of the day. I’ve seen very accomplished CEO’s literally spill their coffee on themselves at an important press conference when confronted with a late breaking headline they’re not prepared for. It’s too bad that yesterday when Hillis stepped arrogantly to the microphone and artlessly asserted his alleged expertise, that no one presented him with just these two headlines: Charles Darwin’s tree of Read More ›
Strengths and Weaknesses in David Hillis’s Arguments about the Cambrian Explosion
Tonight in Texas, pro-Darwin expert David Hillis testified that the Cambrian explosion took many tens of millions of years, also stating that there are no credible scientific weaknesses in neo-Darwinian evolution. His evolutonary theory of the Cambrian Explosion has a grave weakness. One of the 100+ mainstream scientific papers discussing weaknesses in evolution that Stephen Meyer presented to the Texas State Board of Education today absolutely refuted Hillis’s argument: “Until 530 million years ago, multicellular animals consisted primarily of simple, soft-bodied forms, most of which have been identified from the fossil record as cnidarians and sponges. Then, within less then 10 million years, almost all of the advanced phyla appeared, including echinoderms, chordates, annelids, brachiopods, molluscs and a host of Read More ›
Dr. Charles Garner and Other Experts Shatter the Darwinist Illusion that “Theories Don’t Have Weaknesses”
AUSTIN, TX–One of the more bizarre talking points we’ve been hearing from Texas Darwinists today is the claim that “theories don’t have weaknesses.” According to them, if we call evolution as a “theory,” then by definition it can’t have weaknesses. This isn’t unusual: Darwinists often like to define terms such that they win the argument by definitional fiat. Some scientists who testified today in Texas, however, saw through the Darwinists’ rhetorical tactic. Dr. Charles Garner, who holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from University of Colorado, Boulder and is now a Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Baylor University. He’s been a scientist for a long time and is familiar with the field. How did he respond Read More ›