Science Is Constantly Evolving
Discover the latest in climate change and evolution education news.
No fewer than three recent articles in the national media discussed the continuing struggle over evolution education in the United States. Unsurprisingly, NCSE, as the only national organization wholly devoted to promoting and defending the teaching of evolution in the public schools, was…
The cover story of the December 2004 Phi Delta Kappan is Mark Terry's "One Nation, Under the Designer," which warns of "a sea change in the tactics of the anti-evolution forces, whose efforts have waxed and waned ever since the Scopes Trial." Terry writes: [A] couple of years ago I…
On December 1, 2004, House Bill 35 was introduced in the Missouri House of Representatives. (Although the legislature is not in session until January 5, 2005, in Missouri it is possible to "prefile" bills and resolutions in order to expedite legislation.) HB 35 would require that: All biology…
by Nick Matzke Several new developments have occurred surrounding the controversy in Dover, Pennsylvania over the "intelligent design" textbook Of Pandas and People and the passage of a policy requiring the teaching of intelligent design. On December 6, 2004, another member of the…
The op-ed page of The New York Times for December 5, 2004, features a chart of "The Descent of Dissent" by Swarthmore biology professor Colin B. Purrington and graphic designer Felix Sockwell. Based on Purrington's web page satirizing textbook evolution disclaimers of the sort used in…
The controversy over the Dover (Pennsylvania) Area School Board's resolution reading "Students will be made aware of gaps/problems in Darwin's Theory and of other theories of evolution including, but not limited to, intelligent design" continues to reverberate. On November 30, 2004, the…
NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott appeared on the "Fair and Balanced" segment of Fox News on November 27, 2004, to discuss "intelligent design" opposite John West of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. The segment began with a reference to the decision of the…
Following on the heels of Gallup's latest poll, CBS News recently conducted a poll of public opinion about evolution, creationism, and science education. One question (the exact wording of which was not given in the story) was apparently similar to Gallup's question about the origin and…
The eminent Protestant theologian Langdon Gilkey died on November 19, 2004, at the age of 85, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Born in Chicago in 1919, where his father was a liberal Baptist minister, Gilkey studied at Harvard University before traveling to China to teach English. He was captured…