Saturday, September 16, 2006

Weekend Humor #7

This is a link to my previous post entitled Barbara Forrest, the ACLU and Calvin and Hobbes, which has a link to a great cartoon. This post belongs in the Weekend Humor category. I happen to think Barbara Forrest's ideas are pretty frequently comical. But perhaps "conspiracy theory humor" is an acquired taste.

For more Barbara Forrest humor, go here.

Friday, September 15, 2006

ID Related Classes in Universities

Hat tip to Salvador Cordova for this link to college and university classes dealing with intelligent design, Darwinian skepticism or the current debates on the science and/or public policy involved. These issues are not going away any time soon.


Thursday, September 14, 2006

Is the Label "Creationist" Pejorative?

This is in reference to my last post. Merriam-Webster defines "pejorative" has "having negative connotations; especially : tending to disparage or belittle." My short answer to the question in the title of this post is that it depends on the context and the speaker. I certainly do not consider it an inherently pejorative term. In the way PZ Myers is using it of Ken Miller, it is pejorative. The way many scientists use it to describe intelligent design proponents, it is pejorative. These uses are misleading, disparaging and do not foster civil and rational debate. Oh, that our scientists would be rational. Is that too much to ask?


Pejorative Labels in the Name of Science

PZ Myers is at it again, calling Ken Miller a "creationist," despite the fact that Miller is an outspoken advocate of evolutionary theory and was a witness for the prosecution in the Dover trial. I think enough electronic ink has been spilled on this already, and the title of this post sums it up.

However, I will add one thing. This makes it even more obvious that those who use this misleading label to denigrate those skeptical of Darwinian theory or proponents of Intelligent Design are preferring propaganda to civil discourse. These tactics will hurt them in the long run. Their goal is to mislead the public, and the public is not going to be happy when they learn the important differences between Young Earth Creationists and those who merely question Darwinian theory on the basis of the evidence. The credibility of the scientific community will be hurt, and that is really a shame. Ironically, one might argue that these tactics represent the biggest threat to science.

Some may think this guy is just a wing nut and can be ignored, but he apparently is the writer of the #1 Science Blog (as determined by Nature).

* * *

Update: Is the term "creationist" inherently pejorative? I discuss it briefly here.


Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Compendium of Links

Here are links to other blogs that deal with the issues of evolution and intelligent design either from a position of skepticism toward macroevolutionary theory or open-mindedness toward intelligent design, or both. More comments are at the bottom of this post. Feel free to link to this or bookmark this. I created it for use as a starting page for browsing on this topic. The link to just this post is here.

Group blogs with very frequent posts
:
Evolution News & Views (Discovery Institute)
Uncommon Descent (William Dembski, Denyse O'Leary and others)
Telic Thoughts (Mike Gene, Krauze, and others)
Intelligent Design the Future (Discovery Institute)

Individual blogs
Post-Darwinist (Denyse O'Leary)
Darwinian Fundamentalism (Lawrence Selden)
ID in the UK (Andrew Rowell)
CreationEvolutionDesign (Stephen Jones)
ID.Plus (Peter S. Williams)
The Design Paradigm (Cornell IDEA club)
Teleological Blog (Salvador Cordova and others)
Intelligently Sequenced (William Bradford)

Mixed topic blogs
Wittingshire (Jonathan and Amanda Witt)
He Lives (David Heddle)
Thinking Christian (Tom Gilson)
Exiled From Groggs
Real Physics (Lawrence Gage)

Other individual blogs
I'm From Missouri (Larry Fafarman)
Doubting Darwin (Samuel Chen)
Baraminology Blog (Crevo)

Other mixed topic blogs
Physics Geek Jesus Freak
Scrappleface (Scott Ott)

Other Languages
ProgettoCosmo (Italian)
Pos-Darwinista (Brazilian)


*************************************************

I have attempted to include all the Darwinism related blog links from the following blogs: Telic Thoughts, Uncommon Descent, Post-Darwinist, Darwinian Fundamentalism and Wittingshire.

This post is a work in progress and will certainly be revised and updated. Please post a comment if you think that I have left out any significant blogs.

I hope to do another post with the most helpful links to web sites (not blogs).

I have ordered them in a rough attempt at ranking their level of popularity and relevance, based on objective (links by others) and subjective (my humble opinion) criteria.

Happy reading!