Here’s Wikipedia on McLean v. Arkansas:

A lawsuit was filed in theUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas by various parents, religious groups and organizations, biologists, and others who argued that the Arkansas state law known as the Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science Act (Act 590), which mandated the teaching of “creation science” in Arkansas public schools, was unconstitutional because it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Judge William Overton handed down a decision on January 5, 1982, giving a clear, specific definition of science as a basis for ruling that creation science is religion and is simply not science. The ruling was not binding on schools outside the Eastern District of Arkansas but had considerable influence on subsequent rulings on the teaching of creationism.

This is what Ben says about it:

We often think of scientific ideas, such as Darwin’s theory of evolution, as fixed notions that are accepted as finished. In fact, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species evolved over the course of several editions he wrote, edited, and updated during his lifetime. The first English edition was approximately 150,000 words and the sixth is a much larger 190,000 words. In the changes are refinements and shifts in ideas — whether increasing the weight of a statement, adding details, or even a change in the idea itself.

The second edition, for instance, adds a notable “by the Creator” to the closing paragraph, giving greater attribution to a higher power. In another example, the phrase “survival of the fittest” — usually considered central to the theory and often attributed to Darwin — instead came from British philosopher Herbert Spencer, and didn’t appear until the fifth edition of the text. Using the six editions as a guide, we can see the unfolding and clarification of Darwin’s ideas as he sought to further develop his theory during his lifetime.

Check it out.

They are shouting at us to collectively awaken to the dangers of revering texts and doctrines on no sounder basis than tradition and authority. Because the New Atheists put their faith, their confidence, in an evidentially formed and continuously tested view of the world, these critics of religion are well positioned to see what’s real and what’s important today. It is thus time for religious people to listen to the New Atheists—and to listen as if they were speaking with God’s voice, because in my view they are!

What follows – the bulk of his sermon – is what that proper relationship is. It’s a pretty good run-down of one type of Liberal Christian theology, with it’s base in Rudolf Bultman. Dowd is what John Shelby Spong used to call a “non-theist,” a person who feels that God is not a person. What exactly this God thing happens to be is probably beyond us, but at least we can experience God in some way and cultivate that experience.

For myself, I don’t see how we can listen to what science tell us about the human mind – which Dowd seems to want us to do – and still trust that these spiritual experience are telling us something true about the universe. Having grown up in a family with more than its fair share of mental illnesses, I’m leery of assuming that any powerful experience is necessarily true or derived from a source outside my own brain chemistry.

Julie Ingersoll over at Religion Dispatches catches the reaction to Dowd from Dr. Al Mohler- sort of the go-to fundamentalist these days. Mohler stats that Dowd’s religion is not really Christianity, but an illustration “theological and biblical costs of embracing the evolutionary worldview.”

Mohler has the wrong end of the stick and he should know better.. The roots of Liberal theology predate Darwin. Mohler’s Fundamentalist Christianity arose largely as a reaction to Strauss, Schleiermacher and the rest of the Liberal theologians and their Higher Criticism.

“PRIMARY school students are being taught that man and dinosaurs walked the Earth together and that there is fossil evidence to prove it.

Fundamentalist Christians are hijacking Religious Instruction (RI) classes in Queensland despite education experts saying Creationism and attempts to convert children to Christianity have no place in state schools.

Students have been told Noah collected dinosaur eggs to bring on the Ark, and Adam and Eve were not eaten by dinosaurs because they were under a protective spell.”

Source story.

Wow. Just…. Wow.

According to Dunning, the epiphany came to him when he was reading an unusually ridiculous “dumb crook” story in which the bank robber, McArthur Wheeler, had managed to convince himself that covering his face with lemon juice would prevent the security cameras from getting an image of his face.

If Wheeler was too stupid to be a bank robber, perhaps he was also too stupid to know that he was too stupid to be a bank robber — that is, his stupidity protected him from an awareness of his own stupidity.

Dunning wondered whether it was possible to measure one’s self-assessed level of competence against something a little more objective — say, actual competence. Within weeks, he and his graduate student, Justin Kruger, had organized a program of research. Their paper, “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties of Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-assessments,” was published in 1999.

Dunning and Kruger argued in their paper, “When people are incompetent in the strategies they adopt to achieve success and satisfaction, they suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it. Instead, like Mr. Wheeler, they are left with the erroneous impression they are doing just fine.”

Dunning goes on to consider the evolution of the species and points out the limitations of being at the top of the food chain:

People will often make the case, “We can’t be that stupid, or we would have been evolutionarily wiped out as a species a long time ago.” I don’t agree. I find myself saying, “Well, no. Gee, all you need to do is be far enough along to be able to get three square meals or to solve the calorie problem long enough so that you can reproduce. And then, that’s it. You don’t need a lot of smarts. You don’t have to do tensor calculus. You don’t have to do quantum physics to be able to survive to the point where you can reproduce.” One could argue that evolution suggests we’re not idiots, but I would say, “Well, no. Evolution just makes sure we’re not blithering idiots. But, we could be idiots in a lot of different ways and still make it through the day.”

The interview is at the blog The Opinionator.

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin Of Species: A Graphic Adaptation
by Michael Keller

The Tangled Bank
by Carl Zimmer

Evolution, Second Edition
By Douglas J. Futuyma

Evidence of Evolution
by Susan Middleton and Mary Ellen Hannibal

Evolution: The story of life
by Douglas Palmer

Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be
by Daniel Loxton

Rapture Ready!
by Daniel Radosh

Evolution vs. Creationism, 2nd edition
by Eugenie C. Scott

(source)

Scientists have created the world’s first synthetic life form in a landmark experiment that paves the way for designer organisms that are built rather than evolved.

The controversial feat, which has occupied 20 scientists for more than 10 years at an estimated cost of $40m, was described by one researcher as “a defining moment in biology”.

Craig Venter, the pioneering US geneticist behind the experiment, said the achievement heralds the dawn of a new era in which new life is made to benefit humanity, starting with bacteria that churn out biofuels, soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and even manufacture vaccines.

However critics, including some religious groups, condemned the work, with one organisation warning that artificial organisms could escape into the wild and cause environmental havoc or be turned into biological weapons. Others said Venter was playing God.

People wouldn’t have to “play God” if God existed. God could play God himself. Until he decides to start existing, humanity will take up the slack.

Brinkman, a burly Canadian from Vancouver, is a latter-day wandering minstrel, a self-styled “rap troubadour,” with a master’s degree in English and a history of tree-planting (according to his Web site, he has personally planted more than one million trees). His guide to evolution grew out of a correspondence with Mark Pallen, an evolutionary biologist and rap enthusiast at the University of Birmingham, in Britain; the result, as Brinkman tells us, is “the only hip-hop show to have been peer-reviewed.”

[...]

To this end, he has concocted a set of mini-lectures disguised as rap songs. When he comes to human evolution, for example, he has the audience sing along in call-response fashion to “I’m a African” — a riff on an earlier song of that name by the radical, pan-Africanist hip-hop duo Dead Prez. The point of Brinkman’s version is that because humans evolved in Africa, we are all Africans: pan-Africanism meets population genetics. A few moments later, he’s showing a video of individuals of the social slime mold Dictyostelium discoidium streaming together while rapping about how cooperation evolves.

Brinkman has done previous rap acts, including one using Chaucer’s Canterbry Tales, so he’s flexible. He’s also done a rationalist anthem entitled “Off That”, which he placed on youtube:

Via The Dispersal of Darwin, who found it on the Facebook group “We can find 1,000,000 people who DO believe in Evolution before June“. Which is a response to a Facebook page making the same claim about Creationism.

I’m not on Facebook, but if you are, give ‘em a look. Bear in mind that it’s a pro-science page, not an anti-religion page.

The new species of hominid, the evolutionary branch of primates that includes humans, is to be revealed when the two-million-year-old skeleton of a child is unveiled this week.

Scientists believe the almost-complete fossilised skeleton belonged to a previously-unknown type of early human ancestor that may have been a intermediate stage as ape-men evolved into the first species of advanced humans, Homo habilis.

Experts who have seen the skeleton say it shares characteristics with Homo habilis, whose emergence 2.5 million years ago is seen as a key stage in the evolution of our species.

The new discovery could help to rewrite the history of human evolution by filling in crucial gaps in the scientific knowledge.

I haven’t seen too much talk about this in the blogosphere — do you think it’s as big of a find as they’re making it out to be?

Update: Carl Zimmer has an excellent essay in Slate on this.

I tell ya, I LIKE this kid …

Home-school mom Susan Mule wishes she hadn’t taken a friend’s advice and tried a textbook from a popular Christian publisher for her 10-year-old’s biology lessons.

Mule’s precocious daughter Elizabeth excels at science and has been studying tarantulas since she was 5. But she watched Elizabeth’s excitement turn to confusion when they reached the evolution section of the book from Apologia Educational Ministries, which disputed Charles Darwin’s theory.

“I thought she was going to have a coronary,” Mule said of her daughter, who is now 16 and taking college courses in Houston. “She’s like, ‘This is not true!’”

… and a round of applause for Elizabeth, if you please.

This is a selection from the San Francisco Chronicle on the prevalence of creationism in the text books available for home-schoolers. It’s been mentioned in the past that we don’t have really good data about the numbers and composition of home-schoolers. But I think we can tentatively assume that the majority right now are conservative Christian. If so, it’s not surprising that they would drive the market.

“The majority of home-schoolers self-identify as evangelical Christians,” said Ian Slatter, a spokesman for the Home School Legal Defense Association. “Most home-schoolers will definitely have a sort of creationist component to their home-school program.”

Those who don’t, however, often feel isolated and frustrated from trying to find a textbook that fits their beliefs.

Case in point:

In Kentucky, Lexington home-schooler Mia Perry remembers feeling disheartened while flipping through a home-school curriculum catalog and finding so many religious-themed textbooks.

“We’re not religious home-schoolers, and there’s somewhat of a feeling of being outnumbered,” said Perry, who has home-schooled three of her four children after removing her oldest child from a public school because of a health condition.

Perry said she cobbled together her own curriculum after some mainstream publishers told her they would not sell directly to home-schooling parents.

You may remember a story from last year about the discovery of “Ida,” a fossilized early primate from a species that was named Darwinius masillae. You might, because the story was accompanied by an unprecedented amount of publicity: a documentary on the History channel, a book and an exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History.

The team behind Ida came under a lot of criticism for all the flash and dazzle that came with the unveiling of the fossil. Online skeptics, particularly the folks as the Skeptics Guide to the Universe, questioned the team’s assertion that Ida was a “missing link” between primates and humans.

According to a new article, the skeptics got that one right.

In an article now available online in the Journal of Human Evolution, four scientists present evidence that the 47-million-year-old Darwinius masillae is not a haplorhine primate like humans, apes and monkeys, as the 2009 research claimed.

They also note that the article on Darwinius published last year in the journal PLoS ONE ignores two decades of published research showing that similar fossils are actually strepsirrhines, the primate group that includes lemurs and lorises.

Ooops. Well, score one for the skeptics. But I’m betting that we’ll be hearing from the creationists about this one.

1. H1N1 & Emerging Diseases. “Rapid evolution combined with rapid travel mean that emerging diseases threaten human health as never before–and therefore, understanding how these diseases evolve is vital as never before.”
2. HIV. “Evolution helps us understand HIV’s origins.”
3. Vaccines. “Evolution makes sense of the need for a new vaccine every year, and point the way toward developing it.”
4. Antibiotic Resistance. “The origin of antibiotic-resistant organisms is a textbook example of natural selection.”
5. Drug Development. “Because we know from evolution that we share a common ancestor with animals such as mice, dogs, and macaques, we can test drugs on these animals without endangering humans.”

What are some other reasons evolution is important?

(Other than without it, we wouldn’t be here!)