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A major new survey on religion and human origins
A new survey suggests that public attitudes toward religion and human origins are more diverse and less confident than the Gallup findings indicate. "It's important to know that a large portion of the population is unsure about their beliefs, and there is a large portion of the population that doesn't care," Jonathan P. Hill told the Atlantic (November 23, 2014), prior to the December 2, 2014, release of the National Study of Religion & Human Origins.
Categories: Pro-Science News
A preview of The Thinking Person's Guide to Climate Change
NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Robert Henson's The Thinking Person's Guide to Climate Change (American Meteorological Society, 2014).
Categories: Pro-Science News
Yay! It's Day Two of Our Twelve Days of Discounts: Get Science and Human Origins by Gauger, Axe, and Luskin at Half Off!
Three scientists challenge the claim that undirected natural selection is capable of building a human being.
Evolution News & Views
Categories: Anti-Science News
Biologists Are Getting to Be Less Reticent About Using the Phrase "Design Principles"
A model of optimal signaling networks in noisy environments finds that cells meet the highest standard, achieving the optimum accuracy and efficiency according to "design principles."
Evolution News & Views
Categories: Anti-Science News
Ham-handed attack on governor of Kentucky
Joe Sonka reported the other day in Insider Louisville that Ken Ham has now attacked his old friend, Steve Beshear, the governor of Kentucky. As Mr. Sonka puts it, Mr. Ham “penned a fundraising letter last week claiming the governor is launching a ‘massive attack’ on their religious freedom and persecuting his organization ‘because of our Christian message.’” Mr. Ham blames atheists and “secularists” for putting pressure on state government officials and avers that “our...
Matt Young
http://www.mines.edu/~mmyoung
Categories: Pro-Science News
Welcome to Day One of Our Twelve Days of Discounts: Get The Magician's Twin, Book and DVD, for 45 and 35 Percent Off!
It's time take advantage of today's discount on Center for Science and Culture associate director John West's book The Magician's Twin and its accompanying DVD.
Evolution News & Views
Categories: Anti-Science News
One More Thing to Be Thankful For: Animal Research Points to Pain "Off Switch"
The tremendous potential human (and animal) good that could be derived from this research to treat pain justifies the suffering caused to the animals.
Wesley J. Smith
http://www.nationalreview.com/human-exceptionalism
Categories: Anti-Science News
Protracted Unrest Between ENCODE Researchers and Junk-DNA Advocates Goes On
The ENCODE Consortium has launched a new data volley, now drawing on the mouse genome.
Evolution News & Views
Categories: Anti-Science News
What the New Atheism's Gender Gap Tells You
The stereotyped picture of a sea of ponytailed males at the atheist conference is not just a stereotype.
David Klinghoffer
http://www.discovery.org/p/209
Categories: Anti-Science News
Mission Impossible: Trying to Explain the Feather Without Teleology
"It may seem strange to consider the fact that you, as a mammal, have all the known genes required to pattern a feather, and yet you do not look like Big Bird."
Michael Flannery
http://www.discovery.org/p/471
Categories: Anti-Science News
In Search of Circumstellar Habitable Zones
Astrobiologists have used the term for many decades. This shell encompasses the distance at which a planet in a fairly circular orbit could maintain liquid water on its surface.
Daniel Bakken
Categories: Anti-Science News
Media Are Indifferent to Euthanasia-Victimized Families
A Belgian chemist and self-described secular humanist describes his agony at the euthanasia killing of his depressed mother.
Wesley J. Smith
http://www.nationalreview.com/human-exceptionalism
Categories: Anti-Science News
How Does Modern Medicine Depend on Darwinism?
The question is prompted by a review in the Washington Post of E.O. Wilson's latest.
Tom Bethell
Categories: Anti-Science News
Analyzing the Genome with Statistics
This is the third in a series of articles for the general public focused on understanding how species are related and how genomic data is used in research. Today, we talk about the challenges of using statistics to analyze phylogenomic data. Suppose you were a door manufacturer trying to figure out the average height of a population living in a certain country. You might conduct an experiment where you ask a group of people...
Emily Thompson
Categories: Pro-Science News
Gilbert, Arizona, school district to abort page from biology textbook ...
… because it (gasp!) uses the word, “abortion.” But wait – there is a glimmer of hope: The new superintendent, who was ordered to offer a plan for redacting the textbooks, says that the books comply with the law already and instead plans to hold a public discussion. Meanwhile, as a service to the affected high-school students, Rachel Maddow has posted the offending page on a blog, ArizonaHonorsBiology.com, which her show apparently owns. If you...
Matt Young
http://www.mines.edu/~mmyoung
Categories: Pro-Science News
Lenticular clouds
Interesting cloud formation, Boulder, Colorado. The camera is facing south, and the wind is coming from the west, or right. One hour later, in Golden,...
Matt Young
http://www.mines.edu/~mmyoung
Categories: Pro-Science News
Our Early Christmas Gift to You: 12 Days, 12 Ways to Save
What a pleasure to settle into a holiday with a good book to read. Better than one book, of course, is two. Why not twelve?
Evolution News & Views
Categories: Anti-Science News
There's a Gene for That...Or Is There?
A CNN headline claims, "Blame genetics for bad driving, study finds." "Genes for," however, are dangerous words in genetics.
Denyse O'Leary
Categories: Anti-Science News
No Writ of Habeas Corpus for Orangutans
"She is being treated as a prisoner and has to suffer the presence of the public staring at her."
Wesley J. Smith
http://www.nationalreview.com/human-exceptionalism
Categories: Anti-Science News
From a 2011 Paper on Bacterial Flagella, Little Comfort for Darwinists
An email correspondent pointed out a paper to me, "Structural diversity of bacterial flagellar motors," published by the European Molecular Biology Organization.
Michael Behe
Categories: Anti-Science News
