Evolution And Religion - Network For Church Monitoring

Human Nature’s Pathologist

Posted by N4CM Features 29 Nov 2011

Source: The New York Times. Steven Pinker was a 15-year-old anarchist. He didn’t think people needed a police force to keep the peace. Governments caused the very problems they were supposed to solve. Besides, it was 1969, said Dr. Pinker, who is now a 57-year-old psychologist at Harvard. “If you weren’t an anarchist,” he said, “you couldn’t get a date.” At the dinner table, he argued with his parents about human nature.

David Christian: Big history

Posted by N4CM Media, Videos 28 Nov 2011

Source: TED. Backed by stunning illustrations, David Christian narrates a complete history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the Internet, in a riveting 18 minutes. This is “Big History”: an enlightening, wide-angle look at complexity, life and humanity, set against our slim share of the cosmic timeline.

Science in America: Selling the truth

Posted by N4CM Christian Right Watch 1 Nov 2011

Source: New Scientist. John Holdren, science adviser to President Barack Obama, is a clever man. But when it comes to the science of communication, he can say some dumb things. In January, Holdren welcomed the prospect of climatologists being called to testify before Congress: “I think we’ll probably move the opinions of some of the members of Congress who currently call themselves sceptics, [...]

‘Belief’ in evolution? It may be the wrong word

Posted by N4CM Belief, News, Top Stories 28 Jun 2011

Source: Philly.com. When the contestants in the Miss USA pageant last week were asked whether evolution should be taught in schools, many volunteered that they either “believed” or “didn’t believe” in the concept. “I don’t believe in evolution,” said Miss Alabama. “They should teach both sides since some people believe in evolution and some people believe in creation,” said Miss Arizona.

Why intelligent design doesn’t qualify as science

Posted by N4CM Christian Right Watch 9 Apr 2011

Source: knoxnews.com. As someone who has spent her career in science, I have no delusion that the debate over teaching evolution in public schools will go away. But after 10 years of teaching the scientific method at the college level, I hope we can put at least one issue to rest. Intelligent design is not science, and here’s why: The scientific method begins with a theory.

High School Biology Teachers in U.S. Reluctant to Endorse Evolution in Class

Posted by N4CM News, Top Stories 28 Jan 2011

Source: ScienceDaily. The majority of public high school biology teachers in the U.S. are not strong classroom advocates of evolutionary biology, despite 40 years of court cases that have ruled teaching creationism or intelligent design violates the Constitution, according to Penn State political scientists.

God’s little rabbits: Religious people out-reproduce secular ones by a landslide

Posted by N4CM Belief, Opinion 23 Dec 2010

Source: Scientific American, 22 December 2010. By Jesse Bering. What’s that famous quote, by Edna St. Vincent Millay? Oh, yes: “I love humanity but I hate people.” It’s a sentiment that captures my normal misanthropically tinged type of humanitarianism well, but it roars apropos on some particular occasions. For example, making conversation at the pizza [...]

Morals Without God?

Posted by N4CM Belief 19 Oct 2010

Source: The New York Times, 17 October 2010. I was born in Den Bosch, the city after which Hieronymus Bosch named himself. [1] This obviously does not make me an expert on the Dutch painter, but having grown up with his statue on the market square, I have always been fond of his imagery, his symbolism, [...]

Would you Adam and Eve it? Top scientists tell Scottish pupils: the Bible is true

Posted by N4CM News 18 Oct 2010

Source: Herald Scotland, 10 October 2010. They are among Scotland’s most eminent scientists, they believe the world was created in six days and women were made from Adam’s rib …and they’re coming to a school near you. A new creationist group that preaches the “scientific” theory of intelligent design has set up in Glasgow with [...]

Evolution’s Lonely Battle in a Georgia Classroom

Posted by N4CM Features, News 19 Jul 2010

Source: New York Times, 28 June 2010. OCCASIONALLY, an educational battle will dominate national headlines. More commonly, the battling goes on locally, behind closed doors, handled so discreetly that even a teacher working a few classrooms away might not know. This was the case for Pat New, 62, a respected, veteran middle school science teacher, [...]