"Darwin Day in America"

[HypothesisTesting]

John West, an author of "Darwin Day in America" made some puzzling statements on C-Span Feb. 8.

1. evolutionists are pushing incorporating theological topics into public school science courses. Examples: Eugenie Scott encouraging science students to discuss theological statements in class ; NSF funded website linking to religious sites endorsing evolution ; the usually outspoken ACLU is suddenly AWOL on this one.
2. evolution classes are essentially devolving into "Darwinian Sunday Schools"
3. evolutionists are avoiding some troubling questions (a) do random mutations provide raw material for evolution (b) can natural selection be extrapolated to macroevolution (c) what were the origins of animal biology plans during the Cambrian.

Where is this guy coming from? Is this some type of double psychology to get us to think he is an evolutionist and is critiquing what he sees as shortcomings in the curriculum? Is he really an evolutionist or a creationist? The troubling questions he claims science should be focusing on seem like loaded questions : for instance, the idea that there WERE "animal biology plans" seems like a grand leap of logic. Why did there have to be plans at all?

[schlaugh]

He's from the Discovery Institute. Need more be said? The NSF reference probably relates to this:

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/r...volution.shtml

BERKELEY – A lawsuit by a Roseville couple who claimed that a University of California, Berkeley, website used evolution to promote religion was dismissed Monday, March 13, in San Francisco federal court.

Without ruling on the merits of the suit, Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted the University of California's motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing – that is, they did not have a sufficiently strong personal interest in the outcome of the case.

The lawsuit named not only two UC Berkeley professors, but also an administrator at the National Science Foundation (NSF), which partly funded the website. Judge Hamilton has yet to rule on NSF's motion to dismiss.

[GOURDHEAD]

John West, an author of "Darwin Day in America" made some puzzling statements on C-Span Feb. 8......(c) what were the origins of animal biology plans during the Cambrian.
..... Why did there have to be plans at all?

Perhaps he is using "plan" in such a generic way that it does not imply a "planner". What evolution does to generate various "plans" is to allow the CHON based carbon in water machinery to have its way to the extent that any particular evironment will support the activity.

[HypothesisTesting]

He's from the Discovery Institute. Need more be said? The NSF reference probably relates to this:

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/r...volution.shtml

ok, that explains a lot.

These people are getting sophisticated in how they cleverly attack science.

[Ken G]

Yes, he's an anti-evolutionist. It looks like his tack is that Darwin is a kind of "cult of personality", so there's no evolution theory that works splendidly well, instead there is a "Darwin Day".

[Noclevername]

If he uses the term "macroevolution", that's a red flag. No reputable scientist or knowledgeable scientific advocate would use that term, it's purely a Creationist/IDist invention.

[Celestial Mechanic]

I can hardly wait for the "Darwin Day" cards to go on sale. And with the bicentenary of Charles Darwin (and Abraham Lincoln) coming up in 2009 I say "Let's party like it's 2009!"

[JohnD]

Gosh! If someone has to write a book attacking Darwin Day as a threat that has "degraded American culture over the past century" and trying to show that "American politics and culture have been corrupted by scientistic ideology" by using "anecdotes and damning quotations" rather than evidence - we're winning!
And what an anniversary - meaningless but pleasing - that two such men as Lincoln and Darwin were 'twins'!

How about an issue of a stamps to commemorate both men, simultaneously in the UK and the USA?

John