A Creationist Just Sued The Grand Canyon And Actually Got What He Wanted. Back in May, we reported on something truly bizarre but also perfectly befitting of the shitshow that is 2017: A creationist was attempting to sue the authorities managing the Grand Canyon because they weren’t letting him go and collect samples.
As a qualified geoscientist who also happens to believe the planet is less than 10,000 years old, we described this rather curious man, one Dr Andrew Snelling, as “akin to a physicist that considers gravity to be mythological.” Indeed, the oxymoronic nature of his job title – creationist geologist – was the reason his research application was originally turned down by the powers that be. Now, with a heavy heart, we have an update on this story. The National Park Service (NPS) has caved in to his requests to retrieve samples from the 1.84-billion-year-old Grand Canyon, and as a result, Snelling has dropped his lawsuit. Things are more complicated than that, though. There Were Some Completely Absurd Reactions To The Google Doodle Celebrating The Discovery Of Lucy. Most days, Google puts up a fun and informative illustration on its homepage celebrating a notable event, covering pretty much everything from Egyptian singer Asmahan’s 103rd birthday to Thanksgiving.
On the November 24, they celebrated the 41st anniversary of “Lucy’s” discovery, a hugely important milestone in our understanding of human evolution. In 1974, scientists discovered remains of a hominid species called Australopithecus afarensis in Ethiopia which they named after the Beatles song Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. The characteristics of the specimen's bone structure, particularly its pelvic bone, helped scientists understand how humans evolved to walk upright. Finally, Most Young Americans Now Accept Evolution Over Creationism.
Creationism is nothing short of an anti-scientific superstition, but right-wing evangelicals in the U.S. have been pushing for it to be taught in science classes across the nation, rebranding it as “Intelligent Design.”
Partly because of this, and a persistent distrust in scientists, the U.S. has for some time eschewed the theory of evolution, with most adults choosing to believe religious scripture over scientific fact in this respect. However, a recent Pew Research Center survey shows that most of the younger generation of Americans accept evolution as a fact, perhaps marking a change in this long-term woeful trend. The science of evolution and the theory of natural selection is as accepted a scientific theory as gravity, and no scientist worth their salt would ever reject it. MrsGarrisonsClub WE BELIEVE in the theory of evolution. Louisiana Teachers Are Using The Bible in Science Class. A freedom of information request has confirmed what activists have been warning for years, the bible is being used in high school science classrooms to promote creationism.
Since the passing of the controversial Louisiana Science Education Act in 2008, teachers have been allowed to “critique” evolution using supplementary materials. “There are no legitimate scientific critiques of evolution, and the purpose of this law is for teaching creationism,” Zack Kopplin tells IFLScience. “Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who signed the Science Education Act, was asked by NBC’s Education Nation about the law, and explained that he signed it because it allowed creationism into public schools.” Creationist Makes Significant Fossil Discovery And Won't Accept That It's 60 Million Years Old. Even in the most intense pitched battles, moments of cooperation can occur.
A prominent Alberta creationist found an outstanding fossil, and while he disagrees with scientists on its age by a factor of 100 they've cooperated to safely retrieve and clean the discovery. Edgar Nernberg's faith that the world is only a few thousand years old may be in contradiction to most of what we know about geology, biology and astronomy but he does the hard yards, looking out for fossils as he helps to dig basements while working for a Calgary excavation company. He writes frequently to the Calgary Sun, in which he is described as “the greatest promoter of creationism in Alberta”. Creationism in public schools, mapped. Where tax money supports alternatives to evolution. A large, publicly funded charter school system in Texas is teaching creationism to its students, Zack Kopplin recently reported in Slate.
Creationist teachers don’t even need to be sneaky about it—the Texas state science education standards, as well as recent laws in Louisiana and Tennessee, permit public school teachers to teach “alternatives” to evolution. Meanwhile, in Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Arizona, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, taxpayer money is funding creationist private schools through state tuition voucher or scholarship programs.
As the map below illustrates, creationism in schools isn’t restricted to schoolhouses in remote villages where the separation of church and state is considered less sacred. Click to enlarge. For the full interactive map, use a device with a larger screen. Problem loading page. An introduction to the John Scopes (Monkey) Trial. The early 1920s found social patterns in chaos.
Traditionalists, the older Victorians, worried that everything valuable was ending. Younger modernists no longer asked whether society would approve of their behavior, only whether their behavior met the approval of their intellect. Intellectual experimentation flourished. Americans danced to the sound of the Jazz Age, showed their contempt for alcoholic prohibition, debated abstract art and Freudian theories. Group Files Lawsuit Against Kansas For Teaching Science In Science Class. A group with the deeply Orwellian name Citizens for Objective Public Education (COPE) have lost their lawsuit to stop the Kansas State Board of Education teaching evolution.
If this sounds familiar, it is because we have been here before. Quite a few times, actually. However, in defiance of their ideology, creationists keep evolving new approaches in response to the courts' determination that you can't will away a mountain of scientific evidence based on your interpretation of a single ancient book. Charles Darwin. Video Museum curator George Beccaloni introduces us to Charles Darwin, the most famous biologist in history, in this video.
He talks about the collecting expedition that helped Darwin formulate the theory of evolution by natural selection and shows us some of the specimens from that voyage. For more detail about Darwin’s life read the Work and Timeline sections. Here you’ll find out more about Darwin’s theory, which he co-discovered with Alfred Russel Wallace. Work. UK Bans Teaching Creationism in State-Funded Schools. Lo!
Creationism cannot be taught as scientific fact in any state-funded school in the UK. That goes for all free schools as well as any existing and future academies. Podcast : Darwin anniversary. Bill Nye Debates Ken Ham. Researcher Finds Support For One Of Darwin's Controversial Theories. When Charles Darwin first put forward his revolutionary theory of evolution, he was met with considerable opposition and skepticism from both scientific and religious circles. While this is now entirely accepted by the scientific community, some of his ideas have continued to cause controversy for more than 150 years.
One contentious hypothesis, for example, suggested that organisms could cross vast distances and oceans and then successfully establish themselves in a new geographic location. To achieve this “jump dispersal,” it was proposed that organisms could hitch a ride on various objects such as mats of vegetation and icebergs, or even just blow in the wind. Although this idea has been largely dismissed by the scientific community, new research on island dwelling organisms suggests that he may have been right after all.