April 6, 2007
Imagine you live in Dallas, Texas, where it is generally assumed that one is Christian and that one attends church on Sunday, and Wednesday (so much so that school activities are not scheduled Wednesdays, because everyone is expected to be at church). Imagine that you teach science at a major Christian-affiliated institution in Dallas.
Now imagine that your institution is the site of a major conference extolling the virtues of superstition, specifically against a scientific theory that is the foundation and main supports for much of your work. Do you hunker down and hope no one notices, or do you speak up for science? 
20 professors at Southern Methodist University (SMU) signed an article on the opposite-editorial page of the Dallas Morning News, yesterday, calling out intelligent design and its advocates. (I mentioned it in this post, here.) They will most likely take a stand that there is no reason to “debate” intelligent design advocates, since the debate venue is stacked, the debate audience is stacked, and that intelligent design has not paid its dues to be admitted to the college of the sciences.
But I wish they would take a further stand: I wish the Christians among them would call on the advocates of intelligent design to repent, to stop asking people to turn away from science, to stop spreading false stories about science, to stop making false claims. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Ed Darrell
April 5, 2007
[Note to SMU Physics students: Glad to have you here! While you’re here, stick around for a moment. Check the blog’s list of articles on “intelligent design” or “evolution,” and you’ll see that the issue has moved a good deal since the flap at SMU. Feel free to leave comments, too. E.D.]
When sanity strikes public figures and public institutions, sometimes all one can do is sit back in wonder at how the universe runs.
Intelligent design advocates might begin to think that God (or the gods, or the little green men, as the Discovery Institute allows) has stacked the universe against them, at least in Texas. First, in 2003, with the Texas State Board of Education pregnant with 8 creationists among the 15 members, scientists in Texas applied quiet, gentle pressure and got some of the creationists to vote against requiring creationism in biology texts. Last week Lee Cullum, doyon of conservative commentators in Dallas society, alumnus of the late Dallas Herald and occasional opinion writer for the Dallas Morning News wrote a piece questioning whether intelligent design advocates had not overstepped propriety in their use of Southern Methodist University’s good neighborly intentions — a reversal of position for Cullum, and perhaps a bellwether for others with influence in the state. Plus, several of the faculty at SMU protested the pending intelligent design conference scheduled for the campus, though without endorsement from the university.
Discovery Institute spokesmen gave their usual demurrers, claiming that intelligent design advocates have First Amendment rights and accusing critics of being unfair and unholy, but never defending intelligent design itself.
So, I can imagine there were a lot of coffee-burned laps in Seattle (and at least one in Fort Worth) this morning when the Dallas Morning News‘ opinion section unfurled a hard stand against intelligent design, signed by a score of well-respected scientists of various faiths, from the SMU faculty.
They minced no words:
The organization behind the event, the Discovery Institute, is clear in its agenda: It states that what the SMU science faculty believes to be so useful (science) is a danger to conservative Christianity and should be replaced by its mystical world view.
We do not argue against the basic right to believe, worship and express oneself as one desires. [More, including the full text, below the fold.] Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
4 Comments | Darwin, Ethics, First Amendment, Free speech, Intelligent Design, Natural history, Politics, Science, Science and faith, Voodoo science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 21, 2007
President Harry S Truman shows a headline from the Chicago Tribune, a headline incorrectly calling the previous day’s election for Truman’s opponent.
If textbook fights, school curricula litigation and constant internet sniping got you thinking the clash between science and religion is a tough problem to work on, you should look at the clash between news gathering organizations and their financiers who argue that economics says news should be dead.
Not all should be doom and gloom in the news biz. Tim J. McGuire, dean of the Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University, argues that the delivery of the news still needs newspapers, and that newspaper economics show that profits can be produced by good, mainstream news outlets: “Writing off newspapers is premature, irresponsible.”
McGuire doesn’t ignore the bad news:
The circulation declines are undeniable. Some metropolitan newspapers have lost 10 percent of their circulation in the past three years. Classified revenues at some big newspapers are off by $50 million to $100 million in the same period. Layoffs and news-hole reductions are breathtaking. Short-sighted corporations are trying to cut their way to better profit margins.
He points to a different view: Read the rest of this entry »
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1 Comment | Economics, First Amendment, Free market economics, Free speech, Freedom - Economic, Freedom - Political, Freedom of Information, Journalism, Newspapers, Political cartoons, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 15, 2007
California Congressman Pete Stark answered a query about his religious beliefs, saying he does not believe in God. This is not unusual, really. Through history the U.S. has had people of many religious beliefs, and disbeliefs, serve in Congress.
A group calling itself the Christian Seniors Association, a division of Traditional Values Coalition, hit the panic button unjustly, issuing a press release noting a “Sad First in the History of Congress.”
“It is sad but not surprising that the current Congress has produced this historic first – one of its members has denied God,” said CSA Executive Director James Lafferty. “The liberals in Congress want to throttle any school child who bows his or her head in prayer, but they want to establish a right for liberals to bash Christians and berate God around the clock.
Would it be too much to ask such a group to actually study history? This is not a first, and probably not all that historic, either. Their claim is bogus history.
In 1846 an Illinois state representative ran for Congress, against a famous Methodist preacher, Read the rest of this entry »
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4 Comments | Abraham Lincoln, Bogus history, First Amendment, Religious Freedom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 22, 2007
Educators get a few seconds to make a decision, usually with other kids yelling and a fight breaking out across the hallway. Lawyers and judges have more time.
But even with the advantage of cool reflection, the levels of irony in this case are too thick to cut through.
Can a kid dress as Jesus about to be crucified, for Halloween? Is the costume religious? If so, is the school’s allowing it to be worn an impermissible endorsement of religion? Is the costume blasphemous? If so, would the school be sued if they didn’t ban it? Is the costume in good taste, compared to the kid dressed as a chainsaw serial-killer, or one of the phantasms from Nightmare on Elm Street?
How do 10-year-old kids always come up with these questions?
With the disclosure that what I have comes from a press release from the Alliance Defense Fund, which has its biases, I post the details of the case as we have them so far, below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »
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5 Comments | Education, First Amendment, Jurisprudence, Justice, Religious Freedom, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 20, 2007
That kid in New Jersey whose town turned on him, on the town’s internet bulletin board, after he ratted out the history teacher who was preaching instead of teaching? He’s still under attack.
The teacher took some time out to defend his odd views in the local paper. His letter is several weeks old, and it’s been fisked by others, but I want my licks. I fisk the letter below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
12 Comments | Adam Smith, America's founding, Bad Quotes, Ben Franklin, Bogus history, First Amendment, George Washington, Public education, Religious Freedom, Thomas Jefferson | Tagged: Adam Smith, Ben Franklin, Constitution, Education, First Amendment, George Washington, Kearney, New Jersey, Religion, Separation of church and state | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 11, 2007
Today is Evolution Sunday. It’s a day when thinking Christians make a modest stand for reason, it’s a day when caring Christians make a stand for facts and truth, versus calumny and voodoo science and voodoo history.
Debunking hoaxes — finding the truth about who put the first plumbed bathtub in the White House, repeating the debunking of the “Lady Hope hoax” that claimed Darwin recanted his life’s work on his deathbed, holding a spotlight on the facts of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the events in the Gulf of Tonkin, highlighting the bravery of Cmdr. Lloyd Bucher and the crew of the Pueblo, noting that there never was a family of chainsaw murderers in Travis County, Texas — is difficult work. One wag I used to see posting on an internet bulletin board had a tagline, “Fighting ignorance since 1974 1973– it’s taking longer than I thought.”*
So, if you’re in church today, light a candle against the darkness, as Carl Sagan would say. Candles show us where demons are not, and where it is safe for humans to go. The more candles against ignorance, the greater the realm for human reason.
As Einstein almost certainly did not say, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. And as Frank Zappa probably did say, hydrogen is not the most abundant thing in the universe — ignorance is. Light some candles against ignorance today, in church or out of it. Reason gives us hope, and there is precious little of both today.
Be grateful for those things that keep us free, for those things that keep us seeking and acquiring knowledge, and for those people (like P. Z. Myers) who prod us — righteously — to stand up for the truth.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Accuracy, Charles Darwin, Education, Evolution, First Amendment, Free speech, Freedom - Political, Public libraries, Science, Science and faith | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 6, 2007
As the title notes, without comment:
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3 Comments | Accuracy, Books, First Amendment, Libraries | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 31, 2007
Molly Ivins died tonight. It’s really quite unbelievable, to me.
Here’s the Austin American-Statesman story, “Molly Ivins, queen of liberal commentary, dies.”
Here’s a tribute from Editor & Publisher. And a recent interview with E&P.
Graphic by Tim Porter, copyright 2001
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
4 Comments | Accuracy, Ethics, First Amendment, Journalism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 16, 2007
Today, January 16, is the anniversary of Virginia’s enacting the Statute for Religious Freedom, in 1786. It deserves an international celebration.
After working with George Mason and the kid, James Madison, to craft Viriginia’s Bill of Rights in 1776, Thomas Jefferson was dispatched as a delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Being assigned to Philadelphia was a bother to Jefferson — the real action, he thought, was in Virginia, where a new form of government was being crafted, where Virginians were working to determine what was the best government to assure the most freedom for free peoples. Jefferson was called on to draft what became the Declaration of Independence, a task and accomplishment he later grew to appreciate. Still, he wanted to go back to Virginia, and soon.
When Jefferson got back to Virginia, he spent much of his time doing exactly what he thought was the good stuff: Crafting a good government for a good nation, Virginia. Among other things he served as governor, and he wrote about 150 model laws for the good government he so earnestly hoped to see. In 1779, he wrote a law to cement the religious freedom James Madison had persuaded Mason and Jefferson to include in the Virginia Bill of Rights. But the law languished in a busy legislature still working to win the right to make that government work, in a war with Britain. Jefferson wrote about his successes and failures, as a record for others (see Notes on the State of Virginia).
By 1785, Jefferson had been called to the post-war ambassadorship of the confederation of thirteen colonies to France. When Patrick Henry rose in the legislature in Williamsburg to proposed that Virginia rethink its disestablishment of religion, to at last consider paying clergy for teaching kids, Jefferson sat unaware on the other side of the Atlantic. James Madison saw the full import of Henry’s proposal, though. While noting that a country like Virginia should desire education for its youth and morality as part of the instruction, such an action as Henry proposed was tantamount to picking a religion — shouldn’t the people have a chance to weigh in on the issue? Madison proposed to put the issue over to the next session of the legislature, in 1786, and the Virginia Assembly approved Madison’s proposal. Read the rest of this entry »
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4 Comments | Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, First Amendment, George Washington, History, James Madison, Politics, Religious Freedom, Thomas Jefferson | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 3, 2007
Step right up — not even one thin dime, not even one-tenth of a dollar!
The 29th Carnival of the Liberals is up over at Daylight Atheism.
And one of my blog posts is included, the one where I take Roy Moore to task for his uncharitable, anti-American views on having a Moslem in Congress. And while this is a blog of history, events have overtaken that post on the day the Carnival set up its tents — Rep. Ellison creatively pointed out the value of religious freedom and tied it to the founders (go see how.)
Go see the Carnival of the Liberals — there are a lot of posts noted there that are worthy of your attention.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Current History, First Amendment, Politics, Religious Freedom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 3, 2007
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., delivered a lesson to critics today on the value of knowing history.
First, Los Angeles conservative radio host Dennis Prager embarrassed himself by calling on Ellison to use a Christian Bible to put his left hand on while being sworn in as a Member of Congress, the first Moslem to be a Member. Ellison pointed out that in the swearing-in ceremony, no book is used, and noted that other religious texts have been used by people of other faiths during the photo session afterward, when members re-enact the swearing in with the Speaker of the House. Prager compounded his history sins by refusing to back down. Ellison correctly stood his ground.
Then Virginia’s U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode pushed it farther, warning that unless we control immigration, Ellison will be the beachhead for a Moslem take-over of Congress. Ellison, defending the Bill of Rights, stood his ground and refused to get into a name-calling discussion.
Then Roy Moore of Alabama, who was rejected by voters for governor after having made a spectacle of himself and the Alabama Supreme Court over his efforts to install his own religious shrine in the Supreme Court Building, called for Ellison to be denied his seat. Ellison coolly ignored Moore, defending the First Amendment instead.
Now Ellison has acted, and his action comprises a neat, clean and witty rebuttal to the critics.
Read the rest of this entry »
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4 Comments | First Amendment, History, Leadership, Politics, Religious Freedom, Thomas Jefferson, U.S. Constitution | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 26, 2006
While denying that they have any racist or other xenophobic intent, critics of Minnesota’s U.S. Representative-elect Keith Ellison, like the abominable Dennis Prager, continue to try to gin up reasons why he cannot carry his own scriptures to Congress, why he cannot have the rights that every school child in America has, because the scriptures Ellison carries are Islamic.
Except for Roy Moore, the Xian Nationalist, unreconstructed Christian Reconstructionist, and Christian Dominionist who probably got the memorandum about how they aren’t supposed to talk about it in public, but who lets it fly anyway.
Representing the Great Booboisie, Roy Moore says Ellison should not be seated in Congress at all.
Alabama’s voters were wise to reject Roy Moore as governor, after Moore burned the people so badly when they trusted him to be chief justice of the state’s supreme court, and he instead turned the court into a circus of religious pomposity and disregard for the laws of religious freedom. Another History Blog Fisks the manifold, manifest errors Moore makes.
I cannot escape the feeling that Moore is speaking for most Reconstructionists and Dominionists, Read the rest of this entry »
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9 Comments | Accuracy, America's founding, Bad Quotes, Bill of Rights, Bogus history, Civil Rights, First Amendment, Freedom - Political, Good Quotes, History Revisionism, Patriotism, Religious Freedom, Voodoo history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 23, 2006
It was just sad when Dennis Prager prostituted U.S. history to rant at Minnesota’s U.S. Representative-elect Keith Ellison, for Ellison’s having said he’d use his faith’s scriptures for a staged photograph commemorating his being sworn in as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Ignorance can be so ugly.
It was jarring when so many others demonstrated their ignorance of the First Amendment and Constitutional history by repeating Prager’s concerns. Ignorance is contagious.
It was tragic when a few people, after having had a chance to repent of their ignorance, then mounted an assault on the Constitution by continuing to demand something was wrong with the situation, even calling for Ellison to give up his faith for the ceremony. Ignorance can be cured, why would anyone reject the cure?
It’s time to stop piling stupidity on stupidity: Rep. Virgil Goode (ironically named, no doubt), a Republican representing much of southern Virginia in the U.S. House (5th District) took aim at Ellison’s election itself, calling for “immigration reform” to prevent a Muslim takeover of Congress.
Goode’s comments are insensitive, xenophobic, insulting, demonstrative of ignorance, and just wrong on so many counts it is hard to determine which rebuttal is more important. So, random rebuttals follow. [I’ve come back to this four times today. It makes me amazingly angry, and I have to take a break.] Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
6 Comments | Bogus history, Education, First Amendment, Holocaust, Patriotism, Politics, Religious Freedom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 21, 2006
Is this the man who really saved Santa Claus?
The Newseum itself doesn’t open until autumn of 2007, but some exhibits are already up, online.
Among other things already up is this explanation for the 1897 editorial in The New York Sun, with the famous line: “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” It is “history’s most reprinted editorial,” the Newseum says.
While you’re there, look at other exhibits already in place. This is a good source for kids’ reports and for teachers’ lectures.
Update: Parallel Divergence is at it again (remember the “how Hubble killed God?”) Here it is: “How Google Earth Killed Santa Claus.”
Update May 2007: Coverage of the Newseum’s pending opening.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | First Amendment, Good Quotes, History, Newspapers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 