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The Loom: A blog about life, past and future
What are we fighting for in Iraq? Intelligent Design! Creationism! This according to ...
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January 10, 2006
They Just Keep Piling On
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Posted by Carl Zimmer
Governor Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky uses his State of the Commonwealth speech last night to plug intelligent design:
As I close, let me recognize Kentucky’s veterans. You have served to protect our liberty and the freedom that spurs our quality of life in this nation. Please know that this administration is committed to supporting you.
And where does this freedom come from that many have died to protect?
Our founding fathers recognized that we were endowed with this right by our creator.
So I ask, what is wrong with teaching “intelligent design†in our schools. Under KERA, our school districts have that freedom and I encourage them to do so.
This is not a question about faith or religion. It’s about self-evident truth.
Did you know that the Declaration of Independence was a biology textbook?
I'm going to create a new tag for these little entries. I hope I won't be adding too many more entries to it, but I won't be surprised if I do. [Update: See under "Our Dear Leaders Speak"]
(Hat tip: Ars Technica)
Comments (14) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Evolution | Our Dear Leaders Speak
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Crooked Timber » » Evo-psych factoids
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Evo-psych factoids
Posted by Chris
Others here at CT have been more critical of the whole evolutionary psychology approach than I have, and I imagine their scepticism will be bolstered by a newish book by David J. Buller , a philosopher at Northern Illinois University: Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature . According to the reviews, Buller devotes some attention to the factoids that evolutionary psychologists deploy in support of their view. Many of these “well-known facts†seem to have little more support than the well-known fact that if you step on the cracks in the pavement, the bears will get you. From the Wall Street Journal review (pdf) :
This field claims to explain human behaviors that seem so widespread we must be wired for them: women preferring high-status men, and men falling for nubile babes; stepfathers abusing stepchildren. .... Take the stepfather claim. The evolutionary reasoning is this: A Stone Age man who focused his care and support on his biological children, rather than kids his mate had from an earlier liaison, would do better by evolution’s scorecard (how many descendants he left) than a man who cared for his stepchildren. With this mindset, a stepfather is far more likely to abuse his stepchildren. One textbook asserts that kids living with a parent and a stepparent are some 40 times as likely to be abused as those living with biological parents.
But that’s not what the data say, Prof. Buller finds. First, reports that a child living in a family with a stepfather was abused rarely say who the abuser was. Some children are abused by their biological mother, so blaming all stepchild abuse on the stepfather distorts reality. Also, a child’s bruises or broken bones are more likely to be called abuse when a stepfather is in the home, and more likely to be called accidental when a biological father is, so data showing a higher incidence of abuse in homes with a stepfather ar
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Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, & Culture:
Best Friends of Bush: The New Saddam Hussein Jun. 15th, 2005 @ 02:25 pm
Annals of The Republic of Hypocrisy-
Best Friends of Bush: The New Saddam Hussein Jun. 15th, 2005 @ 02:25 pm
Annals of The Republic of Hypocrisy
It is well known to all those who wish to free themselves from the delusions of jingoistic doctrines about the role of the United States in the world that the U.S. Government supported Saddam Hussein during the period when he was committing his worse atrocities.
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