The Smug Baldy Speaks

Many people like to think that humanity is rightfully master of the universe because only our species can perform complex symbolic reasoning and do cool things with our opposable thumbs. We enjoy our spot at the apex of the food chain, at the very pinnacle of evolution, even though we defined the rules […]

With every presidential candidate shifting into total balls-out (or labia-out, as the case may be) pander-or-perish mode, I think it’s important to cut through the inane hype where possible, and get at their positions on issues that matter to me. One such issue is education. While the uneducated and undereducated aren’t necessarily […]

In the latest issue of the eSkeptic newsletter is a link to an interesting debate held at Cal-Tech between Dinesh D’Souza and Michael Shermer over the relationship between science and religion.
In this debate on what are arguably two of the most important questions in the culture wars today — Is Religion a Force for Good […]

In part of one True Believer’s drive by on my Sylvia Browne piece, in which the commenter admitted that I amaze her, she said:
Of course, I’m one that doesn’t believe the human race ever had a tail or gills too.
Although she went on to say how she wasn’t, “so closed minded that I refuse […]

The news out of Frankfort, KY is that Park Rangers in the state are increasingly challenged by visitors who had also visited the Creation Museum:
The Creation Museum, which presents the Bible’s creation story as fact supported by science, was opened in late May in Petersburg by the Answers in Genesis Christian ministry.
And there might be […]

Today’s Seed Daily Zeitgeist had a really cool link to a portion of a talk given by Ken Miller about a prediction made by evolution that, if wrong, could allow for the rejection of the entire theory.

Guess we’re not rejecting evolution today. Ain’t science grand?

In the good old days, the blind led the blind, and even so, snake-oil salesmen were relatively easy to spot. Now the snake-oil is well marketed by cool-looking websites like Overwhelming Evidence, where kids are encouraged to, “communicate their views on intelligent design and evolution”.
Indeed, OE puts the power in student’s […]

According to CBS News, a recent Gallup Survey shows that 68% of Republicans “Disbelieve Scientific Explanation of Creation”:
A Gallup poll released Monday said that while the country is about evenly split over whether the theory of evolution is true, Republicans disbelieve it by more than 2-to-1.
Republicans saying they don’t believe in evolution outnumbered those […]

On another blog, someone asked this about the Alabama school board :
Again, I ask, when did it get to be a good and acceptable thing in this country to be so fucking stupid?
My response:
You know, to me it’s tempting to fall into the trap of calling evolution deniers stupid. But it’ a trap, after […]