https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to creationism/intelligent design en https://religiondispatches.org/2022/03/04/one-hundred-years-anti-evolution-legislation-are-more-enough In a famous 1958 address commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s and Alfred Russel Wallace’s essays on evolution by natural selection, the distinguished geneticist Hermann J. Muller lamented the neglect of evolution in American education. “It… Fri, 04 Mar 2022 12:52:33 EST Glenn Branch 04eeb76d-22b5-4ae2-b12f-697964bc9838 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/10/11/welcome-war-what-creationist-conference-can-teach-us-about-evangelical-vaccine When I signed up to attend a 3-day conference at the flagship young-Earth creationist organization Answers in Genesis, I assumed I would be the only person wearing a mask. I was right—kind of. Although none of my fellow attendees was… Mon, 11 Oct 2021 03:30:52 EDT Caroline Matas 1cbf7793-acb3-4b87-994e-056f8be677b3 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/04/13/arkansass-creationism-bill-also-motivated-anti-trans-bigotry The average American might not realize that the prejudices and superstitions that underlie the push to teach creationism in public schools, also undergird anti-LGBTQ bigotry. But the Arkansas legislature has worked hard recently to showcase this link. Earlier this month… Tue, 13 Apr 2021 12:21:12 EDT Andrew L. Seidel 7b1b5c7c-29ab-4503-bcc4-90b5d57c0d36 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/07/03/what-we-saw-eyes-koko-talking-gorilla-1971-2018 Inherit the Wind’s creationist protesters may have held signs reading “I’m not descended from a monkey,” but the reality is that apes permeate our myths, religion, and literature precisely because it’s so obvious we’re related. Darwin may have provided the mechanism, but our own eyes tell us that there’s something eerily human in the eyes of our closest simian ancestors. Tue, 03 Jul 2018 10:39:38 EDT Ed Simon bbba0ea9-8367-4165-9751-a7e66ccc6b68 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/06/29/can-christians-lie-how-conservative-evangelical-bible-interpretation-has-shaped-truth We are all like Sanders and other conservative white evangelicals insofar as we all have confirmation bias, making it difficult for us to accept evidence contrary to what we already believe, but the history and faith practices of white evangelicals offer an additional set of tools of belief. Fri, 29 Jun 2018 04:21:13 EDT Christopher Douglas 8a8bab88-410e-4e4e-ba0f-fb04a066a1ce https://religiondispatches.org/2017/12/28/god-holocene-epoch-dead-religions-fatal-flaw The “world religions” suffer from their provenance. They are, one and all, children of the naively hopeful Holocene Epoch. Our species was born around 200,000 years ago, right at the end of the horrific Pleistocene, when, for two and half… Thu, 28 Dec 2017 11:14:51 EST Daniel C. Maguire 38a160eb-ac9b-4c97-bc4e-2d9dddc8fd07 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/08/22/new-book-explains-how-christian-right-has-gotten-selective-denial-down-science Author Antony Alumkal answers RD’s 10 Questions Tue, 22 Aug 2017 09:00:15 EDT Antony Alumkal 0cb90be5-021d-4c4f-94a2-467e59f862b6 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/08/09/how-america-really-lost-its-mind-hint-it-wasnt-entirely-fault-hippie-new-agers-and “Conservative Christians had long rejected aspects of expert knowledge, official science, reason, and their organs of circulation. They had been trained in a fundamentalist hermeneutics of suspicion.” Wed, 09 Aug 2017 07:27:08 EDT Christopher Douglas 8b5dc5eb-d2fa-468e-95c2-0019e623484a https://religiondispatches.org/2016/08/16/holding-out-hero-new-id-book-aims-save-you-despair-evolution What is remarkable is not even how many times Axe repeats the same argument, but how many times this same argument has been repeated by intelligent design (ID) proponents before him. Tue, 16 Aug 2016 02:39:52 EDT Kriti Sharma 1e20c1f6-a9ff-410c-ac1b-36f913589a95 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/06/15/did-richard-dawkins-hand-creationists-their-next-school-strategy Since the 1990s the Discovery Institute, a conservative think-tank, has tried to make it easier to teach intelligent design in public schools. They have had some successes, and one big setback: in 2005, the Institute and its allies lost Kitzmiller… Wed, 15 Jun 2016 02:12:44 EDT Adam Shapiro 95d02996-b9a8-448c-8208-c84a323a909a https://religiondispatches.org/2016/01/22/larycia-hawkins-actual-violation-wheatons-statement-faith-hints-schools-true-intentions It’s been established by now that Dr. Hawkins’ assertion that Muslims and Christians worship the same God hardly falls outside the mainstream of orthodox evangelical theology—a point Dr. Hawkins reiterated in a widely circulated letter to Wheaton’s provost. With some… Fri, 22 Jan 2016 01:17:43 EST John Gleim f0aaf4d7-d800-4a6e-abab-1412220e9d98 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/03/20/shared-assumption-behind-creationism-and-anti-gmo-europe Creationism, like baseball, is an American pastime. And, like baseball, creationism can feel like a uniquely American sport—“a local, indigenous, American bizzarity,” in the words of Stephen Jay Gould. There’s no question that anti-Darwinian sentiment occupies a special place in… Fri, 20 Mar 2015 01:12:32 EDT Michael Schulson 5281b939-6479-49fb-955e-96be52e4b968 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/03/19/are-evangelicals-really-science-friendly “Evangelicals are more science-friendly than you think,” claims the headline of Cathy Lynn Grossman’s latest at RNS. The post examines a recent survey from sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund, who found that 70 percent of American evangelical Christians do not view… Thu, 19 Mar 2015 04:35:49 EDT Andrew Aghapour 277d5d55-2b20-46fc-88fc-eddef48356a3 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/03/16/introducing-cubit-rds-new-religion-science-portal Search the internet for “religion AND science,” and you’ll find plenty on creationism, Richard Dawkins, and the so-called “God spot” (where the brain seems to process religious experiences). You will also find heaps of commentary, most of which assumes either… Mon, 16 Mar 2015 02:02:34 EDT Andrew Aghapour, Michael Schulson 39d4d867-83c4-4e7a-9efc-18f5c0a18ee7 https://religiondispatches.org/2014/08/26/did-science-guy-bill-nye-single-handedly-revive-noahs-ark-theme-park The pitfalls of opposition. Tue, 26 Aug 2014 04:14:27 EDT Mike Greer 76e29312-21b2-4649-9623-524653280441 https://religiondispatches.org/2014/07/22/jesus-wasnt-godklingon-problem-biblical-literalists This past weekend creationist Ken Ham, best known to most for his highly publicized debate with Bill Nye, posted an odd reflection concerning alien life to his blog. The impetus for Ham’s post appears to have been recent predictions by… Tue, 22 Jul 2014 05:07:15 EDT Hollis Phelps e64e4730-dff0-4f2f-9a1a-d77e33110ad2 https://religiondispatches.org/2014/06/24/your-pseudoscience-beach-read-creationist-infighting-edition As Joe Laycock noted here on RD, another creation museum called the “Northwest Science Museum” recently opened in Boise. That’s right, the Northwest Science Museum. Guess it’s time to trademark the word “science.” As a friend quipped on Twitter, “next… Tue, 24 Jun 2014 10:51:49 EDT Brook Wilensky-Lanford 398bd4cf-4019-4661-b1d3-4c4c44b6ae86 https://religiondispatches.org/2014/02/17/science-denial-cant-be-cured-education A recent op-ed correctly compares the anti-science beliefs of creationists and the anti-vaccine movement, but the answer isn’t more facts. Mon, 17 Feb 2014 03:41:28 EST Emma Frances Bloomfield a3c9bece-3f80-4c2b-97a6-01aa49a69f60 https://religiondispatches.org/2014/02/04/does-nih-head-francis-collins-believe-intelligent-design In a recent article in the New Republic psychologist Paul Bloom charges that the evangelical scientist is using the same logic as those who push ID. Is he right? Tue, 04 Feb 2014 05:34:58 EST Eric Reitan 85d19165-5c9d-4ebf-917d-52fd8dd43446 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/12/12/satanist-monument-shines-light-christian-privilege Will the challenge to build “an homage to the historic/literary Satan” at Oklahoma’s capital actually change anything? Thu, 12 Dec 2013 01:35:12 EST Joseph Laycock 186092ae-583f-49e3-8b66-790458373e77 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/11/19/explanation-everything Ten questions for the author of a novel inspired by a landmark Intelligent Design case discusses what it’s like to create a Darwinian blowhard, and more. Tue, 19 Nov 2013 11:59:47 EST Lauren Grodstein 527abf9e-2419-4291-a191-810760b07507 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/09/17/bill-nye-gets-religulous-bill-maher America’s science teacher throws religion under the bus. Tue, 17 Sep 2013 04:09:16 EDT Michael Schulson b7a8b846-f422-4614-95e4-7e099a419f09 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/09/01/creationists-portray-new-science-standards-big-government There are only two significant problems with that charge. Sun, 01 Sep 2013 02:34:15 EDT Michael Schulson 9f2d8093-5a07-427e-bca5-0561e802e046 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/08/20/creationism-30-meet-intelligent-designs-huckster With a PhD in philosophy of science from Cambridge, the author of the latest argument for intelligent design isn’t your typical creationist hack, but he is something of a huckster; the flaw in his argument is difficult to spot because it is so blatantly obvious. Tue, 20 Aug 2013 01:48:11 EDT Michael Schulson d34dfb2a-6af0-4e5a-8112-6b1c8041df4f https://religiondispatches.org/2013/08/01/im-creationist-says-former-times-tech-writer-heffernan Don’t worry, it’s mostly aesthetic. Thu, 01 Aug 2013 12:16:06 EDT Michael Schulson a03eda56-e7d8-46f8-bb9a-d424710eaa39