Paul Belien authored an article that should be alarming to those of us on both sides of the Atlantic who treasure freedom, particularly freedom of speech. It is noted that holocaust denial (a hideous lie) is the actual reason for the imprisonment of the individual referenced in the captioned quote. The article however, raises a broader issue namely, inhibition of free expression through legal sanctions aimed at particular groups. From the article:

Last week, a German court sentenced a 55-year old Lutheran pastor to one year in jail for "Volksverhetzung" (incitement of the people) because he compared the killing of the unborn in contemporary Germany to the holocaust. Next week, the Council of Europe is going to vote on a resolution imposing Darwinism as Europe's official ideology. The European governments are asked to fight the expression of creationist opinions, such as young earth and intelligent design theories. According to the Council of Europe these theories are "undemocratic" and "a threat to human rights."

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I do wish we could arrest all those parents who use homeschooling as an excuse to keep their children ignorant. "“ PZ Myers, June 20, 2007

Arrest: to seize (a person) by legal authority or warrant; take into custody.

For the record, let me say that I have never advocated, nor would I ever advocate, that we inflict great harm on children by arresting their parents because someone believes the parents are using homeschooling as an excuse to "keep their children ignorant." In fact, I am strongly opposed to such government intervention and an assault on liberty.

Evidence for evolution is not evidence for non-teleology. On the contrary, a non-teleological perspective of evolution is simply a particular perspective that is used to interpret evolution and there is no compelling reason why this perspective must be adopted. Nevertheless, most people, on both sides of the aisle, associate evolution with non-teleology, such that many non-teleologists think they need only provide evidence for evolution in order to support their non-teleological worldview. Why is this?

A recent survey from Gregory Graffin and William Provine helps us to understand the mindset that is being used to shape our understanding and view of evolution.

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I was not going to acquiesce to keiths' request for a separate thread for the metaphysical magic poof "thought experiment" Raevmo first made in the Thinking about Allen MacNeill's Argument thread. It has since intruded on TP's retrocausality thread, and shows no signs of going away.

All keiths and Raevmo wanted to do was disrupt ongoing topical discussions with ridiculous assertions having nothing to do with the subjects. But since the disruption isn't going away, this is the place to put it.

Have fun, y'all!

Over on his blog PZ Myers is doing his job of spreading Richard Dawkins' religion = child abuse meme in this thread.

Interesting to me is that it's finding a lot less knee-jerk support among Myers' amen choir than I would have expected. Sure, there are lots who don't mind asserting their authoritarian tendencies with vigor, and the situation in question (another young street corner preacher) is certainly debatable.

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Several readers have written and alerted me to a statement released by something called the Council of Europe, titled "The dangers of creationism in education". The statement is shock-full of absurd threatiness, which would be amusing, were it not for its condescending attitude towards the same civil rights that the Council think are under attack by creationism. But we'll get to that later. Let's first have a look at how these bureaucrats have managed to get their panties in a bunch.

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This is a guest thread from our commenter, Thought Provoker.
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The moderators at Telic Thoughts have kindly allowed me this post to provoke some thinking on both sides of the ID/Darwin debate. This action provides some tangible evidence IDists and an Atheists, like me, can cooperate in the name of science. While I am very critical of the methods and motives of the leaders of the ID movement, I can appreciate the earnest efforts of ID scientists like MikeGene even if I disagree with their common goal of trying to find an unnamed "designer". Christopher Columbus had a wrong-headed goal too. However, instead of finding a quicker route to India, he managed to discover something far more significant. The same may hold true for the intrepid ID explorers.

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At the risk of being a blog hog, I'm starting another post, this time on Allen MacNeill's objections to Behe's arguments in his book, The Edge of Evolution, which Dr. MacNeill posted on a previous post. If I have time, I'll post Eric's reply. If not, I'll get to it tomorrow, or someone else can paste it in. Read the rest of this entry »

The article ENCODE finds the human genome to be an active place, by John Timmer, is provacative. The issue it highlights serves as a useful focal point around which to contrast the predictive utility of a teleological approach with that of standard evolutionary thinking. This is particularly so since more data relevant to the junk DNA question soon will be forthcoming. From the article:

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Professor Allen MacNeill of Cornell University, a friendly critic of ID, offerred an interesting argument on the post about Behe's book, The Edge of Evolution, that I thought was worth a second look:
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