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Defend Science Commentary
Read commentary from Defend Science including:
(Sept., 2009)
Francis Collins
Appointed as Director of NIH -
Science is Attacked Under
the Banner of "the compatibility of science and religion"
Francis
Collins, nominated by Barack Obama on July 8, 2009, was confirmed on
August 7, 2009 as the director of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) by a unanimous vote of the Senate. Collins’ scientific
credentials are impeccable: he is a physical chemist, a medical
geneticist and the former head of the Human Genome Project.
Collins
now:
and,
for some time, he has been on a very public crusade to proselytize
his particular view about the “compatibility between science and
religion”.
Collins’
“harmony” is not good for science.
....
Collins
is not just promoting a general philosophical and religious view. From
these views he draws, and invites others to draw, purported
scientific conclusions that conflict with a scientific view of
evolution. And Collins has made clear that he is seeking political
allies on the religious right.
read
the entire article...
(Sept., 2009)
Defend Science Response to
Feedback on Francis Collins letter
Our commentary on Francis Collins has created some controversy - more
so than any recent thing we have written. In reading over the
responses, some in agreement and expressing concern about the
implications of Collins’ appointment, others passionately in opposition
to what we wrote, we felt both that there were, in some cases, real
disagreements being expressed and also some lack of clarity about what
we were actually saying. And we also feel that there are very
important issues for science at stake in this, and so we are sending
out this email.
read
the entire article...
(May., 2009)
Obama's Stem Cell
Policy -
Needed Science Banned and
Constrained by Christian Fundamentalist Ideology
It appeared to many that
Obama was
truly standing up for science against the backward forces of the
Christian Fundamentalist right.
But now, the new National
Institute of
Health draft guidelines for stem cell research have been issued and a
more careful examination of these rules and of what has happened and
how it has happened reveals a very different story. The truth is
that while some changes may be made to open up and fund some
forms of stem cell research, Obama's overall policy and moves mean
that vital types of stem cell research are still banned and that stem
cell research overall still remains fettered by the Christian
fundamentalist position that there is something sacred about the
fertilized human egg (i.e. the blastocyst, a clump of cells about the
size of the period that ends this sentence) which should set a
barrier to important scientific and medical research.
read
the entire article...
(Feb., 2009)
Texas: Two Major
Attacks on Science -
State Education Standards
for Science Undermine Teaching
Evolution
Christine Comer Case:
Undermines Educators' Ability to Defend
Science
A huge battle has been taking place centering on what standards for
teaching science would be set by the Texas State Board of
Education. These
standards are meant to dictate what is taught in science classes in
elementary and secondary
schools, and also are meant to provide the material for state tests and
textbooks
for the next decade. And the implications of these standards go
beyond Texas
itself. As Texas is one of the largest markets for school science
textbooks, these Texas
standards
could have a major effect on new textbooks used across the country.
The basic, scientific standards that apply here are clear:
evolution is true and should be taught as such;
creationism in any form is not science and should not be taught in
science classrooms
read
the entire article...
(Jan., 2009)
Defend Science, Darwin and the Biologists
(report from SICB Conference)
Defend Science had an
exhibit table at
the SICB (Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology) conference
in early January (the SICB is one of the major professional
organization of biologists in the US. Approximately 1800 biologists
and students attended). We learned a great deal: About important new
organizations and efforts to popularize science; about the fierce
struggle biologists are waging against creationist attacks on
evolution, and in some cases just to teach evolution; and about what
scientists and others can do to fight for science now – especially
around Darwin Day and Darwin Year.
read
the entire article...
(Dec., 2008)
Celebrate Darwin Day 2009: Stand Up For the
Science of Evolution
This
year,
February 12, 2009, is the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of
Charles Darwin. 2009 is also the 150th anniversary of the
publication of Darwin’s “On The Origin of Species by Natural
Selection”, a monumental work and tremendous scientific
achievement.
If you could
imagine a world without Darwin and the theory of evolution by natural
selection, it would be a world impoverished in every
dimension. Modern medicine would be crippled, without a deep
understanding of how to prevent infections that rapidly evolve and
grow resistant to treatment; we would have a greatly diminished
understanding of the threats to biodiversity from alien species and
habitat alternations. We would not appreciate the “grandeur in
this view of life”, to use Darwin’s own words – the beauty and
amazement of how all of life developed through natural processes. And
science itself would be weakened in an almost incalculable way.
We
strongly encourage everyone to help organize and participate in Darwin
Day celebrations around the country, and circulate this statement
everywhere, distribute it to friends and colleagues, post it on the web.
read
the entire article...
(Sept., 2008)
2008 Elections: Implications for Science
and Critical Thinking
“Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church
that
the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a 'task
that is from God.'
In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also
urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion
natural
gas pipeline in the state, calling it 'God's will.’” Associated
Press,
September 3, 2008
For all those hoping against hope that the attacks on science, critical
thinking, and rational thought were going to end with Bush, the
Republican party made it clear enough where it stands on that question
when it brought forward the nomination of Sarah Palin. Palin
called in
the past for teaching creationism in science classes in public schools
(though
more recently has been cautious in stating what she thinks.) She
is an
abortion opponent, an advocate of the view that life begins at
conception, and
an opponent of most birth control. As small town mayor in Alaska,
she raised whether it would be possible to ban books from the town
library, and tried to fire the town librarian who refused to go along.
And it isn’t just the Republican Party.
read
the entire article...
(Sept., 2008)
Attacks on Science 2008: A Very Partial List
The attacks on science continue in 2008. The
following list
outlines specific items making the news (some in a very limited
fashion). But perhaps the biggest items are those that do not
make headlines. The current administration has taken no action on
stem cell research since the November 2007 veto of legislation allowing
embryonic stem cell research to continue, and none of the current major
party presidential candidates, have raised the issue substantively in
their campaigns. Although the Bush Administration no
longer openly denies the science behind global warming, not a single
regulation addressing the pressing issues of greenhouse gases or other
related topics has been raised. Issues related to public
health and the environment have also been denied with further evidence
of the muzzling of government scientists in agencies such as NASA, the
EPA, and others coming to light. Equally chilling are the
increasing efforts to roll back women’s reproductive rights and to
force religion into science classrooms. Creationist bills are “brewing” in state
legislatures across the country - and have been passed and signed into
law in Louisiana (see below). And it is alarming in this context
that issues relating to science and scientific thinking are nearly
absent from substantive discussion in the presidential campaign - with
the “exception” of Vice Presidential nominee Palin’s creationism and
Biblical literalism.
read
the entire article...
(July, 2008)
New Round of Attacks on Evolution -
creationism as
"academic freedom" or "science education"
In
a number of state legislatures (e.g. Florida, Alabama, South
Carolina, Michigan) and state boards of education (e.g. Kansas,
Texas), a new round of attacks on teaching evolution are in the
works. In Louisiana, both houses of the legislature passed SB
733,
and Governor Bobby Jindal, in opposition to widespread calls for a
veto, signed it into law on June 25, 2008. This new onslaught of
creationism/intelligent design is, at least in part, a response to
the legal drubbing “intelligent design” got in the Pennsylvania
v. Kitzmiller legal case in 2005, when Federal Judge Jones ruled that
intelligent design creationism had nothing to do with science but was
a way for religion to be smuggled into the classroom, and should not
be allowed in public school science classes.
The
Louisiana law is modeled on a template from the Discovery
Institute, the nerve center of the intelligent
design version of creationism. The heart of it is the latest
misleading argument from the intelligent design forces – that
scientists and teachers who raise so-called “scientific”
criticisms of evolution are intimidated, unfairly denied tenure, and
otherwise retaliated against. This strategy, central to Ben Stein’s
movie, Expelled, frames the issue as one of “academic
freedom,” claiming dissent from Darwinism is not allowed in the
scientific community or classroom...
read the entire article...
(March, 2008)
The Movie "Expelled:
No Intelligence
Allowed" - a big attack on Science
The
Ben Stein movie/documentary "Expelled: No Intelligence
Allowed" is scheduled for release on April 18th. The movie
casts Stein (former Nixon speech-writer with a minor acting career)
as an “anti-establishment rebel” facing off against “Big
Science”. It is a crude attack on evolution, insidiously framed as
defending the “Freedom of Speech” of scientists who dare to go up
against the scientific establishment. P.Z. Myers, evolutionary
biologist and author of the science blog Pharyngula, was
recently expelled from a screening of the film (although his guest,
Richard Dawkins, was not!) Myers, who was interviewed by the
producers under false pretenses and appears in the film, immediately
exposed the hypocrisy of the films producers who ejected a critical
voice from the screening of a film purporting to be about freedom of
speech. (See his blog
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/03/expelled.php
).
This, and other exposures of the film’s attack on evolution,
created a firestorm in the blogosphere and brought the film some much
needed criticism (check out the links below which give a general idea
of the discussion). Here we aren’t going to repeat material
well-covered elsewhere. (Here) ... we want to address some of the
specific strategies of the film.
read
the entire article...
(December, 2007)
The Stem Cell Breakthrough and the Attacks
on Science
The week of Nov. 20, two teams of researchers -- one led by Kyoto
University's Shinya Yamanaka, the other by the University of
Wisconsin's Junying Yu reported that they had turned human skin cells
into pluripotent stem cells – cells which appear to behave in tests so
far the same as embryonic stem cells.
But the coverage of this story is being spun in ways that represent a
serious attack on science.
At the core of this attack on science, an intense effort is being made
to put over the pseudo-argument that since these pluripotent skin cells
are “the same” as embryonic stem cells and since there's supposedly “a
stigma” involved in embryonic stem cells, scientists should just drop
them and “use” the skin cells instead because after all who wants
controversy. And unfortunately many who should know better who are
normally supporters of science have joined in pushing this
viewpoint. read
the entire article...
(December, 2007)
Christine Comer (dir. of science for Texas Education Agency)
attacked by creationists and forced to resign
The week of Nov. 20, 2007, Christine Comer who served for 27 years as a
science teacher and 9 years as director of science for the Texas
Education Agency was attacked and forced to resign. Why?
Because she forwarded an email about a lecture by Dr. Barbara
Forrest. Dr. Forrest is co-author of "Inside Creationism's Trojan
Horse" and was an expert witness in the Dover, PA trial that ruled
against the teaching of "intelligent design" in science
classrooms. Dr. Forrest is also a signatory of the Defend Science
statement. In the dismissal letter received by Comer, it referred
to the issue of evolution and creationism as "a subject on which the
agency must remain neutral". Remember this is talking about the
state agency in charge of science education.
read
the entire article...
(July, 2007)
Bush appointed ex-Surgeon General exposes governmental
suppression of science
Former
U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona - a Bush administration appointee
- went public during Congressional testimony on July 10 with scathing
exposure of how science, science policy and scientific thinking is
being attacked and muzzled across the board from the highest levels of
government.
read
the entire article...
(May, 2007)
What happens when Defend Science! reaches the broad public
When
the Minneapolis Star Tribune ran an editorial about Defend Science,
hundreds of people responded, signing the Defend Science Statement,
many making thoughtful and inspiring comments about the attacks on
science and what to do about this. Triggered by one editorial ...
in Minnesota. Imagine the impact of the Statement running in
major newspapers, reaching millions... read
the entire article...
(February, 2007)
Attacks on Science From the Bush
Administration Continue Post-Election (Excerpted
from a speech in February 2007 in Hawaii by Michael Hadfield)
Lest anyone think that the Congressional electoral victories of the
Democrats last November have changed anything, let me point out these
post-election events, all drawn from the popular press since November
2006: read
the entire article...
(November, 2006)
Assessing What is Going On Today
To say the attacks on science continue states the obvious. But Bush and
the Republicans appear to be in political trouble, and there has been
rising opposition to the attacks on science, including important
victories. So how to assess what is going on? This article will examine
this by focusing on the question that concentrates the overall assault
on science and scientific thinking - the creationist attack on
evolution. read
the entire article...
(September, 2006)
On the Relation
Between the Defend Science Statement and the UCS "Restoring Scientific Integrity" statement
An important question which is sometimes raised is why we are doing
the Defend Science Statement and how we view the (UCS) "Restoring
Scientific Integrity" Statement. Here we want to address this
more fully, and also explain how we see our efforts as complementary
and mutually reinforcing. read
the entire article...
(February, 2006)
James Hansen, Global
Warming, and the Bush Science Police
James Hansen, the top climate scientist with NASA,
has come under
intense pressure from high Bush administration officials threatening
him and essentially telling him to shut up and be loyal to the
President. They are demanding that he stop telling the truth about the
grave dangers of global warming, and the urgent need for global action.
Hansen has courageously refused to bow down to the threats and has
continued to speak out. read
the entire article...
(January, 2006)
Prof. Paul Mirecki (Univ.
of Kansas) attacked for planning a course teaching "Intelligent Design"
as religious
myth. read the entire article...
Signatory
Comments
Read comments about the battle to Defend Science from our signatories
Please check back soon for more links.
Articles
Scientific
American: Bush-League Lysenkoism
The White House bends science to its will
Restoring
Scientific Integrity
Union of Concerned Scientists Statement
Media coverage of Defend Science
Media Coverage
of Defend Science
Defend Science Materials
download Defend Science Sticker
image
...
(this image can be printed on 4" x 6" sticker)
download A Very Incomplete List
of Attacks on Science in 2007 ...
Defend Science reading list
Defend Science
reading list
Sources
Defend Science
Statement Sources
Cartoons
from
Matt Davies' Blog...
Videos
If you watched these before, try again now. The video & audio
quality is much improved. The
presentations and discussion were very enlightening and well worth
watching and sharing with friends/colleagues.
[Some people have reported problems using Internet Explorer with these
video links. In our testing IE seems to freeze but is really just
downloading a very large file and doesn't start playing until the
download is finished - but then the video plays fine. Netscape
seems to work fine if you have that. If
you only have Internet Explorer, you can right click and save/download
the video files to your local computer or just be very patient.]
Video of Defend Science Forum (UC Berkeley, 4/13/2006)
"The Attack on Scientific Thinking and Why We Must Defend Science"
video quality much improved!
Introduction (Jason Curtis /
Mike Hadfield)
Dennis Baldocchi
Steve Palumbi
Kevin Padian
Q & A
Special Offer - Donate $100 or more and send us your address and we
will send you The Defend Science Forum on CD. (respond to:
mail@defendscience.com)
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