16% of US Biology teachers believe that God created humans within the last 10,000 years
Despite a court-ordered ban on the teaching of creationism in US schools, about one in eight high-school biology teachers still teach it as valid science, a survey reveals. And, although almost all teachers also taught evolution, those with less training in science – and especially evolutionary biology – tend to devote less class time to Darwinian principles.
The full survey is available here, and goes on to say that:
Among the biology teachers, 16% believed that human beings were created by God in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years (and an additional 9% declined to answer). Although this is a far smaller proportion than found among the general public (48%), our data demonstrate substantial sympathy for the "young earth" creationist position among nearly one in six members of the science teaching profession. The teachers who chose the "young earth" creationist position devoted 35% fewer class hours to evolution than all other teachers.
Evolution… because…
(found on the net, and this is all I'll say about creationism for the next few months)
The new issue of Unscientific American
..has a shock exposé about the truth behind the grand canyon ("it was formed in a couple of days after Noah's Flood says random wild guess by Bible scholar with no knowledge of geography"), and an exclusive interview with creationist (and jailed fraudster*) Kent Hovind.
Ok. Maybe not - it's my favorite entry by el Gran Poco in this week's Photoshop Phriday ("Reverse Magazines") by the goons at Something Awful (nsfw!).
(* I know - I'm repeating myself)
10,000 BC -
The reviews of Roland Emmerich's new movie, 10,000 B.C. ("A prehistoric epic that follows a young mammoth hunter's journey through uncharted territory to secure the future of his tribe") are starting to come through, and it sounds like a bigger crapfest than Apocalypto:
In 10,000 BC, you've got Egyptian pyramids being built by guys using woolly mammoths. I mean, it's the goddamn ice age, and then our main character walks over a hill and suddenly he's in the Nile Valley of 2,000 BC? And these anachronistic bad guy Egyptians (from the ice age) have got ships, horseback riding, and freakin STEEL. Steel? C'mon, guys, you couldn't even consult Wikipedia? I mean, why not just call the movie 2,000 BC and make it about ancient Egypt? Or keep it in 10,000 BC and come up with some other kind of bad guys? Jeezus.
Even BETTER are the comments on the IMDB's forums:
This movie is set before God created heaven and earth and it’s an abomination to create man before god even thought of him.
If the producers of this film would have tried this blasephemous crap 5,300 years ago, Adam and Seth would have thrashed them with their pet Triceratops.
Yes. Thrashed them with a pet Triceratops, indeed.
Creationists launch “science” journal to “disseminate the(ir) vast fields of research”
How cute, the creationists have started a journal just so they can be like real scientists. The toy journal, Answers Research Journal is run by the nuts at Answers in Genesis, and -
is a professional (sic), peer-reviewed technical journal (sic) for the publication of interdisciplinary scientific (sic) and other relevant (sic) research from the perspective of the recent Creation and the global Flood within a biblical framework.
& more waffle (feel free to mentally add "sic" as you see fit)-
Addressing the need to disseminate the vast fields of research conducted by creationist experts in theology, history, archaeology, anthropology, biology, geology, astronomy, and other disciplines of science, Answers Research Journal will provide scientists and students the results of cutting-edge research that demonstrates the validity of the young-earth model, the global Flood, the non-evolutionary origin of “created kinds,” and other evidences that are consistent with the biblical account of origins. The newly expanded research effort at Answers in Genesis, with the establishment of its Research Department, will facilitate this further venue for publication and dissemination of the results of creationist research.
I'm sorry, "vast fields of research" done by creationists?! Riiiiiiiight.
However, the first issue is dedicated to telling us where microbes fit into the creation account of life. Let me guess, it goes something like: Yay, and god did say, "let there be microbes and they shall cover the earth with their wrigglings, and their flagella shall perplex the biologists for eternity..). Huh. I was close -
Very little has been written in Bible commentaries or in creation literature on the subject of when microbes were created. Some have postulated that microbes were created on a single day of Creation, such as Day Three—when the plants were made. This is partially due to the “seed-like” characteristics that bacteria and fungi have—therefore classifying microbes as plants. In addition, we observe microbes (such as Escherichia coli) isolated in the lab and we tend to think of microbes as individual entities much like birds or fish or animals and, therefore, created on a single day.
(...). From the beginning, God made His creation fully mature, and complex forms fully formed. This would ensure continuity and stability for the times to come. Although we cannot be certain as to specifically when the Creator made microbes, it is within His character to make entire interwoven, “packaged” systems to sustain and maintain life.
I doubt that we'll be seeing any cutting-edge research in there soon... Seriously, it'd just be nice if they moved a few centuries forward from the Dark Ages.
Teach the controversy!
I've just come across the External Delivery website, and am shocked, SHOCKED, to find out that what I was taught in school was wrong! -
External delivery refers to a scientific research program as well as a community of older kids, teachers, and other adults who seek evidence of external sources of Christmas presents. The theory of external delivery holds that certain features of how Christmas presents are delivered each year are best explained by an external source, not an internal source such as your parents.
Teach the controversy! (Thanks Natalie)
LOLCreashun – do NOT want
The folks over at Whateveresque have been busy translating John Scalzi's trip to the Creation museum (which we talked about last month) into LOLCat. Pages and pages of hilarious fun. My favorite is by Johnny Highground:
