Coming attractions

Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed will be hitting theaters April 18. Ben Stein will be starring in this movie which will describe the conspiracy to keep creationist ideas out of the classroom and present "scientific" information that supports Intelligent Design. I wonder what scientific evidence they will present. It had better be something other than the mechanism that drives the flagella. This has already been shown not to meet the criteria of irreducible complexity that has been the major argument in favor of a Designer. Maybe I should see this flick.

Florida adds evolution

Florida has joined the 20th century. The Florida department of education has recently updated its standards to include the scientific theory of evolution. Now only four state remain that do not include evolution in their standards. Congratulations Florida! We look forward to your further progress and hope to welcome you to the 21st century soon.

Frog from hell

Fossils from Madagascar have been determined to be from a 20 pound toad. The nearest known relative was in South America. Paleontologists are wondering how these relatives came to be so far apart. The current understanding of plate tectonics does not provide any reasonable answer. My naive and simple explanation; it swam! Toads are amphibious after all. :)

Evolution

I have been grappling with the evolution/Creationism controversy which has been going on. For a long time, it seemed that there is no common ground to get the two sides together on. Then I saw the headline in the February 2008 NSTA Reports that read NAS: Science and Religion Not Mutually Exclusive. The ensuing article was about a new NAS publication dealing with the topic. When the article mentions that this book will help science teachers prevent school boards from requiring creationist ideas from being taught in science classes through a logical presentation of what science is, I was disappointed. So, the skeptic in me raises its ugly head. These two schools of thought are mutually exclusive. Just a sexy headline designed to get my attention.