Science for Science Teachers

Michael Ruse

In 1981, the State of Arkansas passed into law a bill that demanded that if evolution was taught in state-supported schools, then something called “Creation Science” — aka the book of Genesis read literally — had also to be taught. This happened during the interregnum between Bill Clinton’s first time in the governor’s mansion and when he regained it two years later. The bill was debated for all of half an hour by the legislature and signed by the then-governor, a man as unqualified for the post as he was surprised at getting it.

Obviously this law violated the First Amendment separation of church and state, and so the ACLU swung into action to get it declared unconstitutional. After a two-week trial, the federal judge ruled precisely that and so that was the end of the Arkansas “Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Scient Act,” as it was called. I was one of the witnesses for the plaintiff, called in to testify on the history and philosophy of science, showing that whereas evolutionary theory is science, creation science is not science but religion.

The Chronicle Welcomes Michael Ruse

Science and Religion expert Michael Ruse is one of our favorite Cambridge authors. He’s nuanced, compelling, and unwilling to settle for simple, doctrinal arguments on either side of the creationism debate. The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Brainstorm blog recently added him as a writer, where “[y]ou might see him writing about science and religion (especially creationism and evolution), college football, film, and other similarly uncontroversial matters.”

Ruse’s latest post “Why I am Weeping for Florida State University” ties in neatly to Weisbrod and Asch’s piece on college football coach bonuses.

As we start the New Year, Florida State University is in the headlines for two reasons. The first is that on New Year’s Day, in the Gator Bowl, FSU beat West Virginia. It was the final game of our coach, Bobby Bowden. The lead headline in the New York Times Sports Section is “Bowden Goes Out on Top of Shoulders.” The magazine Science also has news about FSU. “Recession Hits Some Sciences Hard at Florida State University.” We have just fired 20 tenured faculty and another 15 tenure-track faculty. And don’t think that these were just second-raters or indeed presume that any of them were. Included wasDean Falk, one of today’s leading paleoanthropologists and, among other things, the expert on the brain of Homo floresiensis (the hobbit). She got a pink slip on her 65th birthday. (Disclosure: Dean is a good friend. In this post I am absolutely not making a judgment about whether, given the firings, she was legitimately included or not. If you read the Science article, you will see that decisions were made on the judged vulnerability of departments, and she is a member of one such department, anthropology.)

I don’t know which item of news depresses me the more.

Robert P. George: A Rising Star on the Right

Sunday’s New York Times ran a fascinating profile on Cambridge author Robert P. George, tracing his steady rise to leadership as the public face of the conservative Christian Right.

Michael Curtis Interviewed on WOCA

Michael Curtis, author of Orientalism and Islam, was interviewed on Florida radio station WOCA yesterday. The podcast is live – click below for their discussion of Islamic government, extremism, and the history East-West clashes.
Listen here >>

Michael Ruse: New Atheism “A Bloody Disaster”

Writing for BeliefNet, author and philosopher Michael Ruse writes on religion and science, and why New Atheism doesn’t engage either end properly.