I had lunch this summer with a prospective graduate student at the evangelical college where I teach. I will call him John, because that happens to be his name. John has done well academically at a public university. Nevertheless, as often happens, he said that he was looking forward to coming to a Christian university, and then launched into a story of religious discrimination.It's religious discrimination. John didn't get an "F" because he was incapable of presenting a rational argument. He failed because he's a Christian.
John had been a straight-A student until he enrolled in English writing. The assignment was an “opinion” piece and the required theme was “traditional marriage”. John is a Southern Baptist and he felt it was his duty to give his honest opinion and explain how it was grounded in his faith. The professor was annoyed that John claimed the support of the Bible for his views, scribbling in the margin, “Which Bible would that be?” On the very same page, John’s phrase, “Christians who read the Bible,” provoked the same retort, “Would that be the Aramaic Bible, the Greek Bible, or the Hebrew Bible?” (What could the point of this be? Did the professor want John to imagine that while the Greek text might support his view of traditional marriage, the Aramaic version did not?) The paper was rejected as a “sermon” and given an F, with the words “I reject your dogmatism” written at the bottom by way of explanation.
I believe in the whole Bible as originally given, to be the inspired word of God, the only unerring guide to faith and conduct. Since God is the Author of this Book, as well as the Creator and sustainer of the physical world about us, I cannot conceive of discrepancies between statements in the Bible and the real facts of science.William Phillips was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics. Here's his talk from the June 16th meeting.
Intelligent Design Creationism is struggling to maintain scientific credibility. The movement claims to be scientific, not religious, and it's strongest defense is that it offers credible scientific explanations of biological phenomena.1. Stephen Meyer is one of the founders of the Discovery Institute in Seattle. He has a Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University (UK).
Bill Gates thinks that universities are about to become obsolete [Bill Gates: In Five Years The Best Education Will Come From The Web]."Five years from now on the web for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world," Gates said at the Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe, CA today. "It will be better than any single university," he continued.This is nonsense on many levels. First, who's going to determine whether any given lecture is the "best lecture in the world?" Second, why will it be online? (Most professors don't want to put their lectures online.) Third, who says that listening to a lecture is the only thing that a university has to offer?
One particular problem with the education system according to Gates is text books. Even in grade schools, they can be 300 pages for a book about math. "They’re giant, intimidating books," he said. "I look at them and think: what on Earth is in there?"In the interests of full disclosure, I am a textbook author. That means I have more of a stake in this debate than Bill Gates. (Of course, it also means that as a textbook author and a university professor, I'm probably more of an expert than the former chairman of a software company.(1))
According to Gates, our text books are three times longer than the equivalents in Asia. And yet they’re beating us in many ways with education. The problem is that these things are built by committee, and more things are simply added on top of what’s already in there.
John Hawks seems to be quite sympathetic to the Gates stupidity [Bubbling through college].
1. How did we ever get ourselves into the situation where executives from for-profit companies are thought to be experts on education? They are not. They are just about the last people on Earth I would ask for advice on university education.
Matilda married Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, when she was 13 years old and she became known as Empress Matilda at that point. She returned to England when her husband, Henry V, died in 1125. In the movie she is depicted as a young girl who is present when the King learns of his son's death on the White Ship. In fact, she was already 18 years old and married to the Holy Roman Emperor when the ship went down. 
) 1. I love it when they make movies of my relatives!I am a descendant of Andrew Ward (1597-1659) of Fairfield Connecticut who traces his ancestry back to William de Longespee (1152-1206) the illegitimate son of Henry II of England (1133-1189). [My Family and Other Emperors]. Henry II is Maud's baby in the opening episodes of the movie. UPDATE: Turns out I am NOT related to Andrew Ward after all! But I do count Geoffrey Plantagenet and Matilda as ancestors through Henry II to my Scottish Stewart ancestors.
2. I am also a descendant, via the Stewarts of Perthshire, from Elizabeth.
Godfrey was the son of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne and Ida of Lorraine. Eustace II fought with William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. His father was Eustace I, Count of Boulogne who married Matilda of Leuven (Louvain). (She was the daughter of Lambert I, Count of Leuven (~950-1015). We have many Belgian ancestors.)
Biological evolution explains both the unity and diversity of species. Biological evolution results from the interactions of (1) the potential for a species to increase its members, (2) the genetic variation of individuals within a species due to mutations and recombinations of genes, (3) a finite supply of the resources required for individuals to survive and reproduce, and (4) the ensuing selection by the environment of those organisms better able to survive and reproduce. Organic evolution, and the net result of speciation minus extinction, has led to the planet’s biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Sustaining biodiversity is essential for the maintenance and enhancement of the human population’s quality of life.Contrast this adaptationist and environmentalist view with the description of evolution in Futuyma (2009)—one of the leading textbooks of evolution.
The fossil record provides evidence of different life forms at different periods of geological history. This evidence supports the idea that newer life forms descended from older life forms, a phenomenon that Darwin aptly called “descent with modification”. DNA provides further evidence for lines of descent from ancestral species to later-appearing species.
Genetic variation of individuals within a species gives some individuals an advantage to survive and reproduce in the conditions of their environment. This leads to the predominance of certain inherited traits within a varied population. When an environment changes, there is a subsequent change in the supply of resources or in the challenges imposed by abiotic and biotic factors of the environment. This results in selective pressures that influence the survival and reproduction of organisms and which lead to adaptations, that is to changes in the traits of survivors within populations, and to extinction of species unable to adapt to such changes. Mutations most often produce non-viable individuals, but, infrequently, can introduce new traits within a population that offer survival advantages. Many such changes, along with reproductive isolation and the selective pressures from the environment can lead to the development of adaptations and, eventually, to distinct new species.
Biodiversity – the diversity of genes, species, and ecosystems – provide humans with renewable resources such as food, fuels, fertile soils, clean water and air, medicines, as well as surroundings (from species to landscapes) of inspirational value. The resources of biological communities can be used within sustainable limits, but in many cases the human impact is exceeding sustainable limits.
1. Evoluion it the leading principle of the biological sciences. Evolutionary biology aims to discover the history of life and the causes of the diversity and characteristics of organisms.These are very different descriptions of one of the core ideas in the life sciences and they don't agree. Which one do you think is better—the one written by a committee 23 people for the National Academies or the one written by Douglas Futuyma? Which one supports good science education and critical thinking?
2. Darwin's evolutionary theory, published in The Origin of Species in 1859, consisted of two major hypotheses: first, that all organisms have descended, with modification, from common ancestral forms of life, and second, that a chief agent of modification is natural selection.
3. Darwin's hypothesis that all species have descended with modification from common ancestors is supported by so much evidence that it has become as well established a fact as any in biology. His theory of natural selection as the chief cause of evolution was not broadly supported until the "evolutionary synthesis" that occurred in the 1930 and 1940s.
4. The evolutionary theory developed during and since the evolutionary synthesis consists of a body of principles that explain evolutionary change. Among these principles are (a) that genetic variation in phenotypic characters arises by random mutation and recombination; (b) that changes in the proportions of alleles and genotypes within a population may result in replacement of genotypes over generations; (c) that such changes in the proportions of genotypes may occur either by random fluctuations (genetic drift) or by nonrandom, consistent differences among phenotypes in survival or reproductive rates (natural selection); and (d) that as a result of different histories of genetic drift and natural selection, populations of a species may diverge and become reproductively isolated species.
Nicholas Wade is often considered to be one of the best science journalists. He writes for The New York Times. His latest article is: Adventures in Very Recent Evolution. Here's one paragraph.Many have assumed that humans ceased to evolve in the distant past, perhaps when people first learned to protect themselves against cold, famine and other harsh agents of natural selection. But in the last few years, biologists peering into the human genome sequences now available from around the world have found increasing evidence of natural selection at work in the last few thousand years, leading many to assume that human evolution is still in progress.Later on in the article, Wade seems to be aware of the other mechanism of evolution but here he equates "evolution" with "natural selection." What do we have to do in order to educate science journalists? [Have Humans Stopped Evolving?] [Did biologists really think that human evolution stopped?]
Photo Credit: The Future of Human Evolution [Aaron Avivi].
1. See Examples of Accelerated Human Evolution.
2. See Signals of Positive Selection in Humans?.
