John McDonald, the Director of Student Ministries at Westminster Presbyterian Church, has stopped by my blog to drop a few comments. He has been seen previously at the Florida Citizens for Science blog prodding them with taunts and ill-informed criticisms of evolutionary science.

One of the interesting claims that he has been making repeatedly is that David Hume destroyed Empiricism, and that Immanuel Kant saved science from the pickle Hume put it in. This seemed rather odd, considering that Hume was himself an empiricist - he believed that knowledge derived through observation, rather than pure reason (Descartes et al.) was the way to go. Here are John’s comments on this topic on the KCS blog: Read More…

A little more than a week ago, I received an email from Marni Chidsey, a librarian at Okaloosa-Walton College in Niceville, Florida. She heard about a “Beyond Expelled” event that was about to take place in her locale, and the speaker was going to be Nancy Pearcey. Yes, that Nancy Pearcey. Mrs Totaluberdoubleplus Truth herself.

Marni emailed me, PZ Myers, Ken Miller, and a few others asking for advice on how to represent science and reason at the event, and what would be a good question to ask. Nick Matzke helped me out with my question then, so it was time to pay it forward. I sent her a few good proposed questions for her to ask Pearcey, and explained a little background on her arguments and its basic flaws.

Ken Miller sent the both of us a preview of his now-published essay about Expelled and how utterly dishonest it is. Check it out when you have the time. Ken suggested that Marni hand out copies of it if she could, and I asked her to record it if possible. How did it go? Read More…

This weekend, the “documentary” Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed comes out. Actually, if I wanted to skip my midterm this morning and see a showing, I could. Hah. I expect that sometime this weekend I will be finding the time to attend a showing of this film, for pure journalistic reasons. I imagine that many of you may also be tempted to go see it, just to see what arguments are being made first-hand, but a quick look at the reviews online shows that unless it’s a religious news source, Expelled flunks out big time.

Some of you may be thinking, why you should give them your money and not wait until it appears on DVDs in thrift stores? Wouldn’t paying $10 for a ticket help undermine science education somehow? Well, if you’re conflicted about that, there’s no need to be. Originally proposed by blogger Alonzo Fyfe, you can buy “Truth Tickets” to offset the negative effect of sending the Expelled folks your money. Send ten bucks to the National Center for Science Education and you can feel good about counterbalancing the situation. It’s like carbon offsets - planting a seed for science education that could grow to become a fruitful tree! Head on over to the NCSE Donation page if you plan on visiting the Box Office. I’ll be pledging a little extra.

Also, check out Michael Shermer and Ed Brayton on Expelled.

Must… Obey… Not… Strong… Enough…
Expelled
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Expelled

Saluations, future and present minions. Mogel has finally come to understand the cold, hard truth. He cannot continue to deceive the world with tales about what “science” is supposed to be. As your new fearless Blog Czar, I will help guide you. This is what science is.

1. Science is Power. The power to bend the matter of the universe to your will, to make the behavior of the creatures living in it conform to your every whim. Nourishing every childhood fantasy is the advantage of science. Read More…

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have finally decided to call it quits. For a few years, now, I have been communicating science to the public, in my old column, on this blog, and with my radio show/podcast. But now it must all come to an end. Am I too busy with grad school? Is Ariela tired of getting me to come to bed on time? Or have I realized that all this time, I’ve been dead, dead, wrong? Read More…

You simply have to check out this video. Stop what you’re doing right now and click play. If you’ve been following all the stuff about the Expelled film coming out, you’ll really appreciate how the video artist makes fun of the claim that scientists are “Expelling” religious people. Jeez, literally. A lot of scientists are religious, and have no truck with their brand of pseudoscience and pseudo-philosophy.

And I’m trying to see if I can get a higher quality audio clip of the song being used. Hilarious!

This is one of those occasions where I think “Great Darwin’s Galapagos” is warranted. Go ahead, try it on, and spread this thing around! No really, start clicking on those pretty buttons below the post. They’re not there for looks!
(Mind nod to Reed Cartwright at The Thumb)

On Thursday, PZ Myers was EXPELLED from Expelled - No Intelligence Allowed, a creationist documentary supposedly about expelling people from academia for their personal beliefs.An irony widely recognized in the blogging community as an Epic Fail, now the news media is picking up the story.

PZ Myers put up another post about the event, and there’s an article written about it in the New York Times.

Read No Admission for Evolutionary Biologist at Creationist Film. Here’s a couple choice bits: Read More…

What happens when someone who was interviewed for a creationist propaganda tries to see how he is portrayed in the film? He gets Expelled. I guess some weeks the Madness in this world takes a little while to come forth. But when it does, it really comes out. In a special Thursday edition of Monday Madness (on Friday), I give you Thursday Madness: No Intelligence Allowed. Read More…

Dear readers, on this day, the 7th of March 2008, I, Karl J. Mogel have received my first crackpot email. Yes! In an email titled: Inoculated Mind vis a vis  True freedom of inquiry vs. the politically enforced reductionism of scientific materialism, I was treated to a series of links. Were they links to pure wisdom? Links to new items from my favorite Ebay sellers? Links to great deals on penis-enlargement pills? No, they weer links to pure, unalloyed, crackpottery. Let’s take a look, shall we? It’s time for some Monday Madness! Read More…