Intelligent design proponents like to make a lot of noise about academic repression and denial of academic freedom. Beyond the whining are very few specific examples, and upon closer scrutiny even these examples are personality conflicts and academic politics rather than a vast conspiracy to suppress intelligent design. Read more ›
Crank magnetism is the phenomenon where people become attracted to multiple crank ideas at the same time. You know that saying about not being so open-minded your brain falls out? People with crank magnetism didn’t pay attention to that. Read more ›
“How do you know? Were you there?” is a summary dismissal of evolution and “Old Earth” science favoured by many creationists — who weren’t there either. It is a form of escape hatch. The idea is that if we cannot personally verify what we’ve inferred from evidence, then we cannot be certain of facts and theories when it comes to describing the world as it was millions of years ago, therefore the world must be young. Read more ›
Poe’s Law states: “Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won’t mistake for the real thing.” It is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between parodies of religious or other fundamentalism and its genuine proponents, since they both seem equally insane. Read more ›
The Hare Krishna view of the creation of the universe takes a selection of the Vedic texts as literal truth. Its advocates call it Hindu creationism or Vedic creationism, although Hindu creation mythology, cosmology and legends are considerably more varied. The Krishna version is quite specific, detailed and coherent. Read more ›
Nebraska Man was a hypothetical ape indigenous to North America, proposed in 1922, soon determined to be in error and formally retracted in 1927. The only reason anyone has ever heard of it today is because the creationist community later latched onto it as evidence of the evolutionary conspiracy. Read more ›
Creationists really hate whale ancestor fossils. We have quite a lot of the evolutionary path, too. Here’s a few of the beasts: Pakicetus, Indohyus and Basilosaurus. Read more ›
Although the US is usually regarded as the hotbed of creationist thought in the Anglosphere, the rise of creationism in the UK remains a matter for concern.
Creationist Duane Gish died on Tuesday, aged 92. He was famous for his debating skills in favour of creationism, particularly his technique of drowning the opponent in such a torrent of half-truths, lies and straw-man arguments that the opponent could… Read more ›
Biblical creationism originates in religious fundamentalism, but that doesn’t mean it’s unchanging and eternal. Indeed, it’s been widely noted that creationist ideas go through something very like evolution by natural selection.