Sent to me via one of my students (we discussed the Scopes trial last week), this NYT editorial has some perhaps-surprising poll numbers about Americans and evolution. Apparently, 48% of Americans – including our crusading President – believe in creationism (although I would like to see how the question is worded.) Reminds me of middle school back in the day, when I was one of three students in my 30-person history class that believed in evolution. Yes, Virginia, things are different outside of BosWash.
Category: Religion
Twenty-First Century Scopes.
A Texas Tech biology professor gets in hot war for refusing to recommend creationists for medical school. And as you might expect, the Ashcroft Justice Department stepped in. Pretty pathetic, really…I can’t believe this case will go anywhere. However you feel about creationism, we’re not talking about grades here – we’re talking about recs. A professor is well within his or her rights to refuse a recommendation to anyone he or she so desires. If Prof. Dini here thinks creationism and faith healing make lousy prerequisites for med school, then so be it…get a rec from the bible-thumping biology professor down the hall. And, as for the Justice Dept…well, if another student was denied a rec because she believed in the efficacy of bloodletting, would the Justice Department be getting involved? I doubt it. But somehow Ashcroft still finds time enough outside of spreading panic and buying duct tape futures to prosecute his theocratic agenda. Sad, sad, sad.
Supastar!
Anthropologists create a new face of Jesus, and, no, he doesn’t look like Ted Nugent. (Via Follow Me Here.)
But I don’t even believe in Jeebus…
“If you like God in government, get ready for the Rapture.” Bill Moyers winces at the events of a week ago.
No, not yet.
“Wanted: Roman rooftops, terraces or other elevated perches that will frame St. Peter’s perfectly in the backdrop, with its dome just over Peter Jennings’s or Dan Rather’s shoulder.” Frank Bruni surveys the journalistic dead pool surrounding Pope John Paul II.
Hardly Extinct.
Australia counts among its citizens approximately 250,000 Jedi, despite its being an “inadequately described” religion. I wonder how they’re all dealing with this most recent crisis of faith.
Religion in the void.
An Israeli astronaut attempts to figure out how best to observe Shabbat in space. (Via Looka.) Just think how complicated it’ll get when we start orbiting other stars.