In a short piece on the Ball State/Eric Hedin case, the Christian News Network manages to get four things wrong. 1. “Are Hedin’s teaching practices unconstitutional? Jerry Coyne, a University of Chicago professor, thinks so, and has pushed for Hedin’s removal from BSU. In an April 25 blog post, Coyne claimed that Hedin’s class material is […]
I hadn’t known about this case, reported in today’s New York Times, but perhaps some of you had. It’s a fascinating tale about the Dutch psychologist Diederik Stapel, who fudged data for dozens of papers—data comporting with people’s intuitive ideas about human nature—and became famous along the way. He eventually got caught and fired. He […]
No, it’s not Peter Hitchens or Terry Eagleton. Nor is it Glenn Greenwald, R. Joseph Hoffmann, or any of the critics of New Atheism who fancy themselves far more sophisticated and, perhaps, influential than the New Atheists. (We’ve all heard the hounds baying about the declining relevance and clout of all those “militant” athiests.) No, […]
Ball State University, in Muncie, Indiana, is a public university (i.e., part of the state university system). As such, it must abide by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which has been interpreted as disallowing religious viewpoints (or religiously based theories) in public-school science classes. It is of course kosher to teach courses on […]
by Greg Mayer Jerry and I have written about the plight of science at Chicago’s Field Museum, both here at WEIT, and with several colleagues in a letter to Science. In an editorial, Nature, the leading scientific journal of the English-speaking world, has also spoken out in support of science at the Field. In the […]
This episode smacks a bit of internet drama, which I try to avoid, but it also bears on scientific discourse, censorship, and civility, and I wanted to say a few words. According to the “Arts Beat” site of the New York Times, Neil deGrasse Tyson, who organized a prestigious debate on the origins of the […]
by Greg Mayer At the end of last year, the Field Museum in Chicago announced that it was considering draconian budgetary cuts to, and even more ominous institutional restructuring of, its scientific departments. Jerry and I wrote about this here at the time, decrying the Field administration’s plans. In January, Science published a news article […]
The Jan. 20 New York Times reports something that is absolutely unbelievable, even in the American South. School tax credit “scholarships”, which are basically taxpayer subsidized ways to pay for private schooling, are being used in Georgia to send students which have strict and explicit anti-gay policies. (These vouchers come from donations of private organizations, […]
I’ve lived in Chicago for more than 25 years, and have watched the Field Museum’s public exhibits degenerate from an educational experience to an entertainment experience. This isn’t unique to that museum: it’s happening everywhere as natural history museums seek to make more money by displaying dinosaur skeletons and offering ‘hands-on’ experiences and animated exhibits […]
Yesterday was a glorious autumn day in Chicago, and our campus is at its best when all the trees turn color. Here are a few snaps taken right outside the Zoology Building where I work. The Zoology Building is adjacent to a famous campus institution: Botany Pond, so called because it was next to what […]
