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What's New
at the TalkOrigins Archive
The New What's New. The TalkOrigins Archive is transitioning its "What's New" page to a weblog format.
Edward Max responds to "AFDave". Dr. Edward Max takes up criticism from YEC blogger Dave Hawkins.
The Mullerian Two-Step: Add a part, make it necessary (or, Why Behe's "Irreducible Complexity" is silly). A simple and concise explanation for why the anti-evolutionary argument from "irreducibly complexity" is flawed — gradual evolution by natural selection readily evolves "irreducibly complex" structures.
The Origin of Life. A discussion of the main models on the spontaneous origin of life that aims to show how cellular complexity could have gradually emerged from simple systems - in contrast to the sudden appearance of complexity that creationists claim to have been necessary at the beginning of life. Central issues like the composition of the early atmosphere of the Earth and the origin of the homochirality of amino acids and sugars are reviewed as well.
September 2006 Post of the Month: Irreducible Complexity as an Evolutionary Prediction.
The Discovery Institute Quote Mines Stephen Jay Gould. The newest addition to the Quote Mine Project shows how Casey Luskin of Discovery Institute misrepresents what Gould and others wrote in a brief for Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals.
Awards, Honors, and Favorable Notices for The TalkOrigins Archive. A listing of honor received by the TalkOrigins Archive. Updated to mention that the Archive was listed as "Web Site of the Week" by the Dallas Morning News.
The Quote Mine Project: Or, Lies, Damned Lies and Quote Mines. The Archive's systematic debunking of the creationist habit of misleading quotation now has a new article, The Discovery Institute Quote Mines Judge Jones, that discusses how the Discovery Institute selectively quotes Judge Jones' decision in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District in aid of its "bait and switch" claim of scientific evidence in support of intelligent design. There are several other recent updates listed in the Project What's New page.
Macroevolution. In evolutionary biology today macroevolution is used to refer to any evolutionary change at or above the level of species. It means the splitting of a species into two or the change of a species over time into another. This FAQ has been expanded, updated, illustrated, and rewritten.
Hendren v. Campbell: Decision Against a Creationist Textbook. A 1977 decision of an Indiana superior court ruling against a textbook produced by the Creation Research Society. In some respects this case resembles a young-earth creationist version of the 2005 Kitzmiller case. Introductory material, links, as well as the full text of the judge's memorandum opinion are provided.
July 2006 Post of the Month: The Fallacy of Nonfunctional Intermediates.
Young-Earth Creationist Helium Diffusion "Dates": Fallacies Based on Bad Assumptions and Questionable Data. Young-Earth creationists consider the helium diffusion studies of D. Russell Humphreys and others to be one of their greatest achievements in arguing for a 6,000 year old Earth. A geologist shows that these studies are extensively flawed and include: serious miscalculations in their data, sampling the wrong rock type, failing to eliminate possible contamination, using equations that are based on invalid assumptions and relying on questionable data. Appendices C and D have been added in response to Dr. Humphreys' most recent statements in his January 2006 "Trueorigins" essay.
January 2006 Post of the Month: Large Numbers and Deep Time.
Evidence for the Big Bang. This article covers the evidence which leads cosmologists to believe the Big Bang happened, deals with common objections to the theory, and discusses alternative models and questions that still remain to be answered.
How Old is the Earth: A Response to "Scientific" Creationism. A classic and often-referenced 1984 paper by G. Brent Dalrymple. The paper contains short but accurate expositions of radiometric dating methods and discussions of creationist criticisms and attempts to date the Earth as young. It includes material difficult to find elsewhere, such as the discussion of mixing isochrons and the effect of neutron-capture reactions. Dr. Dalrymple is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a winner of the National Medal of Science, a former president of the American Geophysical Union, and the author of The Age of the Earth.
November 2005 Post of the Month: Handling Challenges to Evolution.
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District: Decision of the Court. Dover, Pennsylvania case which a judge ruled that intelligent design is creationism, is not science, and does not belong in science classes of public schools.
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District: Plaintiffs' Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law. This how the pro-evolutionary biology side is asking the judge to rule in the intelligent-design case in Dover, Pennsylvania.
The Quote Mine Project: Or, Lies, Damned Lies and Quote Mines. The collecting of quotes to attack evolution is often called "quote mining" and is a very common tactic used by those who wish to deny evolution or modern evolutionary biology. A creationist on the talk.origins newsgroup posted a large collection of such quotes which he copied from a creationist website. This resulted in other participants looking up those quotes. The results, gathered in the Quote Mine Project, show that many of the quotes are blatantly out-of-context.
Young-Earth Creationist Helium Diffusion "Dates": Fallacies Based on Bad Assumptions and Questionable Data. Young-Earth creationists consider the helium diffusion studies of D. Russell Humphreys and others to be one of their greatest achievements in arguing for a 6,000 year old Earth. A geologist shows that these studies are extensively flawed and include: serious miscalculations in their data, sampling the wrong rock type, failing to eliminate possible contamination, using equations that are based on invalid assumptions and relying on questionable data.
Edwards v. Aguillard: Affidavit of Creationist Dean Kenyon. Dean Kenyon presented this to the federal courts in defense of creationism in 1984. It has the same arguments that Kenyon would call "intelligent design" after the defeat of creationism in the Supreme Court.
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District: Dover, Pennsylvania Intelligent Design Case. This page currently has some transcripts from the trial in HTML format.
NCSE Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District blog. This resource includes podcasts, news summaries, and legal documents from the Dover "Intelligent Design" trial. The Panda's Thumb has a summary article that also useful for following the trial and getting background information. [These are all off-site links.]
Information Theory and Creationism. Both young-earth and intelligent-design creationists often claim that evolution is impossible because of various claims about information such as mutation and natural selection "cannot create information." This article provides a brief background on Information Theory and explains how Creationists such as Werner Gitt and Lee Spetner misuse one of the greatest contributions of the 20th Century. (This FAQ is more technical than most. It is hoped that a less technical version will eventually be posted.)
Kansas Evolution Hearings: Transcripts of an Intelligently-Designed "Kangaroo Court". A transcript of the "science hearings" held by a subcommittee of the Kansas Board of Education composed of three creationists in May, 2005. A background article and many relevant links are also provided.
Also See: What's Old for archived What's New items.
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