[Vision2020] Evolution 2009 conference, U of I

Fri Jun 19 09:45:04 PDT 2009

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Glenn Branch <branch at ncseweb.org>
> Date: June 19, 2009 9:21:41 AM PDT
> To: ncse-news at googlegroups.com
> Subject: Evolution education update: June 19, 2009
> Reply-To: ncse-news at googlegroups.com
>
>
> Dear Friends of NCSE,
>
> NCSE staff have been busy recently, delivering a talk at the Evolution
> 2009 conference, writing for the Washington Post, and giving
> interviews on two radio programs. Meanwhile, a creationist teacher
> facing dismissal has sued his school district.
>
> NCSE'S SCOTT SPEAKS AT EVOLUTION 2009
>
> NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott spoke at the Evolution 2009
> conference on June 12, 2009, and video of her lecture -- "The Public
> Understanding of Evolution and the KISS Principle" -- is now available
> on-line in RealPlayer format. At the conference, Scott was presented
> with the first Stephen Jay Gould Prize, awarded annually by the
> Society for the Study of Evolution "to recognize individuals whose
> sustained and exemplary efforts have advanced public understanding of
> evolutionary science and its importance in biology, education, and
> everyday life in the spirit of Stephen Jay Gould." According to the
> citation, "As the executive director of the National Center for
> Science Education she has been in the forefront of battles to ensure
> that public education clearly distinguishes science from non-science
> and that the principles of evolution are taught in all biology
> courses."
>
> For the video, visit:
> http://realvideo.uidaho.edu:8080/ramgen/biosci/evolution09.rm
>
> For information about the conference, visit:
> http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/evolution09/
>
> For the citation, visit:
> http://www.evolutionsociety.org/awards.asp#gouldprize
>
> NCSE'S HESS AT "ON FAITH"
>
> NCSE's Faith Project Director Peter M. J. Hess contributed a guest
> column, entitled "West of Eden," to the Washington Post's on-line "On
> Faith" feature (June 16, 2009). "Too often, debates over the public
> perception of evolution are dominated by the fringes, by
> fundamentalist Christians and others who reject basic science due to
> their literal reading of the Bible and by ardent atheists who reject
> religion because they've embraced metaphysical naturalism -- that
> nature is all that exists," Hess writes. "Evolution can certainly be
> compatible with religious faith. Because the evidence for evolution is
> so overwhelming, we must consider it to be a truth about the natural
> world -- the world which we as people of faith believe was created by
> God, and the world made understandable by the reason and natural
> senses given to us by God. Denying science is a profoundly unsound
> theological position."
>
> For Hess's column, visit:
> http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2009/06/ 
> west_of_eden.html
>
> EUGENIE C. SCOTT ON THE RADIO
>
> NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott was a guest on two radio
> programs recently, and both shows are available on-line. On June 4,
> 2009, she appeared on the BBC 4's Leading Edge to discuss attempts to
> undermine the teaching of evolution in the public schools. Other
> guests were Denis Alexander, Director of the Faraday Institute for
> Science and Religion, based at St. Edmund's College, Cambridge
> University, and Gillian Beer, the author of Darwin's Plots:
> Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot and Nineteenth-Century
> Fiction (second edition; Cambridge University Press, 2000). The
> thirty-minute-long show is available in RealPlayer format. Also on
> June 4, 2009, she was a guest on Declaring Independence, a weekly
> political talk show on Public Reality Radio, WPRR 1680-AM in Grand
> Rapids, Michigan; the show is hosted by NCSE member Ed Brayton (who
> also blogs at Dispatches from the Culture Wars, hosted by
> ScienceBlogs). Their free-ranging and free-wheeling discussion begins
> at 34:34 into the hour-long show, available in mp3 format.
>
> For the Leading Edge show, visit:
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kq564
>
> For the Declaring Independence show, visit:
> http://feeds.feedburner.com/declaringindependencepodcast
>
> CREATIONIST TEACHER IN OHIO SUES SCHOOL DISTRICT
>
> "John Freshwater, an eighth-grade science teacher facing dismissal for
> allegedly preaching in the classroom, is suing the Mount Vernon City
> School District, saying it violated his constitutional and civil
> rights," the Columbus Dispatch (June 11, 2009) reported. Freshwater
> was himself sued in federal court in June 2008 for allegedly
> inappropriately bringing his religion into school -- including by
> posting posters with the Ten Commandments and Bible verses in his
> classroom, branding crosses into the arms of his students with a
> high-voltage electrical device, and teaching creationism. The Mount
> Vernon City School District Board of Education quickly voted to begin
> proceedings to terminate his employment with the district, and
> administrative hearings have been proceeding intermittently since
> October 2008. (Detailed reports on the hearings by Richard B. Hoppe
> are available on The Panda's Thumb blog.)
>
> In his lawsuit, Freshwater names as defendants the Board, two
> individual Board members and four other district administrators, a
> investigative firm and two of its employees commissioned by the
> district to investigate his teaching, and up to eight unknown (even to
> him) "employees, agents or others associated" with the Board who may
> have "conducted or facilitated" actions against him. The suit contains
> sixteen counts, including religious discrimination, defamation,
> conspiracy and breach of contract, and seeks $500,000 in compensatory
> damages and $500,000 in punitive damages. Documents associated with
> the case, Freshwater v. Mount Vernon City School District Board of
> Education et al., are available on the "Creationism and the Law"
> section of NCSE's website, as are documents associated with the suit
> against Freshwater, Doe et al. v. Mount Vernon City School District
> Board of Education et al.
>
> For the Dispatch's story, visit:
> http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/ 
> 2009/06/11/freshwater.ART_ART_06-11-09_B4_TUE56L0.html?sid=101
>
> For Hoppe's coverage at The Panda's Thumb blog, visit:
> http://pandasthumb.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.fcgi? 
> IncludeBlogs=2&limit=20&offset=0&search=freshwater
>
> For the legal documents associated with the cases, visit:
> http://ncseweb.org/creationism/legal/freshwater-v-mount-vernon
> http://ncseweb.org/creationism/legal/doe-v-freshwater-mv
>
> And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Ohio, visit:
> http://ncseweb.org/news/ohio
>
> Thanks for reading! And don't forget to visit NCSE's website --
> http://ncseweb.org -- where you can always find the latest news on
> evolution education and threats to it.
>
> -- 
> Sincerely,
>
> Glenn Branch
> Deputy Director
> National Center for Science Education, Inc.
> 420 40th Street, Suite 2
> Oakland, CA 94609-2509
> 510-601-7203 x310
> fax: 510-601-7204
> 800-290-6006
> branch at ncseweb.org
> http://ncseweb.org
>
> Eugenie C. Scott's Evolution vs. Creationism -- now in its second  
> edition!
> http://ncseweb.org/evc
>
> Not in Our Classrooms:  Why Intelligent Design Is Wrong for Our  
> Schools
> http://ncseweb.org/nioc
>
> NCSE's work is supported by its members.  Join today!
> http://ncseweb.org/membership
>
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