Teaching Is NOT A Science

Wednesday Bonus Cartoon Fun: Religion Vs Science Flowchart Edition

Jamie Lou Dunbar's "It's Alive!" Needs Funding

I posted about Jamie and his first self-published project, Bang!, an illustrated comic book about the Big Bang, back in May.  He is now trying to self-publish his next book, It's Alive!, and needs some support.

I have known Jamie since he was a little kid.  I know his awesome parents as well as some of his friends.  Jamie is an honest, brilliant, creative, fun, funny and sweet feller.  His work is targeted towards educating kids, something I am very supportive of (never end a sentence with a preposition).  And, since I don't have much money, this is how I am supporting Jamie's efforts--by advertising for him.

Go to the links, look around, and decide if you want to support Jamie.  I am sure you will!

We're Getting Closer

Discovery Helps Researchers Close In on HIV Vaccine

(July 8) -- American scientists are touting a major stride toward a vaccine that can ward off HIV, after finding two key proteins that neutralize 91 percent of the virus' 190 strains.

The team of researchers with the National Institutes of Health's Vaccine Research Center hopes the antibody discovery can spur successful work toward a method of preventing HIV, which already afflicts an estimated 33 million people worldwide.

James Lu Dunbar's "Bang!"

James Lu Dunbar has created a science book for everyone. I happen to know James and his family and he is a wonderful kid (Yeah, he is still that little kid I used to know--to me).

Check out his website and his book, Bang!

BANG PR-2

Teaching Is A Craft

I have said that I think teaching is less science and more art (craft). The snippet below is not about that specifically, but it relates.  Teachers learn to teach by teaching.  Remember student teachers?  I can't help but agree with what follows:

For those of us that like drastic solutions and saltational mutations, one way to fix the perpetual crises (existential, and otherwise) that colleges and universities seem to find themselves in would be this: get out the axe. Axe the business school, axe all the engineering programs, axe the professional programs, axe even (hard as it is to say) the fine arts programs. So no more accounting majors and no more civil engineering majors, no more masters of public health, and no more dance majors, or creative writing majors, or bassoonists, either.

The thing most of those programs have in common is that they’re crafts—things better learned by doing than by sitting and discussing the doing.

h/t 3QD

Science Is Real

Watch Darwin Evolve

One of the things biologists are interested in is change over time, and we compare genomes to see where changes have occurred between two or more species; one of the reasons we're interested in the chimpanzee genome, for instance, is that it is close to ours, and what scientists are doing is comparing the two, looking for the key differences.

There are other things that change over time that lend themselves to these sorts of analyses. Darwin's On the Origin of Species went through six editions during his lifetime, and it wasn't a static document at all — he revised, sometimes extensively, and he added new material, sometimes in response to new data, sometimes in reaction to public and private concerns.

What Ben Fry has done is taken the text of all six editions, compared them, and color-coded the words by when they were added. Then he rendered them in teeny-tiny print and splashed them up on the screen so you can see when and where changes occurred in Darwin's text. It takes a while to load, since it is loading the full text of six editions of the Origin, plus annotations, but then you can just move your cursor around over the blocks to read and see what he was thinking. For instance, one thing that jumps out at you is the huge block of red in the middle of the document (not in screengrab), a whole large section that was added in the sixth edition.

h/t PZ

Neil deGrasse Tyson: It's The Grownups I'm Worried About

I think Neil deGrasse Tyson is awesome. This short clip is worth watching for his pithiness and his clearheadedness on the bogus fears of all those who worry our children are dumber than the Chinese.

Saturday Cartoon Fun: Religion Edition

New Director Of NIH Is A Bible Thumper?

Science Is in the Details
By SAM HARRIS

PRESIDENT OBAMA has nominated Francis Collins to be the next director of the National Institutes of Health. It would seem a brilliant choice. Dr. Collins’s credentials are impeccable: he is a physical chemist, a medical geneticist and the former head of the Human Genome Project. He is also, by his own account, living proof that there is no conflict between science and religion. In 2006, he published “The Language of God,” in which he claimed to demonstrate “a consistent and profoundly satisfying harmony” between 21st-century science and evangelical Christianity.

Dr. Collins is regularly praised by secular scientists for what he is not: he is not a “young earth creationist,” nor is he a proponent of “intelligent design.” Given the state of the evidence for evolution, these are both very good things for a scientist not to be.

But as director of the institutes, Dr. Collins will have more responsibility for biomedical and health-related research than any person on earth, controlling an annual budget of more than $30 billion. He will also be one of the foremost representatives of science in the United States. For this reason, it is important that we understand Dr. Collins and his faith as they relate to scientific inquiry.

What follows are a series of slides, presented in order, from a lecture on science and belief that Dr. Collins gave at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2008:

Slide 1: “Almighty God, who is not limited in space or time, created a universe 13.7 billion years ago with its parameters precisely tuned to allow the development of complexity over long periods of time.”

Slide 2: “God’s plan included the mechanism of evolution to create the marvelous diversity of living things on our planet. Most especially, that creative plan included human beings.”

Slide 3: “After evolution had prepared a sufficiently advanced ‘house’ (the human brain), God gifted humanity with the knowledge of good and evil (the moral law), with free will, and with an immortal soul.”

Slide 4: “We humans used our free will to break the moral law, leading to our estrangement from God. For Christians, Jesus is the solution to that estrangement.”

Slide 5: “If the moral law is just a side effect of evolution, then there is no such thing as good or evil. It’s all an illusion. We’ve been hoodwinked. Are any of us, especially the strong atheists, really prepared to live our lives within that worldview?”

Why should Dr. Collins’s beliefs be of concern?

There is an epidemic of scientific ignorance in the United States. This isn’t surprising, as very few scientific truths are self-evident, and many are counterintuitive. It is by no means obvious that empty space has structure or that we share a common ancestor with both the housefly and the banana. It can be difficult to think like a scientist. But few things make thinking like a scientist more difficult than religion.

Dr. Collins has written that science makes belief in God “intensely plausible” — the Big Bang, the fine-tuning of nature’s constants, the emergence of complex life, the effectiveness of mathematics, all suggest the existence of a “loving, logical and consistent” God.

But when challenged with alternative accounts of these phenomena — or with evidence that suggests that God might be unloving, illogical, inconsistent or, indeed, absent — Dr. Collins will say that God stands outside of Nature, and thus science cannot address the question of his existence at all.

Similarly, Dr. Collins insists that our moral intuitions attest to God’s existence, to his perfectly moral character and to his desire to have fellowship with every member of our species. But when our moral intuitions recoil at the casual destruction of innocents by, say, a tidal wave or earthquake, Dr. Collins assures us that our time-bound notions of good and evil can’t be trusted and that God’s will is a mystery.

Most scientists who study the human mind are convinced that minds are the products of brains, and brains are the products of evolution. Dr. Collins takes a different approach: he insists that at some moment in the development of our species God inserted crucial components — including an immortal soul, free will, the moral law, spiritual hunger, genuine altruism, etc.

As someone who believes that our understanding of human nature can be derived from neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science and behavioral economics, among others, I am troubled by Dr. Collins’s line of thinking. I also believe it would seriously undercut fields like neuroscience and our growing understanding of the human mind. If we must look to religion to explain our moral sense, what should we make of the deficits of moral reasoning associated with conditions like frontal lobe syndrome and psychopathy? Are these disorders best addressed by theology?

Dr. Collins has written that “science offers no answers to the most pressing questions of human existence” and that “the claims of atheistic materialism must be steadfastly resisted.”

One can only hope that these convictions will not affect his judgment at the institutes of health. After all, understanding human well-being at the level of the brain might very well offer some “answers to the most pressing questions of human existence” — questions like, Why do we suffer? Or, indeed, is it possible to love one’s neighbor as oneself? And wouldn’t any effort to explain human nature without reference to a soul, and to explain morality without reference to God, necessarily constitute “atheistic materialism”?

Francis Collins is an accomplished scientist and a man who is sincere in his beliefs. And that is precisely what makes me so uncomfortable about his nomination. Must we really entrust the future of biomedical research in the United States to a man who sincerely believes that a scientific understanding of human nature is impossible?

How To Save Health Care: Homeopathy

h/t PZ

Tuesday Cartoon Fun: Stem Cell Edition

Palin Is A "Young Earther"

Matt Damon gets his answer about whether or not Palin believes the earth is 6000 years old, and if humans and dinosaurs walked together. Guess what? She believes it! Whole thing from the LA Times.

Palin treads carefully between fundamentalist beliefs and public policy

Her faith views are strong and sometimes controversial. Her aides say she seeks to share but not impose her faith; her critics say she has 'a fine-tuned sense of how far to push.'
By Stephen Braun
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 28, 2008

ANCHORAGE — Soon after Sarah Palin was elected mayor of the foothill town of Wasilla, Alaska, she startled a local music teacher by insisting in casual conversation that men and dinosaurs coexisted on an Earth created 6,000 years ago -- about 65 million years after scientists say most dinosaurs became extinct -- the teacher said.

After conducting a college band and watching Palin deliver a commencement address to a small group of home-schooled students in June 1997, Wasilla resident Philip Munger said, he asked the young mayor about her religious beliefs.

Palin told him that "dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth at the same time," Munger said. When he asked her about prehistoric fossils and tracks dating back millions of years, Palin said "she had seen pictures of human footprints inside the tracks," recalled Munger, who teaches music at the University of Alaska in Anchorage and has regularly criticized Palin in recent years on his liberal political blog, called Progressive Alaska.

The idea of a "young Earth" -- that God created the Earth about 6,000 years ago, and dinosaurs and humans coexisted early on -- is a popular strain of creationism.

Though in her race for governor she called for faith-based "intelligent design" to be taught along with evolution in Alaska's schools, Gov. Palin has not sought to require it, state educators say.

As governor and in her formative role as mayor of Wasilla, Palin has trod carefully between her evangelical faith and public policy on issues such as abortion and library books. At times she has retreated when her moves have sparked controversy or proved politically impractical.

She has harnessed the political muscle of social conservatives and antiabortion groups, yet she did not push hard for a special legislative session on abortion, and she did not challenge a court ruling that allowed health insurance for same-sex partners of state workers.

Palin has attended a number of prayer sessions with pastors and has quietly sought their guidance, but she is often mum on matters of faith in high-profile public forums.

Her aides say Palin's caution at the intersection of religion and governance is a studied effort to share her beliefs without forcing them on Alaska.

"She's obviously an intensively religious person," said Bill McAllister, Palin's chief spokesman as governor. "She understands that she's the governor and not preacher in chief. Religion informs her decisions, but she is not out to impose her views on Alaska."

McAllister said that he never heard Palin make such remarks about dinosaurs and that Palin preferred not to discuss her views on evolution publicly.

"I've never had a conversation like that with her or been apprised of anything like that," McAllister said. He added that "the only bigotry that's still safe is against Christians who believe in their faith."

Palin's critics say she holds back from trying to codify her faith-based views when she senses it will cost her politically.

"She's got a fine-tuned sense of how far to push," said John Stein, who guided Palin into her political career before she toppled him as Wasilla's mayor.

'Moral majority'

Stein said Palin displayed only hints of her fundamentalist Assembly of God upbringing when he first backed her for a nonpartisan run for Wasilla City Council in the early 1990s. But in 1996, when Palin ousted Mayor Stein with the aid of pink-colored antiabortion mailers and busloads of Christian grass-roots activists, she grew more overt about her plans, he said.

She combined her staff meetings with prayer sessions, Stein said, and upset the town's chief librarian by asking what the process would be for banning books. According to Stein, bans were never carried out only because "the library director was horrified and stood up to her."

Geri McCann, who ran the town museum under Mayor Palin, counters: "Sarah brought it up because she knew there was a moral majority in Wasilla who needed their voices heard."

During an October 2006 debate in the Alaska governor's race, Palin urged that evolution and creationist ideas be taught together in state schools. "Don't be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides," she said.

But since taking office in December 2006, Palin has made no moves to impose the teaching of creationism or "intelligent design," the modern version of creationist thought, in Alaska schools.

"As far as teachers are concerned, we haven't seen any push," said Joan Sargent, a Fairbanks teacher who heads the Alaska Science Teachers Assn. Teachers already have the flexibility to introduce creationist views, as an addendum to the mainstream study of evolution, Sargent said.

'Political capital'

Palin is "still new at this game," said Democratic state Rep. Les Gara, whose colleagues also have gained leverage against Palin through a power-sharing arrangement with Palin rival Lyda Green, a Republican who is president of the state Senate.

In the 2006 governor's race, Palin was unequivocal in her opposition to abortion. In a questionnaire from the conservative Eagle Forum, she wrote: "I am pro-life," adding that she would agree to allow abortion only in medical cases where "the mother's life would end."

But Palin, who took office in December 2006, has not made Alaska a battleground on the issue.

When two bills emerged in the Alaska Legislature this year to restrict abortion -- one to require parental consent and the other to outlaw dilation-and-extraction procedures, called partial-birth abortion by opponents -- Palin said she was ready to sign them into law.

But both efforts were killed by Democrats. And when Green, who supported the measures, pressed for a special session to deal with abortion, Palin instead chose a special session to secure a natural gas pipeline project.

Antiabortion leaders said they understood Palin's delay on the issue because of other state concerns.

"She's a woman of integrity and we trust her," said Karen Lewis of Alaska Right to Life. "Sometimes you have to wait."

Palin also did not challenge an Alaska Supreme Court ruling that mandated health insurance benefits for same-sex partners. Instead she signed a nonbinding referendum that asked voters their opinion on the issue.

"She's been careful not to squander all her political capital on social conservative issues," said Allison Mendel, an attorney whose lawsuit led to the insurance ruling.

Pentecostal training

Palin has appeared at prayer sessions and church functions across Alaska and has turned to her childhood pastor and other religious leaders for guidance.

"She uses us as a sounding board," said the Rev. Paul Riley, who spent 30 years leading the Wasilla Assembly of God Church, where Palin worshiped until a few years ago. Riley said he and other pastors formed prayer circles around Palin in Anchorage at several "One Lord Sunday" events -- which bring together various churches -- and had offered prayers at similar events since she became governor.

In April, Palin told 500 people at an Assembly of God conference in the Anchorage Sheraton about the trials ahead in raising her youngest child, Trig. Born that month, he has Down syndrome.

"The whole group stood up and prayed beside her," Riley said. The pastors also prayed that Palin's efforts to win a major natural gas pipeline project would lead to a "blessing."

In one of her more controversial appearances in the Wasilla church, Palin told a group of ministry students in June to pray that sending troops to Iraq was part of "God's plan."

In a speech this month at a deployment ceremony for her Iraq-bound soldier son, Palin called the conflict a "righteous cause."

McAllister said Palin did not know that she was being taped when she made the Iraq war remarks at the church. And her practice of turning to local pastors for guidance and prayer is in line with the practices of other American political leaders, he said.

"It's nothing out of the ordinary," McAllister said. "Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan did it."

Palin grew up steeped in Pentecostalism at the Wasilla church, where she learned "memory verses" from the Bible as a young "Missionette" -- the church's equivalent of a Girl Scout.

Theron Horn, the church's youth pastor at the time and now a Minnesota businessman, often told Palin and her classmates that they could grow up to be anything -- including politicians. Horn said he "was just trying to get the kids to see their potential," but Riley said it was a turning point for Palin.

Worldviews

Palin was accustomed early on to the sight of churchgoers ecstatically declaring their faith by speaking in tongues -- a practice familiar to the more than 6 million Americans who are members of Pentecostal churches.

Neither Riley nor Tim McGraw, who took over as pastor when Riley retired in 1986, recalled seeing Palin taking part in the charismatic prayers.

But "whether she did or not doesn't matter," said McGraw, who now leads the Yosemite Christian Center in Madera, Calif. "We're not some sect on the fringe. This is a reputable denomination of Christianity."

Although she now worships in traditional fundamentalist churches in Wasilla and Juneau, Palin's formative years in Pentecostal churches have been a target for some bloggers and Democratic opponents. They point to controversial statements from some of her pastors about converting gays and Jews and to her own comments about the Iraq war.

"It's legitimate to ask questions about candidates who come from a fundamentalist environment with a black-and-white worldview, and want to know how it would affect their approach on all kinds of issues," said Paul S. Boyer, a retired University of Wisconsin history professor who has written about the role of religious prophecy on public policy.

But Douglas Wead, an author and former aide to President George H.W. Bush, argues that the campaign brush fires over Palin's religious background and pastors' statements ignores or trivializes the emergence of evangelical Christianity in the American mainstream.

"Are we saying they can't participate in public life?" Wead asked.

Obama vs. McCain on Science!

Check out a side-by-side comparison of answers to 14 top science questions posed to Barack Obama and John McCain here. It's worth a look.