Choosing education over indoctrination.

NCSE's Disinformation Campaign Aside, Mississippi Bill Is an Opportunity for Educational Excellence
Sarah Chaffee February 11, 2016 11:05 AM


After the filing of an academic freedom bill in Mississippi, HB 50, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger published a piece featuring some common misconceptions. And predictably, the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), the nation's top Darwin lobby group, claimed the bill is "anti-science." Permit me to alleviate concerns and clarify the nature of the legislation.

It's always helpful to read what a bill actually says. This one states, "[T]eachers shall be permitted to help students understand, analyze, critique and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught..."

So, first of all, the bill only authorizes teachers to present scientific information regarding controversial theories. Areas outside of scientific strengths and weaknesses are outside of the legislation, which consequently would not protect instructors who teach about such matters.

Yet the NCSE claims:

House Bill 50, introduced in the Mississippi House of Representatives and referred to the House Education Committee on February 8, 2016, would, if enacted, allow science teachers with idiosyncratic opinions to teach anything they pleased -- and prohibit responsible educational authorities from intervening.

That is flatly false. NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch echoed the fiction, telling the Clarion Ledger, "There's no reason a teacher couldn't say that women or blacks are inferior, or ... that the Earth was flat or the sun goes around the Earth, and then couldn't be shut down by the administration."

What? Is Branch saying he thinks that, in 2016, racism, sexism, and geocentrism count as "scientific" ideas? Because that's the only way they could conceivably be protected under the language of the bill. Last time I checked, there were no scientific articles being published in mainstream peer-reviewed journals critical of "round-earth theory" -- but there is indeed mainstream criticism of classic Darwinian theory.

For information on the scientific weaknesses in modern evolutionary science, see Casey Luskin's accounts of uncertainty in origins science and controversy over evolution. And check out the Scientific Dissent from Darwinism list (with more than 900 PhD signers).

There also seems to be some confusion about whether the bill would allow teachers to discuss creationism or religious beliefs. The answer is no. Public schools cannot legally teach creationism. The Supreme Court has long held that it is unconstitutional to teach religion in the classroom and that creationism is a religious belief (Edwards v. Aguillard). Remember, the bill only authorizes "the teaching of scientific information and shall not be construed to promote any religious or nonreligious doctrine."

I don't see how that could be clearer. Promoting a religious idea such as creationism is not protected under this law. As Casey Luskin has pointed out: "If you're teaching religion, then you're not protected by an academic freedom bill. Since creationism has been ruled a religious belief by the Supreme Court, teachers who teach it would not be protected."

Neither does the bill authorize teachers to introduce intelligent design. First of all, teaching the strengths and weaknesses of neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory is not the same as teaching about ID. Perhaps more importantly, the bill only permits the teaching of scientific strengths and weaknesses of theories that are "covered in the course being taught within the curriculum framework developed by the State Board of Education." Since intelligent design is not part of the curriculum anywhere in Mississippi, it would not be protected by the bill (indeed, we oppose pushing intelligent design into public school classrooms).

It's shame that a group like the NCSE enjoys such success in spreading misinformation. Mississippi's legislation would advance quality science education in the state. In a joint issue on the theme of reform in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education, Nature and Scientific American noted, "[S]tudents gain a much deeper understanding of science when they actively grapple with questions than when they passively listen to answers."


Make no mistake, Mississippi's HB 50 is not "anti-science" as the NCSE claims. This academic freedom legislation would do a service to educational excellence in science. It does a disservice to students, and to the facts, to say otherwise.

Darwinism takes it on the chin yet again.

On the Origin of Chins
Ann Gauger February 11, 2016 3:48 AM

ere's an evolutionary puzzle I had never thought about. Why do we have chins?

That bony protuberance at the end of your jaw may be hidden by a beard or a fleshy throat, but it is still there. Chimpanzees don't have chins, neither do gorillas, orangutans, spider monkeys, dogs, horses, frogs, or fish. Did you know that only humans have chins? I didn't, but then I never studied vertebrate anatomy. It seems that having a chin is diagnostic of being a modern human. Even Neanderthals may have lacked chins, though this is a matter of dispute.

So the question of the origin of chins quite naturally arises. It turns out that a number of scientists have thought about it. Writing in the journal Evolutionary Anthropology, James Pampush and David Daegling discuss all the ways researchers have tried to come up with an explanation for why we have chins. The article is tellingly titled, "The Enduring Puzzle of the Human Chin."

The story has caught the attention of science journalists. The funniest is Ed Yong over at The Atlantic. Unfortunately he has taken all the chin jokes that I can think of. Melissa Hogenboom also wrote a piece for BBC Earth.

All those scientists cannot find a good evolutionary answer to the question. A chin doesn't make our jaws stronger for chewing. Or for taking punches -- that's another theory. It doesn't aid with speech. It isn't involved with sexual selection since both males and females have chins (thank goodness). It doesn't open up our airways.

It isn't the result of living in groups and needing to reduce testosterone. That's right -- the hypothesis is that less testosterone allows us to live in social groups. It's called self-domestication. Reduced testosterone pulls back the mid face and exposes the chin, so the theory goes. Except that men have higher levels of testosterone than females and have larger chins, not smaller ones.

The last hypothesis: having a chin is a spandrel -- a side effect of another adaptive change. The idea is that when we started eating soft food our jaws became weaker. The top part -- the maxilla -- shrank, and the teeth moved accordingly, but the mandible didn't shrink proportionately, and voilá, we have a chin! The trouble with this story is just that. It's a story, with no way of testing it. Well, there were some animal experiments, unpleasant ones, but those yielded no conclusive evidence.

The authors conclude:

Each of the proposals we have discussed falter either empirically or theoretically; some fail, to a degree, on both accounts... This should serve as motivation, not discouragement, for researchers to continue investigating this modern human peculiarity... perhaps understanding the chin will reveal some unexpected insight into what it means to be human.

Perhaps it does reveal something important about being human. Perhaps no adaptive explanation for chins exists, because they aren't adaptations -- they arise from aesthetic considerations. Without a chin there would be no delicate curve of the neck in Swan Lake, no graceful oval shape to the face, no balance or proportion in portraits. It's not just that we are used to chins. We respond to proportion in all things, be it architecture, landscapes, or the spiral petals of a rose. The chin balances the face.


Now I've gone all serious when all I intended was light-hearted comments on looking for adaptations in all the wrong places. Chin up. I'm done.