Expelled

Creationists often accuse scientists of preventing those with dissenting opinions from being able to publish or hold positions in science departments etc. The movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed was exceptionally guilty of this, among several other classic creationist claims. Well it turns out that one of the main people in that film, William Dembski, was almost fired from his job for saying that the earth was 4.5 billion years old and the universe was ~14 billion. Dr. Michael Zimmerman has a good break down of the whole incident over at the HuffPo and his article is worth the read.

I find the whole incident mildly ironic. Accusing scientists of doing something and then doing the same thing yourself come on now. Also let me point out one thing if creationists were to submit papers that presented evidence that supported their claims then they might get published. The fact that they haven't yet is telling after all science is the search for the truth as to how the universe works if you present facts most scientists will tend to accept them, yes I know this is a little simplified.

Oh I'm sorry Dembski

So apparently William Dembski has a problem with a private organization doing something to help shine light on religion. It is a short post on the Uncommon Descent blog and you can find the post here.

The start of his post he says this:

You’ve got to wonder what an organization that touts itself for critical thinking is thinking when it sponsors a BLASPHEMY CONTEST:

I'll tell you what they were thinking they were thinking that they, the Center for Inquiry, a group of Atheists, Agnostics, and FREE THINKERS could hold a contest where people could...THINK. And that is the great thing about the US is that we are free to do that there are plenty of places in the world where this would not be allowed at all. So sure lets spread the word of this contest. Go ahead enter there are people around here in West Texas that could use a good bit of blasphemy and the opportunity will be given on September 30th when the Secular Student Society of Texas Tech University will be having a sell your soul for a cookie table. But I encourage all of you to enter this contest that includes you Bill

Since Darwin is their god, it would be interesting to submit to this contest true statements about Darwin’s less than divine attributes.

Although none of that would be novel since I am sure every supporter has heard them all before but good luck.