Readings and Articles
For this module, please read the following online sources. I suggest you print them out for easier reading:
A fake "photoshopped" billboard promotes the Unicorn Museum, a parody of the Creation Museum in Kentucky run by U. Calif. Davis' Science Program.
The parody makes light of the fact that versions of the Bible mention Unicorns, but never Dinosaurs, yet the Creation Museum contains dinosaurs but no unicorns. The fake museum wants to place real billboards on I-275 in Indiana and Kentucky near the Creation Museum, and has finally given a voice to the Unicorn minority (UC Davis). - Read "The Nature of Science and the Scientific Method." (Page 7) We’re going to continue reading this article, this time focusing only on page 7, “Talking Points.” Please read these as they will be covered in the Module. Cite as (MLA): McLelland, Christine V., “The Nature of Science and the Scientific Method,” The Geological Society of America, August 2006. Web. (Your date of access.)
- Read the online article Devolution:Why Intelligent Design Isn't in the New Yorker. (5 pages) The article explains the lack of progress by scientists looking for any evidence of intelligent design. Cite as (MLA): Orr, Allen H. “Devolution: Why intelligent design isn’t.” The New Yorker May 2005. Web. (Your date of access.)
- Listen (using a media player) to a news story on the science behind confined animal feedlots in North Carolina: “Pigs and Politics”. (12 minutes and 5 seconds) This story documents four scientific studies on the problem. Please wait to listen/read this story until it comes up in the module.
- Note the many links in this Module and the “Additional resources” below. Unless listed above, the links in the module are not required readings; however, you should look to these sources of information as possible sources for your Short Essay assignment over the Scientific Method.
Additional resources you may check out:
(These are optional resources, not required content for exams, quizzes, or homework.)
- Read the online article Creationism’s Geologic Time Scale. The purpose of this article is to give you a sense of the immense amount of scientific evidence that contradicts any scientific basis for creationism. Yes, this is a long document, but it summarizes a lot of key issues surrounding using science to support religious ideals
- Visit the website of the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences: CTNS is an international non-profit organization dedicated to research, teaching and public service. With regard to the theological task, CTNS engages in both Christian and multi-religious reflection. As the founder and director states, “Nor can we allow science and religion to be seen as adversaries, for they will be locked in a conflict of mutual conquest, such as "creation science" which costs religion its credibility or "scientific materialism" which costs science its innocence.”
- Visit the website of the National Center for Science Education: NCSE is a non-profit member funded organization that works to promote and support the teaching of science in schools. It is a nationally-recognized clearinghouse for information and advice to keep evolution in the science classroom and "scientific creationism" out.
- Read Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction by Gary B. Ferngren. This volume consists of 30 articles, all taken from the 103-article The History of Science and Religion: An Encyclopedia.
- Visit the Science, Faith, and Politics library of the PBS series Evolution