Adnan Oktar, the Islamic creationist who writes under the pseudonym "Harun Yahya," was sentenced by a Turkish court to three years in prison for "creating an illegal organization for personal gain," according to a report from Reuters (May 9, 2008). The charges re ...

House Bill 923 was among the hundreds of bills that died in the Alabama legislature "because they did not pass in the house where they were introduced," the Associated Press (May 7, 2008) reports. The latest in a string of "acade ...

Writing in the Boston Globe (May 8, 2008), Kenneth R. Miller blasts the creationist propaganda film Expelled, writing, "American science is in trouble, and if you wonder why, just go to the movies. Popular cultu ...

The National Center for Science Education, a non-profit organization that defends the teaching of evolution in the public schools, seeks candidates for a position in its Public Information Project.

Staff members in the Public Information Project provide advice and support to local activists faced with threats to evolution education in ...

While legislatures focus on antievolution bills, a new video helps students see how evolution works

Oakland, California, May 6, 2008 -- As attacks on evolution education remain in the news, with proposed antievolution legislation in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, and Missouri in the headlines, a new video rebutting the ...

When the Florida legislature ended its session on May 2, 2008, legislative attempts to open the door to creationism died in the House of Representatives. Senate Bill 2692, as originally introduced, purported to protect the right of teachers to "objectively present scientific information relevant to the full range of scientific views regarding bi ...

Nathaniel Abraham's lawsuit against Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was dismissed on April 22, 2008. Contending that he was fired, in violation of his civil rights, for not accepting evolution, Abraham filed suit against the rese ...

House Bill 6027, introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives on April 30, 2008, and referred to the House Committee on Education, is the very latest so-called "academic freedom" bill aimed at undermining the teaching of evolution, joining similar bills currently under consider ...

House Bill 923, introduced in the Alabama House of Representatives by David Grimes (R-District 73) on April 24, 2008, and referred to the Education Policy Committee, is the latest in a string of "academic freedom" bills aimed at undermining the teaching of evolution. Previous such bills in ...

With drastically different House and Senate versions of what was once the same antievolution bill in the Florida state legislature, it remains uncertain whether antievolution forces will be able to devise a compromise bill to be sent to the governor before the legislature adjourns on May 2, 2008 -- especially with a host of other issues crowding ...

Senate Bill 733 (PDF), the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act, was unanimously passed by the Louisiana Senate on April 28, 2008. If enacted, the bill would call upon the state board of elementary and secondary education to "allow and assist" teachers and adm ...

At its April 24, 2008, meeting, the Texas Higher Education Coordination Board unanimously voted to deny the Institute for Creation Research's request for a state certificate of authority to offer a master's degree in science education through its graduate school, recently relocated to Texas, as the Houston Chronicle (April 24, 2 ...

Next entry looks at attacks on science education around the country

Oakland, California, April 23, 2008 -- "Teacher Expelled Over Religion," the first in a series of videos produced by the National Center for Science Education, is currently among the most-watched and most-discussed videos on YouTube. NCSE's brief video, fe ...

"A survey of science faculty at Texas colleges and universities reveals overwhelming opposition to state approval for a master's degree in science education from a Dallas-based creationist group," according to a press release issued by the Texas Freedom Network on April 21, ...

House Bill 1168 (PDF) was introduced in the Louisiana House of Representatives on April 21, 2008. Dubbed the "Louisiana Academic Freedom Act," HB 1168 is a counterpart of the original version of Senate Bill 561, which was passed, in amended form, by the Senate Educ ...

Senate Bill 561 -- originally called the "Louisiana Academic Freedom Act"; now renamed the "Louisiana Science Education Act" -- passed the Louisiana Senate Education Committee on April 17, 2008. As introduced, the bill contended that "the teaching of some scientific subjects, such as biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global war ...

NCSE's new website ExpelledExposed is experiencing high traffic and winning high praise. And no wonder: in addition to concise and reliable information on the mistaken and misleading claims of the creationist propaganda film Expelled, a discussion of the dishonest tactics of the movie' ...

www.ExpelledExposed.com finds new creationist "documentary" lacking accuracy on many levels

Oakland, California, April 15, 2008 -- Millions of dollars have been spent promoting Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed to fundamentalist church groups, but that money would have been better spent on fact checker ...

In a statement issued on April 11, 2008, the Geological Society of London denounced young-earth creationism, "creation science," and "intelligent design" as "a trespass upon the domain of science," and described the great age of the earth, the great age of life on ...

The antievolution bills -- the so-called Academic Freedom Acts -- in Florida are progressing, despite protests from teachers, scientists, and the Florida ACLU, and despite the criticisms of the legislature's own staff. On March 26, 2008, the Senate version of the bill, SB 2692, was passed by a 4-1 vote by the Senate Education Pre-K-12 Commit ...

On April 9, 2008, XVIVO, the animation company which produced an award-winning animation of "The Inner Life of the Cell," charged producers of a forthcoming "intelligent design" film with copyright infringement. In a letter to Logan Craft, chairman of Premise Media Corp., the producer of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (featuring Ben ...

The Darwin's Reach conference will examine the impact of Darwin and Darwinian evolution on science and society in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Robert Darwin and the sesquicentennial of the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. The central theme of this academic conference is an explora ...

Missouri's House Bill 2554, introduced on April 1, 2008, would, if enacted, call on state and local education administrators to "endeavor to create an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that encourages students to explore scientific q ...

Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, the NOVA documentary about Kitzmiller v. Dover, was among the recipients of the 67th Annual Peabody Awards, which "recognize distinguished achievement and meritorious public service by TV and radio stations, networks, producing organizations, individuals and the World Wide Web." Accord ...

The defendants in the ongoing case Association of Christian Schools International et al. v. Roman Stearns et al. won a legal victory when their motion for partial summary judgment was granted, and the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment was denied, in a March 28, 2008, ruling from Judge S. James Otero. The plaintiffs in the case ...

A day after the legislative session began in Louisiana, the sponsor of Senate Bill 561 was in the news, denying that the so-called academic freedom bill would pave the way for creationism to be taught in the state's public schools. According to the Baton Rouge Advocate (April 1, 2008), state senator Ben Nevers (D-District 12)

Kenneth R. Miller will be speaking on "God, Darwin, and Design: Lessons from the Dover Monkey Trial" at 7:00 p.m. (Central Time) on April 4, 2008, at the University of Texas, Austin -- and his talk will be webcast live, so people around the world can watch, and even submit ques ...

Senate Bill 561, styled the "Louisiana Academic Freedom Act," was prefiled in the Louisiana Senate by state senator Bill Nevers (D-District 12) on March 21, 2008, and provisionally assigned to the Senate Education Committee, of which Nevers is the chair. In name, the bill is similar to the so-called academic freedom bills in Florida, House Bill ...

NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott is to receive the UCSF Medal, the highest award of the University of California, San Francisco, on April 23, 2008. In a letter to Scott, the university's chancellor J. Michael Bishop wrote, "The award is offered in recognition of your distinguished advocacy on behalf of science in the public are ...

The antievolution bills recently introduced in the Florida legislature continue to elicit opposition. The bills closely resemble a string of similar bills in Alabama -- HB 391 and SB 336 in 2004; HB 352, SB 240, and HB 716 in 2005; HB 106 and SB 45 in 2006 -- as well as a model bill tha ...

The recipient of the 2008 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities was Michael Heller, a Polish cosmologist and Catholic priest, currently Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Krakow. John M. Templeton Jr., the chair of the John Templeton Foundation and the s ...

"Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Separation of Church and State ... but Were Afraid to Ask!" -- a national simulcast sponsored by First Freedom First, a joint project of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and The Interfaith Alliance Foundation -- is coming to theaters around the country on March 26, 2008. According to ...

NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott is to receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of New Mexico on May 17, 2008. In a letter to Scott, the university's president David J. Schmidly wrote, "This degree is a reflection of the high regard in which you are held and acknowledgement of the vast accomplishment ...

Malcolm McKenna, a retired curator of vertebrate paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History and a Supporter of NCSE, died on March 3, 2008, in Boulder, Colorado, according to the obituary in The New York Times (March 10, 2008). Born on July 21, 1930, in P ...

The second issue of Evolution: Education and Outreach -- the new journal aspiring to promote accurate understanding and comprehensive teaching of evolutionary theory for a wide audience -- is now available on-line. Featured are original scientific articles on such topics as evolu ...

In the March 4, 2008, primary election, Pat Hardy won the Republican nomination for the District 11 seat on the Texas state board of education, with 59% of the vote. A two-term veteran of the board, Hardy was challenged for the nomination by Barney Maddox, a urologist from Cleburne, Texas, who told the board in 2003 that the state standards were ...