Opposing Views of Dawkins’s Impact on the Evolution-Creationism Debate

June 3, 2008 Religious Responses to Atheist Critiques of Religion, Darwinian Analyses of Society and Culture, Christian Fundamentalism and Evolution, Pragmatic Atheist Moderation, Quixotic Atheist Militancy, Atheist Critiques of Religion No Comments

Trinity College
JUST PUBLISHED

Secularism & Science in the 21st Century
Edited by Ariela Keysar and Barry A. Kosmin

This book may be downloaded free of charge.
Also available in paperback ($10).
Copyright © 2008 Ariela Keysar and Barry A. Kosmin

I. The Evolution-Creation Conflict

Chapter 1 Science Education and Religion in America in the 21st Century: Holding the Center (Jon D. Miller & Robert T. Pennock)

Chapter 2 The Creationist Attack on Science and Secular Society (Daniel G. Blackburn)

Chapter 3 Evolution Education and the Science-Religion Conflict: Dispatches from a Philosophical Correspondent (Austin Dacey)

Chapter 4 The Cultural Particularity of Conflict between “Religion” and “Science” in a Global Context (Frank L. Pasquale)

II. Teaching Science

Chapter 5 The Competing Influence of Secularism and Religion on Science Education in a Secular Society (William Cobern)

Chapter 6 Implementing Methodological Secularism: The Teaching and Practice of Science in Contentious Times (David E. Henderson)

Chapter 7 U.S. Public Education: A Battleground from the Ivory Tower to First Grade (Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi)

Chapter 8 Toward a Clear Frontier between Science and Religion in Education (Juan Antonio Aguilera Mochón)

III. Scientific Literacy and Public Policy

Chapter 9 Why Can’t Science Tell the truth? Scientific Literacy in a Postmodern World (Jeffrey Burkhardt)

Chapter 10 The Salience of Secular Values and Scientific Literacy for American Democracy (Barry A. Kosmin & Juhem Navarro-Rivera)

Chapter 11 High School Students’ Opinions about Science Education (Ariela Keysar & Frank L. Pasquale)

Amira Hass explains her leave of absence

June 3, 2008 Amira Hass No Comments

MuzzleWatch  on Ha’aretz rumors, June 2, 2008

Dear friends,

The rumors and and some inaccuracies concerning my work at Haaretz, and the general interest and manifested alarm - indeed require my comments. You two have asked me directly about those rumors. So here is my answer: 1. I am on an upaid sabbatical (since March 2008). It was my request to have this leave of absence. I needed it badly, after almost 15 years of covering the Israeli occupation from within (and for a great part of this time - working up to 15 - 18 hours per day). For long periods the work was done in the stressful circumstances of military invasions, bombings and shellings, standing in front of tanks or edgy armed soldiers, curfews, strict closures, PA mainfested malcontent with any critical reporting etc. No less stressful has been life in the orwelian theater of a “peace process” - trying - usually in vain - to make the readers and my compatriots aware of the deception and the explosiveness of the situation. 2. In November 2007 i was told by Haaretz that my contract and terms of employment should be changed as i had been writing too little over the past year.

Ha’aretz editor explains changes

June 3, 2008 Amira Hass, Gideon Levy, Israeli-Palestinian conflict No Comments

MuzzleWatch on Ha’aretz rumors, June 3, 2008

Dear Dr Raymond Leicht and Ronit Beck,

Thank you for your letter. I’ve received five similar letters today. Some of the writers noted with concern that an aggressive campaign is being conducted against the paper based on false information. It may be the case that the disinformation is being spread out by extreme right-wing circles or perhaps it is based on a simple misunderstanding.
The substantive point is that, as part of the printed media crisis, five reporters and editors are leaving the paper in consequence of the elimination of the ‘B’ section of the paper. For the record, at least two of these hold opposite views to Meron Rapoport who is mentioned in your letter. He is indeed a talented writer, but he has been working for us for only three years, since he was sacked by Yediot Acharonot. Newspapers are trying to survive and they have two choices - increase their circulation or cut down on editorial costs. The New York Times has recently sacked 7 per cent of its reporting staff (presumably some of these would have been identified as being on the Left). Closer to home, Ma’ariv has announced that it would be cutting down its stuff by 10 per cent in the course of this year. I hope that our path will take the opposite direction, that we will succeed in convincing more people to join our readers circle. Obviously, cancellation of subscriptions will have the opposite affect and force us into further cutbacks.