Charter schools open door for creationism Government plans to establish charter schools look like providing a way for creationists to get their teachings into New Zealand's classrooms (Dominion Post, ... (1220 words)

Creationism is not a new problem in New Zealand schools, as this article excerpt from NZ Skeptic 18 (December 1990) illustrates. A report of a survey conducted in 1988 In order to ascertain to what ... (426 words)

Alison Campbell finds the creationists are still trying to get into our schools. A friend of mine, who happens to be a biology teacher, recently forwarded me an email. Quite apart from the fact that ... (647 words)

Fault is with Creationism Bernard Beckett (Skeptic 95 , p8) says the ability of Creationism to make the same predictions as evolutionary psychology shows that the latter is not a scientific process. ... (145 words)

When creationists try to harmonise their worldview with certain inescapable facts of geology, the result is chaos. Recently I had forwarded to me a document bearing the title Debunking Evolution: ... (2256 words)

At last year's NZ Skeptics conference Bob Brockie reflected on his career as a newspaper columnist and explained why he has no future with the Mormon Church. After spending most of my life as a ... (2073 words)

When Richard Dawkins made a flying visit to New Zealand in March he attracted people from all over the country - including three from this household. Tickets to all events were quickly snapped up, ... (441 words)

Chiropractic argument 'spurious' In his previous Hokum Locum column (NZ Skeptic 90) John Welch commented on an article on Chiropractic that appeared in the Marlborough Express on 22 August 2008. This ... (859 words)

Mike Palin queries the judging criteria in a recent high school science video competition. A blatant anti-evolution DVD has been "commended" by the Royal Society of New Zealand ... (415 words)

Ian Wishart is one of New Zealand's more prominent creationists. In a recent book he takes on evolutionary biology, a task for which he seems ill-equipped. In his latest book, Eve's Bite (2007), ... (1878 words)

Creationist Museum up and running After years of planning and fund-raising among the faithful, the Creation Museum has finally opened in Kentucky (Los Angeles Times, May 31). The 5600 square metre ... (1272 words)

Jim Ring finds some material to pass the time on a recent flight. Queensland is the home of young-earth creationism in Australia so it was perhaps not surprising that I found Creation Magazine for ... (686 words)

Demands for equal time cut both ways. Armies of the night, science-writer and novelist Isaac Asimov once called them. He was referring to the countless millions of evangelicals who believe the book ... (790 words)

Efficacy of Prayer - an update Since I wrote my piece (NZ Skeptic 75) based on Bruce Flamm's article in Skeptical Inquirer concerning a research paper on the efficacy of prayer, Dr Flamm has reported ... (1164 words)

Answering Answers in Genesis The young earth creationists have been active again ... the Australian-based group Answers in Genesis (AIG), has been doing the circuit in New Zealand. Warnings on the ... (1212 words)

In New Zealand Skeptic No. 64, Warwick Don critiqued Ian Wishart's article Walking with Beasts, published in Investigate, June 2002. This is Wishart's response. Having just read Warwick Don's ... (1034 words)

In this issue Ian Wishart responds to Warwick Don's critique of his article on Intelligent Design. I deny any fudging on the use of the word "creationist". I make a clear distinction between ... (607 words)

Skeptics - always in two minds about something… You may recall I mentioned in the last issue of the NZ Skeptic that we were surveying members to see if we were all still on roughly the same ... (1926 words)

A critique of "Walking with Beasts", by Ian Wishart, Investigate Magazine, June 2002 A Prominent English state school, Emmanuel City Technological College, has recently decided to include creationism ... (2215 words)

Vicki Hyde reports from the 4th World Skeptics Conference I knew Someone was smiling on me - there I was going to be stuck in Los Angeles for three days waiting for a flight back across the Pacific - ... (1567 words)

Hamilton is a progressive place where the difficult issues are tackled. Rather than being a cow town (we're not! we're not!), we sit around of a Friday evening and debate the Big Questions. We had a ... (446 words)

Netsurfer Science is a website every skeptic should bookmark. It provides a good lead-in to many science and skeptic-related sites and issues on the web. Here are a couple of recent items. Howling at ... (450 words)

The old creationist claim that there are no transitional forms in the fossil record is starting to look a bit tired A perennial contention of creationists opposed to evolution is that transitions or ... (1486 words)

Presenting the evidence just isn't enough Bill Peddie In his book Unpopular Essays, Bertrand Russell claims that although he was fully aware of the notion that the human is a rational animal, despite ... (2965 words)

Wherein intrepid ace reporter Vicki Hyde spills the beans on what Skeptics get up to at their annual meetings… Perhaps Someone was trying to tell us something - why else would we end up with a ... (1426 words)

A screenplay by Lloyd Fricker The recent decision by the Kansas (U.S.A.) Board of Education to discourage the teaching of evolution in public schools raised the question "what would Darwin think"? In ... (1478 words)

Three sketpics go head to head with a creationist lecturer. When the call went out on the Skeptics' mailing list for people to take part in a debate against Australian creationist John Mackay, I ... (841 words)

A close encounter with a travelling Arkeologist. New Zealand was recently treated to a visit by what was proclaimed as "probably the best known archaeologist in the world", a chap by the name of Ron ... (810 words)

John Riddell finds some creationist claims really are testable, unfortunately for them. A FEW weeks ago a couple of Jehovah's Witness walked down my drive and told me if I wanted to live forever I ... (830 words)

IN THE beginning (specifically on October 23, 4004 B.C., at noon) out of quantum foam fluctuation God created the Big Bang out of inflationary cosmology. He saw that the Big Bang was very big, too ... (753 words)

Creationist Tactics I am sure Jim Ring is correct when he says we are on the winning side of the creationist battle [Forum, Summer 1997], but there is no room for complacency. As he says, the ... (1298 words)

Creationism Again Ten or twenty years ago, prominent overseas creationists once toured in a blaze of publicity. They spoke in public schools and received plenty of air time on National Radio and ... (464 words)

IN THE United States, creationists have long waged a strong political campaign to have their ideas recognised by the courts and the educational authorities. But in this part of the world, it seems, ... (647 words)

AS MOST readers will now be aware, the Ian Plimer/Allen Roberts court case has been adjudicated, and the results for Ian were not as he had hoped. The case was brought under federal Trade Practices ... (1367 words)

NZCSIOP does not take a stand against religious belief, per se, and many Christians are committed Skeptics. While Mr van der Lingen's essay may appear to contradict this stance, he is not arguing ... (1915 words)

Malcolm Carr, from Waikato University's Centre For Science, Mathematics & Technology Education Research, talks to Annette Taylor about the nature of science education and the new science ... (1036 words)

_The Mysterious Origins of Man showed earlier this year on TV3 as a "documentary". It is likely to be a contender for this year's Bent Spoon Award. The following article is excerpted from a piece by ... (1603 words)

Australian creationist Peter Sparrow toured New Zealand recently. Peter Sparrow is a black-bearded, bespectacled, bear of a man. He is cheery, articulate, and an excellent spokesman for the Creation ... (1476 words)

We need to immunise ourselves against this virus too. Abridged by Owen McShane from Creationism: Why the Controversy by Brian Henderson "Scientific" creationism claims to have every bit as much ... (671 words)

Yes, Rhesus Monkey (Tune: "Yes, Jesus Loves Me") Rhesus monkey, this I know, that the Bible Belt must go. Trusting to authority must give way to "test and see". Yes, rhesus monkey, Yes, rhesus ... (133 words)

Peter Lange mentions in his review a common creationist claim -- the lack of intermediate fossil forms. Someone whose name I've lost, recently wrote the following on sci.skeptic about the subject: We ... (214 words)

The Facts of Life: Shattering the Myths of Darwinism, by Richard Milton; Transworld Publishers; $15.95 Richard Milton has written this book as a "hang on a minute" reservation about Darwinism and its ... (707 words)

Creationists are winning hands-down in the publicity stakes, despite, one presumes, no real assistance in the form of Divine Guidance. Volumes of perceptive articles by competent scientists and ... (1047 words)