NZ Skeptics Articles

Articles tagged with "darwin"

Darwin Day

13 February 2023

It's 12th February as I write this. Happy Darwin Day! (And, a day before my birthday)

Saying goodbye

30 January 2023

This past week has been quite sad for me. We had to say goodbye to our dog Darwin. I hope you'll indulge me in some reflections on the experience.

Darwin Day events

1 February 2009

In honour of the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his dangerous idea.

Lamarck's ghost rises again

1 February 2007

Attacks on Darwinian evolutionary theory have come from within the scientific community as well as from creationists. Much of this is the normal process of scientific scrutiny, but some bear all the hallmarks of pseudoscience.

Forum

1 November 2006

Jim Ring's article, Lamarck's ghost rises again (NZ Skeptic 80) does an excellent job in laying Lamarck's ghost, and its recent revival, but it is bitterly unfair to Darwin and to one of the fundamental concepts of evolution when he attacks group selection and sociobiology. He is also wrong when he claims that social behaviour does not influence genetics.

A very merry unbirthday

1 May 2006

"There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents and only one for birthday presents, you know."

Correspondence

1 August 2005

Occasionally, the Skeptics get correspondence from the general public. Chair-entity Vicki Hyde responds to two such inquiries.

Forum

1 August 2005

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 'significant development'. Lest you jump to the conclusion that the authors, journal and university have acknowledged their serious error and have retracted the paper, be at once disabused. The significance of these developments, to my mind, is their minuscule and peripheral nature; nothing has really changed. One could reasonably grant a significant development to Wirth; he pleaded guilty to a 46-page indictment and is in jail for five years. Concerning the 'lead' author, Lobo, the journal later printed, at the bottom of the back page, an Erratum, that this name had been included 'in error'. Young researchers often complain that senior colleagues insist on their names appearing on papers unjustifiably. In the topsy-turvy world of this journal, people find their names put unknowingly on papers they have had nothing to do with!

Another Year goes By...

1 November 2003

It's been another busy year, mostly working behind the scenes, with the occasional burst into the public arena.

Chair-entity'’s Report 2002

1 November 2002

The year got off to a good start with a series of successful meetings run by our Auckland colleagues in conjunction with the Rationalists, and I thank those involved for their efforts. I'd also like to thank Claire le Couteur and others who, in conjunction with Philip Catton of the Canterbury Society for the History and Philosophy of Science, organised a local Darwin Day celebration at short notice. That was on February 12, and was our first participation in an international effort which should see us mark the occasion each year, culminating in 2009 with the 150th celebration of the publication of Origin of Species.

The Darwin (Which?) Project

1 May 2000

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 search of an answer, I asked three amateur psychics to contact Darwin and to film the encounter. Well, these three psychics took my large cash advance and disappeared, never to be heard from again. Their videotapes were found several days later. Here, for the first time, are the transcripts of their tapes, which are soon to be released in a major motion picture coming to a theater near you.

A Creationist Fable

1 August 1991

In August 1989, the Christchurch Press published two articles from The Economist which were highly critical of "scientific" creationists and their "discipline". The articles sparked a correspondence under the heading "Evolution", which attained Guinness Record proportions — 118 letters, involving 52 correspondents over 86 days.