Rationally Speaking #11 - Guest Eugenie Scott on the Status of the Creationism and ID Wars
Rationally Speaking Podcast
New York City Skeptics
4.6 • 787 Ratings
🗓️ 20 June 2010
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Our special guest this episode is Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, the premiere organization fighting for sound scientific educational standards in this country, and a permanent thorn in the ass of creationists and IDers nationwide.
Genie updates us on the status of the ID and creationist wars, as well as other issues related to the intrusion of religion in science education. We also recount how, in what may be a very rare event, Genie made Massimo change his mind about something!
Genie is a physical anthropologist by training, and enjoyed an academic career at the University of Kentucky, University of Colorado and California State, before devoting her efforts full time to a constant front-line fight against irrationalism. For this she has been rewarded not just with six honorary degrees (at last count), but also with the first Stephen Jay Gould prize from the Society for the Study of Evolution, and most recently with the prestigious National Academy of Science Public Welfare Medal. She has also authored the excellent Evolution vs Creationism and co-edited (with Glenn Branch) Not in Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design Is Wrong for Our Schools.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Rationally speaking is a presentation of New York City skeptics dedicated to promoting critical thinking, skeptical inquiry, and science education. |
| 0:22.6 | For more information, please visit us at NYCCEptics.org. |
| 0:35.2 | Welcome to Rationally Speaking, the podcast where we explore the borderlands between reason and nonsense. |
| 0:41.1 | I am your host, Massimo Pilducci, and with me, as always, is my co-host Julia Gileff. |
| 0:46.7 | Julia, what are we going to talk about today? |
| 0:49.1 | Well, today we have a special guest joining us by Skype. |
| 0:52.5 | Eugenie Scott is the executive director of the National Center for Science Education, |
| 0:57.1 | the premier organization fighting for sound scientific educational standards in the U.S. |
| 1:02.0 | Before joining the NCSE, she was a physical anthropologist at the University of Kentucky, |
| 1:08.2 | University of Colorado, and California State. |
| 1:10.6 | For her gentle but |
| 1:11.7 | tireless promotion of evolutionary theory and the scientific method, she is referred to herself |
| 1:16.2 | as Darwin's Golden Retriever, which is the name that I love. And she is also apparently |
| 1:21.0 | one of the few people who has caused Massimo to change his mind about something. Welcome, Eugenie. |
| 1:25.1 | How do you know it was few people? But anyway, welcome |
| 1:27.5 | Jeannie. Thank you. It's great to be here. So maybe we should explain this dog thing. |
| 1:33.3 | You know, this is obviously a reference to Huxley, who was famously known as Darwin's Bulldog. |
| 1:39.6 | Right. And then more recently, an intelligent design proponent, I forgot his name, |
| 1:44.3 | in the pages of philosophy now referred to Dawkins as Darwin's Rottweiler. |
| 1:49.9 | Actually, we've got a home menagerie here. |
| 1:52.1 | Even before that, and I think actually a more appropriate canine reference, |
| 2:00.3 | and I don't remember who it was, but was one of the British |
... |
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