Chris Comer, the Director of Science at the Texas Education Agency (TEA) who was forced to resign over a dispute involving intelligent design, has filed suit in Federal District Court for redress. Comer seeks  

• a declaratory judgment that the TEA policy of being "neutral" on the subject of creationism violates the Establishment Clause; ...

Louisiana's Governor Bobby Jindal signed Senate Bill 733 (PDF) into law, 27 years after the state passed its Balance Treatment for Evolution-Science and Creation-Science Act, a law overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987. Jindal's approval of the bill ...

The pro-"intelligent design" movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, starring Ben Stein, opened June 27, 2008 in theaters across Canada. The opening is significantly smaller than the movie's April debut in the United States, with only 36 theaters in 7 provinces showing the movie, according to Expelled's

The Mount Vernon City School District Board of Education unanimously voted at its June 20, 2008, meeting to begin proceedings to terminate the employment of John Freshwater, a middle school science teacher in the district. "Freshwater preached his Christian beliefs about how the world began, discredited evolution and didn't teach the require ...

Selected content from volume 27, numbers 3-4, of Reports of the National Center for Science Education is now available on NCSE's website, featuring Joe Felsenstein's "Has Natural Selection Been Refuted? The Arguments of William Dembski." Felsenstein concludes, "Dembsk ...

The New York Times, in a June 21, 2008, editorial, urged Governor Bobby Jindal to veto Louisiana's Senate Bill 733, a bill that would, if enacted, in effect open the door for creationism to be taught in public school science classes. According to the editorial, "it ...

A complaint filed in federal court on June 13, 2008, accuses John Freshwater, a Mount Vernon, Ohio, teacher, of inappropriately bringing his religion into school -- including by posting posters with the Ten Commandments and Bible verses in his classroom, branding crosses into the arms of his students with a high-voltage electrical device, and te ...

Louisiana creationism bill is on Governor's desk

On June 16, 2008, the Louisiana Senate approved Senate Bill 733 as amended by the state House of Representatives. If Governor Bobby Jindal signs the bill or does not veto the bill within 20 days, it will become law.

Will Sentell of The (Baton Rouge) Advocate < ...

The Louisiana Coalition for Science released an open letter to Governor Bobby Jindal on June 16, 2008 calling for the Governor to veto SB 733, a creationist bill recently passed by the state legislature. The press release announcing the open lett ...

On June 11, 2008, with less than two weeks left in the legislative calendar, the Louisiana House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 733, a bill which opens the door to creationism in public school science classes. The bill, sponsored in the House by Rep. Frank ...

In the wake of the June 4, 2008, report in The New York Times on the impending struggle over the presence of "strengths and weaknesses" language in the Texas state science standards, the Times addressed the issue editorially, writing (June 7, 2008), "The Texas ...

Senate Bill 1361, introduced in the Michigan Senate on June 3, 2008, and referred to the Senate Committee on Education, is yet another "academic freedom" bill aimed at undermining the teaching of evolution. Identical to House Bill 6027, which is still in the House Committee on Educati ...

When the South Carolina legislature adjourned on June 5, 2008, Senate Bill 1386 died in committee. If enacted, the bill would have amended the state's education code to provide: "The State Board of Education, superintendents of public school districts, and public scho ...

"A battle looms in Texas over science textbooks that teach evolution," Laura Beil reports in the June 4, 2008, issue of The New York Times, "and the wrestle for control seizes on three words. None of them are 'creationism' or 'intelligent design' or even ...

Due to last-minute cancellations, there is a spot (and possibly two spots) open on NCSE's 2008 Grand Canyon excursion -- as featured in The New York Times (October 6, 2005). From July ...

Beginning with the molecular origins of life and culminating with the latest findings on human evolution, eighteen of the world's leading experts reported on research spanning three billion years of evolution at a two-day symposium at Rockefeller University on May 1 and 2, 2008. And now videos from the "From RNA to Humans" symposium are

NCSE congratulates the winners of Alliance for Science's second essay contest, announced on May 17, 2008. Alliance for Science -- a non-profit organization which seeks "to heighten public understanding and support for science and to preserve the distinctions between science and religion in the ...

On May 21, 2008, Senate Bill 733 (PDF), the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act, was unanimously passed by the Louisiana House Education Committee. Before passage, the bill was amended slightly from the form which passed the Senate on April 29, 2008, as pre ...

A noteworthy new paper reports on a national survey of high school biology teachers concerning the teaching of evolution. According to Michael B. Berkman, Julianna Sandell Pacheco, and Eric Plutzer's "Evolution and Creationism in America ...

At its General Conference held in Fort Worth, Texas, from April 22 to May 2, 2008, the United Methodist Church adopted three resolutions relevant to the teaching of evolution in the public schools. First, and most directly concerned with education, the UMC expressed its opposition to "the introduction of any faith-based theories such as Creation ...

A nonprofit's archives track the rise and fall of attacks on evolution

Oakland, California, May 20, 2008 Ñ Evolution's opponents have taken another round of losses recently, with the failures of the creationist propaganda movie Expelled, a creationist bid to grant science education degrees in Texas, and antievoluti ...

When the Missouri legislative session ended on May 16, 2008, House Bill 2554 died, although it was passed by the House Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education on April 30, 2008. If enacted, the bill would have called on state and local education administ ...

Senate Bill 1386, introduced in the South Carolina Senate on May 15, 2008, and referred to the Senate Committee on Education, is the newest so-called "academic freedom" bill aimed at undermining the teaching of evolution, joining similar bills currently under consideratio ...

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 ...