On Friday in the Christian Perspectives in Science seminar at Calvin College I gave a little talk on theistic evolution. The idea was to get some feedback on the simple ideas that I'll present at a symposium at the North American Paleontological Convention (NAPC) in Cincinnati in June. The symposium is titled "The Nature of Science and Public Science Literacy" and it's part of Education and Public Outreach Day at the NAPC.

So is evolution a weapon of unbelief, empowering the dark forces of atheism in their assault on Christendom by air, land and sea? It's sure easy to hear the dogs of war howling in the background of the weird debate over whether the NCSE is biased toward belief. I don't have time to post my thoughts on that debate right now.

I think I stopped having this dream sometime when I was a postdoc. Or maybe I didn't shake free till I got a real job... Mine was always a language class, so everyone was jabbering away in Spanish or something, just to magnify the horror.

You may recall that I gave a very strong recommendation to a recent book (Nature's Witness: How Evolution Can Inspire Faith) by my friend and former pastor, Dr. Daniel Harrell of Park Street Church in Boston. David Opderbeck, at his blog Through a Glass Darkly, has been conversing with Daniel about the book and his ideas. The series has three parts so far (links below). And the rest of David's blog is worth some time as well.

It was a week of celebration and remembrance. There was a major birthday. And celebrations of that day of the first fruits of bigger things, in unlikely places like Florida and Arizona. It's all very exciting.

Today's Science Times, oddly enough, is devoted to articles on evolution and Darwin. Included is an essay by Carl Safina, "Darwinism Must Die So That Evolution May Live." Safina's basic point is that Darwinism as an -ism is a hindrance to scientific thought and – worse – a source of strength for intelligent design creationism. I think he's right about that.

Hello and welcome to the 28th edition of the genetics blog carnival known as Mendel's Garden, where we celebrate blogging on topics related to anything touching on what Mendel discovered (or thought he discovered). While reading these interesting and informative pieces, please think about work that should be featured in a future edition and/or blogs (like yours) that would serve well as future hosts. So do tomato seeds get you excited? No? Oh.

The 28th edition of Mendel's Garden, a genetics blog carnival, will appear here at Quintessence of Dust on Sunday. Please send submissions, whether you wrote them or not.

That's the name of our January term course, a trip to London and Edinburgh to learn about the Scottish Enlightenment and its relationship(s) to Christian belief. We'll be keeping a blog with pictures and reflections. So nothing on QoD till the end of the month. In the meantime, share Mike Beidler's several minutes of fame. Then maybe read up on experimentally-induced out-of-body experiences.

Mendel's Garden is a genetics blog carnival overseen by Rich over at evolgen. The new edition is up at Another Blasted Weblog and there's some excellent stuff in there, including some very Mendelian tidbits. Next month's edition will be right here at Quintessence of Dust.

Well, wow, for the second year now one of my posts has been selected for inclusion in the science blogging anthology, The Open Laboratory. Last year it was the teosinte review; this year the honor goes to the post on Darwin's tomatoes. This year's anthology includes 50 blog posts on various scientific topics, and it looks like an excellent collection.