Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Petition to remove Answers in Genesis, Creation Ministries International, Institute for Creation Research from Google Scholar

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.


Unfortunately, they are also listing the works of AIG, CMI, and ICR as valid sources for students to find information. These groups don't qualify as scholarly sources as they are not interested in facts or truth, but pushing their own biased view that anything that contradicts the bible must be wrong. 


Each group has the following statement in their 'About Us - Statement of Faith': "By definition, no apparent, perceived or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the scriptural record." or something very similar. Clearly this is a license to lie and / or deny evidence that doesn't support their view. 


The National Center for Science Education collected over 800 signatures from scientists in the three states closest to the museum (Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio) on the following statement:


"We, the undersigned scientists at universities and colleges in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana, are concerned about scientifically inaccurate materials at the Answers in Genesis museum. Students who accept this material as scientifically valid are unlikely to succeed in science courses at the college level. These students will need remedial instruction in the nature of science, as well as in the specific areas of science misrepresented by Answers in Genesis."
Fortunately, there is a petition to ask Google to remove these sites from Google Scholar. I encourage you to sign this petition if you agree that these sites should be removed. Go here to sign the petition: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/42229.html