- TalkOrigins Archive
The TalkOrigins Archive is a
website that presents mainstream science perspectives on the antievolution claims of young-earth, old-earth, and "intelligent design" creationists. With sections onevolution ,creationism , andhominid evolution, the web site provides broad coverage of evolutionary biology and the socio-political antievolution movement.Origins and history
The TalkOrigins Archive began in 1994 when
Brett J. Vickers collected several separately postedFAQ s from thetalk.origins newsgroup and made them conveniently available from a single anonymous FTP site. In 1995, Vickers created the TalkOrigins Archive web site. Vickers, then a computer science graduate student at the University of California at Irvine, produced a distinctive, spare "look" for the web site. Certaincreationist web sites have utilized elements of the style Vickers established. Vickers established an easily browsed site, coded a feedback system, and handled all the updates to the Archive from 1995 to 2001.In 2001, Vickers transferred the TalkOrigins Archive to
Wesley R. Elsberry , since Vickers's work demanded much of his attention, leaving little time to maintain the web site. Elsberry organized a group of volunteers to handle the maintenance of the Archive, now including Troy Britain, Reed Cartwright, Mike Dunford, Kenneth Fair, David Iain Greig, Mike Hopkins, David Horn, Kathleen Hunt, Mark Isaak, Adam Marczyk, Larry A. Moran, Ross Myers, Steven Pirie-Shepherd, Douglas Theobald, Brett Vickers, and John Wilkins.In 2004, Kenneth Fair incorporated the
TalkOrigins Foundation as a Texas501(c)(3) non-profit organization. [cite web|title=The TalkOrigins Foundation|url=http://www.talkorigins.org/foundation/index.html|accessdate=2007-05-08] The Foundation's purposes include funding and maintaining the TalkOrigins Archive and holding copyrights to Archive articles, thereby simplifying the process of reprinting and updating those articles. Thecopyright issue has posed a particular problem since the FAQs started off as a small collection with little thought given to copyright but have since mushroomed. In 2005, the Foundation was granted tax-exempt status by theIRS . [cite web|title=IRS Letter announcing 501(c)(3) status|url=http://www.talkorigins.org/foundation/IRS/IRSExemptionLtr.pdf|date=March 8, 2005|accessdate=2007-05-08]Features
The
FAQ s and FRAs (Frequently Rebutted Assertions) on the TalkOrigins Archive cover a wide range of topics associated with evolutionary biology and creationism. These include Mark Isaak's "Index to Creationist Claims" [http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/] , a list of creationist positions on various issues, rebuttals, and links to primary source material. The "TalkDesign" sister site [http://www.talkdesign.org/] fulfills a similar role with theIntelligent Design movement. Also hosted is Jim Foley's "Fossil Hominids" sub-site [http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/] which studies the evidence forhuman evolution and has an extensive list of links to websites on both evolutionary biology and creationism. Lastly, the "Quote Mine Project " [http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/quotes/mine/contents.html] , examines the use ofQuote mining - taking quotes out of context - by creationists.The archive maintains a feedback system [http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/feedback/] involving reader comments and posts a compilation of these, along with responses, each month. The "Awards" page [http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/awards/] lists the notice given to the Archive by scientific societies, journals, magazines, and also lists college courses that make use of materials from the Archive.
Awards
Talkorigins.org has gained many awards and achieved substantial recognition. [cite web|title=Awards, Honors, and Favorable Notices|author=The Talk.Origins Archive|url=http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/awards/|accessdate=2007-05-08]
* In August 2002
Scientific American recognized Talkorigins.org for its "detailed discussions (some of which may be too sophisticated for casual readers) and bibliographies relating to virtually any objection to evolution that creationists might raise." [cite web|title=Other Resources for Defending Evolution|author=John Rennie|url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000276B7-6792-1D0A-8E49809EC588EEDF|date= June 17, 2002|publisher=Scientific American |accessdate=2007-05-08]* The webpages of the
National Academy of Science ,Smithsonian Institution [cite journal|title=Teacher Resources: Human Evolution Websites|journal=AnthroNotes|volume=21|issue=2|date=Winter/Spring 1999-2000|url=http://www.nmnh.si.edu/anthro/outreach/anthnote/Spring00/anthnote.html#TEACHER|author=Smithsonian Institution |accessdate=2007-05-08] , [http://www.leakeyfoundation.org/ The Leakey Foundation] [cite web|title=The Leakey Foundation - Recommended Links|url=http://www.leakeyfoundation.org/resources/r3.jsp|accessdate=2007-05-08] , theNational Center for Science Education [cite web |title=Critiques of Creationism-Links|url=http://www.ncseweb.org/link.asp?category=7|author=NCSE |accessdate=2007-05-08|quote=The main site for arguments refuting the "science" of creation science.] and other organizations recommend Talkorigins.org.*
Biomednet gave the Archive four stars.Specify|date=December 2006The Archive is also referenced in college-level textbooks [cite web|title=Science Textbooks that Use the Archive|url=http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/awards/#textbooks|author=The Talk.Origins Archive|accessdate=2007-05-08] and has had material from the archive incorporated into over 20 college or university courses. [cite web|title=University and College Courses that Use the Archive|url=http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/awards/#courses|author=The Talk.Origins Archive|accessdate=2007-05-08]
ee also
*
talk.origins
*Evolution References
External links
* [http://www.talkorigins.org The TalkOrigins Archive]
* [http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/ Fossil Hominids]
* [http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/ Mark Isaak's Index to Creationist Claims]
* [http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/quotes/mine/project.html Quote Mine Project]
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