Author Archives: JanetKRay.com

Facts are Boring: Bring on the Zombie Vaccine

July 17, 2023 By in Covid-19, vaccine denial 3 Comments
Facts are Boring: Bring on the Zombie Vaccine

Of all the alarmist vaccine side-effects predicted in the time of COVID, maybe this one wouldn’t be so bad.

This side effect would have you shredding an axe like Eric Clapton. 

Pre-COVID-vaccine and continuing through vaccine release, newly minted vaccine experts warned of tracking devices in the shot, a giant leap forward toward the goal of world domination via 5G chips.

There was genuine evidence, it seemed. Making social media rounds with viral speed was a technical-looking black and white schematic – the ACTUAL DIAGRAM of the 5G chip inserted into the mRNA COVID vaccines! 

And of course, if it looks science-y and is on the internet and it contradicts Anthony Fauci, it must be true.

Leave it to a couple of scholarly journals like Rolling Stone and Guitar World Magazine to debunk the story.

It was a guitar pedal. The viral image shared across the globe was the electric circuit of a guitar pedal. 

Three years into our COVID experience, and conspiracy theories have yet to die. 

When an NFL player collapsed unconscious on the field during a game, social media was buzzing with the diagnosis before the guy even arrived at the hospital. It was the vaccine!

It wasn’t, but all too often, the first story out becomes THE story. It’s true, myocarditis (almost always temporary), is a rare side effect of the covid vaccine. 

But do you know who is eleven times more likely to develop myocarditis? Unvaccinated people.

One in ten Americans still believe that mRNA vaccines change your DNA. Thirty-two percent of Americans are on the fence about it. 

The science is fairly simple – it’s high school biology 101: the mRNA in a vaccine directs the construction of a protein in the cytoplasm of a cell. DNA resides in (and never leaves) the cell nucleus.

Vaccine conspiracies about death, microchip control, and modified DNA are alive and well in 2023, but here’s the champ: thirteen percent of Americans believe that COVID vaccines cause infertility. Forty-two percent aren’t sure. There is no evidence, at all, supporting this claim, yet it persists. 

Facts are boring.

Controversies are interesting. Conspiracies are compelling. 

Can scientists GUARANTEE that a COVID vaccine won’t turn you into zombie in twenty years? No, but there is absolutely no evidence that it will.

Pseudoscience provides certainty. Science, on the other hand, is always updating, tweaking, and changing.

Science is a work in progress. We look at the best evidence we have. We look at the consensus of scientists working in a field. 

Unfortunately, confidence in science is on the decline in the United States. Even more unfortunate is the fact that confidence levels in both science and medicine are sharply divided along political lines.

Bring on the zombie apocalypse.   

The World’s Most Dangerous Animal (it’s probably not what you think)

July 10, 2023 By in climate, malaria Leave a comment
The World’s Most Dangerous Animal (it’s probably not what you think)

It’s Final Jeopardy and you can win it all with the correct response to this clue: The answer is: “the most dangerous animal on the planet.”

Sharks, right? After all, there’s an entire week of television dedicated to our fear of them and six (6!) movies terrorized us by dropping them from tornadoes. 

Not even close. Sharks kill less than ten people per year.

Ok, hippos? Crocodiles? Snakes? Elephants? No, no, no, no.

The deadliest animal on the planet, responsible for the deaths of 700,000 to one million people every year, is the vicious and fearsome . . .  mosquito. 

Yet, no one is marking their calendars for Mosquito Week. 

Malaria alone kills 600,000 per year, mostly young children. 

Just a few weeks ago, a case of locally transmitted malaria was confirmed in Texas. Four cases of locally transmitted malaria were confirmed in May and June in Florida.

These were the first documented cases of local transmission in the United States in twenty years. Malaria is spreading in southern states, and it was not brought in by travelers infected in other countries.

Oh, malaria in the U.S. isn’t new. George Washington had it, as did many others until the middle of the twentieth century. In fact, the CDC was created to respond to the threat from malaria.

We solved the problem by spraying huge layers of insecticide in order to kill the parasite responsible for malaria. Think Rachel Carson and “Silent Spring”.

We killed the parasite, but other environmental factors for malaria remained.

Several mosquito species that carry malaria are still present in the U.S. 

All it takes for local spread is a mosquito biting a recently returned traveler from a malaria-endemic country, and then that mosquito bites someone locally. 

Malaria is also dependent on an optimal temperature for spread. If it’s too cold, the mosquito reproduction cycle slows. Warmer weather means more mosquitos and more mosquito babies. 

Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina warns that human-caused climate warming isn’t a definitive cause of malaria spread, but it certainly doesn’t help. 

During the week of July 4th, our planet shattered “hottest day ever” records for FOUR DAYS IN A ROW.

Already, other mosquito-borne diseases like Zika and dengue are making inroads in the U.S. (My son brought home dengue as a fun souvenir from a college internship in Panama. It’s a horrible disease – there’s a reason dengue is called “break-bone fever”). 

Climate warming makes all mosquito-borne illnesses worse, globally. 

Malaria has a fascinating history, and understanding evolution is key. Watch this space for Malaria Part 2! 

Stuck in the Shallows: Science and Faith in the U.S.A.

July 3, 2023 By in Allan Chapman, Evangelicals, The God of Monkey Science Leave a comment

The gentleman in photo with me is Dr. Allan Chapman. He’s an Oxford professor and one of Britain’s national treasures. He’s a legendary science historian and a former host of a British astronomy television show – he’s an English Carl Sagan. His science lectures are legendary.

You’ll never see Dr. Chapman without a suit, bow tie, and pocket watch. He’s no longer able, but until just a few years ago, he biked around the Oxford campus a la Albert Einstein. 

One of the coolest things I’ve done in my life is take two history of science classes at Oxford with Dr. Chapman. 

Allan Chapman is also a bit of a unicorn at Oxford, as well as in the entire UK, for that matter. Dr. Chapman is a man of science and a man of deep Christian faith.

Look closely at the pin on his lapel. That simple cross pin is ever-present. He was once mocked for wearing it as he delivered a lecture to a group of prominent British scientists.

In the UK, the science and faith dilemma is typically “can a respectable scientist be a person of faith?”

In the United States, the question is reversed.

In the USA, sixty-six percent of white evangelical Christians reject the science evidence for human origins. Many in this group also reject the science evidence for the age of the earth. 

Young adults in the U.S., drawn to a career in science, often think twice about it if they grew up in evangelical spaces. 

In the U.S., the science and faith dilemma is this: can a person of faith accept science evidence?

Dr. Chapman is in the minority in the UK, for sure. Oh, there’s others – my first book (Baby Dinosaurs on the Ark?) was nominated for an award by the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, based in Cambridge.

But here’s the thing: science and faith discussions outside the United States aren’t consumed with defending evolution and the age of the earth.

Science and faith discussions outside the U.S. have waded past the shallows of the science of origins and are fully in the deep end:

How does faith inform decisions made in a world experiencing unprecedented human-caused climate change?

How does faith inform our response to a world-wide pandemic caused by a novel virus?

How does faith inform modern genetics, a field moving at break-neck speed? 

Here’s the bottom line – highlight it, circle it, think about it.

What science and faith conversations are we missing because we haven’t moved out of the shallows? 

How might people of faith move to the deep and speak to modern science?

Eerdword Interview

June 25, 2023 By in "Lucy", Eerdmans, The God of Monkey Science 2 Comments
Eerdword Interview

My publisher recently interviewed me and featured my books on the Eerdword blog!

Oh, I can talk about my books all day and night, but the “about you” questions were the hardest. ARGGGG. Fortunately, as an adult, I’ve completely embraced my inner nerd.

Here’s a bit of the interview. I’ll put the link to the entire post at the end.

What are three things about yourself that most people don’t know?

  • I’m a HUGE Dallas Cowboys fan, and that takes perseverance!
  • I have a life-size replica of the famous “Lucy” in my home office. I found her on sale in an import shop; nobody there knew what it was! I felt very Indiana Jones-ish.
  • Natural history museums are my happy place.

What do you do when you’re not teaching, writing, reading, or answering questions for EerdWord?

  • I’m currently managing a herd of five dogs–only two of which are by choice; it’s a long story!
  • I lead a book club. We’re from different churches and different backgrounds. We choose books (and sometimes podcasts) that may challenge our long-held beliefs.
  • And always: reading, thinking, researching, and writing the next book!

What can you tell us about your next release with Eerdmans coming this Fall, The God of Monkey Science?

Evolution was the area of science that first offended, but in evolution denial, evangelicals developed a whole way of talking about science.

Evolution-denial arguments were retooled and relaunched to serve another day in the evangelical response to climate science and to the COVID-19 pandemic. The God of Monkey Science explores the political and religious drama that got us to where we are today.

Who did you write these books for?

What most people who reject evolution know about evolution comes from anti-evolution resources. We build a straw man out of arguments no one is actually making, then we tear the straw man down. These books are written in an accessible, popular-science voice for readers who want to know more about the evidence for evolution, climate science, and the pandemic.

Could you describe your overall goal and dreams for your writing and research in a sentence or two?

Conventional Christian wisdom says that accepting evolution is a one-way ticket to atheism. But that’s not what research tells us – to the contrary, it is a rejection of science that is shipwrecking faith.

I want my readers to be people of faith who embrace modern science without fear.

Anything you’d like to say about anything?

Science moves on, with or without us. We can deny it, pretend it’s all a conspiracy, or politicize it, OR we can speak as people of faith in a modern scientific world.

My Lucy

Read the entire post: https://eerdword.com/meet-janet-kellogg-ray/

Erasing the Science We Don’t Like

June 19, 2023 By in continental drift, Marie Tharp, mid Atlantic rift, plate tectonics 4 Comments
Erasing the Science We Don’t Like

Have you ever taken a spin on one of these vintage carousels of death?

Let go of the rails and you’d find yourself launched to the parking lot. And no soft landing on a modern playground’s mulch or rubber ground cover. You skidded to a stop over sun-baked, rock-studded dirt, and with bad luck, into an ant bed.

Early in the twentieth century, Alfred Wegener, a German scientist trained in biology, botany, and geology noticed something very peculiar about our planet.

The east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa fit together almost perfectly, like a jigsaw puzzler.

Geologically, the Appalachian Mountains of eastern North America, the Scottish Highlands, and the Atlas Mountains along the northwest coast of Africa were of the same age and rock formation. 

Plant and animal fossils unique to the east coast of South America were also found in the southwestern coast of Africa. Fossils of plants only found in warm, humid environments were found in the frozen arctic.

Wegner proposed an answer to these mysteries: continents were drifting away from each other. He attributed this motion to the rotation of the earth, slinging continents away from each other like that deadly playground merry-go-round of my childhood.

There was no evidence for this explanation, but it made “common sense.”

Fast forward to the 1950s. Marie Tharp was an American geologist and mapmaker. 

Using sonar to bounce sound waves off the ocean floor, Tharp measured the depth of the Atlantic. Oh, and since women were not allowed on research ships, Tharp relied on data gathered by her colleagues. 

Tharp discovered a deep rift running along the floor of the Atlantic. This mid-Atlantic rift indicated that continents were moving away from each other, not because they were being slung about but because the sea floor was opening up! 

In the 1950s, a woman in science, much less a woman making breakthrough science discoveries, was not commonplace. 

Marie Tharp’s boss was all “I don’t understand it and it doesn’t fit my preconceived notion of how things work. This can’t be right.” 

This is just “girl talk,” said her boss. He actually said that.

Despite the evidence right under his eyes, Tharp’s boss did not believe that a lady scientist knew what she was talking about. He did not think moving continental plates (called “plate tectonics”) was a thing. 

So, Tharp’s boss fixed it.

He took a pencil and erased her map. 

He LITERALLY erased it. 

Tharp went back to the drawing board and collected new data, yet the mid-Atlantic rift remained. Tharp overlayed her map with a colleague’s map of Atlantic earthquakes, and what do you know? The two maps lined up perfectly.

Eventually, underwater cameras confirmed the existence of the mid-Atlantic rift and the reality of continental drift due to plate tectonics. 

One of my favorite trips ever was to Iceland. (Even though I came home sick as a dog from going nonstop because my husband the planner takes trips not vacations, but I married him on purpose so what can I say.)

Iceland is a fairytale of “fire and ice.” Iceland straddles the mid-Atlantic rift, the one discovered by Marie Tharp. Heat from deep within the earth bursts through the rift in a wonder of impossibly blue geysers and boiling geothermal streams. 

I boiled an egg in a stream! Photos below for evidence!

The modern theory of continental drift by tectonic plate movement is not “just” a theory, as if it’s simply someone’s best guess. Continental drift theory explains the facts we observe. 

Continental drift theory continues to be tweaked as we learn more, but no one is going to throw out plate tectonics for the “playground merry-go-round” explanation.

If the facts from science don’t make sense to us, we are tempted to ignore them or to find our “own facts.”

Too often, we erase what we don’t understand.

My Review of “Shiny Happy People” – The Duggar Documentary

June 11, 2023 By in Bill Gothard, Duggars, IBLP Leave a comment
My Review of “Shiny Happy People” – The Duggar Documentary

The Duggar family has always intrigued me. I’ve watched a few episodes and read stories updating the births of the latest offspring as the family approached twenty kids.  

It always seemed like a wholesome human-interest story. I may or may not have photoshopped myself and friends into Duggar family lineups wearing matching pilgrim collars and jumpers. 

After the four-part documentary “Shiny Happy People” (streaming now), I’m no longer amused. It will be a while, if ever, that sappy-happy-matchy-matchy-Duggar spoofs are funny.  

The docuseries explores Bill Gothard’s para-church organization, the Institute in Basic Life Principles and how the principles are implemented in every single aspect of the Duggar family.

You don’t have to own a wardrobe of red jumpers and white, wide-collared blouses to see the influence of Bill Gothard and the IBLP beyond homeschooling fundamentalist families like the Duggars. 

The talons of IBLP extend wide and deep in evangelicalism. 

If you are an evangelical or have ever been evangelical-adjacent, you need to watch all four episodes. This is your homework. You will need to debrief, so I’ll put two stellar analyses at the end of this post.

I want to focus on a particular horror exposed in the documentary called “blanket training.” This is not the benign “tummy-time” practice for modern newborns. 

Blanket training, according to IBLP:

Place your newly-scooting/barely mobile infant on a blanket. In case it’s not clear, you do this with an INFANT. 

You show the infant their favorite toy. You use excited mommy voice about toy.  Big smiles, happy baby.

Place infant on blanket.  Place toy out of reach. Baby moves toward toy. 

Hit the infant. 

Repeat every day, for as long as it takes, until infant stays put on blanket and shows no interest in the toy.

Result? A child for whom curiosity is punishable.  

And that child learns:

Curiosity is a sin. 

Questioning is a sin. 

Doubt is a sin. 

In the documentary, the Duggars take a field trip to the Creation Museum. Dad Jim Bob’s voiceover tells us that although “some” people believe in evolution, we teach our children that evolution is “totally unscientific”. 

Why would you ever investigate for yourself? Why would you ever believe the experts?

Curiosity is a sin. 

Questioning is a sin. 

Doubt is a sin. 

The IBLP principle of absolute, unquestioned authority extends throughout life, but it begins in infancy. In run-of-the-mill evangelical churches, we may not hit our curious babies, but the impact is still seen in an unquestioning theology: “plain” readings of scripture. Distrust of intellectuals, especially scientists. People who “deconstruct” their faith are unfaithful. 

It’s not just science that is out of bounds. The list is long. And when curiosity is a sin, those questions are never asked. 

For an analysis from a faith perspective: : https://baptistnews.com/article/how-to-connect-the-dots-while-watching-shiny-happy-people/?fbclid=IwAR2evItQXFm92vvuk3iBREA1QTIS222NMnrS_IZjcRUsocxCJxqw_W6cLB4

From an analysis from a child development perspective:

Science Goes to Court: The Monkey Trial of the Twenty-First Century

June 7, 2023 By in Dover Trial, Intelligent Design, Kenneth Miller Leave a comment
Science Goes to Court: The Monkey Trial of the Twenty-First Century

On this day, June 7, 2004, a school board member in a small town in Pennsylvania raised objections to the biology textbook before the board for adoption.

And for the next year and a half, little Dover, PA made headlines in the nation’s biggest newspapers and magazines. 

The textbook in question was coauthored by the man in the photo with me, Dr. Kenneth Miller. Board member Bill Buckingham rejected the proposed textbook because it was “laced” with “Darwinism”.

(Note: there is no such thing in science as “Darwinism”, but that’s a post for another day)

Buckingham and his allies wanted creationism taught in the high school alongside evolution. Reminded that the U.S. Supreme Court had barred creationism in public schools almost two decades before, the board sought a work-around.

The work-around included a re-vamped creationist textbook and a verbal warning to be read to students prior to teaching about evolution. Oh, and the term “creationism” was not to be used. In addition to evolution theory, students were to be taught a fairly new (at the time) “alternative theory” called “intelligent design.”

Intelligent design says that a supernatural designer placed various forms of life on earth, fully formed.

Dover biology teachers, in a unified front, refused to read the required statement. Instead, an assistant superintendent read the statement to each ninth-grade biology class. 

The board’s mandate required that students be taught, IN SCIENCE CLASS, about a supernatural designer.

The case ended up in a federal court in what has been dubbed the “Scopes trial of the twenty-first century.”

Judge John E. Jones III, a conservative appointed to the bench by George W. Bush, minced no words in his decision: intelligent design is a religious view, simply a re-labeling of creationism.

Here’s Judge Jones: “In an era where we are trying to cure cancer, where we are trying to prevent pandemics, where we are trying to keep science and math education on the cutting edge . . . to introduce and teach bad science to ninth-grade students makes very little sense to me . . . .”

The author of the disputed textbook, Kenneth Miller, was the star witness defending science in the Dover trial. 

Dr. Miller is a leader in research and in science education and he makes no secret of his Christian faith. He’s a science rock star.

Check out the NOVA documentary about the Dover case – interviews with all the major players and reenactments of the court proceedings. It’s fascinating.

NOVA’S “Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial” is available on YouTube. 

Oh Texas, My Texas

February 8, 2023 By in evolution, science denial, Terri Leo-Wilson, Texas State Board of Education Tags: , , , Leave a comment
Oh Texas, My Texas

You’re having surgery. As you wait in pre-op, your surgeon rushes in, says she is running really late, and would it be ok with you if she didn’t wash her hands or sterilize the instruments?

After all, germ theory is “just a theory.”

Want to jump out of an airplane without a parachute because gravity theory is “just a theory”? 

Newly elected Texas State Representative Terri Leo-Wilson recently introduced HB 1804, requiring Texas schools to present scientific theories in an “objective manner”, which means (according to Leo-Wilson’s bill):

“Clearly distinguishes the theory from fact”

“Includes evidence for both the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of the theory.”

As if a science theory is simply an opinion, and yours is as good as mine. As if a science theory is just a hunch or a guess or worse, someone’s agenda.

When an idea reaches the status of a “theory” in science, it is something about which we are quite certain. When a hypothesis has been tested over many decades, by multiple scientists, in multiple labs world-wide, and that hypothesis continues to be supported by evidence and continues to predict where new evidence will be found, the hypothesis is accepted as a theory. 

A science theory. 

In a hierarchy of terms, theories rank above facts and laws. Science theories make sense of facts and laws. Science theories are tweaked as we learn more, but the foundations of theories do not change. We aren’t going to decide that it actually IS the alignment of the planets that causes disease, and not pathogens.

I bet Representative Leo-Wilson is not advocating for teaching the strengths and weaknesses of germ theory or gravity theory or atomic theory or cell theory.

Just go ahead and say it: Texas kids can’t learn about evolution.

A couple of decades ago, a group of creationists persuaded the Kansas state board of education to erase all references to the wealth of Cretaceous-era fossils (for which Kansas is world-famous) in the state science curriculum. A textbook company responded by deleting a chapter referencing Kansas’ geologic history. 

For a few years, Kansas schoolchildren sat in schools built on land with a geologic history that never happened, according to the curriculum. It took a while, but the Kansas decision was reversed.

Texas, do better. 

A Book Easter Egg

February 2, 2023 By in Janet Kellogg Ray, science and faith, science denial Tags: , Leave a comment
A Book Easter Egg

Last fall I announced a contract with Eerdmans Publishing for a new book and left a little HINT about the title and topic with my special signing pen!

My niece Abigail said I was being all Taylor Swift, dropping an Easter egg for the book title . . . (It’s me! It’s me! I’m the writer it’s me!)

I’ll take being the Taylor Swift of science and faith books!

Soon and very soon the new TITLE and BOOK COVER will be released – hooray! (I have to say, the art department knocked it out of the park again with the cover.)

So, here’s the next Easter egg: I found this little vintage gem on Ebay and paired it with miniature lab ware, as you do.

Any more guesses?? Stay tuned!


Dismantling the Straw Man: My Review of ICR’s “Adam or Apes”

January 12, 2023 By in Adam or Apes, Institute for Creation Research, young earth creationism Tags: , , Leave a comment

Bubbles. Orbits. Echo chambers.

Cozy little spots where we find ourselves swaddled in the warmth of groupthink. 

Tucked away, it’s easy to think that everyone agrees and disagrees along the same lines. It’s easy to think that our bubble’s opinion is the majority opinion, and of course, it is the correct one. 

It’s also easy to shoot down a position you disagree with if you never consider the position from the actual position-holders themselves. We build a big-ole straw man out of what we think the opposition believes, tear it down, and congratulate ourselves on a job well done.

In the spirit of hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth, I reserved a ticket to the premier of “Adam or Apes”, a brand-new film from the Institute for Creation Research. The Dallas-based ICR has new and beautiful facilities and produces loads of professional media. ICR’s Discovery Center hosts lots of field trips from church groups, private schools, and home schools. 

The Institute for Creation Research’s foundational principles are a young earth (less than 10,000 years), instantaneous creation, and rejection of biological evolution. ICR is a predominant source of young earth creationism spokespersons and media.

The intersection of science, faith, and culture is my passion. It distresses me to see people of faith reject science evidence for religious reasons. 

So, on a clear December night a week before Christmas 2022, I sat in a crowd of about 200 to hear – firsthand, from a premier source – why rejection of evolution and an ancient earth are both scientific and the only reasonable positions for people of faith. 

I took copious notes, but I’ve condensed it all to three takeaways from the “Adam or Apes” film and the follow-up discussion by a panel composed of the producer/host of the film and the current president of ICR. 

Takeaway #1: Evolution was all part of Darwin’s nefarious plan, according to the panel: Darwin “came up with it” (evolution) to act as a “substitute creator.” 

Furthermore, those who accept the evidence for evolution only do so because they want to live life by their own rules. It’s not the science evidence that convinces people, it’s the seduction of a “do as I please” approach to life. And – according to the panelists, this seduction equally applies to people of faith, who like me, who accept the evidence for evolution.

After the presentation, a nice ICR staffer recognized me from Facebook asked what I thought about the film. He invited me to debate or discuss with ICR staff in person or on a podcast. I thanked him politely and left it at that.

As a by-default faith-rebel in the estimation of ICR, I can’t image I’d get a fair hearing.

Takeaway #2: My goal in attending the screening was to hear the best arguments from the young earth, evolution-rejecting precinct of Christianity. Instead, I heard two hours of refuting arguments about evolution that no one is making. In 2023, ICR’s argument is still about “Piltdown Man”, a fraud exposed more than seventy years ago – and by the way – exposed by secular scientists. 

Instead of presenting peer-reviewed evidence for a young earth or special creation, a straw man built of bogus evolution arguments was dismantled.

Takeaway #3: At the end of the presentation, the panelists asked the audience to pray for ICR. Specifically, the panelists requested prayers (1) for the experiments being done by ICR researchers, (2) for results that confirm the Bible, and (3) for just one result that would catch the attention of those outside young earth creationism. 

Two hours of claiming that there is absolutely no evidence for evolution or an old earth. Claims that every bit of evidence pointing to evolution can be debunked. Claims that science actually supports a young earth and an instantaneous special creation.

Yet, the evening ended with prayers for “just one” definitive experiment.

I was there to listen and learn, so I didn’t ask a question during the Q&A time. But if I had, this would be it: If all science evidence truly supports a young earth and an instant, special creation, why are there no non-religious young earth creationists?