Monday, December 10, 2007

Anti-evolutionists ecstatic—and inconsistent

In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed: Academic Freedom and Evolution:

.....Opponents of evolution have of late been trying to frame their arguments as being about academic freedom and free expression. As a result, the anti-evolution Discovery Institute is ecstatic over the recent discovery of e-mail messages among professors at Iowa State University criticizing the views of a pro-intelligent design professor whose tenure bid was denied. “Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez and Academic Persecution” is the title of the institute’s Web page about the case. (Iowa State says that the professor’s views on evolution were not a decisive factor in his dismissal.)
.....The Christian Law Association, meanwhile, frames a lawsuit against the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution by a fired postdoc who does not believe in evolution or want to do work related to evolution as a matter of his being punished for his beliefs.
.....But the groups arguing for freedom of expression of evolution deniers have not been heard agitating for the rights of Richard Colling. He’s a professor at Olivet Nazarene University, in Illinois, who has been barred from teaching general biology or having his book taught at the university that is his alma mater and the place where he has taught for 27 years. A biologist who is very much a person of faith, these punishments followed anger by some religious supporters of the college over the publication of his book in which he argues that it is possible to believe in God and still accept evolution.
.....“I thought I was doing the church a service,” Colling said in an interview. He believes that religious colleges that frame science and faith as incompatible will lose some of their best minds, and that his work has been devoted to helping faithful students maintain their religious devotion while learning science as science should be taught.
.....“You can’t check your intellect at the door of the church,” he said. Colling has tenure and he hasn’t been fired or had his pay cut — which university officials have told the American Association of University Professors means that Olivet Nazarene can’t be accused of violating his academic freedom.
.....Actually, the AAUP tends to believe that having courses taken away (without due process) and having your books banned generally is a violation of academic freedom, and the association is currently investigating the case while pushing (without success) for the sanctions against Colling to be lifted. The case is in many ways notable because the AAUP gives religious colleges considerable leeway in enforcing religious beliefs and is getting involved here only because of evidence that the university is violating its own stated principles. At the same time, the AAUP says that proponents of intelligent design are not necessarily correctly citing the principles of academic freedom in some other prominent cases attracting attention….

• Did you know that Trustee Tom Fuentes is involved in the publishing of books that attack evolution? Imagine that! See Fuenteian titles.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chunk, Rebel Girl, and Red Emma are indeed proof that evolution is scientific fact - three liberal shitheads originating from pond scum.

May God have mercy.

Anonymous said...

And a very merry Christmas to you too!

Anonymous said...

I know that I always go to doctors who don't believe in evolution - I make it a priority to ask.

Anonymous said...

If there's no such thing as evolution, how come we now got antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria that we didn't have before, eh?
In all seriousness, I am convinced that evolutionists have it all backwards. Lower forms of life actually devolved from higher forms of life. Yes, apes devolved from screwed up men, men did not evolved from intelligent apes. If you don't believe it, just look at Saddleback's Chancellor. In him, you can clearly see the "link" to the next lower form of primate: less intelligent than even the chimpanzee.

Anonymous said...

Today's LA Times (and you can find it on MSN.com, too) has a story headlined "Study finds humans are still evolving--and quickly."

Interesting factoid: "Nobody 10,000 years ago had blue eyes."

--100 miles down the road

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...