Month: June 2007
New Law Review Articles Discuss Teaching Evolution: Darwinist Law Professor Supports Censorship of ID Ideas
In a recent law review article in Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, Stephen A. Newman, law professor at New York Law School, provides a wonderful example of how prevalent among some academics is the idea that it is acceptable and appropriate to censor intelligent design ideas. Newman writes: Consider the experience of two librarians who received copies of two intelligent design books, Darwin’s Black Box by Michael Behe and Darwin on Trial by Philip [sic] Johnson, as donations to their high school collections. When the librarians refused to put the books on the school library shelves, they were accused of censorship. In fact, exercising their professional judgment, they concluded that these books had “little or no value to our Read More ›
Would Galileo Side With John Hauptman or Guillermo Gonzalez?
We’ve recently discussed Iowa State University physicist John Hauptman’s prejudice against ID-proponents which was printed in the Des Moines Register. In response to our article observing misrepresentations of Guillermo Gonzalez’s arguments, David Deming, geologist and geophysicist and associate professor at the University of Oklahoma, sent some enlightening comments that further respond to Hauptman’s op-ed against Guillermo Gonzalez. Part of Dr. Deming’s comments are reprinted below: It certainly must have been a profound embarrassment for the Iowa State president to issue a press release stating ID had nothing to do with the tenure decision on the same day that Hauptman published a confession that it was the essentially the only reason he voted against Gonzalez’s tenure. I saw your most recent Read More ›
Gonzalez Co-Author Says “Tenure Denial Springs From Ignorance of Design Theory and Scientific Hubris”
The Des Moines Register has today published a letter by CSC Senior Fellow, Dr. Jay Richards, defending his and Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez’s work in their book The Privileged Planet. Below you will find the complete text of Dr. Richard’s letter. There were additional letters published today in support of Gonzalez following the president of Iowa State University’s decision last week to uphold his denial of tenure. Two challenge Dr. John Hauptman’s op-ed from last week. Amazingly, Hauptman admitted his complete disregard for academic freedom and said that he denied tenure to Gonzalez, who he said was “very creative, intelligent and knowledgeable, highly productive scientifically and an excellent teacher,” because Gonzalez was a proponent of intelligent design. One letter pointed out: Read More ›
Michael Behe Featured on Michael Medved
Michael Behe was featured on the Michael Medved Show this week to talk about his new book, Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism, and the audio is now available here. Bringing up the way evolution has been popping up in the presidential debates, Michael Medved had the fortunate insight to note that this isn’t an issue about evolution per se. Behe was able to respond by clarifying the debate with the right question to ask: is life the result of purpose or an accident?
Materialist Neuroscience and an Iron Spike through the Brain
P.Z. Myers over at Pharyngula has responded to my recent