Category: Free Speech
Hypocrisy on Display at The Des Moines Register: Academic Freedom Protects Bullying Students about Religion, But Not Presenting Evidence for Intelligent Design
Academic freedom doesn’t protect a professor’s right to talk about the scientific evidence favoring intelligent design. But it does protect a professor’s right to belittle his students’ fundamentalist religious beliefs. That’s the hypocritical view being championed by Des Moines Register columnist Rekha Basu. Unfortunately, her mindset reflects the views of a lot of pro-Darwin apologists in the media. When astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez was being harassed and discriminated against at Iowa State University (ISU) because of his support for intelligent design, Basu actually cheered on the inquisitors. When atheist religion professor Hector Avalos spearheaded a campus petition against intelligent design in 2005, for example, Basu wrote that “it would be would be a serious breach of academic integrity” for universities to Read More ›
Another Great Debate on ID at Freedomfest in Las Vegas This Weekend
Saturday night in Las Vegas will be hot. Outside it will be 100+ degrees. Inside Bally’s will be hot too, when CSC Director Stephen Meyer and Discovery senior fellow George Gilder face off with Darwinists Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic Magazine, and Ronald Bailey, science writer for Reason. The debate question: “Is there scientific evidence of intelligent design in nature?” The debate is the closer of a three day conference, Freedomfest that will feature other speakers like Steve Forbes and Ron Paul, as well as other debates, such as Friday night’s between Dinesh D’souza and Christopher Hitchens.C-SPAN is scheduled to cover the debate and we’ll let you know when they plan to air as soon as that is announced.
Information Suppressed on Louisiana Science Education Act and Evolution by Louisiana Newspaper
The following information was suppressed by Louisiana Advocate reporter Will Sentell in his story titled “La. alone with controversial science law.” Contrary to Sentell’s report, Louisiana is definitely not alone in promoting the critical analysis of evolution. This background information was sent to Mr. Sentell after he interviewed Casey Luskin of Discovery Institute and before he filed his article. But he apparently didn’t want to let the facts get in the way of his story: STATE AND LOCAL POLICIES SUPPORTING CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF EVOLUTION As of 2008, eight states have adopted statewide laws or science standards that (1) encourage or require critical analysis of evolution or (2) protect the freedom of teachers to present scientific criticisms of evolution. In addition, Read More ›
ACLU Says Louisiana Science Education Bill on Evolution and Other Issues Is Fine As Written
After all of the harrumphing by Darwinists that the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA) promotes “creationism” and is therefore unconstitutional, the director of the Louisiana ACLU has now conceded that the bill is actually fine as written according to a Louisiana TV station: ACLU Executive Director Marjorie Esman said that if the Act is utilized as written, it should be fine…. Of course, Ms. Esman goes on to fret that some people might misuse the bill, and in that case the ACLU might sue. Well, I have news for Ms. Esman: Any law can be disregarded, and so yes, if a teacher wants to willfully ignore what the Louisiana Science Education Act says and try to endorse religion, the teacher Read More ›
AAUP: No Faculty Loyalty Oaths Except to Darwinism
The Chronicle of Higher Education has an article reporting how the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) recently passed a resolution that “called on universities not to automatically terminate or refuse to appoint professors who refuse to sign a ‘loyalty oath.’” That sounds reasonable. But the same article explained that the AAUP hypocritically adopted a separate resolution against academic freedom bills in Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana because they “allow science teachers to critique ‘prevailing scientific theories.’” It seems that academic freedom for dissenting views is all the rage among the elite of academia–unless you want to use your academic freedom to question Darwin.