Category: Culture
Media Bias Trickle Down at the Seattle Times
In the New York Times, Mark Oppenheimer reports on the case of astronomer Martin Gaskell, who is suing the University of Kentucky for (alleged) religious discrimination. The article is fair, objective, and descriptively accurate. Perhaps the most interesting detail Oppenheimer reports concerns the “smoking gun” in Gaskell’s case: the text of a 2007 email from UK staffer Sally Shafer to two colleagues: “Clearly this man is complex and likely fascinating to talk with,” Ms. Shafer wrote, “but potentially evangelical. If we hire him, we should expect similar content to be posted on or directly linked from the department Web site.” To this gem, Gaskell’s attorney, Francis J. Manion, said: “I couldn’t have made up a better quote. ‘We like this Read More ›
The Church of Science: Losing Our Religion?
Slate startled us the other day by publishing an insightful essay asking whether political and worldview presuppositions drive the debate over climate change on both sides — not only for those on the Right, but for combatants on the Left too, including scientists (who are mostly on the Left). It’s an elementary observation that should be evident to anyone who follows the evolution debate, but of course a welcome surprise coming from a venue like Slate. Author Dr. Daniel Sarewitz worries that because the ranks of scientists are so politically skewed, that threatens the trust that scientists currently enjoy among the public: This exceptional status could well be forfeit in the escalating fervor of national politics, given that most scientists Read More ›
Martin Gaskell and the Argument From Scientific “Consensus”
One needs to hammer and hammer away at the simple but crucial lesson of the scandalous Martin Gaskell case out of the University of Kentucky. A superbly qualified astronomer was rejected for a job because he expressed very modest Darwin doubts. Darwinists and their useful idiots are full of reminders to us to recall that a “consensus” of scientists compels our assent to Darwinian evolution. Yet with the Gaskell story being merely the latest instance, we see again and again how Darwin-doubting scientists are punished for speaking up in even the mildest way. A fortune in research money is at stake, as well as institutional reputations. Anyone who’s had the experience of being penalized by an employer for saying something Read More ›
Evidence of Discrimination Against Martin Gaskell Due to His Views on Evolution
In the prior post, we saw that Martin Gaskell’s actual position on origins is probably closest to a theistic evolution position (he accepts common ancestry), with an openness to the possibility of intelligent design (ID). However, because his online notes from a talk expressed skepticism towards biological and chemical evolution, the faculty on a search committee who were considering him for a job at the University of Kentucky (UK) called him a “creationist” and denied him a job at the university. Because UK believed (wrongly) he was a “creationist” and discriminated against him on that basis, Gaskell has since filed a lawsuit against UK alleging religious discrimination. He is represented by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). After Read More ›
Prehistoric “Man” as a Case of Epistemological Regress: Some Historical Lessons From Lukacs and Koestler
Consider this from John Lukacs At the End of An Age (2002): In Chapter 1 of this book I suggested another fundamental limitation of Darwinism, which is the application of Evolution ever further and further backward, claiming that humans may have existed as early as one million years ago. That is a prime example of how unreason lies buried at the bottom of any and every materialist interpretation of mankind, because of its thesis of matter preceding human mind, with mind gradually appearing: when? perhaps in dribs and drabs, much later. (I happen to believe that there is no such thing as ‘pre-historic’ man, historicity being the fourth dimension of human existence from the beginning.) But perhaps the essential fault Read More ›