Intelligent design and academic freedom

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[[Intelligent design]] proponents like to make a lot of noise about academic repression and denial of academic freedom. Beyond the whining are very few specific examples, and usually upon closer scrutiny even these examples seem duplicitous.
 
[[Intelligent design]] proponents like to make a lot of noise about academic repression and denial of academic freedom. Beyond the whining are very few specific examples, and usually upon closer scrutiny even these examples seem duplicitous.
  
Ultimately, [[intelligent design]] is just a rebranding of creationism using [[newspeak]], and it is not science because it is not falsifiable. Although it uses scientific jargon in an attempt to sound scientific it does not use scientific methodology.  Therefore it is not actual science, but pseudoscience, and shouldn't be propagated where real science is done.
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Ultimately, [[intelligent design]] is just a rebranding of creationism using [[newspeak]], and is not science because it is not falsifiable. Although it uses scientific jargon in an attempt to sound scientific it does not use scientific methodology.  Therefore it is not actual science, but pseudoscience, and shouldn't be propagated where real science is done.
  
 
==Case studies==
 
==Case studies==

Revision as of 17:17, 28 July 2008

Intelligent design is the assertion that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection."[1]

Academic freedom is the belief that the freedom of inquiry by students and faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy.[2]

Intelligent design proponents like to make a lot of noise about academic repression and denial of academic freedom. Beyond the whining are very few specific examples, and usually upon closer scrutiny even these examples seem duplicitous.

Ultimately, intelligent design is just a rebranding of creationism using newspeak, and is not science because it is not falsifiable. Although it uses scientific jargon in an attempt to sound scientific it does not use scientific methodology. Therefore it is not actual science, but pseudoscience, and shouldn't be propagated where real science is done.

Contents

Case studies

Guillermo Gonzalez tenure denial

In June of 2007 Astronomer and Intelligent Design supporter Guillermo Gonzalez was denied tenure at Iowa State University. The Discovery Institute (of which Gonzalez is a fellow) was the primary group that managed the public relations campaign against the university and claimed that the denial was merely about an inherent prejudice against an ID supporter in academia.

The main argument by the DI that Gonzalez should have received tenure was that he had significantly more publications than was needed at Iowa State[3]. However, the number quoted by the DI is the total number of publications in Gonzalez's career (only those publications written while at Iowa State count), and the standards for tenure include much more than a publication record. Additionally, those three papers are based on research done by Gonzalez as a post-doctoral student, not as an independent researcher.

One of the major standards is the amount of grant money he brought in. Since coming to Iowa State Gonzalez has brought in about $22,661 in outside grant money, by comparison his colleagues averaged $1.3 million in grant money before becoming tenured. [4] Whether people like it or not, money makes the world go round and every researcher at any research focused institute will be assessed heavily on their ability to get grant funding. [5]

Richard Sternberg and the Smithsonian

Richard Sternberg was an editor for the journal Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington which is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institute.[6] In 2004 Sternberg approved for publication an article by Discovery Institute "fellow" Stephen Meyer entitled: Intelligent Design: The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories.[7] After the publication Sternberg came under fire for bypassing the normal peer-review proccess for the journal (specifically, not including another editor in the peer review process). Ultimately the Council of the Biological Society of Washington released a press release that said in part:

The paper by Stephen C. Meyer, "The origin of biological information and the higher taxonomic categories," in vol. 117, no. 2, pp. 213-239 of the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, was published at the discretion of the former editor, Richard V. Sternberg. Contrary to typical editorial practices, the paper was published without review by any associate editor; Sternberg handled the entire review process. The Council, which includes officers, elected councilors, and past presidents, and the associate editors would have deemed the paper inappropriate for the pages of the Proceedings because the subject matter represents such a significant departure from the nearly purely systematic content for which this journal has been known throughout its 122-year history.[8]

After this Sternberg claimed to have been singled out for ill treatment at his job as a staffer at the Smithsonian. Specifically, Sternberg claims that he:

  • Was targeted to have his job removed.
  • Met with negative interactions from colleagues.
  • Had his keys taken away and lost access to his office.
  • Was denied access to specimens for his research purposes. [9]

Sternberg filed a religious discrimination complaint against the Smithsonian but the Office of Special Counsel ultimately dismissed his claim. [10]

Others have reported that Sternberg's primary complaints were mostly trumped up:

  • No threats were made to Sternberg's face regarding his job.
  • Most of the ill willed focused around professional malfeasance on his part.
  • Sternberg's keys and office were changed as part of a larger move that affected the whole museum.
  • Sternberg's access to resources and specimens did not change and is equal to that of anyone in his position. [11]

Dr. Michael Behe's disclaimer

Michael Behe is a professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University and major proponent of intelligent design. The faculty at his university put up a general disclaimer on their website stating that they have unequivocal support for the theory of evolution and that Behe is the only dissenter. [12] While Behe may have had his feelings hurt, the University has afforded him plenty of freedom, including the right to teach an ID class:

Michael Behe, an intelligent-design advocate and biochemist at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, teaches an elective first-year seminar on 'popular arguments on evolution'. "The majority of my colleagues disagree with me," he says. "But my chairman supports my right to have my own views and argue them in a public setting."[13]

William Dembski and Baylor

In 1999, William Dembski was involved in setting up a new ID center at Baylor University in Texas. The center consisted of two people; Dembski and Bruce Gordon, another intelligent design lackey. Both individuals were hired directly by university president Richard Sloan without going through the usual channels of a search committee and departmental consultation.

The complete disregard for standard procedure, the embarrassing mission of the center and Dembski's incessant prancing and preening led the faculty at Baylor to vote 27-2 to dissolve the center. The university president refused, but agreed to allow an outside review. That review pretty much agreed with the faculty and the center was absorbed into existing structures at Baylor and disappeared.

Dembski however took this loss as a victory (as ID is wont to do) and issued a press release saying that the committee had given an "unqualified affirmation of my own work on intelligent design", that its report "marks the triumph of intelligent design as a legitimate form of academic inquiry" and that "dogmatic opponents of design who demanded that the Center be shut down have met their Waterloo. Baylor University is to be commended for remaining strong in the face of intolerant assaults on freedom of thought and expression." [14]

This utter lie and attack on the university faculty and integrity finally even got to the university president, who asked Dembski to withdraw the press release. Dembski refused, calling Sloan's request McCarthyism. Finally, realizing what an absolute jerk and douche Dembski was, Sloan had him removed from any real position at Baylor and kept on as an "associate" but never asked to teach or engage the university in anyway. Finally in 2005 Baylor and Dembski officially parted ways.

Caroline Crocker's dissent

Caroline Crocker was a part-time faculty member at George Mason University where she primarily taught introduction level course in Biology. In her last year at the University she decided to give a series of lectures straight out of Kent Hovind videos. She ranted about the Cambrian explosion, the Miller-Urey experiment, and the multiple "types" of evolution. After the year was up her contract was over and it was not renewed. Crocker claims its because of her "lectures" while the university maintains it had nothing to do with that and that they just didn't need the part-time teaching anymore. [15]

Regardless of why she was actually fired the University would have been firmly with in their rights to dump her based on what she taught. She was nontenured temporary professor hired to teach Biology 101. She instead opted to to turn into a tirade against established scientific principles, a professional risk she chose to take. She flat out states in her interview that she would not teach any evidence for evolution because there "really isn't any" and that she saw as her role to fight against the entrenched dogma of science education and fact that her students brought into the classroom. [15] The university would have been with in its rights and probably ethical responsiblities to show her the door the moment she stated teaching lies, but they were tolerant and allowed her to finish out her contract.

Analysis

These are the major examples of "oppression" that ID shills bring up when talking about academic freedom. What can be seen by these examples is that they are very few in number and are instigated by the IDiot and not the University. In fact most of the Universities involved have gone out of their way to tolerate these loud, belligerent, liars in the name of academic freedom. Most of them should have been out the door for their original violations of ethics and standards, but all were kept on in various positions for well significant time afterwards. If any pattern can be found here it is that academia is far more tolerant of deluded professors than it should be.

References

  1. This is the first sentence of Wikipedia's entry on intelligent design, retrieved 2008-1-31. It is cited with two lengthy footnotes too messy to bring here.
  2. This is the first sentence of Wikipedia's entry on academic freedom, retrieved 2008-1-31.
  3. http://www.evolutionnews.org/2007/06/university_president_denies_ap.html
  4. http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070602/NEWS02/706020334/-1/SPORTS01/
  5. http://www.cs.utsa.edu/~wagner/creative_writing/tenure6.pdf
  6. Hagerty 2005
  7. http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=2177
  8. http://www.biolsocwash.org/id_statement.html
  9. http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110006220
  10. http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/2005/08/sternberg_compl.html
  11. http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2006/12/creating_a_martyr_the_sternber.php
  12. Statement from faculty at LeHigh
  13. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v434/n7037/box/4341062a_bx1.html
  14. Baylor documents
  15. 15.0 15.1 Eden and evolution from the Washington Post
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