Before the Christian community has its normal reaction to turn Bill Dembski
into a martyr of evil evolutionists, a few things need to be said.
I attended and reviewed The Nature of Nature Conference in Waco earlier this
year. I thoroughly enjoyed the conference and thought it was well done. (see
http://www.flash.net/~mortongr/wacofinal.htm). In that final comment I also
mentioned that Baylor was going to kill the Polanyi Center. The reason I
felt that way was that the Polanyi Center had been set up without any
faculty input whatsoever. That enraged the Baylor science faculty. The
faculty felt that this had been an underhanded way of founding the Center.
I asked Paul Nelson about this one evening at the conference. Paul said
something to the effect that if they had not taken that road, the Polanyi
Center would never have been set up. I then asked Paul if they really
trusted God? I further asked if it was OK to do things in an out of the
ordinary way as long as we were doing it for God? Because of the anger I
saw with some of the Baylor faculty, I felt that the Polanyi Center was
doomed and said so in all my reviews.
Well, I was wrong--at least until Bill Dembski opened his big mouth. Baylor
released a press release (http://pr.baylor.edu/polanyi) saying that the
Polanyi Center would survive, its name would be changed, and that a faculty
committee would be appointed to over see it. Dembski was referred to as the
Director and was presumably to remain director. The press release stated:
"The report further stated that "the committee wishes to make it clear that
it considers research on the logical structure of mathematical arguments for
intelligent design to have a legitimate claim to a place in current
discussions of the relations of religion and the sciences." Polanyi Center
Director William Dembski's research and writings in the area of intelligent
design have been the most controversial aspects of the Center's work, even
though its academic mission is much broader."
GRM: The ID group had won their case and with a small set of changes, the
Center would continue. That is until Dembski sent out the following
dance-on-their-graves press release (Notice that Dembski himself refers to
himself as 'director'.):
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 18:03:54 -0400
Reply-To: "William A. Dembski (by way of William Grassie)"
<William_Dembski@BAYLOR.EDU>
Sender: Metanews <metanews@META-LIST.ORG>
From: "William A. Dembski (by way of William Grassie)"
<William_Dembski@BAYLOR.EDU>
Subject: Polanyi Center Press Release
Comments: To: metanews@meta-list.org
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
The Michael Polanyi Center Peer Review Committee has now released its
official report (http://pr.baylor.edu/pdf/001017polanyi.pdf) and the Baylor
University administration has responded to the report
(http://pr.baylor.edu/feat.fcgi?2000.10.17.polanyi). As director of the
Center, I wish to offer the following comment:
The report marks the triumph of intelligent design as a legitimate form of
academic inquiry. This is a great day for academic freedom. I'm deeply
grateful to President Sloan and Baylor University for making this possible,
as well as to the peer review committee for its unqualified affirmation of
my own work on intelligent design. The scope of the Center will be expanded
to embrace a broader set of conceptual issues at the intersection of science
and religion, and the Center will therefore receive a new name to reflect
this expanded vision. My work on intelligent design will continue unabated.
Dogmatic opponents of design who demanded 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.
Sincerely, Bill Dembski
***end of press release***
One thing is universal in all organizations. When you win a close one, KEEP
YOUR MOUTH SHUT. This gloating, rub-the-salt-in-the-wounds-of-your-opponents
press release, ended up costing Dembski the Directorship. By calling his
opponents 'dogmantic' and by saying that they had 'met their Waterloo',
Dembski further inflamed his enemies and gave them a hammer with which to
beat him into the ground. This note was taken as evidence that Bill would
not be 'collegial' and the faculty uproar began again. Bill did this to
himself, no one else is to blame. He could have kept silent and his enemies
would have been frustrated. But because of Dembski's apparent belief that he
can say whatever he feels, Baylor then removed him from the Director's chair
graciously allowing him to remain on staff as a Associate Professor. Baylor
sent out the following in relation to Dembski's removal.
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 18:54:22 -0400
Reply-To: William Grassie <grassie@PC4RS.ORG>
Sender: Metanews <metanews@META-LIST.ORG>
From: William Grassie <grassie@PC4RS.ORG>
Subject: Dembski relieved of duties as Polanyi Center Director
Comments: To: metanews@meta-list.org
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
Date: 10/19/00 11:32 AM From: Larry Brumley DEMBSKI RELIEVED OF DUTIES AS
POLANYI CENTER DIRECTOR
William Dembski was relieved of his duties as director of Baylor
University's Michael Polanyi Center today. He will remain associate
professor in conceptual foundations of science within the university's
Institute for Faith and Learning.
The action follows by two days the release of a peer review committee's
report on the Polanyi Center that affirmed the academic work of the center
while calling for the appointment of a faculty advisory committee and the
dropping of the Polanyi name.
"The theme of the report emphasized the need for the individuals associated
with the center to work in a collegial manner with other members of the
Baylor faculty," said Dr. Michael Beaty, director of the Institute for Faith
and Learning, which houses the center. "Dr. Dembski's actions after the
release of the report compromised his ability to serve as director."
Dr. Bruce Gordon, associate director of the center, has been appointed
interim director of the program. Gordon holds a Ph.D. in the history and
philosophy of physics from Northwestern University, as well as degrees in
mathematics, philosophy, theology and piano performance. He was recently a
postdoctoral fellow of the Center for Philosophy of Religion at the
University of Notre Dame, and is presently at work on a series of articles
leading to a book on the metaphysical import of quantum statistics.
**end of Baylor's Press release****
In other words, Dembski shot himself in the foot. But the foot shootings
were not over. After this, Dembski sent out the following press release,
which appears to naively thinks that one can publically criticize the man
with all the power and get him to change his mind. And like a wounded animal
that bites the hand of those trying to help him, Dembski lashed out at
President Sloan in what I view as a petulent display of immaturity which I
think will eventually have further consequences for Dembski's situation.
Here is what Dembski said:
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 18:58:08 -0400
Reply-To: "William A. Dembski (by way of William Grassie)"
<William_Dembski@BAYLOR.EDU>
Sender: Metanews <metanews@META-LIST.ORG>
From: "William A. Dembski (by way of William Grassie)"
<William_Dembski@BAYLOR.EDU>
Subject: Dembski's Response to His Removal
Comments: To: metanews@meta-list.org
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
October 19, 2000: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
STATEMENT BY WILLIAM DEMBSKI ON HIS REMOVAL AS DIRECTOR OF THE MICHAEL
POLANYI CENTER AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Baylor University President Robert Sloan has removed me as director of the
Michael Polanyi Center despite his having personally solicited me to come to
Baylor and establish the Center as a means of furthering work on intelligent
design. Some Baylor faculty have exerted enormous pressure on Baylor to
disassociate the university from me and my research. Earlier President Sloan
had properly characterized these efforts as "intellectual McCarthyism."
Because I released a press statement (see below) applauding the results of
the peer review committee that passed upon and approved the academic
soundness of my work, I am now being labeled as not "collegial" and the
statement is said to have fatally compromised my ability to serve as
Director. My press release allowed me publicly to state my full support for
the results of the peer review committee report. Having made that statement,
I then expected to proceed full steam ahead to implement the committee's
recommendations by expanding the scope of the center while still focusing my
own research on intelligent design -- just as the peer review committee
recommended and President Sloan agreed.
Instead, I was informed that my press release created a "firestorm" on
campus. Shockingly, the administration formally asked me to retract my press
release. I explained that the press release accurately conveyed how I
perceived the outcome of the peer review committee and that for me to
retract it would be tantamount to giving in to the censorship and
vilification against me that had been a constant feature since I arrived on
campus. I could not and would not betray all that I have worked for in my
professional career.
In the utmost of bad faith, the administration claimed my refusal to retract
my press release constituted a lack of collegiality on my part and charged
that this compromised my ability to serve as director, thereby providing the
fig leaf of justification for my removal. Intellectual McCarthyism has, for
the moment, prevailed at Baylor. The announcement of my removal from the
Polanyi Center directorship states that I am to be kept on in my capacity as
an Associate Professor in Baylor's Institute for Faith and Learning. I look
forward in that capacity to continuing to work on intelligent design and its
implications.
------Previous Press Release of October 17, 2000------
The Michael Polanyi Center Peer Review Committee has now released its
official report (http://pr.baylor.edu/pdf/001017polanyi.pdf) and the Baylor
University administration has responded to the report
(http://pr.baylor.edu/feat.fcgi?2000.10.17.polanyi). As director of the
Center, I wish to offer the following comment:
The report marks the triumph of intelligent design as a legitimate form of
academic inquiry. This is a great day for academic freedom. I'm deeply
grateful to President Sloan and Baylor University for making this possible,
as well as to the peer review committee for its unqualified affirmation of
my own work on intelligent design. The scope of the Center will be expanded
to embrace a broader set of conceptual issues at the intersection of science
and religion, and the Center will therefore receive a new name to reflect
this expanded vision. My work on intelligent design will continue unabated.
Dogmatic opponents of design who demanded 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.
***end of Dembski's second Press release****
Dembski made many serious mistakes in judgement here. He re-posted his
original press release--after he had been asked to withdraw it (teenage
rebellion?). Secondly and more seriously, he publically criticised the
administration. No manager gets away with this type of loose cannon
approach. Indeed, no employee gets away with it. Try sending out press
releases about the president of your company that criticize him like this!
How long do you think it would take for you to have to pack your bags?
Dembski said the administration had engaged in 'bad faith'and that the
administration has yielded to 'intellectual McCarthyism'. As an 8-year
survivor of mid-level management I can say this, Dembski has a lot to learn
about management. If I said the same things about my vice-president or
President, I would know full well that I would have to find employment
elsewhere. Apparently Dembski is too inexperienced to know that one doesn't
embarass the boss and expect to survive. And boy, has Bill embarassed Sloan,
who stood by him during most of the controversy. Sloan now looks like a
fool for having fought for the Polanyi Center. What a 'thank you' for his
efforts. And I have heard that someone paid a lot of money to Baylor to form
the center. What a 'thank you' Dembski has given to that financial
contributor whose money will now be spend by others with possibly different
viewpoints. What a mess.
I am certain that Bill will be hailed as a martyr for the cause of Christ
soon, but in fact, he is a martyr to his mouth and poor judgement. Bill had
won the battle but allowed his arrogant gloating and his childish
rebelliousness to the administration to bring him down. What happened to the
Christian virtue of obedience to authority when Bill was asked to withdraw
his press release? While Dembski believes that a retraction would 'betray
his 'professional career', in fact his obstinance brought down his efforts
to achieve his professional goals. His refusal could not be construed as a
Biblical stand as no where in the Bible does it say 'William Dembski can say
whatever he wants with no consequences'. It is truly a shame as the Nature
of Nature Conference was really a great conference. It is unfortunate that
Bill's mouth will prevent other similar conferences from being staged. It is
also a shame that anywhere else that such a center is formed (where Bill can
engage mouth before thinking) will have less prestige than Baylor.
And if we Christians turn Dembski into a martyr over this, we are supporting
rebelliousness, and naivete rather than the cause of Christ. But I bet I
know what we Christians will do--martyrdom is so much fun and plays so well
on Christian radio.
p.s. all press releases are available from http://www.meta-list.org/
glenn
see http://www.flash.net/~mortongr/dmd.htm
for lots of creation/evolution information
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