Re: [asa] Can God Love Darwin, Too?

The story Pim links is important. The president of Olivet was in a tough
spot, given the views of certain constituents (no school can survive if it
just ignores its constituents), and I understand his decision in that light.
 Our president (not our current president) made a similar call many years
ago, banning the use of the film, "The Last Temptation of Christ," in
classes when important questions were raised over how it was being used in a
couple of classes. I supported that decision. Obviously I am not close to
the situation at Olivet, but I disturbed by the decision to remove Colling
from teaching the general biology course. In the absence of further
information (I stress that), this seems similar to what happened to Dean
Kenyon, who was also moved out of teaching general biology when he became a
critic of evolution. It's hard to know how to balance academic freedom with
an institution's commitment to it's own understanding of truth.

Going beyond anything in this story, I do not see much parallel here with
the petition against Guillermo Gonzalez, who was not teaching ID in his
courses. That one continues to be for me a black & white situation: the
facts continue to suggest to me that Avalos was worried about Gonzalez' ties
to conservative Christians, and sought to discredit him via a petition
directed at Gonzalez' book, not his classroom teaching. Incidentally, I
spoke not long ago with someone who signed that petition entirely without
having knowledge of the context (I won't say more about that), someone who
is not a theist but who has come to regret signing the petition, b/c this
person now sees it as an unwarranted attack on Gonzalez' academic freedom.

Ted
 

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Received on Tue Sep 11 09:55:51 2007