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

On 9/12/07, David Heddle <heddle@gmail.com> wrote:
> You are right, the claim was not that granting tenure to Gonzalez would make
> ISU an ID university, the claim you made was much stronger, that Gonzalez
> was already causing "ISU to be seen as an ID school."

Which is why the petition, arguably, was submitted. Although, not as
much with reference to Gonzalez but to a much larger issue of
Intelligent Design and the 'abuse of science'.

>
> One person's strawmen are another person's counter-examples, I suppose. I am
> not sure why you can't get the point about Mirecki. To summarize:

> One professor (Mirecki) writing like a 10 year old did not cause UK to be
> seen as a university of prepubescent professors.

Really... And yet Mirecki resigned urged on by his colleagues...
Countless pundits called for Mirecki's resignation.

> One professor (Avalos) attempting to improperly influence the tenure process
> does not make ISU seen a university where professors engage in witch hunts.

And yet we have no evidence that Avalos attempted to influence the
tenure process, let alone improperly. Your accusations just have no
relevance to fact.

You are still missing the point. People, worried by Intelligent Design
and worried by how the DI was using the name of ISU to promote its
nonsense, decided to speak out.

<quote>We, the undersigned faculty members at Iowa State University,
reject all attempts to represent Intelligent Design as a scientific
endeavor. Methodical naturalism, the view that natural phenomena can
be explained without reference to supernatural beings or events, is
the foundation of the natural sciences. …Whether one believes in a
creator or not, views regarding a supernatural creator are, by their
very nature, claims of religious faith, and so not within the scope or
abilities of science.</quote>

As someone pointed out "The text of the petition is consistent with
statements published by the National Academies of Science, the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, many other
scientific organizations, and a federal judge."

http://www.ochuk.com/?p=1260

So perhaps you can explain to us how you reached your 'conclusions'
about Avalos, the tenure process and the 'improper nature' of Avalos'
actions?

<quote>Likewise, one professor (Gonzalez) writing pro-ID books did not
cause ISU to be seen as an ID university.</quote>

So you claim, and yet that is what some of those working at ISU
feared. Indeed, the work by Gonzalez and the ISU affiliation was used
by ID proponents to further their 'cause'.

Nuff said, Mirecki apologized, and resigned as department chair
voluntarily on the recommendation of the department faculty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mirecki

Mirecki also apologized for his words and canceled the class, some
pundits however continued to call for his resignation.

As to your other 'examples'

<quote>Butz's remarks have evoked the ire of a considerable majority
of Northwestern affiliates, and the university's president, Henry
Bienen, issued a statement condemning Butz's viewpoints, saying they
are an "embarrassment to Northwestern."

Sixty-one of Butz's own colleagues in the department of electrical
engineering and computer science published an official censure in
February, 2006, calling for Butz to "leave our Department and our
University and stop trading on our reputation for academic
excellence."[1] The Never Again Campaign[2] has over 10,000 signatures
on their Never Again Petition, which asks "that the Northwestern
community take decisive action to sever the name of our university
from Arthur Butz's bald denial of history"[3].
</quote>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Butz

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Received on Wed Sep 12 12:41:21 2007