Professor Dumped Over Evolution Beliefs

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/112003a.asp ^ | March 11, 2003 | Jim Brown and Ed Vitagliano

[beckett]

The jackbooted Inquisitors running our institutions of higher learning strike again. Literally thousands of unanswered and disputed questions surround evolutionary theory, but if anyone sticks his or her head up to point out that little inconvenient fact, the dogmatists hammer it back down with a swift and sure stroke that would be the envy of Torquemada himself.

[Right Wing Professor]

Exactly what spontaneous generation macroevolution is.

Now you're just making stuff up. Evolution says species evolve from other species, not by spontaneous generation.

[Right Wing Professor]

So is biology.

[Right Wing Professor]

He's back with the jackboots.

[f.Christian]

Torquemada himself ...

I was thinking of pharoh ---

"let my people go" ... Moses !

[coramdeo]

I think the point that has gotten lost in this thread is that she is being punished for simply asking people to think critically about evolution. I'm sorry, but the reaction to her talk smacks of religious zealots who see infidels at the doorstep, not academics who disagree over scientific views.

Why is evolution the only topic in American education not open to criticism? Evolutionists themselves have had to revise their theories almost constantly.

Why are the high priests of evolution so afraid of honest discussion? I think the answer is that for many who want to maintain their devotion to non-theistic naturalism, evolution is a key religious doctrine. So, at the first sign of heresy, bring on the Spanish Inquisition.

[Right Wing Professor]

but what actual science is she rejecting?

Gosh, I'm assuming you can read as well as I can, but the article says "Bryson believes she was punished for challenging evolutionary thought".

If someone challenges the second law of thermodynamics (and the US patent office gets hundreds of schemes that do that) I'm going to say that person shouldn't be running a chemistry department, because they really don't understand chemistry. I'll make an exception if they're a specialist in stat. mech. and they really have some basis for the challenge, though given the sound basis for the second law I'd be astonished. She, on the other hand, is not challenging evolution, the central paradigm of modern biology, on any research-based basis; her research, such as it is, is in chemistry. She's likely just parroting the usual creationist nonsense.

[LeeMcCoy]

"Stay outta court."

Now what is that supposed to mean...? That even though I'm a Christian I have no right to my beliefs? Or are you afraid that I will give evolutionists more cannon fodder?

I am a born-again Christian and I also happen to be a scientist. I know that God created the Universe and all that is in it, we differ only in our opinion as to HOW He made it. The evidence thus far points to a very long history, but frankly, I don't care how He did it. What matters to me is that He did, and in the process He created this wonderful world we live in.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[f.Christian]

Natural selection ... survival of the fittest --- evolution ruse --- rules the roost !

[Right Wing Professor]

Why is evolution the only topic in American education not open to criticism

We generally don't ask students to 'think critically' about other established scientific laws either. By and large, we regard them as well-established by a large body of experimental work, to which undergraduate students don't have extensive access; and 'critical thinking' about such laws is not a useful pedagogical technique.

[Pipe Dog]

I just assume both theories are just that--- theories. One is just as good as the other until God does decide to say something.

That's your opinion and your entitled to it. However, why aren't both theories taught?

[ml/nj]

So is biology.

I thought this was a thread about evolution.

Evolution has as much to do with biology as theories about the origin of the solar system have to do with chemistry, which is nothing.

ML/NJ

[The Duke]

I've heard that Darwin himself repudiated his own theory
in later years - can anyone corraborate?

[Right Wing Professor]

Evolution has as much to do with biology as theories about the origin of the solar system have to do with chemistry, which is nothing.

Your unsupported opinion on this is a waste of electrons.

Do a google seach using the search terms evolution, paradigm, biology. You'll find most every biology department in the country disagrees with you.

[edger]

Professor,

Do you not recognize the difference between the LAWS of thermodynamics and the THEORY of evolution? Truly?

Incredible.

[Right Wing Professor]

Do you not recognize the difference between the LAWS of thermodynamics and the THEORY of evolution? Truly?

The difference is purely a matter of nomeclature, and is an accident of history. Evolution is a scientific law in the same sense as any other scientific law.

Incredible.

Want to know another amazing fact? The world isn't flat, it's nearly spherical.

[MattAMiller]

Why is evolution the only topic in American education not open to criticism?

I bet Holocaust denying professors don't last long. Why are the high priests of evolution so afraid of honest discussion?

There's nothing honest about creationism.

[MattAMiller]

I've heard that Darwin himself repudiated his own theory in later years - can anyone corraborate?

Not that it would matter if he did, but no. Here's a link The Lady Hope Story

[ml/nj]

Your unsupported opinion on this is a waste of electrons.

Well. Gee. Thanks for your evaluation.

Tell me "Professor," what was wrong with my analogy? Did you ever take chemistry? I did, a bit. I don't remember any of my courses considering where all those atoms came from. According to the MW9 I have at hand, biology is "a branch of knowledege that deals with living organisms." I believe living is the operative word.

ML/NJ