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

Posted on 03/11/2003 3:01:59 PM PST by Remedy

A university professor said she was asked to resign for introducing elite students to flaws in Darwinian thought, and she now says academic freedom at her school is just a charade.

During a recent honors forum at Mississippi University for Women (MUW), Dr. Nancy Bryson gave a presentation titled "Critical Thinking on Evolution" -- which covered alternate views to evolution such as intelligent design. Bryson said that following the presentation, a senior professor of biology told her she was unqualified and not a professional biologist, and said her presentation was "religion masquerading as science."

The next day, Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Vagn Hansen asked Bryson to resign from her position as head of the school's Division of Science and Mathematics.

"The academy is all about free thought and academic freedom. He hadn't even heard my talk," Bryson told American Family Radio News. "[W]ithout knowing anything about my talk, he makes that decision. I think it's just really an outrage."

Bryson believes she was punished for challenging evolutionary thought and said she hopes her dismissal will smooth the way for more campus debate on the theory of evolution. University counsel Perry Sansing said MUW will not comment on why Bryson was asked to resign because it is a personnel matter.

"The best reaction," Bryson says, "and the most encouraging reaction I have received has been from the students." She added that the students who have heard the talk, "They have been so enthusiastically supportive of me."

Bryson has contacted the American Family Association Center for Law and Policy and is considering taking legal action against the school.


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KEYWORDS: academialist
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To: ican'tbelieveit
Give me a break. You just don't like him because he is black

Oh look, the race card.

261 posted on 03/12/2003 2:43:37 PM PST by Right Wing Professor
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To: Right Wing Professor
You played it first.
262 posted on 03/12/2003 2:49:18 PM PST by ican'tbelieveit
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To: VadeRetro
Peanut butter.

Only in February. The rest of the year we give credit to our indigenous fellow citizens.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpeanutbutter.htm

263 posted on 03/12/2003 2:49:28 PM PST by Right Wing Professor
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To: ican'tbelieveit
Huh?
264 posted on 03/12/2003 2:50:08 PM PST by Right Wing Professor
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To: VadeRetro
My point was that George Washington Carver was a great Chemist and man of science--I was appealing to RWProfessor's self-purported realm of knowledge as a chemistry professor, you know. Given RWP's ignorance, I rather doubt that he is one.

My point in initially posing the question on this thread was that George Washington Carver gave the glory to God for everything discovery he made. He was a lovely, humble Christian and believed in God the Creator. This would disqualify him, according to RWP, from holding a head teaching position in a school.

Laughable, no?

265 posted on 03/12/2003 2:51:01 PM PST by The Grim Freeper
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To: ican'tbelieveit
But I hope my children never come into contact with RWP in a classroom.

My standard answer to this is that, since intelligence is largely inherited, the hope is mutual.

266 posted on 03/12/2003 2:53:07 PM PST by Right Wing Professor
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To: Right Wing Professor
I expect more of my children than your childishness and unwillingness to accept that people different than yourself can be successful. Since you do not know my accomplishments, you cannot possibly be able to insult me.
267 posted on 03/12/2003 2:56:21 PM PST by ican'tbelieveit
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To: The Grim Freeper
He was a lovely, humble Christian and believed in God the Creator. This would disqualify him, according to RWP, from holding a head teaching position in a school.

Are you telling the truth here?

268 posted on 03/12/2003 2:57:03 PM PST by VadeRetro
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To: Right Wing Professor
I've seen the name mentioned in connection with Black History month;

it seems unlikely to me he would even be remembered if he were not African American.

But the rest of the stuff surrounding him appears to this observer very much like Black-History-Month-style racial tokenism, something I find patronizing and offensive. All posted by you.

269 posted on 03/12/2003 3:00:22 PM PST by ican'tbelieveit
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To: VadeRetro
Was this really your first clue that science doesn't do proofs?

No, but it's rare, verrrrry rare, when one of you concedes anything.

270 posted on 03/12/2003 3:00:59 PM PST by Dataman
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To: VadeRetro
M'god, what a mucked up thread.
271 posted on 03/12/2003 3:01:39 PM PST by PatrickHenry (The universe is made for life, therefore ID. Life can't arise naturally, therefore ID.)
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To: ican'tbelieveit
That's right. I said a lot of the attention paid to Carver is because he was African American, a fair and defensible opinion. I didn't accuse anyone personally of being racist, as you accused me.
272 posted on 03/12/2003 3:04:12 PM PST by Right Wing Professor
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To: Dataman
No, but it's rare, verrrrry rare, when one of you concedes anything.

Are you sure the answer is "No?" You dimwits are always screaming "unproven." We're always having to tell you that in real-world science theories may be disproven but not proven. I seem to remember from your first pass on the crevo threads that you were fond of creationist amnesia, starting every thread "born again" and not remembering a thing from previous discussions.

273 posted on 03/12/2003 3:06:39 PM PST by VadeRetro
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To: Right Wing Professor
If he were white, and had his list of accomplishments, this would be a moot point, he would be a respected scientist.
274 posted on 03/12/2003 3:06:59 PM PST by ican'tbelieveit
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To: Right Wing Professor
How does (( evolution )) ...

spontaneous (( magic )) -- morphing (( flux )) ...

matter and life become science ---

silly isn't it !


275 posted on 03/12/2003 3:12:41 PM PST by f.Christian (( + God =Truth + love courage // LIBERTY logic + SANITY + Awakening + ))
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To: Right Wing Professor
You have no idea what my work time is.

I'm a faculty kid. I have a pretty good idea:

1) It ain't likely that an instructor in a state college can post between 8am and 5pm on a regular basis without cutting into school time and

2) It is not dangerous to do so since the education unions protect all sorts of unproductive activities.

You cannot argue that both statements are correct. You can plead your own special case, though.

276 posted on 03/12/2003 3:13:37 PM PST by Dataman
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To: ican'tbelieveit
If he were white, and had his list of accomplishments, this would be a moot point, he would be a respected scientist.

Carver has three articles cited in Scifinder, the American Chemical Society's standard journal search engine. Two are patents on inorganic dyes, small variations on existing technology, and one is an article on cultivation of sweet potatoes. Gilbert Nathan Lewis, a chemist of the same generation, and a genuinely great one, whose work is mentioned in every freshman chemistry text (Lewis acids; Lewis structures, etc.), has 81. On the other hand, search google, and you'll find hundreds of hits for Carver, while you'll have to wade through pages of irrelevant google hits to find a biography of Lewis. Carver has a National Park devoted to him. Lewis grew up a few blocks from where I sit, but no one knows exactly where, because the farmhouse is long gone and forgotten. So which one is being ignored on account of his race?

277 posted on 03/12/2003 3:16:06 PM PST by Right Wing Professor
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To: Right Wing Professor
You have not told us of your scientific accomplishments. We wait breathlessly.
278 posted on 03/12/2003 3:17:36 PM PST by The Grim Freeper
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To: The Grim Freeper
We wait breathlessly.

Excellent. Then in three minutes or so you'll be comatose

279 posted on 03/12/2003 3:21:10 PM PST by Right Wing Professor
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To: Right Wing Professor
Oh look, the race card.

Ummm, that was already done early in the thread by one of your peers when he used holocaust denail as a basis of comparison to the teacher.

280 posted on 03/12/2003 3:21:16 PM PST by Hacksaw (She's not that kind of girl, Booger.)
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