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Unintelligent Design Hostility toward religious believers at the nation’s museum
National Review ^ | August 16, 2005 | David Klinghoffer

Posted on 08/18/2005 10:36:33 PM PDT by dervish

The Smithsonian Institution is a national treasure of which every American can legitimately feel a sense of personal ownership. Considering this, I'd imagine widespread displeasure as more Americans become aware that senior scientists at the publicly funded Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History have reportedly been creating a "hostile work environment" for one of their colleagues merely because he published a controversial idea in a biology journal.

The controversial idea is Intelligent Design, the scientific critique of neo-Darwinism. The persecuted Smithsonian scientist is Richard von Sternberg, the holder of two PhDs in biology (one in theoretical biology, the other in molecular evolution). While the Smithsonian disputes the case, Sternberg's version has so far been substantiated in an investigation by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), an independent federal agency.

A lengthy and detailed letter from OSC attorney James McVay, dated August 5, 2005, and addressed to Sternberg, summarizes the government's findings, based largely on e-mail traffic among top Smithsonian scientists. A particularly damning passage in the OSC letter reads:

Our preliminary investigation indicates that retaliation [against Sternberg by his colleagues] came in many forms. It came in the form of attempts to change your working conditions...During the process you were personally investigated and your professional competence was attacked. Misinformation was disseminated throughout the SI [Smithsonian Institution] and to outside sources. The allegations against you were later determined to be false. It is also clear that a hostile work environment was created with the ultimate goal of forcing you out of the SI. Meanwhile, on the basis of the "misinformation" directed against him, Sternberg's career prospects were being ruined.

'snip'

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: anothercrevothread; antireligious; crevolist; darwinism; enoughalready; evolution; hostileworkplace; intelligentdesign; klinghoffer; leftycensorship; nmnh; notagain; repressionofideas; richardvonsternberg; science; smithsonian
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To: orionblamblam

Very amusing. Anybody with an open mind realizes there is something out there.


61 posted on 08/19/2005 11:11:39 PM PDT by carumba
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To: LiteKeeper

> really look into what ID claims.

It claims nothing except to snipe at an established theory. ID is not science.


62 posted on 08/19/2005 11:15:01 PM PDT by orionblamblam ("You're the poster boy for what ID would turn out if it were taught in our schools." VadeRetro)
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To: tallhappy
It's pathetic and harms real sceintists and biologists.

I sincerely hope you don't include yourself among that group.

63 posted on 08/19/2005 11:18:19 PM PDT by Right Wing Professor (Intelligent Design is not a scientific theory - John Marburger, science advisor to George W. Bush)
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To: Ichneumon
Gosh, guys, I thought ID wasn't *about* religion...

Problem is, someone forgot to send the memo to the 'father of ID'

"Our strategy has been to change the subject a bit so that we can get the issue of intelligent design, which really means the reality of God, before the academic world and into the schools."

"This isn't really, and never has been a debate about science. It's about religion and philosophy."

Both quotes from Philip Johnson, author of 'Darwin on Trial'

64 posted on 08/19/2005 11:21:00 PM PDT by Right Wing Professor (Intelligent Design is not a scientific theory - John Marburger, science advisor to George W. Bush)
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To: dervish; Ichneumon
Gee, it sounds like this von Sternberg might just be one of those rare scientists with no agenda but a thirst for knowledge, a tragic flaw for him it would appear.

No. Sternberg is a member of the 'Baraminology Study Group' , a group of Young-Earth Creationists whose goal is to discover the 'original kinds' of the Bible. His statements that he is a disinterested scientist are just the usual creationist misdirection.

What is curious is that he published an ID paper by Meyer, when he himself doesn't beleive the Cambrian period existed, or at least existed when Meyer says it did. So not only did he violate journal policy, he violated his own personal beliefs, all in order to get a blow in at the common enemy, the theory of Evolution.

65 posted on 08/19/2005 11:29:33 PM PDT by Right Wing Professor (Intelligent Design is not a scientific theory - John Marburger, science advisor to George W. Bush)
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To: orionblamblam

It is late - so I will refrain from telling you that you are woefully uninformed.


66 posted on 08/19/2005 11:37:19 PM PDT by LiteKeeper (The radical secularization of America is happening)
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To: Right Wing Professor
You seem very bigotted without knowing it.
67 posted on 08/19/2005 11:37:45 PM PDT by tallhappy (Juntos Podemos!)
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To: LiteKeeper

Really? OK, then, enlighten me: what predictions does ID make? What falsification means are suggested?


68 posted on 08/19/2005 11:59:13 PM PDT by orionblamblam ("You're the poster boy for what ID would turn out if it were taught in our schools." VadeRetro)
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To: carumba

> Anybody with an open mind realizes there is something out there.

Yes. And that "something" is biological evolution.


69 posted on 08/20/2005 12:00:21 AM PDT by orionblamblam ("You're the poster boy for what ID would turn out if it were taught in our schools." VadeRetro)
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To: orionblamblam

Biological science does not include flap doodle. See: spontaneous generation, slimy soup, RNA world, or a special exemption from entropy.


70 posted on 08/20/2005 12:30:09 AM PDT by carumba
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To: Right Wing Professor

Did you read the statement in Post #55 where it says von Sternberg is a member even though he does NOT believe in Creationism?

Obviously you are not alone in trying to distort von Sternberg's positions otherwise Barminology would not have needed to place this on their web site.

So von Sternberg is on record publicly as not believing in Creationism but you and others insist you know his beliefs better?

"What is curious is that he published an ID paper by Meyer, when he himself doesn't beleive the Cambrian period existed, or at least existed when Meyer says it did. So not only did he violate journal policy, he violated his own personal beliefs, all in order to get a blow in at the common enemy, the theory of Evolution."

It's all just one big conspiracy.

The Evolution side of this debate is not looking very rational here. Or ethical.


71 posted on 08/20/2005 7:55:45 AM PDT by dervish (tagline for rent, inquire within)
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To: dervish
(I'm taking a sabbatical from FR at present, but I wanted to clear this one point up)

Did you read the statement in Post #55 where it says von Sternberg is a member even though he does NOT believe in Creationism?

And I have some swamp land in Florida to sell you. Why would one advertize one is on the board of a creationist organization if one doesn't subscribe to their core belief?

Sternberg is playing the same coy game on a personal level that the Discovery Institute is trying to play in national politics. Rather than advocate any particular position (which leaves that position open to examination and where the religious motivation of the position will be clear), simply pose as an Evolution skeptic. 'Teach the controversy'. Riiiight.

Problem is, science doesn't work that way. We don't replace theories with a high degree of content with nothing. And of course, he isn't replacing it with nothing; the baraminology study group specifically classes into biological kinds, or baramin, based on biblical criteria. If one doesn't subscribe to the criteria, then the classification and one's efforts are entirely pointless.

It's all just one big conspiracy.

it's a concerted political effort, certainly. There is substantial cooperation between two contradictory origins theories, YEC and OEC/ID. Both cannot be true. But they do have a common enemy in evolution, so for the moment they're collaborating.

Do you think we're fools? Save the disingenuousness for the School Board.

72 posted on 08/20/2005 8:33:36 AM PDT by Right Wing Professor (Intelligent Design is not a scientific theory - John Marburger, science advisor to George W. Bush)
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To: carumba

> Biological science does not include flap doodle.

You mean like superstitions, the supernatural or suggestions of meddling by aliens? You're right. Biological *science* does not contain such.


73 posted on 08/20/2005 8:51:17 AM PDT by orionblamblam ("You're the poster boy for what ID would turn out if it were taught in our schools." VadeRetro)
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To: orionblamblam
You mean like superstitions,...

Exactly, lets include all the silly superstitions like gradualism, abiogenesis, increasing complexity, and entropy is not universal.
74 posted on 08/20/2005 12:35:55 PM PDT by carumba
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Comment #75 Removed by Moderator

To: orionblamblam

The paper passed peer-review, and the peer-review file was checked and deemed appropriate by the president of the council. How is that superstitious? Have you even read the paper?


76 posted on 08/20/2005 7:48:08 PM PDT by johnnyb_61820
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To: dervish

It's not censorship, it's peer review. That's how science works. Science doesn't have to give equal time to nutjobs.


77 posted on 08/20/2005 7:59:14 PM PDT by Trimegistus
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To: orionblamblam
No, but then again neither does superstitious claptrap like ID.

Well, genius, rest assured you will have no more say in the process than I will.

78 posted on 08/20/2005 8:25:44 PM PDT by AndrewC (Darwinian logic -- It is just-so if it is just-so)
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To: Trimegistus
It's not censorship, it's peer review. That's how science works.

Where have you been? Science does not rest on peer review. It rests on experimentation.

79 posted on 08/20/2005 8:27:53 PM PDT by AndrewC (Darwinian logic -- It is just-so if it is just-so)
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To: orionblamblam
No, but then again neither does superstitious claptrap like ID.

One day you will bow before God and confess ID is the truth. I promise you this.

80 posted on 08/20/2005 8:31:02 PM PDT by Jorge
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