Posted on 10/06/2005 5:04:43 AM PDT by gobucks
University of Idaho President Tim White has entered the debate pitting Charles Darwin's theories of life against religious-based alternatives by forbidding anything other than evolution from being taught in the Moscow school's life, earth and physical science classes.
White's edict came as a U of I biologist, Scott Minnich, a supporter of the "intelligent design" theory, was set to testify in a Pennsylvania lawsuit brought by eight families trying to have this theory, branded as a new form of creationism, dropped from a school district's biology curriculum. Minnich was asked to testify on behalf of the district.
Hours after White's letter reached students, staff and faculty on Tuesday, the Discovery Institute, a Seattle public policy group that funds research into intelligent design, blasted the order as an unconstitutional assault on academic freedom and free speech.
White said in his letter that teachings of views that differ from evolution may occur in religion, philosophy or similar courses.
Intelligent design is the belief that Darwin's mechanism of natural selection inadequately explains the origins of different life forms. It argues that natural selection fails to fully explain how extremely varied and complex life forms emerged during the past 600 million years. It concludes that guidance from some external intelligence that many interpret as God must be involved.
With Idaho now in the debate, disputes over evolution are unfolding in at least 19 states. In August, President Bush weighed in, saying he thought people should be taught about different ideas — including intelligent design.
Officials at the National Center for Science Education say White is likely the first U.S. university president to come out with an official position. The center advocates against incorporating theories such as intelligent design into science curricula on grounds they introduce religion into the subject matter.
"Departments have issued statements, and scientific groups have issued statements," said Glenn Branch, the Oakland, Calif.-based center's deputy director. "But I can't think of a university president who's issued a statement like this."
White wrote that national media attention on the issue prompted the letter.
"This (evolution) is the only curriculum that is appropriate to be taught in our biophysical sciences," he wrote. "Teaching of views that differ from evolution may occur in faculty-approved curricula in religion, sociology, philosophy, political science or similar courses. However, teaching of such views is inappropriate in our life, earth, and physical science courses."
Harold Gibson, a school spokesman, said the views of Minnich, a tenured professor in the school's College of Agriculture, didn't prompt the letter.
Rather, White was staking out a position on an issue that's emerged as a successor to "creationism" after that Biblical explanation was barred from the nation's schoolhouses in 1987 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Minnich didn't return Associated Press calls for comment.
But members of the Discovery Institute — founded in 1990 by Bruce Chapman, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Organizations in Vienna under President Reagan — lambasted White's edict as an intrusion into the academic freedom of Idaho professors.
John West, the associate director of the institute's Center for Science and Culture, said White's move restricting science curricula to discussions of evolution broadly restricts teaching anything that contradicts Darwin's ideas on the role of mutation and natural selection in the development of life — even by scientists not advocating intelligent design.
In addition, limiting classes where evolution alternatives can be discussed violates free speech protections, he said.
"He (White) is saying, 'If you're a teacher in philosophy, we may allow you to do this. But in science, it just doesn't cut it,' West said. "In any other area, this would be preposterous."
White's letter came just a week before Eugenie C. Scott, an activist who's fought to segregate creationism and intelligent design from science classes, is due to speak at the University of Idaho on Oct. 12.
Scott said the school's science faculty, who invited her, haven't explicitly mentioned Minnich as motivation for bringing her for a lecture titled "Why Scientists Reject Intelligent Design."
Still, "the elephant in the living room is: there is a proponent of intelligent design on the faculty of the University of Idaho," said Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education. "Biologists across the country have examined intelligent design as a scientific model, and found it seriously lacking."
How interesting.
How does creationism qualify as a science course, since it has absolutely no scientific foundation?
Creationism will be a science course when the courts promote it to such status thorugh intellectual affermative action. The Dover, PA case is the first of many. The Univeristy of California is being sued over denying admission to science programs for students that studied creationism in Christian high schools. I suspect there is a strategy to use the courts to force creationism and ID into science classes all the way from kindergraden through graduate school. There are people that want even graduate level biology programs to be forced by the government, through treats of funding, and the courts to stop using evolution and use only ID and creationism. These people will not be satsfied until science is replaced by theology.
That's not the issue. The issue is whether administrators should tell professors what they can or can't mention in a class.
Suppose an administrator said that no economics course could mention Adam Smith ... or that no economics course could mention Karl Marx? Either way, it's a question of control over the content of courses.
ID begs the question by pre-supposing an intelligent creator. Furthermore, a mere question, no matter what the topic, does not make a science. Neither ID nor creationism are based upon the scientific method.
Nevertheless, as a past chairman of our University's Academic Standards Committee, I can answer your question. The curricula are established by the University Faculty Senate, or a subset thereof: The Academic Standards Committee. The chief admninistrator is responsible to oversee that the curricula are followed. Putting non-scientific content, such as the super-naturalism of ID or creationism, into science courses violates the academic standards.
Thanks, but pass.
Just an FYI ping.
No, it doesn't. You've overlooked your own definition, to wit: "...according to scientific method – a process for evaluating empirical knowledge; or The organized body of knowledge gained by such research."
To a scientist, science, first of all, is a method of inquiry. Those unfamiliar with science often cannot grasp this fact and try, instead, to elevate science to a status as being one of the ultimate search for truth. It is not.
Science has inherent limitations and, as such, does not search for truth among the supernatural or non-empirical.
It's a good start. Now if only we can get rid of nuttiness which has infected the social sciences and humanities, we would be able to return our learning institutions to their former glories. We should still keep a few radical feminists around, but only on display, as evidence of our common ancestry with apes.
>If it is taught as science, it will only confuse what is the meaning of science and will denigrate all scientific disciplines,
That's an illinformed piece of fiction.The major principles that form the bed rock for science and the scientific method were developed by creationist before Darwin was born.Francis Bacon etc.
> To humanists, any suggestion of uncertainty in any element of evolution is unforgivable.
This is, of course, patently absurd. Take a look at the current state of evolutionary science; it's constantly in flux as new information comes in. This is as it should be in a *real* science.
> The major principles that form the bed rock for science and the scientific method were developed by creationist before Darwin was born.Francis Bacon etc.
You forgot to mention that the major principles that form the bed rock for science and the scientific method were developed by ancient Greek pagans, atheists and agnostics. Aristarchos, Archimedes, etc.
The point is that teaching about intelligent design and the weaknesses of the evolution theory will not retard science education or development in the US.
"The point is that teaching about intelligent design and the weaknesses of the evolution theory will not retard science education or development in the US."
It will when the alleged *weaknesses* don't exist. ID is an argument from ignorance and incredulity.
Here's your whole quote: "Reasoned investigation or study of nature, aimed at finding out the truth. Such an investigation is normally felt to be necessarily methodical, or according to scientific method – a process for evaluating empirical knowledge; or The organized body of knowledge gained by such research. Science is knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through the scientific method. Scientific knowledge relies heavily upon logic."
Relying heavily upon logic does not mean relying solely upon logic. Logic that is based upon emirical observation is the key here, not logic based upon the pre-suppostion of the supernatural. Logic alone does not make a science.
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