Posted on 10/06/2005 12:32:21 PM PDT by NYer
A fellow Catholic is now being persecuted, in no small part, because of his religion.
You haven’t heard about it — nor are you likely to — precisely because it is just the kind of story the reigning media assiduously ignore. The powers-that-be are trying to round up scientist Richard Sternberg and hound him out of town (the town, in this instance being Washington, D.C.). All in the name of secularist ideology posing as science.
Before we turn to Sternberg’s interesting case, we should recall the recent clarifying words about evolutionary theory by Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna Christoph Schonborn in his now-famous New York Times op-ed, “Finding Design in Nature.”
“The Catholic Church, while leaving to science many details about the history of life on earth, proclaims that by the light of reason the human intellect can readily and clearly discern purpose and design in the natural world, including the world of living things. Evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense — an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection — is not. Any system of thought that denies or seeks to explain away the overwhelming evidence for design in biology is ideology, not science.” (emphasis added)
Sternberg is being driven out of his job as a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History by ideologues.
A little background: Rick Sternberg is extremely well qualified for his position. He has two Ph.D.s in evolutionary biology — one in molecular evolution and the other in systems theory and theoretical biology. He has published more than 30 very technical articles in respected biological journals.
Everyone was quite happy with his work, both as staff scientist with the National Center for Biotechnology Information and as a research associate at the Smithsonian.
All was well until Sternberg, as managing editor of the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, allowed a technical paper critical of neo-Darwinism to be published: “The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories,” written by Steven Meyer.
Meyer’s Ph.D. is in the history and philosophy of science from Cambridge University. He is an advocate of Intelligent Design.
Instead of engaging Meyer’s paper through argument, the powers-that-be simply dismissed it as religious tripe, and began attacking Sternberg with startlingly underhanded animus, doing anything they could to make his life miserable to indelibly soil his reputation and to drive him out the Smithsonian.
First, Smithsonian officials tried to remove him directly, charging that as managing editor he had violated the publication process. But Sternberg followed the procedure perfectly. He discussed publication with a fellow scientist at the Smithsonian, and before publication he had the article peer-reviewed by three molecular and evolutionary biologists — all with doctoral degrees.
Unable to trump up any legitimate charges, Smithsonian officials went after him indirectly, creating an intolerable work environment, smearing him with false allegations, pressuring the National Center for Biotechnology Information to fire him, and worst of all, investigating his personal religious and political beliefs behind the scenes.
The interesting thing in regard to this last skullduggery of prying into his religion is that Sternberg is not an advocate of Intelligent Design, but of the structuralist approach to biology. But the assumption of those “digging for dirt” was that, if he believed in God, then his skull was obviously soft enough to admit Meyer’s paper rather than reject it outright.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel was called in to investigate. Its officials decided unambiguously in Sternberg’s favor, although officials at the Smithsonian have now stoutly refused to cooperate with the investigation. Small wonder, given their less-than-admirable methods of trying to destroy Sternberg.
Reading the Special Council’s report is an eye-opener. Before the Smithsonian stopped cooperating with the investigation, behind-the-scenes e-mail correspondence was gathered by investigators. It is clear from reading them that Smithsonian officials had little but contempt for religious believers:
“After spending 4.5 years in the Bible Belt,” said one,” I have learned how to carefully phrase things in order to avoid the least amount of negative repercussions for the kids. … The most fun we had by far was when my son refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance because of the ‘under dog’ part.”
Charming. The e-mails reveal what is truly behind the “careful phrasing” of these scientist-administrators. They are secularist ideologues with a barely suppressed disdain for believers.
“It is clear that I was targeted for retaliation and harassment explicitly because I failed in an unstated requirement in my role as editor of a scientific journal,” Sternberg contends. “I was supposed to be a gatekeeper turning away unpopular, controversial, or conceptually challenging explanations of puzzling natural phenomena. Instead I allowed a scientific article to be published critical of neo-Darwinism, and that was considered an unpardonable heresy.”
Interesting, isn’t it? Can you imagine a scientist of Sternberg’s stature being persecuted because he allowed a paper to be published that concluded evolution occurs as “an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection” and that consequently all notions of a Creator God are entirely groundless? Of course not. That’s orthodoxy. Or is it ideology masquerading as science?
One thing is for certain. Sternberg is still being persecuted behind the scenes for daring to allow science to question science.
I thought he merely published an article written by someone else with which he didn't even necessarily agree.
People like this do the cause of Christ harm.
Apparently J*sus only wants intellecutals to follow him. Did all those millions of illiterate peasants who belonged to your Church in the Middle Ages realize what a disgrace to "the cause of Chr*st" they were?
The interesting thing in regard to this last skullduggery of prying into his religion is that Sternberg is not an advocate of Intelligent Design, but of the structuralist approach to biology. But the assumption of those “digging for dirt” was that, if he believed in God, then his skull was obviously soft enough to admit Meyer’s paper rather than reject it outright.
The good Cardinal should stick to his knitting. Clearly he doesn't understand evolution or science. In the first place, there is no "overwhelming evidence for design in biology." For that to be true, we'd need overwhelming evidence of a designer's intent. In the second, evolution seeks to explain, not explain away as he claims, certain patterns (aka apparent design) seen in biological organisms.
Your average Darwinist says little about the gay agenda or the scourge of abortion. Those two topics simply don't rate the attention that the threat from Bible thumpers merits. Gotta wonder just why that is...
Are you joking with me or are you baiting?...Disingenuousness can be hard to detect in the written form...only can hear it the voice.
To the Evolutionary elite Sternburg is an evil Christian out to pervert and distort the true ideology of Evolutionary
socialist...uhh no... THEORY...yeah THEORY thats the ticket. Doesn't Sternberg understand that the elites need religious and moral Liebestraum or living space? Shame on him anyway!
The article indicates that these folks aren't just Darwinists, but all-out anti-religious loo-loos.
I was joking, based on the previous poster's implication that the name "von Sternberg!" was relevant. Lots of times my humor doesn't come through on FR - I'm extremely straight-faced in person, too :-) - but it spoils the fun if I have to flag every comment.
pingout tomorrow.
"Because evolution isn't about gay rights or abortion."
Right. No connection. Got it.
"Right. No connection. Got it."
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. :)
No one is insisting that the pulpit give equal time for science. And so far, there's no significant movement to force churches to pay taxes on their property and profits even though many are allowing the "intelligent design" sham to turn them into radical anti-science political organizations. All the persecution is coming from the creationists who are using sneaky and dishonest methods to force their beliefs into science studies.
YEC INTREP
Secular science... hmmm
Thanks for the ping!
I understand why your screams are so shrill; the house of cards of evolution is on the brink of total collapse, but your cries are much like those of a snared rabbit in the woods - Watch for the coyotes!
This article could provide at least part of the reason most biologists agree on evolution. Any dissent is fatal to your career. It just goes to show wherever humans are involved, there is a high degree of irrationality, even in the science community.
Curiously enough, he rejects both the Darwinist and ID labels. He claims to hold a "non-historicist" Process structuralist position in biology, while the more popular two options rely upon historical claims. If anybody can explain it to me, please do.
I'm not sure what he's doing now, but he has presented a reflection on Darwinism and John Paul II's Theology of the Body at a Catholic conference a few months back. I'm trying to get ahold of an audio copy, as it dovetails with my own interests.
Don't you know Darwin is one inspiration for the "Free love" movement?
"There should be open competition for all men; and the most able should not be prevented by laws or customs from succeeding best and rearing the largest number of offspring."I don't know if his words were twisted by libertines or not, but the implication is certainly there. Darwin, like just about everybody, gets intellectually sloppy when it comes to ethical theory and the differences between science and philosophy.
Descent of Man, Chapter 21
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.