Discovery Institute Files Public Records Request in OSU Evolution Academic Freedom Case

Discovery Institute ^ | 11 July 2005 | Staff

[PatrickHenry]

Discovery Institute [of Seattle] has filed a public records request with the Ohio State University (OSU) seeking all documents related to Darwinist attacks on OSU doctoral candidate Bryan Leonard. The request was submitted under the Ohio Public Records Act.

In June, Leonard's dissertation defense in the area of science education was suddenly postponed after three Darwinist professors [O the horror!] at OSU attacked Leonard's dissertation research because it analyzed how teaching students evidence for and against macroevolution impacted student beliefs. According to a news report in The Columbus Dispatch, the professors admitted at the time that they had not read Leonard's dissertation.

"We are concerned that Leonard is being targeted for unfair and possibly illegal treatment because of his viewpoint about evolution, in violation of his First Amendment rights," said Dr. John West, Associate Director of the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute.

"We are further concerned that university officials may have been improperly influenced in their actions by outside Darwinist pressure groups who are trying to destroy Leonard's career because of his support for teaching scientific criticisms of Darwin's theory."

Leonard, who is a high school biology teacher as well as a graduate student, helped draft Ohio's innovative "Critical Analysis of Evolution" lesson plan adopted last year for use in schools statewide by the Ohio State Board of Education. In May of 2005, Leonard also testified in favor of new science standards being drafted in Kansas that would cover scientific criticisms of evolutionary theory.

"It looks an awful lot like Leonard is being targeted for payback," said West.

The public records request was submitted by attorney Seth Cooper, a Senior Program Analyst in Public Policy & Legal Affairs at Discovery Institute.

"We are requesting all communications to and from university officials involving Mr. Leonard's Ph.D. candidacy in order to determine if university officials have violated his rights," said Cooper. "We also want to determine the extent to which university actions may have resulted from a coordinated campaign by outside pressure groups to deprive Leonard of his academic freedom and his constitutional rights."

[Ichneumon]

What catches my eye is Rissing and his compadres issuing statements regarding the content of Leonards work without ever having read it.

So... Have you actually read Rissing et al's statements before posting your own declaration concerning them?

Smacks of bitchiness and agendas, no?

What does your own "commenting without reading their statement" smack of, then?

[moroque11]

"Everybody be nice."

You say that frequently Patrick Henry; every time I stumble on one of your posts I see it. But it is you and your ilk [yes, they do follow the almighty Patrick Henry like one might follow a leader or even a god] who are the first to 'not be nice,' and more likely to use Ad Hominem attacks (ie. Coyoteman in post #5). Just a brief scan through your recent posts and the posts of some of the most active on your evo-list, illustrate your inability to do as you say. You attack your perceived opponent much like a liberal would challenge a conservative by assailing your enemy on a personal level before/or while challenging the argument. [O the horror!]

Whatever. You might as well be nice on your own time. Just don't expect others to play by your rules when you make them up as you go along.

-----

I also wonder what motivates you to even care about this topic with the zeal you put forth. If you are nothing more than a chemical mixture formed/designed/blindly created/accidentally developed/built/spackled together for whatever purpose, but to survive, then what does propagating evolution's magic have to do with your own personal survival?

How does your own ego fit in with this survival? Does being "top-dog" and the admiration of your followers on Free Republic allow you to choose the best of the available mates of the opposite sex?

Does your ego allow you to have more and stronger babies when it is well fed compared to those with tiny egos and opposing beliefs?

How many of these "evo" babies have you created? When do you suppose that YOUR and your followers "evo" babies will have spread their "belief in evolution" genes far enough to crush the resistance? I ask because the belief in evolution is a real slow starter compared to Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. I don't knock Natural Selection as it is observable, but your personal evolution might be lacking, but then again, I haven't watched Free Republic for thousands of years but only since Bush II was elected in 2000.

More... So, when you die and your remains have been cremated or placed in the ground, what will all the posts you have made towards the evolution topic and all the effort you spent of spreading, "the evo-message," have accomplished? Do you believe your enlightened state will have a positive effect by spreading joy, happiness and overall well-being or might it have the opposite effect by causing people to care less about anything else but their own pure survival? Might it cause future offspring to understand their evolution in supernatural ways so they might control how they evolve? And mostly importantly, no matter what happens, will anyone ever care what you said, what you did, what you created, whom you loved and if they do/will, why should they consider your thoughts to be anything more than the ramblings of chemical compounds interacting with the environment in which they happened to be placed?

So I ask YOU to, "be nice," and accept my words as constructive. And if you do or don't accept them, does it really matter in the scheme of making babies for the survival of our human species anyway? So, you and I should try to get together and make some man-babies because we all know males are "stronger" and "better-suited" than females in most of the natural world. Call me, if my wife answers, don't worry, she's a believer and will understand our need to survive and evolve outweighs our need for anything else.

USA! USA! USA!

[Dimensio]

USA! USA! USA!

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

[Thatcherite]

Avalanche of fallacies placemarker

[PatrickHenry]

Thanks for the excellent material you've posted. This whole business reminds me of how the leftists gradually infiltrated their own comrades into various institutions, including academia, until their viewpoint became orthodoxy. It took a generation or two, but now they control most of the universities, the media, several major philanthropies, one major political party, a big portion of Congress (including, especially, a certain NY Senator), etc. Long range planning and discipline can pay off.

The ID/creationism folks appear to have learned from the commies' play-book. This incident with Leonard is probably just one small example, and this time they're exposed.

[Chiapet]

You attack your perceived opponent much like a liberal would challenge a conservative by assailing your enemy on a personal level before/or while challenging the argument. [O the horror!]

Pot, kettle, black, etc.

[jwalsh07]

You're fos. I read the story in the Columbus Dispatch where three of your brethern in academia trashed the students work while admitting they had never read it. They did so by using the media and their fellow travelers on the internet. They know they have reliable sheep like you to carry their water and lo and behold they were right.

You don't have an ounce of intellectual honesty in your body. And btw, I read all the crap you posted before you posted it in an effort to get the facts straight. Your posts and the zillions you can find from Neo Darwinist extremists on this topic is sophist bs sprinkled with a touch of ad hominem and guilt by association.

You can post 50 more ND diatribes and it won't change the fact that three so called scientists accused a student of unethical and illicit behavior based on a dissertation they hadn't read and you and your pals defend it by claiming that hearsay is now part of the scientific method.

Typical of leftists in academia, I expect better from "conservatives".

[narby]

officials may have been improperly influenced in their actions by outside Darwinist pressure groups

They throw around the term "Darwinist" just like Howard Dean throws around the term "Christian". It's made to divide people into "us" and "them".

The Discovery Institute is a propaganda machine for money, just like the greenie groups.

[jwalsh07]

The Discovery Institute is a propaganda machine for money, just like the greenie groups.

And what would you call a Professor who doesn't contact the dissertation committee or the academic advisor about his concerns of "academic integrity" but rather comes to conclusions about a dissertation without reading that dissertation and then starts a smear campaign in the media and on the internet?

The academy at its best?

[Gumlegs]

I had to get five tenured professors with the same free day in their schedules, and who weren't out of town on said free day.

... and walk ten miles in six foot deep snow in my bare feet ...

[jwalsh07]

The ID/creationism folks appear to have learned from the commies' play-book. This incident with Leonard is probably just one small example, and this time they're exposed.

LOL. "Be nice".

[Gumlegs]

As far as I know, there can be no legal cause of action without an actual personal injury.

You don't follow the asbestos lawsuit situation, I see.

[Junior]

You mean Gandalf the Grey? There's something like 1500 pages devoted to his miracles, which were witnessed by hundreds of people. It's all in the books; you just need to look them up.

Or perhaps you mean Elvis? I've met people who saw and talked with the King long after he died. These are honest-to-goodness eyewitnesses that would have no reason to lie, and underwent great ridicule for expounding upon the Truth.

Or maybe you mean aliens. My parents (God rest their souls) were avid UFOlogists. Through them I met lots of people who experienced first hand the miracle cures of visitors from other worlds (mostly Zeta Reticuli, but occasionally Tau Ceti). As with the Elvis sightings, these are honest people who gain nothing but ridicule by announcing their experiences to the world.

[PatrickHenry]

They throw around the term "Darwinist" just like Howard Dean throws around the term "Christian". It's made to divide people into "us" and "them". The Discovery Institute is a propaganda machine for money, just like the greenie groups.

It's more diabolical (in the literal sense of that word) than that. I think they're trying to take the term Darwinist -- which is itself a bogus term designed to portray the theory of evolution as some kind of cult -- and turn it into a word like "Marxist." So you'll be seeing that kind of expression -- Darwinist professor, Darwinist text, Darwinist dogma, etc. -- more and more. But it will always be coming from the dedicated sources of this ID-Creationist assault on Western Civilization.

[Coyoteman]

and more likely to use Ad Hominem attacks (ie. Coyoteman in post #5)

Doesn't look like you even read post #5. I simply presented an oral tradition from a California Indian group. No attack of any kind. Apology will be accepted at your convenience.

[js1138]

You don't follow the asbestos lawsuit situation, I see.

or the 4 billion dollar Corning decision.

[narby]

The real crime at issue is the perversion of the academic integrity of the university’s degree-granting process by IDC professors. Leonard was almost certainly a participant, but the academic “crime” was committed by his faculty mentors.

The university itself could be in some trouble over this matter. What other instances of gaming in the degree-granting process have occured? The university needs to get its house in order.

[Gumlegs]

Right. There are others, too, but the asbestos "blob," as the Wall Street Journal puts it, was the first that came to mind.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Monkey Bones Alert!

In June, Leonard's dissertation defense in the area of science education was suddenly postponed after three Darwinist professors [O the horror!] at OSU attacked Leonard's dissertation research because it analyzed how teaching students evidence for and against macroevolution impacted student beliefs. According to a news report in The Columbus Dispatch, the professors admitted at the time that they had not read Leonard's dissertation.

Based on the level of decadence reigning throughout American academia among liberal secular humanists from public schools, one would tend to doubt they have read much of anything of substance in the critically relevant areas of philosophy, philosophy of science, epistemology, and sociology of knowledge which relate to these matters.

All kidding aside, why would someone in their right mind labor over a dissertation at Ohio State? The liberal secular humanist biases destroy the whole educational enterprise. People...PEOPLE! Come out of the sick carcass of the culture of death. ONLY Christian education can address the problems facing our declining society and civilization. Secular humanist education is a dishonest and fraudulent scam invented by anti-Christian cabals for the purposes of amoral social engineering.

People need to stop patronizing the centers of anti-Christian mind control as if there were anything normal, healthy, or benign about them. If enough Americans did this, the anti-Christian liberal secular humanist death grip on education could be ended.

[Stultis]

I read both sides of the story and concluded that the important part was three university professors trashing a students work without ever having read it.

Yeah. Clearly the professors should have broken into Leonard's dorm room and kited a copy of his (nonpublic and confidential, prior to it's defense) dissertation before deigning to comment (as they in fact have a responsibility to do) on the irregular composition (read "stacking") of his defense committee.