Posted on 10/06/2002 8:16:21 AM PDT by hispanarepublicana
Professor rigid on evolution </MCC HEAD>
By SEBASTIAN KITCHEN </MCC BYLINE1>
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL </MCC BYLINE2>
• Criteria for letters of recommendation: http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/dini/Personal/ letters.htm
• Michael Dini's Web page:
http://www2.tltc.ttu. edu/dini/
On the Net
Micah Spradling was OK with learning about evolution in college, but his family drew the line when his belief in the theory became a prerequisite for continuing his education.
Tim Spradling said his son left Texas Tech this semester and enrolled in Lubbock Christian University after en countering the policy of one associate professor in biological sciences.
Professor Michael Dini's Web site states that a student must "truthfully and forthrightly" believe in human evolution to receive a letter of recommendation from him.
"How can someone who does not accept the most important theory in biology expect to properly practice in a field that is so heavily based on biology?" Dini's site reads.
Dini says on the site that it is easy to imagine how physicians who ignore or neglect the "evolutionary origin of humans can make bad clinical decisions."
He declined to speak with The Avalanche-Journal. His response to an e-mail from The A-J said: "This semester, I have 500 students to contend with, and my schedule in no way permits me to participate in such a debate."
A Tech spokeswoman said Chancellor David Smith and other Tech officials also did not want to comment on the story.
At least two Lubbock doctors and a medical ethicist said they have a problem with the criterion, and the ethicist said Dini "could be a real ingrate."
Tim Spradling, who owns The Brace Place, said his son wanted to follow in his footsteps and needed a letter from a biology professor to apply for a program at Southwestern University's medical school.
Spradling is not the only medical professional in Lub bock shocked by Dini's policy. Doctors Patrick Edwards and Gaylon Seay said they learned evolution in college but were never forced to believe it.
"I learned what they taught," Edwards said. "I had to. I wanted to make good grades, but it didn't change my basic beliefs."
Seay said his primary problem is Dini "trying to force someone to pledge allegiance to his way of thinking."
Seay, a Tech graduate who has practiced medicine since 1977, said a large amount of literature exists against the theory.
"He is asking people to compromise their religious be liefs," Seay said. "It is a shame for a professor to use that as a criteria."
Dini's site also states: "So much physical evidence supports" evolution that it can be referred to as fact even if all the details are not known.
"One can deny this evidence only at the risk of calling into question one's understanding of science and of the method of science," Dini states on the Web site.
Edwards said Dini admits in the statement that the details are not all known.
Dini is in a position of authority and "can injure someone's career," and the criteria is the "most prejudice thing I have ever read," Seay said.
"It is appalling," he said.
Both doctors said their beliefs in creationism have never negatively affected their practices, and Seay said he is a more compassionate doctor because of his beliefs.
"I do not believe evolution has anything to do with the ability to make clinical decisions — pro or con," Seay said.
Academic freedom should be extended to students, Edwards said.
"A student may learn about a subject, but that does not mean that everything must be accepted as fact, just because the professor or an incomplete body of evidence says so," Edwards said.
"Skepticism is also a very basic part of scientific study," he said.
The letter of recommendation should not be contingent on Dini's beliefs, Edwards said.
"That would be like Texas Tech telling him he had to be a Christian to teach biology," Edwards said.
Harold Vanderpool, professor in history and philosophy of medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, said he has a problem with Dini's policy.
"I think this professor could be a real ingrate," Vanderpool said. "I have a problem with a colleague who has enjoyed all the academic freedoms we have, which are extensive, and yet denies that to our students."
Vanderpool, who has served on, advised or chaired committees for the National Institute of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, said the situation would be like a government professor requiring a student to be "sufficiently patriotic" to receive a letter.
"It seems to me that this professor is walking a pretty thin line between the protection of his right to do what he wants to do, his own academic freedom, and a level of discrimination toward a student," he said.
"It is reaching into an area of discrimination. That could be a legal problem. If not, it is a moral problem," Vanderpool said.
Instead of a recommendation resting on character and academic performance, "you've got this ideological litmus test you are using," he said. "To me, that is problematic, if not outright wrong."
William F. May, a medical ethicist who was appointed to President Bush's Council on Bioethics, said he cannot remember establishing a criterion on the question of belief with a student on exams or with letters of recommendation.
"I taught at five institutions and have always felt you should grade papers and offer judgments on the quality of arguments rather than a position on which they arrived."
Professors "enjoy the protection of academic freedom" and Dini "seems to be profoundly ungrateful" for the freedom, Vanderpool said.
He said a teacher cannot be forced to write a letter of recommendation for a student, which he believes is good because the letters are personal and have "to do with the professor's assessment of students' work habits, character, grades, persistence and so on."
A policy such as Dini's needs to be in the written materials and should be stated in front of the class so the student is not surprised by the policy and can drop the class, Vanderpool said.
Dini's site states that an individual who denies the evidence commits malpractice in the method of science because "good scientists would never throw out data that do not conform to their expectations or beliefs."
People throw out information be cause "it seems to contradict his/her cherished beliefs," Dini's site reads. A physician who ignores data cannot remain a physician for long, it states.
Dini's site lists him as an exceptional faculty member at Texas Tech in 1995 and says he was named "Teacher of the Year" in 1998-99 by the Honors College at Texas Tech.
Edwards said he does not see any evidence on Dini's vita that he attended medical school or treated patients.
"Dr. Dini is a nonmedical person trying to impose his ideas on medicine," Edwards said. "There is little in common between teaching biology classes and treating sick people. ... How dare someone who has never treated a sick person purport to impose his feelings about evolution on someone who aspires to treat such people?"
On his Web site, Dini questions how someone who does not believe in the theory of evolution can ask to be recommended into a scientific profession by a professional scientist.
May, who taught at multiple prestigious universities, including Yale, during his 50 years in academia, said he did not want to judge Dini and qualified his statements because he did not know all of the specifics.
He said the doctors may be viewing Dini's policy as a roadblock, but the professor may be warning them in advance of his policy so students are not dismayed later.
"I have never seen it done and am surprised to hear it, but he may find creationist aggressive in the class and does not want to have to cope with that," May said. "He is at least giving people the courtesy of warning them in advance."
The policy seems unusual, May said, but Dini should not be "gang-tackled and punished for his policy."
The criterion may have been viewed as a roadblock for Micah Spradling at Tech, but it opened a door for him at LCU.
Classes at LCU were full, Tim Spradling said, but school officials made room for his son after he showed them Dini's policy.
skitchen@lubbockonline.com 766-8753
is fantasy---
micro evolution...
is manipulating---
fabricating(re-wording/working)---reality/science(creation)!
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Evolution is the taproot...holy grail of liberalism---the clone farm/spores!
Evolutionists are the weed(maggot-flies)...
rotten infested fruit from the REPROBATES/parasites/blood-life suckers of Truth/civilization!
Pretty simple...Tree of Life/Truth vs death/lies(devils/heresy)!
-----------------------------------------------------
Originally the word liberal meant social conservatives(no govt religion--none) who advocated growth and progress---mostly technological(knowledge being absolute/unchanging)based on law--reality... UNDER GOD--
knowledge being absolute/unchanging--personal as opposed to public...forced/repressed---POLITICAL!
Religous/faith liberty is gone...thanks to evolution/liberals(stealth religion/science)!
Originally the word liberal meant social conservatives(no govt religion--none) who advocated growth and progress---mostly technological(knowledge being absolute/unchanging)based on law--reality... UNDER GOD---the nature of GOD/man/govt. does not change. These were the Classical liberals...founding fathers-PRINCIPLES---stable/SANE scientific reality/society---industrial progress...moral/social character-values(private/personal) GROWTH(limited NON-intrusive PC Govt/religion---schools)!
Evolution...Atheism-dehumanism---TYRANNY(pc-religion/rhetoric)...
Then came the SPLIT SCHIZOPHRENIA/ZOMBIE/BRAVE-NWO1984 LIBERAL NEO-America---the post-modern age
I know a number of ultra-Orthodox Jews who are highly qualified physicians, engineers, physicists (including Israel's leading hydro-physicist), and other type of scientists in spite of believing that the earth is 5763 years old.
They'd certainly suck as paleontologists.
Hogwash!
Evolution is a theory, not a proven fact. It is even referred to in most scientific circles and books as the Theory of Evolution!
The bigoted actions of this professor are logically no different than the ones the Senate Judiciary Democrats take by asserting anybody who doesn't believe in abortion and confess it or adhere to Constitutional constructionism and precedent isn't competent to be a Federal Judge.
It's known as ideological tyranny and stacking the deck with ad hominem arguments in your favor. That's typical totalitarian behavior, not "academic freedom" worthy of any name. There are plenty of Doctors who don't believe in the Theory of Evolution who are magnificent doctors. I know a number of them myself. Some others are quoted in this very article.
Just like his soul-buddies - the Senate Democrat Marxists - this "professor" is forcing his faulted arguments on somebody he perceives he has ultimate veto power over. What would you call that,... the American Way?
Since it was a cloud of dust and gas, I suppose. Very little afterwards.
There is not enough dust on the moon to support an old earth dating system!
Bad argument that even Answers in Genesis has abandoned. I don't mention AiG because I think they're the ultimate scientific authority, of course. Rather, if someone that committed to creationist nonsense gives up on an argument as indefensible, it's time to let that one die.
can prove/disprove the age of mountains and the Earth...
or at least my theory about them!
Below the ground...there is a plate---DETECTABLE
that matches the perimeter of every mountain---range...
proving the mountain/hills(appalachia types/large openings)...
were formed from beneath---via the plate openings...
and resulted in triangular pointing up extruded masses with plate parts/residue on top.
The tops of the mountain/plateaus/buttes would match the original opening/crack in the plates!
The bottoms of the mountain would match where the plates stopped...
probably still touching!
Raised valleys stuck between mountains would have natural filling and resevoirs below them holding/trapping---water/gas/oil...ect.
A valley would be a central plate floor caught/floating/lifted from the mountains rising...
much higher than submerged plates around the mountains perimeter!
and canyons(small openings)...inverted mountains---the same way!
I am not talking about Himalaya/rocky type mountains whose origins are different...
but this whole evolution idea of erosion---sedimentary levels is bogus!
Post cambrian levels can also be explained by volcanic and flood layering that doesn't take billions of years to complete!
There is a plate---
that matches the perimeter
that is detectable that matches the slopes of all these mountain/hills!
There are always exceptions to the overall theory but basically earth topography is pretty much redundant/same!
Valleys...plate tops---surfaces...
mountains/hills/canyons plate...crack---openings!
"One of the major unsolved problems of geology and evolution is the occurrence of diversified, multi-cellular marine invertebrates in Lower Cambrian rocks on all the continents and their absence in rocks of greater age."
"their absence in rocks of 'greater' age."
The 'greater' age in layers exists if you think the layers formed from the top!
Here's the code...
layering...
post cambrian layers from above---volcanic/flooding!
Pre cambrian from below...cooling/uplifting!
I believe you have a God-given right to think differently from me, even a God-given right to reject God.
I would not want to be your patient though. I further advise you to have only creationists for doctors, especially as your health goes down. They will still view you as a sacred being made in the image of their God. The evo believers will view you as a failing machine that is about ready for the scrap heap. Which do you think will provide you with the best health care?
This is written in response to #15. I am perplexed that you don't think #15 anticipates and answers this question. My history teacher cannot be a Holocaust denier. You can have all the loony ideas you want outside of your proffered specialty, but not in areas that seriously overlap with it.
I would not want to be your patient though.
I've seen you making inferences from the evidence and would worry if you thought I was doing it right.
layering...
post cambrian(older/same) layers from above---volcanic/flooding!
Pre cambrian(younger/same) layers from below...cooling/uplifting!
The pre and post cambrian layers were forming at the same time...above and below ground!
The result...very young earth---no evolution!
Evolution is a man made theory--no evidence...
all ideology/politics---no facts/possibility/science!
Reduces the age of the geologic colummn to less than half!
Evolution requires an inordinate amount of time---the opposite of creation!
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