Baton Rouge — With a 36-0 vote, Louisiana’s state senate today passed a landmark academic freedom bill protecting teachers that encourage critical thinking and objective discussion about evolution and other scientific topics. Known as the Louisiana Science Education Act, the bill was previously passed by the state’s House of Representatives with a 94-3 vote, and now will be sent to the Read More ›
Baton Rouge — By a vote of 94-3, Louisiana’s House of Representatives today passed an academic freedom bill that would protect teachers and school districts who wish to promote critical thinking and objective discussion about evolution and other scientific topics. There was no vocal opposition, and the floor speech by Rep. Frank Hoffman made clear that the bill was about science, Read More ›
This article, published by The Baton Rouge Advocate, mentions Phillip Johnson of Discovery Institute: Debate over the Louisiana Science Education Act (SB733) calls to mind University of California, Berkeley law Professor Phillip Johnson’s Wall Street Journal op-ed observation, ‘A Chinese paleontologist lectures around the world saying that recent fossil finds in his country are inconsistent with the Darwinian theory of Read More ›
This article, published by the Baptist Press, quotes Casey Luskin of Discovery Institute: “There has definitely been a raising of consciousness among people that there is a problem of censoring scientific information that challenges evolution,” the Discovery Institute’s Casey Luskin told Baptist Press. The rest of the article can be found here.
In an essay published recently on National Review Online, John Derbyshire has declared that the documentary Expelled contains a blood libel against Western Civilization. His is an exercise of striking vulgarity, the more so since, as he insouciantly admits, he has not “seen the dang thing.” A blood libel, one might recall, refers to the charge that the Jewish people are irredeemably stained by their occasional, if modest, need for Christian blood. Some terms have acquired through their historical associations a degree of repugnance that persuades sensitive men and women not to use them. If Derbyshire has been repelled by the smell of blood, it is a revulsion that he has successfully overcome.
Having not seen the documentary that he proposes to criticize, Derbyshire is nonetheless quite certain that he knows what it conveys. “It is pretty plain,” he asserts, “that it is a piece of creationist porn.” Perhaps I will be forgiven for suggesting that John Derbyshire’s late-night scrutiny of the Internet may have corrupted his habitual search for le mot juste. Expelled has nothing to do with creationism, and if it is pornographic, the details have not become widely known.
Expelled makes a point far plainer than pornography and points to a phenomenon just as widespread. The scientific community is intolerant of dissent and morbidly so when it comes to Darwin’s theory of evolution. Those who reject criticism because it is unwelcome have in John Derbyshire acquired an ally of the best sort. He is not disposed to ask questions of his friends; and he is eager uncritically to attack their enemies.
It is a match made in heaven.
Read More ›This article, published by WorldNetDaily, mentions Discovery Institute Center for Science & Culture Senior Fellows Richard Sternberg and Guillermo Gonzalez (in the full article): Stein interviewed Dr. Richard Sternberg, a biologist who lost his position at the prestigious Smithsonian Institution after he published a peer-reviewed article that mentioned intelligent design. The rest of the article can be found here.
Six states (MI, FL, LA, AL, MO, SC) are currently considering adoption of academic freedom legislation designed to protect teachers who teach both the scientific strengths and weaknesses of evolutionary theory. Introduction of similar legislation is being considered by legislators in several other states, indicating the national scope of this movement. “Often in this debate the issues at hand get Read More ›
Lansing, MI — An Evolution Academic Freedom Bill (HB 6027) was introduced today in Michigan by Rep. John Moolenar. The bill is similar to academic freedom legislation introduce in several other states earlier this year and, if enacted, will provide public school teachers with academic freedom to present both the scientific evidence for and against Darwinian evolution. Often in this Read More ›
This article, published by TCPalm, mentions Discovery Institute Center for Science & Culture Senior Fellows Guillermo Gonzalez and Richard Sternberg: Astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez — author of 68 peer-reviewed papers and whose work has been used to discover planets — is denied tenure at Iowa State for writing a book on his own time that suggests the universe may be intelligently Read More ›
This article, published by World Magazine, mentions Discovery Institute Center for Science & Culture Senior Fellow David Berlinski: One Expelled scene shows Stein, mathematician David Berlinski (a sophisticated Paris resident), and nuclear physicist Gerald Schroeder (wearing a yarmulke), all now ID advocates, discussing the importance of freedom as they visit a remnant of the Wall. The rest of the article Read More ›
Legislators in Louisiana and Missouri have introduced academic freedom bills that would ensure the freedom of teachers to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of theories of biological and chemical evolution. Florida legislators introduced a similar bill recently which passed through its first committee hearing on a 4-1 vote. Read More ›
Dr. Caroline Crocker was a biology professor at a large public university who mentioned intelligent design in a lecture and had her academic freedom rights trampled. Crocker was banned from teaching both intelligent design and evolution, and subsequently, her contract was not renewed. She had had a three year contract and consistently received good course evaluations, but the department chair, Read More ›