Monday, May 21, 2007
Better Off
In a column in The Des Moines Register analyzing Iowa State University's denial of tenure to intelligent design advocate Guillermo Gonzalez, Reka Basu quotes the Discovery Institute's John West as saying, the campaign to demonize them is costing Intelligent Design scientists their jobs.
"But maybe those 'scientists' would be better off teaching religion," writes Basu.
RSR doesn't know anything about the Gonzalez case other than what we've read in the papers: that a recommendation to deny tenure was made at every level where it was considered. That in the past 10 years, a third of the 12 tenure applicants in the physics and astronomy department have been denied.
Gonzalez' views on intelligent design were considered in the tenure review, according to his department head, Eli Rosenberg, "Only to the extent that they impact his scientific credentials."
"Intelligent Design proponents are wrong to equate the exclusion of their theory from the classroom with academic bias," concludes Basu. "Professors are entitled to their own beliefs, but not to teach as science something that is not."
"But maybe those 'scientists' would be better off teaching religion," writes Basu.
RSR doesn't know anything about the Gonzalez case other than what we've read in the papers: that a recommendation to deny tenure was made at every level where it was considered. That in the past 10 years, a third of the 12 tenure applicants in the physics and astronomy department have been denied.
Gonzalez' views on intelligent design were considered in the tenure review, according to his department head, Eli Rosenberg, "Only to the extent that they impact his scientific credentials."
"Intelligent Design proponents are wrong to equate the exclusion of their theory from the classroom with academic bias," concludes Basu. "Professors are entitled to their own beliefs, but not to teach as science something that is not."
