Volume 36 Number 3                                                                                  May/June 1994


NSTA Retorts!

The stated purpose of the AAAS-affiliated National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) is "the stimulation, improvement and coordination of science teaching and learning." Members of ASA's Committee for Integrity in Science Education (CISE) were disappointed, but not surprised, by an NSTA response to the 1993 edition of the ASA book, Teaching Science in a Climate of Controversy.

NSTA's all-member newspaper, NSTA Reports! (Oct./Nov. 1993, p. 3), published a review of Teaching Science, written by Russell Aiuto, director of research and development of one of NSTA's secondary school science projects. According to CISE chair John Wiester, the article goes beyond a critical review, distorting facts in an effort to discredit both the book and its authors. In a note introducing the article, NSTA Reports! Editor Ann Wild called the biology teachers to whom the book was sent "targets in the effort to discredit the teaching of the scientific theory of evolution." Aiuto's article opened with an account of the ideological history of opposition to the teaching of evolution, indiscriminately lumping people who sound "so seductive, seemingly innocent, and ostensibly rational" ó from "scientific creationists," to the authors of Teaching Science, to Phillip Johnson (author of Darwin on Trial) ó into the same category. While commenting on the emphasis in Teaching Science of distinguishing between evidence and inference, Aiuto says that the classroom exercises, " `help' students understand that fossils provide `evolutionary inference' and not `evidence.' Perhaps the photograph ... of a citizen of Vista, CA holding up a fossil and declaring that it looked old because God made it look old is an example of the distinction between inference and evidence." Perhaps not, Wiester would say.

The review turns to ad hominem arguments when it questions whether explicit statements taken from the book could really be sincere, given the religious beliefs of its authors. In his exposé of this sinister plot to subvert science, Aiuto noted that the press release accompanying the mailing to California teachers said that scientists in ASA "take the Bible seriously, but not always literally." The article ends with the quip: "I take Darwin seriously, but not always literally, and I am willing to demonstrate what I mean by that in their Sunday schools, if they'd let me. Every Sunday." By pitting "Darwinism" against biblical religion, Aiuto offers a categorical alternative to what goes on in (whose?) Sunday schools and thereby unwittingly offers support of Phil Johnson's assertion that Darwinism functions as a religion. The review could be summarized as the railing of a member of a Darwinist religious sect against another religion, by which he means anything done by Christians in science.

It wasn't long before the CISE authors responded. Walter Hearn expressed doubts about whether Aiuto even read much beyond the first page, on which both Phil Johnson's Darwin on Trial and Ronald Numbers's The Creationists were recommended. Using a string of adjectives from Aiuto's article, Hearn wrote to Editor Wild that Aiuto "seemed to regard that recommendation as part of a `clever, nonsensical, seductive, insidious, smarmy, reprehensible, degrading' effort to encourage teaching evolution as science rather than as ideology. I was surprised to find such adjectival overkill in your generally well-edited publication." Hearn attempted to set the record straight by quoting what Teaching Science actually says about creationist views, as from page 13:

" Many aspects of evolution are currently being studied by scientists who hold varying degrees of belief or disbelief in God. No matter how those investigations turn out, most scientists agree that a "creation science" based on an earth only a few thousand years old provides no theoretical basis sound enough to serve as a reasonable alternative."

Walt also cited a letter from Cornell U. biologist William Provine, in Creation/Evolution? (Summer 1993), published by another AAAS affiliate, the National Center for Science Education (NCSE). Responding to a caustic review of Darwin on Trial, co-authored by NCSE director Eugenie Scott, Provine, an outspoken atheist, chided the reviewers and said that evolutionists should welcome Johnson's book. (See Mar./Apr. 1994 ASAN)

The usually mild-mannered Hearn was also steamed by Aiuto's expressed annoyance at the name of the committee responsible for the book. Aiuto wrote, "One can only surmise that the [ASA] presumes that current curricula are without integrity," and concludes: "The inference to be drawn from this offensive suggestion is that those who teach evolution are without integrity." Hearn counters: "But the `offensive suggestion' was made by Aiuto himself! What kind of reasoning is that, by a `director for research and development' of a NSTA project?"

Much of Hearn's letter made it into print, but not his quotations from Teaching Science, which would have made clear the reviewer's error in calling it a "scientific creationist" book. Accompanying Hearn's letter in the Feb./Mar. 1994 NSTA Reports! were shorter excerpts from a letter from John Wiester.

Wiester's letter to Wild a month later (21 Dec. 93) refers to the classroom exercises in critical thinking added to the 1993 edition, teaching the difference between evidence and inference. In these exercises, a chart of the fossil record (p. 59) is drawn as six vertical, parallel lines, one per taxonomic group, from corals to vertebrates. The vertical axis denotes time, in mya. Dots are placed along each line showing where the fossil evidence lies. This chart of empirical data is contrasted to a museum chart, "The Hard Facts Wall," of the California Academy of Sciences exhibit, "Life Through Time: The Evidence for Evolution."

Wiester and Hearn both pointed out significant errors in the redrawn charts and accompanying caption as they appeared in the NSTA publication. Hearn writes in his letter to Wild, "The book does not say that `life was formed at separate points, as in the chart on the left'; what it says is that a chart like that on the left is what the fossil evidence looks like."

The chart is central to Wiester's response. In his letter to Wild, he states, "... the fossils are evidence, and the lines connecting the taxa to a point of common ancestry where there are no fossils is inference." In an accompanying short manuscript, "Teaching Evolution as Science," Wiester expressed his criticisms, pointing out how Aiuto had provided "a useful example of how to teach evolution as ideology rather than as science." Aiuto's review has redrawn diagrams that turn science into ideology, Wiester notes. One point of correction says that

" [Aiuto] has stated, incorrectly, that "we would have students believe that life was formed at separate points." This is not what we believe or what we would have students believe. We believe that the museum's fossil evidence should be presented accurately and without implying it is evidence for something it is not .... Aiuto's model of what "evolutionists believe" appears to be a direct copy of the museum model... [and] ... therefore preserves all the errors of the museum model..."

These problems include items such as the masking of the Cambrian explosion by distorting the temporal aspect of the diagram. Wiester's conclusion: "Evidence must be presented without manipulation by ideological inference. We hope that NSTA will join us in our efforts to have evolution taught as science."

NSTA Reports! Editor Wild refused to publish Wiester's critique, and Aiuto had the last word, refusing to modify any of his statements. Invoking an argument from silence, he maintained that neither the book nor its ASA press release "offer any evidence that the entire effort by the ASA is anything other than an attempt to introduce creationism into public schools." His only admitted mistake was in calling Hearn and Wiester "neocreationists." Instead," They are simply creationists, good and proper. The argument that the diagrams ... are "inference" and not "evidence" is a patent attempt to introduce doubt about the empirical evidence for evolution. It is not meant to promote discussion about evolutionary mechanisms; it is an attempt to discredit the very idea of evolution.

Aiuto's parting shot was that "...you guys are up to no good." Though Aiuto encouraged readers to examine the documents in question, the article failed to give contact information for the ASA. However, a boxed section was included for the NCSE, giving their address and telephone number, (800) 290-6006, "for those who want information on the creation/evolution controversy."

Another article by Wiester, being published in PSCF in June, reprints the Teaching Science fossil diagrams to help clarify the situation. A standard polite request by PSCF Managing Editor Patsy Ames for permission to reprint the NSTA Reports! diagrams exactly as they originally appeared was turned down on the grounds that they were "derived from the original diagrams" in the ASA book. The very point Wiester wanted to make by publishing both sets of diagrams together was that NSTA Reports! had introduced distortions, which remain unacknowledged (and uncorrected) by Editor Wild.

"Scientific creationists" are frequently charged with misquoting, quoting out of context, or otherwise stretching the boundaries of civil discourse. Friend of ASA, Richard E. Dickerson, director of UCLA's Molecular Biology Institute, saw a paragraph from his own PSCF article "The Game of Science," quoted in an insert in Acts & Facts (Mar. 94), published by the Institute for Creation Research (ICR). Finding the quotation out of context, he wrote to the ICR urging them to reprint his whole short article. Walt Hearn received a copy of his letter, and responded in part:

"Despite your challenge to ICR to open its publications to contrary opinions, I doubt that you'll have any more success than ASA's Committee for Integrity in Science Education is currently having with NSTA Reports! The Oct./Nov. 1993 issue ... contained a more or less standard trashing of the 1993 version of ASA's Teaching Science in a Climate of Controversy. ... I just found out that NSTA Reports! has refused permission for ASA to reprint the diagrams from their "review" alongside the actual diagrams from Teaching Science. (Look who's "claiming fairness" now.)"

Meanwhile, the book's authors were not the only ones observing this smarmy drama. Forrest M. Mims III, who has experienced his share of religio-scientific discrimination by being rejected as Scientific American's "Amateur Scientist" columnist on those grounds (see Mar./Apr. 94 ASAN, p. 2), sent a copy of Aiuto's review to Hearn, with Aiuto's word insidious underlined and with the comment, "God bless your insidious soul."  John Wiester, Walt Hearn

AAAS Meeting Loaded

Loaded with issues wider than science per se, the San Francisco AAAS Meeting, 18-23 Feb. 94, had the theme "Science and a Changing World." Under "Evolution Revolution" were sessions featuring well-known speakers such as Robert Jastrow, Cyril Ponnamperuma and Stanley Miller. The session, "Anti- science/Anti-evolution" organized by Eugenie Scott of NCSE, had such speakers as Francisco Ayala of U. C. Irvine, taking a "look at creationists, multi-cultural educationists, and postmodernists who criticize and distort science and evolution, thereby affecting the educational system and opinions of ... citizens."<F41559M> <F14>AAAS Fellow and Life Member <F255B>Walter R. Hearn, who lives across the Bay, has covered the meeting for the Newsletter in the following report, though AAAS program planners apparently did not like his suggestion of letting Phil Johnson have his say.

Report from the AAAS

ASA's intrepid Berkeley reporter, Walt Hearn, braved wintry rains to check out the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco, Feb. 18-23. The 142,000-member AAAS expected some 5,000 scientists plus 600 journalists. Walt noted that ASA Annual Meetings draw maybe three times that percentage of members ó but minus the journalists.

An "ASA Registration" sign in the Hilton lobby turned out to be for the American Society of Anesthesiologists, meeting at the same time. But Norman Hughes from the Seattle ASA meeting said "Hi" and Walt quickly bumped into David Price of ASA's Committee for Integrity in Science Education. Elving Anderson, Owen Gingrich, and Howard Van Till, fresh from a Templeton Foundation meeting in Berkeley, were there too (though Bob Herrmann wasn't able to stay for the AAAS meeting).

Under the banner of "Protestant Churches in Science," a booth in the exhibit area displayed literature from Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran and Episcopal science-oriented groups of the Ecumenical Roundtable. Staffing the booth were Jim Miller and Ken McCall, co-Editors of The Church and Contemporary Cosmology (Carnegie-Mellon U. Press, 1990). They greeted Walt warmly, recalling the participation of ASAers in the 1987 Presbyterian Consultation leading to that book. This was the second time their group had put up a thousand bucks or so for a booth. (ASA's Committee for Integrity in Science Education decided not to spend that kind of money at AAAS, though sharing such costs with other groups might work out in the future.)

A session on "Origins," organized by Cyril Ponnamperuma (U. of Maryland), and another on "Current State of Origins of Life Research," organized by Jeffrey Bada (U.C. San Diego) gave attention to "one of the major unsolved scientific problems of the century." Amid speakers adroitly skirting around the fact that nobody knows how life began, Gerald Joyce (Scripps Research Inst.) reported some clever chemical experiments designed to model possible early RNA-based life. Joyce, who uses evolve as a transitive verb, has found ways "to evolve catalytically active RNA molecules in the laboratory." Despite his models of directed evolution, however, he acknowledged that "development of an RNA enzyme that catalyzes its own replication remains an elusive goal."

A subsequent session on "Anti-Science/Anti-Evolution," organized by Eugenie Scott (National Center for Science Education) drew much the same audience. Kevin Padian (U.C. Berkeley) and Francisco Ayala (U.C. Irvine and new AAAS president) said their usual negative things about young-earth creationism, but seemed more careful than in the past to distinguish "creationists" from "believers in creation."

For a change, in this year's NCSE session, "creation-science" was not the only form of pseudo-science regarded as a threat to science education. Anthropologist Bernard Ortiz De Montellano (Wayne State U.) gave examples of pseudo-science marshaled in support of various forms of multiculturalism. <F14P10MC1>Mathematician Norman Levitt (Rutgers U.), author of the new Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science (John Hopkins U. Press) bitingly attacked critiques on science by various political and ideological schools of "postmodernist" thought. In her summation, Eugenie Scott said that "scientific creationists," despite their "erroneous view of science," show far more respect for science than do many multiculturalists and postmodernists, who tend to see science as a badly flawed body of merely socially-conditioned opinions.

From hints in the abstracts, seminar sessions on "Evolution and Extinction" going on at the same time must have engendered some lively exchanges. Other sessions dealt with such themes of ASA interest as ethics in science, science education (AAAS Project 2061) and the social impact of science. Long before a final session on "Science and a Sense of the Sacred," organized by biologist Ursula Goodenough (Washington U.), Walt was saturated. Instead of staying for that talk, he resolved to read Goodenough's paper on "Creativity in Science" in the Sep. 1993 issue of Zygon. Walt Hearn

Federal Science Resource

Although scientists and politicians usually live in quite different worlds, these worlds overlap somewhat. Last issue, the ASAN reported on Vern Ehler's successful campaign to become a member of Congress and its first practicing physicist. Another point of contact between science and politics is the federal<F41559M> <F14>Office of Technology Assessment, which publishes reports on scientific issues for Congress. The publication list is free and can be obtained from: OTA, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20003; (202) 224-8996 or (202) 224-9241.

In addition, the Access Research Network publishes Currents in Science, Technology, & Society, a quarterly magazine that, in the Winter 1993 issue, provided extensive coverage of science under the Clinton administration, and in the Spring/Summer 1993 issue gave a one-page summary of the 1993 Annual Meeting paper by David L. Willis on "The EPA, the Safe Water Drinking Act & Natural Uranium," involving issues of risk assessment. Currents flows from P.O. Box 38069, Colorado Springs, CO 80937-8069; (719) 633-1772. The Publisher is Dennis Wagner and Editorial Advisor is Mark Hartwig. Currents completes its first full year of publication with the spring '94 issue. Walt Hearn

Word of ASA's Teaching Science spreads

Linda Jekel of Camp Hill, PA near Harrisburg responded to an article in the local Patriot News entitled, "Teach evolution, Christian scientists urge," briefly covering ASA's distribution of Teaching Science in California and its claim that "it is not `the science of evolution that causes problems,' but the fact that both religious and anti-religious dogmatists `distort the science to make it serve their causes.'" Linda objected to the headline, noting that the book urges the teaching of science; after all, educators already teach evolution. This issue, Linda notes, is whether evolution is being taught as science or dogma. Linda cites the ASA in her published reply (16 Oct. 1993) and further describes the book's message. The article appeared in the religion section of the paper, which suggested to Linda that the "editors have relegated this discussion to a realm outside of science." Linda concludes with:

" Let me say that although the question of origins necessarily brings up questions outside the realm of science, the authors of this book are scientists writing about science and teaching, from a scientific perspective."

The reply ends with ASA's address and ordering information for the book. Ted Davis

C3 Interviews Johnson

The California Committees of Correspondence (C3), a project of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), a pro-evolution education organization, recently interviewed Phillip Johnson of U.C. Berkeley, whose book, Darwin on Trial, and recent lectures have stirred another round of controversy over evolution. The winsome Johnson is, of course, delighted. In the C3 Fourth Quarter 1993 Newsletter (Vol. 2, No. 1), Editor Yves Barbero has an extended discussion with Johnson, who is asked about how the debate over evolution should be conducted in the public schools and what kind of high-school curriculum he would recommend. These questions, in line with the NCSE's high-school education emphasis, were however not what Johnson's focused interest is about, which is the more critical, university-level debate. Johnson commented, "What I'm interested in doing is making the intellectual world aware that there is a difference between the inferable knowledge that biologists actually have as biologists and a philosophy that appeals to them. Science education has failed to note this difference."

Barbero got onto Johnson's track by defining "naturalistic philosophy," as "a philosophy of accidental creation" or, in Johnson's words, "that nature is a permanently closed system of material causes and effects which has never been and cannot be influenced by something from outside like God ..." Johnson described his interest on page 4 of the C3 newsletter, which proffered a quote at the center of the page, between bars, of 2 Peter 2:1 ("But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions ...") What Johnson wants to see is a top-down approach to the education problem: "Now once you get people at the university level who understand that [distinction between science and philosophy], and who understand what you're talking about when you raise that, then we can discuss what to do about it consistent with having good education in [high-school] biology. You can't solve this kind of a problem by asking questions about details of the administration of the high school curriculum today. That's not where I'm at. I'm talking about having conferences and discussions at the level of the leaders, the people who plan what good science education will be..."

Johnson recounts discussions with science popularizers such as Steven Weinberg, Stephen J. Gould, and Carl Sagan, who fail to recognize the distinction between naturalistic philosophy and scientific knowledge because of their deep assimilation of both. When accused of regurgitating old, romantic notions of science, Johnson turns it around:

"They're the ones who are stuck in the 19th century. They're stuck in this materialistic concept of things and they're stuck in this philosophy that they can't re-examine; but you know, as soon as I get people that have some philosophical sophistication to deal with it, they immediately see that I'm making a legitimate point."

In particular, Johnson cites philosopher Michael Ruse's surprising remarks recognizing this point, made in last year's AAAS program organized by Eugenie Scott, head of the NCSE.

APSA Degrades Morally

Oskar Gruenwald, president of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (IIR) and Editor of the Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, has sorrowfully resigned from a 24-year membership in the American Political Science Association. The first reason, cited in a letter to the Editor of the APSA's journal, PS, is "affirmative discrimination," in contrast to "affirmative action." By the methods of quotas and reverse discrimination instead of equality of opportunity without regard to race, religion, sex, etc., a "racial, ethnic and gender spoils system" has been created in America, which, Oskar notes, is "laying the foundations of legally-sanctioned discrimination for the next two centuries ó breeding contempt for the law in general" and possibly leading to a civil war or "ethnic cleansing" as in the former Yugoslavia.

Secondly, in response to the Sep. 93 PS article, "APSA Extends Family Memberships to Include Domestic Partners," the proliferation of gay/lesbian and radical feminist agendas at the 1993 APSA Meeting, and the distribution of an obscene questionnaire by the APSA Committee on the Status of Lesbians and Gays in the Profession (reprinted in Sep. 93 PS, pp. 593-94), Gruenwald states:

"I can no longer in good conscience remain a member of a professional association which is regressing to a pre-civilized moral state. Leo Strauss' famous critique of the behavioral persuasion in political science may also sum up APSA's current predicament. To wit: The new behavioral science of politics fiddles while Rome burns. It is excused by two facts: it does not know that it fiddles; and it does know that Rome burns. But America is burning ... And do not blame "society," if you help to deconstruct it."

Oskar also pointed out that this immoral advocacy by the APSA runs counter to the three major monotheistic religious traditions and that the Bible condemns such sexual perversions as "abominations" (Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Rom. 1:26,27).

Later, in February, Oskar proposed an amendment to the Constitution of another society to which he belongs, the American Philosophical Society. (Its Constitution allows members to present petitions signed by at least 50 APAers.) Gruenwald proposed a code of ethics denouncing homosexuality, paedophilia, and discriminative "affirmative action" policies. This proposal followed Oskar's letter published in the January APA Proceedings and Addresses (Vol. 67, No. 4, pp. 151-153) that reiterated the contents of the APSA resignation letter, noting that the APA may also be in a similar predicament.

The Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies is edited by Gruenwald and "seeks to recover the lost unity of Renaissance learning while affirming transcendental values and faith." It has announced Volume VI for 1994: "Religious Resurgence in the Modern World: Social, Economic and Political Implications." Last year's Volume V, "The Unity of the Arts and Sciences: Pathways to God's Creation?" would be of particular interest to ASAers, dealing with various issues relating science, theology and philosophy of science. Each volume of JIS addresses a thematic issue and is being used for course material in interdisciplinary studies. The themes of future volumes, to 2001 AD, are announced in the International Christian Studies Association Newsletter (Vol. XI, No. 1/2, Fall/Winter 1993-94), which also mentioned the ASA and William Durbin, a Ph.D. candidate in religious studies at Duke U. (The ICSA and IIR are related, tax-exempt organizations.) The IIR is requesting manuscript submissions of papers for Volume VI: "Religious Resurgence in the Modern World: Social, Economic & Political Implications" for JIS, which also reviews books that are provided by IIR. For more IIR-ICSA news, request the free ICSA Newsletter or subscribe to JIS (individual JIS subscriptions cost $15 (check or money order)) from: Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, 2828 3rd St. #11, Santa Monica, CA 90405; (310) 396-0517.

Tropical Science Course

The Christian College Coalition's Latin American Studies Program is offering a spring semester interdisciplinary science course on "Tropical Sciences and Sustainability," in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. This tropical studies course involves problems associated with biodiversity, forestry management, plate tectonics, volcanic and earthquake geology, and sustainability of earth resources. Global problems, solutions and the role of the Christian is the central theme. For more information on this popular six semester-hour course, contact: CCC, 329 Eighth St. NE, Washington, DC 20002.

ASAers in Action

It seems some issues never go away. Twenty years ago, this very newsletter (Vol. 16, No. 3, Jun. 1974, p. 6) reported that John Burgeson, then a physicist with IBM in Florida, had just purchased a set of Encyclopedia Britannica and was delighted with all but one article: "Evolution." John objected to its presentation "as an unchallenged fact, even accepted by religious leaders. The inference is that the controversy is now all over. I'd like to urge fellow ASA members to write EB and challenge that much, at least." You were right on, John. The controversy is hardly over, even now.

Earle Fox of Emmaus Ministries, which produces basic Christian teaching materials on the well-attested principle that we have nothing to fear from the truth but that it sets us free, publishes Emmaus News. Earle, an Episcopal priest, has an Oxford doctorate on the relationship between science and theology, and has been covering issues involving education and homosexuality. Part 12 of a series, "A Christian Philosophy of Education," on OBE (Outcome Based Education) appeared in the Feb. 1994 issue. Only by understanding the history of America's education, with its solidly Christian foundation until the 1840's, can one understand, the News says, how it has been abandoned by secular education today. Emmaus News is introduced free to "all who let us know they wish to receive it" at: Box 21, Ambridge, PA 15003; (412) 266-8188.

ASA's 1993 Annual Meeting on "Caring for Creation" was described in a two-page article in a recent issue of Wilderness Monthly in Taiwan. The Chinese-language magazine is published by a Christian environmentalist group, the Wilderness Fellowship.<F41559M> <F14>Chemical engineer <F255B>Li-Yang Chang of Concord, CA, now working on environmental problems for the Lawrence Berkeley Lab, wrote the report after participating at the ASA Seattle meeting. Li-Yang has recently been elected to the San Francisco Bay ASA section executive council and will serve throughout the "year of the dog" on the Asian calendar.

Squibs

@BULLET = The News of the Christian College Coalition (Vol. XVII, Issue 10) listed bridge-building Christian professional organizations. Among them were ASA's Affiliations of Christian Biologists and Geologists. The Association of Christians Teaching Sociology (ACTS), represented by Russell Heddendorf, also made the list, as did the Association of Christian Engineers and Scientists: contact Orvin and Carol Olson, 479 Rose Avenue, Vernonia, OR 97064; (503) 429-1201.

Black churches are playing a role in science education, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (15 Nov.. 93, p. 59). For example, in Indianapolis, Indiana U. and Purdue U. have a joint venture (IUPUI) with eight churches to reach inner-city students, involving ministers, parents, local organizations, and university faculty. "Offering programs through the church is a way to reach children who wouldn't normally aspire to higher education," says Yolanda George, deputy director for education and human resources at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. With the church as the focal point of many black communities, its Black Church Project now has programs in 20 cities, and AAAS offers a video program on "how to incorporate science and math activities into preschool and youth programs" and to conduct science workshops. An AAAS workshop last year at an Indianapolis church resulted in continuing interest there and in 20 other churches. The NSF is also involved in the encouragement of racial and ethnic minorities, and about 50,000 are participating in NSF-sponsored undergraduate programs in science and engineering, with <$E2/3> intending to go to graduate school.  Michael Epstein

The National & International Religion Report (Vol. 7, No. 23; Nov.. 1993) reports that ASA's booklet, Teaching Science in a Climate of Controversy, may cause some controversy itself in California, where over 3,000 public high-school biology teachers were sent the 1993 revised edition. John Wiester talked to NIRR about the distribution, hoping to avoid further controversies like that in Vista. (See Mar./Apr. 94 ASAN.) In a letter to the NIRR Editor, Jessica Shaver, former ASAN Editor Walt Hearn cited the NIRR as a leading candidate for the Geographito Award for giving ASA's address in the news article.

In view of the upcoming (July 29-August 1) ASA Annual Meeting on bioethics: Christian Coalition's Religious Rights Watch (Vol. 5, No. 2, Feb. 94) reported a medical ethics issue at the U. of Washington in Seattle that manifests one possible consequence of its policy prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or marital status. The policy was cited by chair Mickey Eisenberg in support of a decision made by the UW Medical Center's Assisted Reproductive Technology Advisory Committee to prohibit discrimination in determining who can receive in-vitro fertilization. Of the 25 staff members of the clinic, seven voiced objections to performing the service for single women and lesbians. UW policy also allows staffers to refuse to provide services for moral or religious reasons. Hoping the objections would disappear, Eisenberg nevertheless issued the veiled threat that otherwise "there is a way of dealing with those issues on the basis of personnel procedures." For more information or involvement in this affair, contact Dr. William Gerberding, Office of the President, AH 30, U. of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195; (206) 543-2100.

A new magazine, Métier (French for vocation), is published by Marketplace Ministries of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship on issues regarding "laity ministry in the marketplace." It relates faith to work with stories of Christians in the workplace and such articles as "The Workstyle Witness" (Pete Hammond, Fall 1993, p. 4), which summarizes the apostle Paul's teachings about attitudes and actions on the job. A pull-out insert, "Marketplace Resource," offers quotes on work, recommended books, and more biblical coverage of work. Marketplace Ministries is at 6400 Schroeder Road, P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895; (608) 274-9001.

Yet another Ken Olson ó this one a psychologist and Lutheran minister who is a ritual-abuse expert and not one of the several ASA members by that name ó was hired by the Arizona Child Protective Services to evaluate and treat a child who was the victim of satanic-ritual abuse by his parents after the boy failed to respond to treatment in a psychiatric hospital. Olson informed the protective-service caseworker who hired him that prayer and "deliverance from demonic spirits" might be involved in the treatment. The state subsequently acknowledged that Olson's treatment of the child was effective and had eliminated the need for long-term psychiatric hospitalization. However, the Arizona Board of Psychologist Examiners revoked his license in Oct. 1992 because of it. Olson's response: "It's a sad state that they are calling prayer ritual abuse. ... Nobody seems to care that the kid is fine." A call by the Editor to the Board office ((602) 542-3017) confirmed that Olson's license has not been reinstated and no further action has occurred. Christian Coalition's Religious Rights Watch (Dec. 93) reported this story, taken from the Arizona Republic (9 Oct. 93).

NY Section Starts Neidhardt Lecture Series

The ASA New York Metropolitan Section has started a local project in the memory of Jim Neidhardt, a 30-year local member who was instrumental in planning local meetings, bringing in notable speakers and new members, and publicizing the ASA. The local section executive council has initiated the Jim Neidhardt Lecture Series to bring speakers of special note to their spring or fall meetings. The first such lecture, featuring Neidhardt's co-author James E. Loder, was scheduled for May 21, 1994 at Princeton U. The NYM section council is asking that anyone who wants to remember Jim in this way can contribute to the Lecture Fund through the treasurer: William Harris, Speer Library, Princeton Theological Seminary, P.O. Box 111, Princeton, NJ 08542-0111. Boris Kuharetz

S.F. Bay Section Active

The San Francisco Bay local section held a potluck supper meeting on Feb. 18 at Irvington Presbyterian Church in Fremont, featuring an illustrated talk on "Essential Oils, Biodiversity and Continental Drift" by Larry Cool of Berkeley. Larry (B.S. in chemistry, UCLA) is a research associate at the U.C. Forest Products Laboratory. After years of "useful" research on wood products, Larry is now rejoicing to be able to do some "useless" research on terpenoids from conifers, simply learning how part of God's creation is put together.

@BODY TXT-3 HY = Using GCMS (gas chromatography/mass spectrometry), Larry has discovered at least six new terpene compounds produced by cypress trees, and says there are many more to be identified. A practical investigation of turpentine composition has turned into a study of the terpenoid "signatures" of various species. Learning GCMS, NMR and other techniques stretched him professionally, Larry said, but his work has also caused him to reflect on such issues as life's history and diversity, and our environmental responsibility. A striking similarity between California cypresses and those of China seems to reinforce the plausibility of continental drift, for example. And the genes that make certain species or subspecies unique will be lost forever if the remaining hundred or so trees are cut. Larry has come to appreciate the ASA as a community of Christians who ponder the significance of scientific discoveries as well as our commitment to the Creator.

Personals

Earthquake! Southern California was again rattled in January, but Gordon and Lydia Lewthwaite managed to avoid probable injury by leaving for Kenya seven hours earlier; their bedroom was badly damaged by the early morning tremor. However, Stan and Nancy Moore, in Highland Park, were spared damage to their home, but the old ornate building of Nancy's church had 40 feet of roof shift off a supporting wall, and it will probably have to be demolished. Bob Herrmann

@BULLET = Stanley Rice, biologist at Southwest State U. in Marshall, MN is this year's program coordinator for the teaching section of the Botanical Society of America, meeting this August in Knoxville, TN. Stan is also the current newsletter Editor for the ASA's Affiliation of Christian Biologists.

And moving to Knoxville is Donald H. Grove, who retired from NASA in Greenbelt, MD in 1988. His latest venture? Building a house, which is nearing completion.

Some conservation law seems to hold, as Jon Bryan leaves Knoxville after finishing his Ph.D. in geology to become curatorial director of Florida State U.'s Antarctic Marine Geology Research Facility. Last fall, though, he took an instructor position at Okaloosa-Walton Community College in Niceville, FL, teaching earth science and oceanography, and now finds time to return to his primary research interest: tertiary invertebrate faunas of the Gulf Coastal Plain.

Elementary particle theorist Gerald Cleaver is moving to Columbus, OH and Ohio State U., having both finished his Ph.D. at Cal Tech last June and married the former Lisa Rae Hauder in the same month. Lisa also earned her M.S., in school counseling, that same June at Cal State San Bernardino.

Andy Sutedja is a mechanical engineer from Indonesia, doing his graduate thesis at the U. of the Nations in Hawaii on "The Implementation of [a] Photovoltaic System for an Aquaculture System in [a] Remote Area." He has just finished his internship with the Dept. of Ecology in Washington as a pollution prevention engineer, where he has written several state publications including one on how to prevent pollution in metal fabrication. Andy wants to get a Ph.D. and apply this experience in Indonesia. His new address is: 13010C W 63rd Circle, Arvada, CO 80004.

Andi Eicher is in a joint master's program at Yale between the schools of public health and forestry & environmental studies. He has returned from a half year in a Himalayan village in northern India, researching ecological and social change. Andi would like to communicate with people interested in community development and ecological stewardship. Andi, meet Andy! (See previous bullet item for Andy's new address.) Phone Andi (Feb.-Jun.) at (203) 772-1172, or e-mail to: <R><F102MS>andi@minerva.cis.yale.edu<F14M>

Following last issue's report, Papua New Guinea missionary Bob Conrad returned with his wife, Jo Ann, to the East Sepik province to finish two New Testament translations into languages spoken by only 5,000 people each. Bob has a M.A. in math and also in linguistics from the U. of Pennsylvania (1968).

Richard Bube, past Editor of the Journal of the ASA (before it was renamed PSCF) and active ASAer, has experienced his first complete year of "retirement." As a Stanford U. emeritus professor, Dick has retained his office at Stanford and has given science/faith talks to various student groups. He has also been involved in church adult education and co-taught a 12-week class at three local Covenant churches. As if that weren't enough, Dick has completed the manuscript for a book, Putting It All Together: Seven Patterns for Relating Science and Christian Faith, and is in search of a publisher. His existing textbook, Electrons in Solids, is being translated into Greek. (As a book full of mathematical equations, that shouldn't leave too much English needing to be translated!) And Dick has signed a contract with Cambridge U. Press for another book, to be co-authored with Stanford colleague Dave Redfield, on Photo-Induced Defect Interactions in Semiconductors. Dick and his wife, Betty have also been getting acquainted with the Samarkand retirement center of the Evangelical Covenant Church, where long-time friends Elva and Alton Everest reside, in Santa Barbara, CA.

Stanley E. Lindquist was a Cal State U. professor of psychology for 35 years. During this time he founded the 25-year old Link Care Center, working with missionaries and ministers who have had emotional or other problems. The Center now has 15 counselors, plus support personnel, and 107 apartments on 8 acres. In 1986, Stan was named Psychologist of the Year by the San Joaquin Psychological Association and was asked by the California Psychological Association to participate in a special historical interview series because of the "very significant role you played in our history." As a result, Stan's current idea is that the ASA might interview older ASA members on videotape and maintain these tapes in an archive for future historians or other interested persons. Stan has been an ASA member since 1949 and remarks that "things have changed a lot since the start. For a while we had sections for different disciplines, and I edited the one on Psychology for about five years." To brainstorm with Stan about getting the archiving project going, reach him at: 5142 N. College, Fresno, CA 93704; (209) 222-4916.

With the Lord

Walter C. Randall of the Taylor U. science department passed away 29 Aug. 1993. Walter had previously taught and done research in cardiovascular physiology at Loyola U. in Chicago, and also at Western Reserve U. in 1942-43. He got his Ph.D. in physiology at Purdue U. in 1942 and started where he finished ó at Taylor U., where in 1938 he received his A.B. degree in biology. Walter wrote Nervous Control of Cardiovascular Function, Oxford U. Press, 1984, and was president of the American Physiological Society (1982-83) and chair of its Long-Range Planning Committee. He was also a member of the American Heart Association, the AAAS and Sigma Xi. Walter recommended that the ASA develop a "reader's corner" where "individual members may share their science/daily-living testimonials."

Medical doctor Peter Hofstra of La Jolla, CA died 7 Mar. 1994. He graduated in pre-med from Calvin C. in 1939 and did his surgical residency in hospitals in New York city. He was also interested in biblical archaeology and creation/evolution.

Gordon Whitney of Princeton, NJ died 6 Dec. 1993. The ASA office files have no more information on him.

ASA Book Service Moves

ASA members can order any book in print listed in Contemporary Issues in Science & Christian Faith: An Annotated Bibliography from the ASA book service. This service is now being handled by: Logos Bookstore, The Alternative, 4510 University Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98105; (206) 632-8830; contact Henry Heerschap. Many thanks to Jeff Crosby, who handled this responsibility for years, and who has now moved on to the Executive Directorship of the Logos Bookstore Association.