Bertvan:
>After reading of the Dean Kenyon affair, where a tenured professor's classes
>were taken away from him for voicing skepticism of neo Darwinism outside the
>classroom, do you suppose any untenured professor would openly voice his
>support for the design concept?
they can and do, obviously. Kenyon was actually teaching creationism, which
is religion, in his science classes in a state-supported institution. I'd
like to point out that Behe is a tenured professor and has suffered few
consequences. Of course, he doesn't reject mutation and natural selection
or common descent.
>Do you think any teacher who let it be known
>there were people skeptical of Neo Darwinism in the highschool classroom
>wouldn't feel threatened by the ACLU?
It depends if they are violating the establishment clause of the 1st
amendment. You can't teach religion in a state-supported school, especially
in a science class. Anybody can be skeptical of "neo-Darwinism" if they
have some evidence to back up their skepticism. The bare fact of skepticism
isn't enough.
>Recently someone reported a
>symposium held at a university on Darwinism. The only scientist
>participating on the Darwinist side was said to be a psychologist.
Do you have some details on that? There are symposiums on the various
features of evolution held all the time, including at the university where
I work. They don't seem to be short on attendees.
>I suspect
>some of the biologists who refused to participate may have done so because of
>fear or reprisal.
from whom? If the symposium was on "Darwinism" I would assume you'd get
brownie points for attending if it's so dangerous to oppose evolution.
>I have a relative in academia. While not even a
>biologist, he is careful of what he says on the subject. And frankly, I
>regard calling people with whom one disagrees "liars" a threatening tactic.
observing a lie and pointing it out *may* be threatening to the person
uttering the falshood, but that's as it should be. It's not my job to make
sure dishonest people are comfortable and unchallenged in their dishonesty.
Susan
----------
For if there is a sin against life, it consists not so much in despairing
of life as in hoping for another and in eluding the implacable grandeur of
this one.
--Albert Camus
http://www.telepath.com/susanb/