Looks like Dembski has a different take on things:
----------
From: William A. Dembski (by way of William Grassie)
Reply To: William A. Dembski (by way of William Grassie)
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2000 5:03 PM
To: metanews@META-LIST.ORG
Subject: [METANEWS] Polanyi Center Press Release
Importance: High
The Michael Polanyi Center Peer Review Committee has now released its
official report (http://pr.baylor.edu/pdf/001017polanyi.pdf) and the Baylor
University administration has responded to the report
(http://pr.baylor.edu/feat.fcgi?2000.10.17.polanyi). As director of the
Center, I wish to offer the following comment:
The report marks the triumph of intelligent design as a legitimate form of
academic inquiry. This is a great day for academic freedom. I'm deeply
grateful to President Sloan and Baylor University for making this possible,
as well as to the peer review committee for its unqualified affirmation of
my own work on intelligent design. The scope of the Center will be expanded
to embrace a broader set of conceptual issues at the intersection of science
and religion, and the Center will therefore receive a new name to reflect
this expanded vision. My work on intelligent design will continue unabated.
Dogmatic opponents of design who demanded the Center be shut down have met
their Waterloo. Baylor University is to be commended for remaining strong in
the face of intolerant assaults on freedom of thought and expression.
Sincerely,
Bill Dembski
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-----Original Message-----
From: Wesley R. Elsberry [mailto:welsberr@inia.cls.org]
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2000 11:54 PM
To: evolution@calvin.edu
Cc: welsberr@inia.cls.org
Subject: News from Baylor U.
The external review committee review on the Michael Polanyi Center
is in.
<http://pr.baylor.edu/polanyi>
It is an interesting document, though brief. The committee
affirmed the traditional importance of study of the relation
between science and theology at Baylor, and indicated that
Dembski and Gordon's work could be seen as part of that
tradition. The committee advised that it was inappropriate
to utilize the name of Michael Polanyi in association with
the "Intelligent Design" focus of Dembski and Gordon.
The committee also recommended a faculty advisory committee
to be involved in planning and review of work at the
Institute for Faith and Learning, the current parent of the
MPC.
On my first reading, the report appeared to do relatively
little to change the status quo. A name change for the MPC,
perhaps. An advisory committee that could be two steps
removed from the action, and with a little extra help,
relatively ineffective. But there are hints that more may
be in the works.
It can be taken as a recommendation that the MPC be dissolved
as a separate entity, but that Dembski and Gordon be retained
in association with the Institute for Faith and Learning.
The committee's identification of the IFL as the "appropriate
administrative structure" for pursuing a science and religion
dialogue could be regarded in this way.
Either way, it looks like what has resulted is a compromise
between the extremes. Dembski and Gordon will, it appears,
still be associated with Baylor. The faculty have the
potential for having some say in how the programs in the IFL
get run. The Michael Polanyi name will no longer be
associated with "Intelligent Design" activities at Baylor.
At least, that's the way it looks to me at the moment.
A very interesting point in the report is that the review
committee does not classify Dembski's work as science, but
rather as something relevant to the relationships between
science and religion.
Wesley
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