The Discovery Institute has another article on this subject, at
http://www.discovery.org/crsc/CRSCrecentArticles.php3?id=487. It's taken
from The Houston Chronicle, and is surprisingly balanced for an article
found on the DI site.
There were a few items in this article which particularly interested me...
"The faculty senate, which represents a cross-section of the university,
voted 27-2 in April to recommend dismantling the center and starting the
project from scratch with faculty input."
I hadn't realised that the vote was as overwhelming as this.
"Cooper [chairperson of the external review committee] also said the
committee did not investigate the center's connections with the
Seattle-based Discovery Institute, a conservative think tank that promotes
the teaching of intelligent design in public schools."
I wonder why the committee chose to ignore these connections.
"Dembski has received fellowships of $40,000 to $50,000 from the Seattle
institute, and his salary at the Polanyi Center is paid from a $75,000 grant
from the John Templeton Fund, which the institute distributes. Brumley said
the university will pick up Dembski's salary after the grant expires next
year."
I was wondering about this. So Baylor could end up paying Dembski to promote
his pseudoscientific work!
"Dembski could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but Gordon said he
believes intelligent design should be taught in public schools only once it
gains widespread scientific credibility."
I'm glad to hear that, but it's a shame that other IDers don't take this
view.
Richard Wein (Tich)
--------------------------------
"Do the calculation. Take the numbers seriously. See if the underlying
probabilities really are small enough to yield design."
-- W. A. Dembski, who has never presented any calculation to back up his
claim to have detected Intelligent Design in life.
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