warrior1972
05-14-2007, 06:05 PM
May 14, 2007 1:34
Intelligent Design—Bad Career Move?
Posted by Michael Lemonick | Comments (0) | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email This
The always alert Discovery Institute has let us know that Guillermo Gonzales has been denied tenure at Iowa State University. The DI is shocked--shocked!--at such a decision. Gonzales has done all sorts of serious work in astronomy, his field of expertise; obviously, this travesty is a result of Dr. Gonzales' extracurricular work on Intelligent Design.
For those who don't recall, ID is the idea that certain aspects of the natural world can't be explained without invoking a Really Smart Being having tinkered with the works. (The RSB isn't necessarily God, insist ID proponents, even though every last one of them seems to believe it actually is God--which is why detractors suspect the whole thing was cooked up to get around the Supreme Court's decision back in the '80s that you can't teach religion in a public science classroom).
Most ID people focus on evolution, and how you need a Go...I mean, a RSB, to explain the complexities of the biological world. But Gonzales is more interested in how the RSB is required to explain our planet's amazingly benign environment that has nurtured life.
The Discovery Institute is screaming foul. How can an institution like Iowa State claim to protect academic freedom if it rejects Gonzales' tenure just because he believes in ID? Well, for one thing, that may not be the only, or even the major reason. Yes, he's done good work in astronomy. But as the blogger Pharyngula puts it beautifully:
"Complaining that one met all the requirements is like proposing marriage, getting turned down, and then protesting that one has a good job, a nice apartment, and excellent personal hygiene. That may be true, but it's irrelevant. The university does not want a long-term, committed relationship with you—nothing personal, you can still be friends." (The full entry is here.)
It wouldn't be a huge surprise, though, if ID were one of the factors, and that's not inappropriate at all. Because Gonzales was up for a science professorship—and despite the most strenuous efforts of the Discovery Institute to spin it otherwise, ID ain't science. It's magic. It says, as ID's most celebrated proponent, Michael Behe, admitted in the Dover, PA court case on ID, that the definition of science is too narrow, and should be widened to include the supernatural. And unless Iowa State wants to merge with Hogwarts, it can certainly take into account the fact that Gonzales has a distorted view of what science actually is (again, I don't know the basis of their decision--I'm speculating, just like the Discovery Institute. Except from a point of reason, not spin-doctoring).
If Iowa State tried to fire Gonzales or anyone else after giving them tenure, I should add, for any reason other than extreme incompetence or commission of a serious felony, I would of course be opposed.
Intelligent Design—Bad Career Move?
Posted by Michael Lemonick | Comments (0) | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email This
The always alert Discovery Institute has let us know that Guillermo Gonzales has been denied tenure at Iowa State University. The DI is shocked--shocked!--at such a decision. Gonzales has done all sorts of serious work in astronomy, his field of expertise; obviously, this travesty is a result of Dr. Gonzales' extracurricular work on Intelligent Design.
For those who don't recall, ID is the idea that certain aspects of the natural world can't be explained without invoking a Really Smart Being having tinkered with the works. (The RSB isn't necessarily God, insist ID proponents, even though every last one of them seems to believe it actually is God--which is why detractors suspect the whole thing was cooked up to get around the Supreme Court's decision back in the '80s that you can't teach religion in a public science classroom).
Most ID people focus on evolution, and how you need a Go...I mean, a RSB, to explain the complexities of the biological world. But Gonzales is more interested in how the RSB is required to explain our planet's amazingly benign environment that has nurtured life.
The Discovery Institute is screaming foul. How can an institution like Iowa State claim to protect academic freedom if it rejects Gonzales' tenure just because he believes in ID? Well, for one thing, that may not be the only, or even the major reason. Yes, he's done good work in astronomy. But as the blogger Pharyngula puts it beautifully:
"Complaining that one met all the requirements is like proposing marriage, getting turned down, and then protesting that one has a good job, a nice apartment, and excellent personal hygiene. That may be true, but it's irrelevant. The university does not want a long-term, committed relationship with you—nothing personal, you can still be friends." (The full entry is here.)
It wouldn't be a huge surprise, though, if ID were one of the factors, and that's not inappropriate at all. Because Gonzales was up for a science professorship—and despite the most strenuous efforts of the Discovery Institute to spin it otherwise, ID ain't science. It's magic. It says, as ID's most celebrated proponent, Michael Behe, admitted in the Dover, PA court case on ID, that the definition of science is too narrow, and should be widened to include the supernatural. And unless Iowa State wants to merge with Hogwarts, it can certainly take into account the fact that Gonzales has a distorted view of what science actually is (again, I don't know the basis of their decision--I'm speculating, just like the Discovery Institute. Except from a point of reason, not spin-doctoring).
If Iowa State tried to fire Gonzales or anyone else after giving them tenure, I should add, for any reason other than extreme incompetence or commission of a serious felony, I would of course be opposed.