Title: anti-evolutionism
Someone just sent me this.
Worthy of imitation?
(Sorry for
cross-posting.)
Leigh
Professor's Snub of Creationists Prompts U.S. Inquiry
By NICK MADIGAN
NY
Times
[L]UBBOCK, Tex., Feb. 2 - A biology professor who insists that
his students accept the tenets of human evolution has found himself
the subject of Justice Department scrutiny.
Prompted by a complaint from the Liberty Legal Institute, a group of
Christian lawyers, the department is investigating whether Michael L.
Dini, an associate professor of biology at Texas Tech University here,
discriminated against students on the basis of religion when he posted
a demand on his Web site that students wanting a letter of
recommendation for postgraduate studies "truthfully and
forthrightly affirm a scientific answer" to the question of how
the human species originated.
Advertisement
<http://graphics7.nytimes.com/adx/images/nytcir63Rsur_01-nyt3/nymn10_billboard1.jpg>
<http://graphics.nytimes.com/images/misc/spacer.gif>
<http://graphics.nytimes.com/images/misc/spacer.gif>
"The central, unifying principle of biology is the theory of
evolution," Dr. Dini wrote. "How can someone who does not
accept the most important theory in biology expect to properly
practice in a field that is so heavily based on biology?"
That was enough for the lawyers' group, based in Plano, a Dallas
suburb, to file a complaint on behalf of a 22-year-old Texas Tech
student, Micah Spradling.
Mr. Spradling said he sat in on two sessions of Dr. Dini's
introductory biology class and shortly afterward noticed the
guidelines on the professor's Web site
(www2.tltc.ttu.edu/dini/Personal/letters.htm).
Mr. Spradling said that given the professor's position, there was
"no way" he would have enrolled in Dr. Dini's class or asked
him for a recommendation to medical school.
"That would be denying my faith as a Christian," said Mr.
Spradling, a junior raised in Lubbock who plans to study prosthetics
and orthotics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
in Dallas. "They've taken prayer out of schools and the Ten
Commandments out of courtrooms, so I thought I had an opportunity to
make a difference."
In an interview in his office, Dr. Dini pointed to a computer screen
full of e-mail messages and said he felt besieged.
"The policy is not meant in any way to be discriminatory toward
anyone's beliefs, but instead to ensure that people who I recommend to
a medical school or a professional school or a graduate school in the
biomedical sciences are scientists," he said. "I think
science and religion address very different types of questions, and
they shouldn't overlap."
Dr. Dini, who said he had no intention of changing his policy,
declined to address the question of his own faith. But university
officials and several students who support him say he is a religious
man.
"He's a devout Catholic," said Greg Rogers, 36, a pre-med
student from Lubbock. "He's mentioned it in discussion
groups."
Mr. Rogers, who returned to college for a second degree and who said
his beliefs aligned with Dr. Dini's, added: "I believe in God and
evolution. I believe that evolution was the tool that brought us
about. To deny the theory of evolution is, to me, like denying the law
of gravity. In science, a theory is about as close to a fact as you
can get."
Another student, Brent Lawlis, 21, from Midland, Tex., said he hoped
to become an orthopedic surgeon and had had no trouble obtaining a
letter of recommendation from Dr. Dini. "I'm a Christian, but
there's too much biological evidence to throw out evolution," he
said.
But other students waiting to enter classes Friday morning said they
felt that Dr. Dini had stepped over the line. "Just because
someone believes in creationism doesn't mean he shouldn't give them a
recommendation," said Lindsay Otoski, 20, a sophomore from
Albuquerque who is studying nursing. "It's not fair."
On Jan. 21, Jeremiah Glassman, chief of the Department of Justice's
civil rights division, told the university's general counsel, Dale Pat
Campbell, that his office was looking into the complaint, and asked
for copies of the university's policies on letters of
recommendation.
David R. Smith, the Texas Tech chancellor, said on Friday afternoon
that the university, a state institution with almost 30,000 students
and an operating budget of $845 million, had no such policy and
preferred to leave such matters to professors.
In a letter released by his office, Dr. Smith noted that there were 38
other faculty members who could have issued Mr. Spradling a letter of
recommendation, had he taken their classes. "I suspect there are
a number of them who can and do provide letters of recommendation to
students regardless of their ability to articulate a scientific answer
to the origin of the human species," Dr. Smith wrote.
Members of the Liberty Legal Institute, who specialize in litigating
what they call religious freedom cases, said their complaint was a
matter of principle.
"There's no problem with Dr. Dini saying you have to understand
evolution and you have to be able to describe it in detail," said
Kelly Shackelford, the group's chief counsel, "but you can't tell
students that they have to hold the same personal belief that you
do."
Mr. Shackelford said that he would await the outcome of the Justice
Department investigation but that the next step would probably be to
file a suit against the university.