Re: paleonet anti-evolutionism

[meor hakif <hakif23@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sounds like just another idealist student looking for
a fight...we have a lot of them here...shouting
slogans...demonstrating...but they dont really do
anything constructive...We all have our ideals, but
science is not about our beliefs.  Confrontation of
beliefs is just destructive, as every individual would
defend his/hers..if they really want to make a
difference, why not build or learn something.
Meor Hakif

--- Leigh Van Valen <leigh@uchicago.edu> wrote:
>   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.


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