RE: paleonet Living Pterosaurs: Beat up event

["David Kopaska-Merkel" <davidkm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Peter

I appreciate your concern that misunderstandings be avoided.  However, I
don't think that the United States has gotten quite as close to Spain under
the Inquisition as you seem to fear!  Professors of religion would not pay
to have someone else beat up another professor of religion because he was
teaching a course that they disapproved of, no matter how strong that
disapproval might be.  I think it is pretty clear that he intended to argue
in the class that intelligent design is a mythology or religion and has
nothing to do with science.  He was a little insulting about this and a
couple of people who have almost no self-control decided to do something
illegal: beat him up.  Sadly, this is not the first time a teacher has been
beaten for espousing unpopular views and I am sure it will not be the last.
However despite the fact that there are many ignorant and blind people in
Kansas it is still a fairly progressive state.  The University of Kansas is
an important one and has many strong science departments.  Kansas school
systems, at least in the eastern part of the state where most people live,
are well-funded and have a lot of popular support.  It is, unfortunately,
easy to take over a school board and attempt to impose your will on the
schools.  It is not so easy to change the teachers quickly.

Best regards,
David KM

Disclaimer: I attended the University of Kansas.  


David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Geological Survey of Alabama
P.O. Box 869999
Tuscaloosa AL 35486-6999
(205) 247-3695 (direct line/voice mail)
(205) 349-2852 (switchboard)
fax 349-2861
www.gsa.state.al.us

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-----Original Message-----
From: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk [mailto:paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk] On Behalf
Of Peter Paul Smolka
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2005 6:31 AM
To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
Subject: RE: paleonet Living Pterosaurs: Beat up event

On Tue, 6 Dec 2005, Seth Finnegan wrote:

> Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2005 13:36:38 -0800
> From: Seth Finnegan <finnes01@student.ucr.edu>
> Reply-To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
> To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
> Subject: RE: paleonet Living Pterosaurs soon on display
> 
> This is a quite worrying, if true (from today's Wichita Eagle).  You 
> may remember that an article about the class that Mirecki inteneded to 
> offer was posted here a few weeks ago.
>
>
> Professor beaten; attackers cite KU creationism class
>
> Associated Press
>
> LAWRENCE - A professor whose planned course on creationism and 
> intelligent design was canceled after he sent e-mails deriding 
> Christian conservatives was hospitalized Monday after what appeared to 
> be a roadside beating.
>
> University of Kansas religious studies professor Paul Mirecki

Dear Seth,

it might be helpful to people from outside the US to specify why he was
beaten up such as:

1) A course was intended to be given in a universities religious study
department on ID. Religious people fearing their teaching monopoly attacked
him.

2) Although being professor of religious studies he did not try to teach ID
from a neutral unbiased point (pros and cons, comparable to "how might
internet to the others side work") but he aimed at a one sided view (which,
if as professor for the subject of religion might be regarded as subperfect
by some):

To avoid a communicative misunderstaning:

If a professor of religion would assess this field, I would expect sentences
like: Possibly some 3 Ga ago, to mechanisms still to be found, at least one
cell did not digest an incoporated microorganism but housed it so it is now
identified as mitchondrian. Is there any evidence from various religions,
how (such as by an angel) the mitochondrian was at the respective place at
the right time etc.

Again: If a professor of religion would do it (such as presenting, also in
Kansas, the Buddhistic, Christian(Catholic, Evangelic), Islamic, Hindu,
Indian, Autralian etc. view on it and why, according to these religions, it
may or may not work). Again: Dept. of Religious studies (= no
misunderstanding please).

That is: Did the beating people fear a non-evangelical view to be tought in
Kansas for example?

In Germany according to a recent court ruling teachers must not wear the
islamic hairscarf (which is regarded as political symbol and the school is
neutral) but people may wear a cross or the nuns dress (which by my private
understanding is thus also not perfectly neutral).

3) He advocated ID strongly and biased (which is possible but from the
article unlikely), e.g. he omitted the cons in discussing it
(again: as professor of religion)

> said that the two men who beat him made references to the class that 
> was to be offered for the first time this spring.
>
> Originally called "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, 
> Creationism and other Religious Mythologies," the course was canceled 
> last week at Mirecki's request.

4) Did he offer by his knowledge on religion various mythologies offers on
that topic (e.g. far beyond what people knew so far) and people got furious
that views beyond preachers views might exist?

In Germany for example professors lost their teaching permission in religion
because they questioned some views of the catholic church (such as Prof.
Kueng some years ago).

Was it a comparable phenomenon by addressing a wide range of views including
ancient and modern mythologies?
(e.g. other than the church in Kansas presents).

A discussion would go well beyond the topic of this list.

A short (6-8 lines) hint _why_ he was beaten might for such cases in the
future be helpful, e.g. for you it might be perfectly clear; for others more
than one possibilities might exist.

I mean: If I imagine myself in a train from Chicago Airport to lets say
Boulder,Co and a farmer asks me about my profession, I discuss Neogene
climate changes and he beats me up because "I am also one of these
evolution-folks" I might better stay in Europe.

If peoples view (freedom of the opinion, also to believe in "Earth is a
Disk") goes into this direction it might be good for the rest of the world
to know it early.

Best regards
(Good luck for Kansas)

Peter
>
> Seth Finnegan
> Dept. of Earth Sciences -036
> University of California
> Riverside, CA 92521
> Phone:(951)452-2759
> Fax:  (951)787-4324
>
>

**********************************************************************
Dr. Peter P. Smolka
University Muenster
Geological Institute
Corrensstr. 24
D-48149 Muenster

Tel.: +49/251/833-3989   +49/2533/4401
Fax:  +49/251/833-3989   +49/2533/4401
E-Mail: smolka@uni-muenster.de
E-Mail: PSmolka@T-Online.de
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