If a science professor started professing against science -- and make no
mistake, intelligent design is contrary to science -- I suppose it would be up
to the academic discipline process to get him out of the classroom before the
accrediting authorities learn of it.
I am reminded of a story told to me by a professor of biology at Brigham Young.
He said that one semester, on the day of the big evolution lecture in intro to
bio, a professor from the religion department sat through the lecture. Later
he got a formal notice that he had been called to account before the
university's "honors and standards" board, which enforced the school's rules on
adherence to LDS standards. He was informed that he had not been teaching
creationism, and there was a formal complaint.
Serious stuff. The board could dismiss even a tenured professor for violating
church teachings. So he carefully mustered the case.
At the hearing, he pointed out that the high councils of the church had debated
evolution and creationism in the 1950s. Future church president David O. McKay
was appointed to make the case for evolution, and future Sec. of Agriculture
and church president Ezra Taft Benson made the case for creationism. The
debate was before the president then (Joseph Fielding Smith, if my memory
serves) and the Council of the Twelve, the very highest authorities in the LDS
Church (the president holds the title Prophet, Seer and Revelator). At the end
of the debate, the Prophet encouraged the apostles to pray for guidance. After
some time, weeks probably, he announced that the prayers from guidance had not
been answered with a call to creationism, and so evolution would be taught in
the church's schools, in the science classes, and the church would have no
policy against evolution.
Upon checking the records, the honors board excused the biology prof, and he
learned later the religion professor had been relieved of his job. He'd
confessed to teaching creationism as church policy, which, since it is not LDS
doctrine, fell into the category of "teaching false doctrine."
One of the great dangers of making religious claims, rather than science
claims, is that one may not point to the literature, nor to the lab experiments
done by cutting edge researchers, nor those repeated in the lab sections of
science classes. One steps out on faith when one makes religious claims
against evolution.
So they shouldn't be made in science classes, by honest people of faith. IMHO.
Your mileage shouldn't vary.
Ed Darrell
Dallas
On Tuesday, September 30, 2014 6:36 AM, Eric Treene <etre...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
>Marc also was asking about the flip side: what if a science professor
>dedicated a class every year to demonstrating why in his view the science
>points to intelligent design? And what if he further took the Genesis account
>of creation and explained how particulars of it lined up with the science of
>intelligent design? What if he included this on the final exam for the class?
> Maybe we would all in the end agree that in light of academic freedom
>principles this would be no endorsement by the State, but I think Marc is
>correct that there are interesting issues here.
>
>Eric
>
>
>
>From:religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu
>[mailto:religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Marty Lederman
>Sent: Sunday, September 28, 2014 10:02 PM
>To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
>Subject: Re: science professor lecture
>
>Well, I assumed Marc's question started from the premise that such a lecture
>would be very constitutionally dubious, at a minimum, if it occurred in
>primary or secondary school, and then was asking if and why the constitutional
>analysis would change in a public college setting . . .
>
>On Sun, Sep 28, 2014 at 9:39 PM, Steven Jamar <stevenja...@gmail.com> wrote:
>How would it not be constitutional? What possible theory?
>
>On Sep 28, 2014, at 5:24 PM, Marc Stern <ste...@ajc.org> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>Today's NY Times Review section has an article by a professor of evolutionary
>biology at a public university describing a lecture he gives annually
>explaining how that body of science has undermined central claims of
>religious traditions.
>
>Is it constitutional for him to give this lecture? Would it be constitutional
>for a professor of theology at the same university to offer a rebuttal in
>religious terms?
>
>Marc
>Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network.
>From: Rick Garnett
>Sent: Friday, September 26, 2014 10:43 AM
>To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
>Reply To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
>Subject: Re: GW National Religious Freedom Moot Court Competition
>
>Dear Chip,
>
>Thanks for this. I'm hoping that Notre Dame will send a team again. All the
>best,
>
>Rick
>
>
>Richard W. Garnett
>Professor of Law and Concurrent Professor of Political Science
>Director, Program on Church, State & Society
>Notre Dame Law School
>P.O. Box 780
>Notre Dame, Indiana 46556-0780
>574-631-6981 (w)
>574-276-2252 (cell)
>rgarn...@nd.edu
>
>To download my scholarly papers, please visit my SSRN page
>
>Blogs:
>
>Prawfsblawg
>Mirror of Justice
>
>
>Twitter: @RickGarnett
>
>On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 4:34 PM, Ira Lupu <icl...@law.gwu.edu> wrote:
>George Washington University will once again host the National Religious
>Freedom Moot Court Competition, presented by the J. Reuben Clark Law Society.
>The registration period is open from now until Nov. 15, 2014. The problem
>will be released on Nov. 17, 2014. The competition will be held at GW on
>Friday-Saturday, Feb. 6-7, 2015. The 2015 problem involves claims of
>conscience raised by teachers against a hypothetical law in Washington, D.C.
>that requires teachers and administrators to carry firearms on public school
>property during school hours. More information here:
>http://www.religionmootcourt.org/ (Ignore the Feb, 2014 dates at the top of
>the website).
>
>--
>Ira C. Lupu
>F. Elwood & Eleanor Davis Professor of Law, Emeritus
>George Washington University Law School
>2000 H St., NW
>Washington, DC 20052
>(202)994-7053
>Co-author (with Professor Robert Tuttle) of "Secular Government, Religious
>People" ( Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2014))
>My SSRN papers are here:
>http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=181272#reg
>
>_______________________________________________
>To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see
>http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw
>
>Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private.
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>can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward
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>_______________________________________________
>To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see
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>can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward
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>
>--
>Prof. Steven D. Jamar vox: 202-806-8017
>Director of International Programs, Institute for Intellectual Property and
>Social Justice http://iipsj.org
>Howard University School of Law fax: 202-806-8567
>http://sdjlaw.org
>
>“There are no wrong notes in jazz: only notes in the wrong places.”
>Miles Davis
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu
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>
>_______________________________________________
>To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu
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>
>
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