Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Ball State University: Will It Get a Reputation as a Leading Center of Censorship?

It would seem that Ball State is heading for a very embarrassing reputation.  Its president seems to have adopted a double-standard at odds with the best science and the best philosophy.  Would they ban Thomas Nagel from teaching there?  New slogan:  "Helping students think inside the box"?

From a letter from state legislators:
We are disturbed by reports that while you restrict faculty speech on intelligent design, BSU authorized a seminar that teaches "Science Must Destroy Religion." Your policy banning professors from expressing their views on intelligent design raises many troubling questions. One of the most important is: Does the policy forbid science professors from explaining either their support or rejection of intelligent design in answer to student questions about intelligent design in class?


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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Zack Kopplin on the Meaning of "Censorship"

Zack Kopplin apparently believes that not allowing comments on a blog constitutes "censorship."  Tut, tut. Figures:
Am I winning your censorship contest? Or is your website which doesn't allow comments beating me. [sic]


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Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Jerry Coyne Embraces Censorship Proudly

Jerry Coyne is proud to be given the Censor of the Year award. He justifies his glee, apparently, because in his eyes his passion for censorship is only to stop bad people from "spreading lies to schoolchildren." The only problem with this justification is that the censorship at issue is of a university professor who is teaching an interdisciplinary course with a fairly broad reading list entitled "Boundaries of Science."  Among the "lies to schoolchildren" that he seems proud to censor are writings of highly regarded scientists and scholars such as as Francis Collins, Paul Davies, Owen Gingerich and C.S. Lewis.

In addition to being a proud recipient of the Censor of the Year award, he also seems to be clearly a "Darwinian Fundamentalist." Will he be proud of this designation as well?

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More on Paul Davies here and here.

     

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