A professor at Texas Tech is getting sued for refusing to write recommendations for students who do not believe in evolution.
Dini writes that he has the policy because he doesn't believe anyone should practice in a biology-related field without accepting "the most important theory in biology.""Good scientists would never throw out data that do not conform to their expectations or beliefs," he writes.
Kinda naive for a professor, who should know that good scientists disregard data all the time when it disrupts their pet theories.
If you've read my blog for any length of time, you know that I have several problems with the theory of evolution as currently espoused, particularly regarding the origin of life. I'm not real fond of scientific creationism either, because there's more religion than science. Despite it's flaws, evolution is the dominant theory today, and should be respected as such. Pr. Dini has every right to refuse a letter of recommendation for students who refuse to acknowledge that, even if his reasoning is flawed. After all, the doctors who overprescribed anti-biotics were all trained in classical and neo Darwinism. To attribute the resulting antibiotic resistant disease strains to a belief in creationism is ludicrous.
The article ands with this grammatical gem:
Department spokesman Jorge Martinez refused to not confirm or deny an investigation, citing department policy.
Hunh?
Posted by Rich at January 30, 2003 3:48 PMWouldn't viruses developing resistance to antibodies be an example of natural selection rather than evolution? There are some interesting creation science theories out there. A friend of the family is a creation scientist, and has done some interesting research with radio halos, among other things. They even managed to create coal in about a year.
Posted by: Bjorn on January 31, 2003 8:49 AM