Claim CA320.3:
Baylor University president Robert Sloan, in 1998, invited William Dembski
to set up a research center focusing on intelligent design. Dembski set
up the Michael Polanyi Center (MPC) and planned a major conference,
"Nature to Nurture," on design in the unvierse. Baylor's biology faculty
boycotted the April 2000 conference, and a few days after it, the faculty
senate voted to close the Michael Polanyi Center. Sloan resisted for a
while, but the faculty forced him to review the status of the Center, and
the committee appointed to review it, stacked with faculty hostile to
Dembski, confirmed the recommendation to close the Center. Dembski was
removed from his position, and Sloan later lost his job. "The Baylor
lesson is clear: Darwinists will not tolerate any open discussion of
intelligent design." (Wells 2006, 91).
Source:
Wells, Jonathan, 2006. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and
Intelligent Design. Washington DC: Regnery, 89-91.
Response:
- Wells greatly distorts the events surrounding the Polanyi Center.
Briefly, the faculty objected to Sloan's connecting a Center that
promotes creationism with the biology department. The MPC was renamed,
not closed, and Dembski was extremely pleased with the review
committee's report. Dembski was removed on account of his own hubris,
and Sloan resigned years later.
In more detail, . . .
President Robert Sloan unilaterally established the center and
appointed William Dembski, who named it the Michael Polanyi Center.
Public controversy erupted over the MPC in 2000, at the time of the
"Nature to Nurture" conference, when Baylor faculty, especially in the
science departments, worried that the MPC would attract negative
publicity to the science departments. They also noted that the MPC had
never approached the scientists for input (Martin 2000a). The faculty
senate voted 27-2 for the MPC to be abolished. Sloan rejected that
idea, and as a compromise a committee of eight scholars from across the
country was set up to review the MPC and its operation. Contrary to
what Wells wrote, the committee said that ID was a legitimate field for
the MPC to study, although it recommended that the Center be placed
within Baylor's Institute of Faith and Learning and renamed, that an
advisory committee of Baylor faculty be appointed for it, and that it
expand its focus (Martin 2000c). Dembski greeted the report as marking
"the triumph of intelligent design as a legitimate form of academic
inquiry" and sent a press release saying in part,
Dogmatic opponents of design who demanded the Center be shut down
have met their Waterloo. Baylor University is to be commended for
remaining strong in the face of intolerant assaults on freedom of
thought and expression. (Dembski 2000)
Sloan, beliving the email was inflamatory and not collegial, asked
Dembski to retract it. When Dembski refused, he was removed as
director of the Center. The Center, following the committee's
recommendations, was renamed "Program in Science, Philosophy and
Religion." Sloan resigned five years later; there is no indication
that his resignation was prompted by the incidents surrounding the MPC.
- Intolerance came from the creationist side. Outgoing psychology and
neuroscience professor Lewis Barker said, in an article which Wells
cites,
Faculty are not speaking out because Sloan can make their lives
miserable. They don't speak out for fear of their salaries and of
being singled out by administration. I know you can't get many
faculty responses, but the ones you have represent the majority of
the faculty. The others are just too scared to speak out and want to
hold on to their jobs. (Martin 2000b).
References:
- Dembski, William. 2000. Polanyi Center Press Release. Oct. 17, 2000.
http://www.antievolution.org/people/dembski_wa/wad_20001018_mn.txt
- Martin, Blair. 2000a. BU science-religion center draws critics.
Lariat, Apr. 6, 2000.
http://www3.baylor.edu/Lariat/Archives/2000/20000406/art-front01.html
- Martin, Blair. 2000b. Professors debate legitimacy of Polanyi.
Lariat, Apr. 12, 2000.
http://www3.baylor.edu/Lariat/Archives/2000/20000412/art-front01.html
- Martin, Blair. 2000c. Polanyi committee suggests compromise.
Lariat, Oct. 18, 2000.
http://www3.baylor.edu/Lariat/Archives/2000/20001018/art-front04.html
Further Reading:
Scott, Eugenie C. 2000. Baylor's Polanyi Center in turmoil.
Reports of the National Center for Science Education 20(4): 9-11,
http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/rncse_content/vol20/8550_baylor39s_polanyi_center_in_12_30_1899.asp
created 2006-8-23