Des Moines Register, IA
12-11-07
Universities should encourage discovery, differing views
It has now become apparent that Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez's support for the theory
of intelligent design was a factor in denial of tenure for this gifted professor and
researcher, despite assurances to the contrary by Iowa State University
president Gregory Geoffroy.
It is painful to see that a public university is suppressing academic freedom,
creating an intellectual black hole that may envelop our children. A world view of
ID has been relegated to the realm of "non-scientific" impossibility by the very
scientists who claim to be open-minded and progressive. Faculty members will
remember that many advances in thinking over the centuries rewarded their
proponents only posthumously. Let it not be so this time.
The academic community at ISU should not be bound to parrot a narrow outlook
of group think.
Indeed, the university setting is the ideal crucible for the careful consideration
and debate of concepts, beliefs, hypotheses and theories. It is the springboard
for lifelong learning.
As an artist and medical illustrator, I see ID everywhere: petals of a flower, the
wing of a butterfly, DNA, fossils, sea shells, the patterns of snow flakes, unique
fingerprints, the feathers of peacocks. The more that we learn about anatomy,
microscopic processes and molecular biology, the more we appreciate the order
and complexity of life and health.
Is it really so unthinkable to consider the possibility of ID?
We support academic freedom at ISU, and we support Gonzalez. It would be a
shame to lose him to the black hole of the fear of open-minded inquiry.
- Marla Quenzer,
West Des Moines.