Discovery Institute, WA
06-12-07
Would Dr. Arno Penzias, Nobel Laureate in Physics, Be Blacklisted at Iowa
State?
Guillermo Gonzalez is the outstanding astronomer who was blacklisted
from tenure at Iowa State University because of his support for intelligent
design. As my colleagues here on ENV have pointed out, Dr. Gonzalez’
academic record is superb. Since his arrival in 2001, Dr. Gonzalez has been the
most productive astronomer in his department, judged by the impact factor of his
publications.
It’s clear that Dr. Gonzalez was denied tenure for only one reason: he stated
publicly that he believes there is evidence for design in the universe. As I
observed in a previous post about Georges Lemitare, the Catholic priest who is
the father of the Big Bang theory, many of the most prominent astronomers in
history have shared Dr. Gonzalez’s opinion about the evidence for design in the
universe. Nowadays, it is very dangerous to state such beliefs in science
departments of many universities, including Iowa State University.
Who else, besides Dr. Gonzalez and Dr. Lemitare, would qualify for Iowa State’s
blacklist? Nobel laureate Dr. Arno Penzias (photo) meets Iowa State’s implicit
criteria for denial of tenure. He has discussed his opinions regarding the
philosophical ramifications of his discovery quite openly, and, in many ways, has
done so in a way that was more explicitly religious than Dr. Gonzalez.
Penzias, along with his colleague Robert Wilson, worked at Bell Telephone
Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey. In 1964, they detected diffuse isotropic
radio noise of very low energy. After ruling out terrestrial sources, they realized
that the noise was the cosmic microwave background radiation, a remnant of the
Big Bang. They shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics for their seminal
discovery.
Penzias stated to the New York Times on March 12, 1978:
The best data we have [concerning the Big Bang] are exactly what I would
have predicted, had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms,
the bible as a whole.
In a subsequent radio interview, Penzias was asked what there was before the
Big Bang:
“We don’t know, but we can reasonably say that there was nothing.” An upset
listener called immediately, accusing Penzias of being an atheist. He wisely
replied: “Madame, I believe you are not aware of the consequences of what I just
said. Before the Big Bang there was nothing of what now exists. Had there been
something, the question could be: where did it come from?” He continued
commenting that if there was nothing and suddenly things began to appear, that
was sign that Somebody had taken them from nothing, and concluded saying
that his discovery could bring about the overcoming of the historic enmity
between science and religion.
Dr. Penzias, like Dr. Gonzalez, thought deeply and has spoken quite publicly
about the philosophical and theological implications of 20th century discoveries in
astronomy. Fortunately for Penzias, his scientific accomplishments were
evaluated by the Nobel Prize Committee, not the tenure committee at Iowa
State University.