Des Moines Register, IA
12-11-07
Gonzalez more interested in pushing religion than science
Once again, Professor Guillermo Gonzalez of Iowa State University is in the
news ("Theory Influenced ISU Tenure Vote," Dec. 1). This time he is a victim of
his colleagues, who, as narrow-minded defenders of the scientific method, brook
no apostasy in the ranks. Now he is suing, claiming political, if not religious,
persecution for his work in intelligent design. Unfair?
Intelligent Design is the assertion that life is complex and requires a designer.
However, to date, ID provides only a few examples of alleged complexity
including the immune system, the eye and bacterial flagellum. ID requires a
designer. The designer is God, God is supernatural, science rejects the
supernatural and therefore, science rejects God. The Discovery Institute, which
supports Gonzalez and ID, acknowledges that ID cannot succeed unless science
lets God in. Therefore, the controversy is whether science should be, in the
interest of religious fairness, changed.
Fairness is the basis of democracy, each political opinion being equal to another.
However, the claim for fairness in the case of Gonzalez is not valid.Gonzalez, as
an ID proponent, is opposed to science. He believes science should be
something other than what it is - specifically, a big tent that accepts religious
revelation as truth. ID is the Trojan horse he is riding in this pursuit.
Tenure is an offer to give Gonzalez a job for life as a scientist, not a prophet.
Denying tenure is a fair way of assessing that Gonzalez's professional goal of
destroying science does not support the goals of Iowa State University. The
undertone of religious victimization in the lawsuit reinforces the idea that
Gonzalez knows his court date is more about securing a forum to promote
religion than advancing science.
- Jim Schmidt,