Intelligent design professor earns tenure at Ball State

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Intelligent design professor earns tenure at Ball State

Updated 3:35 pm, Wednesday, May 11, 2016

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — Ball State University in Indiana has granted tenure to a faculty member who was ordered three years ago to stop teaching intelligent design in a science course.

"I am pleased to have received approval for tenure and I look forward to continuing my professional contributions to Ball State University," Eric Hedin, an associate professor of physics and astronomy, told The (Muncie) Star Press (http://tspne.ws/1rVQL5R ).

Hedin drew attention in 2013 with his "Boundaries of Science" class. Ball State University President Jo Ann Gora told Hedin that intelligent design wasn't an appropriate subject for a science class. She said intelligent design is overwhelmingly regarded as a religious belief by the scientific community and not a scientific theory. Intelligent design holds that certain features of life forms are so complex that they can best be explained by an origin from an intelligent higher power, not an undirected process such as natural selection.

Also in 2013, Ball State hired intelligent design advocate Guillermo Gonzalez as an assistant professor of astronomy, which combined with the Hedin controversy put the university at the center of a national education debate over science versus religion.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Intelligent-design-professor-earns-tenure-at-Ball-7462354.php

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[scscholar]

1. I wonder if David Letterman had something to do with this

He spoke-out about this type of xianism.

[mrmpa]

4. please define xianism...thank you.

[mdbl]

2. Purely Moronic

There's no other way to describe intelligent design trying to pose as a science.

[mrmpa]

3. Where every dick should go...........eom

[farleftlib]

5. I actually don't have a problem with this.

I read a very good article recently saying that as technology has improved, and scientists have pretty
much proven that the universe is expanding and the Big Bang theory is factual, and unlocking the codes
on the strand of DNA has so amazed them, that they are beginning to believe these things couldn't have
happened "out of the blue" and some super intelligence must have been involved.

I wish I could find the article again, it was a very good read and these scientists were not promoting crazy
stuff the like earth being the center of the universe or claiming humans were the ultimate creation.

[mdbl]

7. You can't equate science with beliefs

If you do, then you open up the door to every belief anyone has. Evolution is not a belief, it's a theory to be proven. People are pretty misled or mixed up about these issues which makes our politics look like a circus.

[farleftlib]

8. True

But the Big Bang Theory was just that until recently. They could call it the Intelligent Design Theory.

But you're correct, it doesn't pass the empirical test and never will.

[TlalocW]

9. You're misusing theory

Which is one of the ways Intelligent Designers try to get their stuff taught in schools. "Oh, well, Evolution is just a theory, but here's another theory that should be given equal time."

In science, theory is pretty much the highest distinction you can give something. The phenomenon - in this case, evolution - is true. Nothing will change that. The theory is our attempt to explain it. I say attempt because the wonderful thing about science is that theories can be improved upon (or on the rare occasion, gotten rid of) as our ability to observe and measure phenomenon gets better. And the thing about theories is that you can use them to apply the science - in this case in making medicine, the field of genetics, etc. If the theory is correct, it should give us predictive results when we apply it. Intelligent Design, which is not a theory, does none of this.

TlalocW

[Adrahil]

13. Yeah.... no.

That's just a bullshit argument from incredulity.

[Turbineguy]

6. Intelligent design is a crock.

Intelligent design would have made childbirth a doddle.

[jmowreader]

10. And several other things

A human body contains one stomach, one heart, one liver and one brain. No intelligent designer would have built FOUR single-points-of-failure into his finest creation.

And tell me please what the fuck is the appendix for, besides thinning the herd?

[Archae]

11. Don't forget the human backbone...

Our spine is incredibly UNintelligently "designed," which is why so many humans have back trouble.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-most-unfortunate-design-flaws-in-the-human-body-1518242787

[Turbineguy]

12. On the other hand......

there are baby cheeks.....

but on balance, no, there is no "intelligent design".

[Adrahil]

14. VERY Controversial around here.

He was permitted to continue here if he agreed to not raise ID arguments in his classes. He has adhered to that rule. But of course, no he has tenure......

The same department also hired an other ID professor, Guillermo Gonzalez. I mean the guy is a freaking SENIOR FELLOW at the ID stink tank The Discovery Institute.

Bottom line: Don't send your kids to Ball State for an astronomy or physics degree. Too bad too, because they just opened their incredible new planetarium... one of the best in the Midwest.