Last year a few incautious university administrators (here’s one, here’s another) tried to start an academic shutdown of discussion of intelligent design on college campuses, and especially in college courses. Fortunately, such an obviously unAmerican act as censoring an idea, didn’t really catch fire except with the most strident Darwinistas (and here).

Still, there is extreme pressure brought against scientists and scholars on college campuses who are proponents of intelligent design. Heck, even if you’re not a proponent, but have simply written about ID in a way that is supportive it can get you in trouble, much as it did for legal scholar Francis Beckwith. Baylor University recently deined tenure to Beckwith, in part because he’s written that in his opinion as a scholar of the law intelligent design is permissable in public school science classes. (That decision is now under appeal.)

Even so, there are interesting developments–some good, some not so good– that show that the Darwinist’s attempts to stifle science and impose evolution speech codes are not working. On the good side Knox University recently had a class that explained intelligent design and discussed the theory in what appeared to be a more balanced manner. Cornell University, home of anti-IDer Hunter Rawlings III, has announced it will offer a course on ID, and in a science class no less. The class, Evolution and Design: Is There Purpose in Nature? is a breakthrough in my mind, simply because it IS in the science curriculum. It remains to be seen if the class will be presented fairly and if ID will be treated respectuflly, or if this is just an attempt to knock it down by attacking some ridiculous caricature of the theory. Regardless, the djnni is out of the bottle, ID is now being offered in university science classes.

On the bad side, having failed to completely silence talk of intelligent design on campus, Darwin-only propogandists are now resorting to issuing doctrinal statements. The Norman Transcript in Oklahoma reports about the evolution affirming statement issued by the zoology department at University of Oklahoma.

The University of Oklahoma Department of Zoology recently released a statement on evolution, which received unanimous support among its faculty. The statement begins “Evolution is a fact. Evolutionary theory is a cornerstone of biology.” Bill Matthews, director of the department, said the department included all faculty on the discussion before releasing the statement April 19.
“The faculty felt it was important that it showed where we stand on the issue,” Matthews said.

Does anyone really think that university faculty are among the leading Darwin doubters? Do we need statements to let us in on their secret support of evolution? Hardly.
What this signifies is a shift in the strategy. If you can’t stifle an idea, then rush to further enshrine the one you have so as to keep it from being assailed by little things like contradictory evidence and data.

Just listen to the remarks and you’ll quickly see how Darwinian evolution is being touted as unassailable.

• “There is no valid alternative to evolution,” Fincke said.
• “Among scientists, there is no controversy to evolution,” Shutt said.
• Vic Hutchison, OU emeritus zoology professor, called OU’s statement “The best I have ever seen on evolution,” but fears that if ID is also taught it will take necessary time away from teaching evolution.

This last comment is interesting because no one, to best of our knowledge, has suggested teaching ID at any university in Oklahoma. The other two are just flat out false. Many scientists doubt the claims of Darwinian evolutionary theory, and there are alternatives.