"Academic Freedom Day" Challenges Evolution

Special Report - February 11, 2009
While students across the country celebrate the 200th birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin today, many high school and college students are also celebrating “Academic Freedom Day.” The celebration is an attempt to bring attention to the censorship, harassment, and prejudice aimed at students and teachers who express skepticism of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The theme for this year’s “Academic Freedom Day” is a quote from Darwin — “A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question.” Students are encouraged to “speak out against censorship and stand up for free speech by defending the right to debate the evidence for and against evolution.” The day is a project of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture in partnership with the Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness (IDEA) Center.

Students groups and clubs are encouraged to host any number of events like sponsoring an information table on evolution and intelligent design that include an opportunity for students and teachers to sign the Academic Freedom Petition. The petition urges schools and universities to adopt policies that “ensure teacher and student academic freedom to discuss the scientific strengths and weaknesses of Darwinian evolution.” It especially seeks protection at the university or even state level for teachers and students from being “fired, harassed, intimidated, or discriminated against” based on their presentation and expression of views consistent with Intelligent Design.

Students are encouraged to wear t-shirts with Darwin’s quote, the day’s theme, on them. They can also start an IDEA chapter on campus to promote fun and educational ways to learn about scientific evidence for intelligent design and explore modern evolutionary theory. Screenings for two documentaries are being promoted as a part of the day’s activities. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed features Ben Stein while exposing the persecution of scientists and educators who pursue legitimate scientific views opposed to Darwin’s theory of evolution. Icons of Evolution feature biologist Jonathan Wells as it highlights the fight for academic freedom on this particular issue in academia and the scientific community.

“Darwinian evolution is a theory, but is treated as an indisputable fact in education today, a problem Academic Freedom Day seeks to remedy,” said Matt Lytle, director of research for the North Carolina Family Policy Council. “Darwinian evolution can never be more than a theory since it cannot be verified, which is necessary for it to become a scientific law. We cannot observe millions or even thousands of years of human development in order to see how the human species has changed, if it has changed at all. Similarly, no one can visually observe the universe being designed, so ID is also a scientific theory. All the promoters of Academic Freedom Day are asking for is equal representation of competing scientific theories about the origin of the cosmos.”

Copyright © 2009. North Carolina Family Policy Council. All rights reserved.