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Ball State President Jo Ana Gora says that to allow physics professor Hedin to present intelligent design as a valid scientific theory would "violate the academic integrity" of the course he was teaching.
She says, "It would fail to accurately represent the consensus of science scholars."
A lawyer is saying Ball State may be violating their own policies in regard to the matter.
What about academic freedom?
We are constantly told that a true liberal arts education must provide the flexibility to explore many aspects of each subject.
Apparently that is only selectively true.
And guess who is behind the move to punish and censor the professor?
At the heart of this incident is an issue that cuts to the heart of the cultural divide in America, and it will impact your child in the public classroom.
You likely guessed who was behind this intellectual assault on intelligent design and on freedom of academic expression.
The atheist group Freedom From Religion Foundation is leading the charge against Professor Hedin. They were actually notified by a professor at the University of Chicago.
In contacting Ball State University about the intelligent design matter, FFRF said that "Professor Hedin was teaching intelligent design as a fact and proselytizing Christianity in the classroom."
The word "proselytizing" is the operative word. This is the same accusation these folks are making against military personnel who share their faith in Jesus with their colleagues.
While the atheists represent a very small minority in America, they are currently using the revised and inverted interpretation of Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists explaining that there is a wall that restrains the government from meddling in church affairs, to sustain an all out assault on Christianity.
Actually the concerns of the Danbury Baptists are, through atheist surrogates, being realized in 21st Century America.
We have seen the US military leap to attention when the atheists object. We are seeing education recite a narrative that reflects the deeply held beliefs of both the atheists and many in education.
Ball State President Gora quickly responded to the complaint from the atheist group by releasing a statement. In it she said, "Neither creationism nor any of its derivatives belong in a science classroom."
Not everyone agrees with President Gora.
Indiana State Senator Dennis Kruse, who serves as Chairman of the senate education committee said, "I come from a Christian perspective and a conservative perspective. I'm under the impression academic freedom should be for everybody."
Agreed.
But it isn't.
Gora maintains that teaching intelligent design as a scientific theory is not a matter of academic freedom---it is an issue of academic integrity.
If integrity was the guide, evolution would have never even been considered in any classroom. The more true science has advanced, the more challenged Darwin's "theory" of evolution has become.
However, Darwin's notion is still better than a Christian view in the minds of atheists and secular progressives who presently control the government and government run education.
The real issue---the heart of the matter, is revealed in a blog post and then a letter from Jerry Coyne, a professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago.
One of his students told him that he had attended a class taught by Professor Hedin at Ball State and that Hedin was using intelligent design in his materials.
Coyne immediately posted a blog post, then wrote a letter to Ball State in which he said, "His shoving Christianity and religion down the throats of science students must stop. I will do my utmost until it does, or until I fail...This will now go to the lawyers."
This is the heart of the matter.
Teachers and professors regularly mock Christianity---in some cases subtly, in other cases not so subtly.
It happens on a regular basis. It happens in the same classroom that explores the "virtues of Islam" and all kinds of perverted "sex education," declaring all sexual behavior "normal."
Coyne's reaction tells it all. It is not a pursuit of "truth" or academic excellence, it is a rebellion against God Himself.
It is a creation of one's own god in an attempt to replace the true God.
Jeremiah 10:11, 15 tells us, "The gods who have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish...They are vanity, a work of delusion."
It is now in vogue to worship the creature...but not the Creator.
I don't know if you are acquainted with Intelligent Design and the Discovery Institute. If not, please follow the link and become informed.
Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Informed. Be Prayerful. Be Active. Be Blessed.