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EvoNews!
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(Note: the Editor in Chief's added comments are shown in parentheses. Hey, just like this one! How about that?! Titles are links to the original stories.)
Texas Tech Professor Claims, "It's My Way Or The Highway, Bucko!"
By NICK MADIGAN (and Ed N. Chief)
LUBBOCK, Tex., Feb. 2 - A(n evolutionary) biology professor who insists (nay, "demands" with god-like authority) that his students accept (adopt) the tenets of (theoretical) human evolution has found himself the subject of Justice Department scrutiny (himself).
Prompted by a complaint from the Liberty Legal Institute, a group of Christian lawyers, the department is investigating whether Michael L. (Like-it-or-not) Dini, an associate (tweed-jacket-wearing and go-tee bearded) professor of biology at Texas Tech University here, discriminated against students on the basis of religion when he posted a demand on his Web site that students wanting a letter of recommendation for postgraduate studies "truthfully and forthrightly affirm (adopt as personal faith) a (theoretical) scientific answer" to the question of how the human species originated (from pond scum).
"The central, unifying principle (faith) of (some people like me who study) biology is the theory (faith) of (goo-to-you) evolution," Dr. Dini wrote.
"How can someone who does not accept the (my) most important theory (belief) in biology (which tries to answer the question of how the human species originated millions and millions of years ago from pond scum) expect to properly practice in a field that is so heavily based on (that one theory of) biology (today)?"
(What about intelligent design?)
That was (more than) enough for the lawyers' group, based in Plano, a (not-so-plain) Dallas suburb, to file a complaint on behalf of a 22-year-old Texas Tech student, Micah Spradling (It figures the dude would have a religious name like Micah!).
Mr. Spradling said he sat in on two sessions of Dr. Dini's introductory biology class and shortly afterward noticed (his smug demeaner, as well as) the guidelines on the professor's Web site (www2.tltc.ttu.edu/dini/Personal/letters.htm).
Mr. Spradling said that given the professor's (intolerant) position, there was "no way (José)" he would have enrolled in Dr. Dini's class or asked him (over for a cup of tea or) for a recommendation to medical school.
"That would be denying my faith as a (Bible believing) Christian," said Mr. Spradling, a junior raised in (the buckle of the bible belt known as) Lubbock who plans to study prosthetics and orthotics (a field in which evolutionary faith would aid in the building of artificial limbs - wouldn't it?!) at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
"They've taken prayer out of schools and (stolen) the Ten Commandments out of courtrooms (thus breaking commandment #8), so I thought I had an opportunity to make a difference."
In an interview in his office, Dr. Dini pointed to a computer screen (with a wallpaper background of Charles Darwin) full of e-mail messages and said he felt besieged (but doesn't understand why students who don't believe in evolution that will be denied his personal recommendation feel the same way).
"The policy is not meant in any way to be discriminatory toward anyone's beliefs (even though he states on his web site, "I will ask you: "How do you think the human species originated?" If you cannot truthfully and forthrightly affirm a scientific answer to this question, then you should not seek my recommendation for admittance to further education in the biomedical sciences."), but instead to ensure that people who I recommend to a medical school or a professional school or a graduate school in the biomedical sciences are scientists (who were strong-armed into reciting my own personal creed of evolution)," he said.
"I think (believe) science and religion address very different types of questions, and they shouldn't overlap." (Even when religion makes definite statements about how man originated? Do I miss something here?)
Dr. Dini (not to be confused with Dr. Dino), who said (with the attitude not unlike Bobby Knight hurling a chair across the basketball court, that) he had no intention of changing his policy, declined to address the question of his own faith. (Well we know what that is - it's Darwinian evolution)
But university officials and several students who support him say he is a religious man (as is everyone else on the planet - but his religion is that of evolution).
"He's a devout (Darwinian) Catholic (who doesn't accept the Bible as it is written)," said Greg Rogers, 36, a pre-med student from Lubbock. "He's mentioned it in discussion groups (and snooty cocktail parties)."
Mr. Rogers, who returned to college for a second degree (after his failed children's show on PBS) and who said his beliefs aligned with Dr. Dini's, added (while changing sneakers): "I believe in God and evolution (See folks! They're BOTH faiths!!!).
I (and king Friday) believe (faith, not fact) that evolution was the tool that brought us about. (Welcome to the land of make-believe, Mr. Trolly - bling, bling.)
To deny the (my) theory (faith) of evolution is, to me (personally), like denying the law of gravity (even though we can see gravity happen but can't see macro-evolution happen).
In science, a theory is about as close to a fact as you can get (without actually being a fact)."
Another student, Brent Lawlis (insert your own joke here), 21, from Midland, Tex., said he hoped to become an orthopedic surgeon and had had no trouble obtaining a letter of recommendation from Dr. Dini (because he really really needed that recommendation).
"I'm a Christian, but there's too much biological evidence to throw out (theoretical) evolution (so I throw out certain parts of the Bible instead)," he said.
But other students waiting to enter classes Friday morning said they felt that Dr. Dini had stepped over the (thin gray) line (with bipedal locomotion).
"Just because someone believes in creationism doesn't mean he shouldn't give them a recommendation," said Lindsay Otoski, 20, a sophomore from Albuquerque who is studying nursing. "It's not fair (nor legal)."
(Well Mrs. Otoski, it's not about being fair. It's about forcing one's own personal belief down other's throats and burning them at the stake of recommendation if they don't adopt it.)
On Jan. 21, Jeremiah (another fundy name) Glassman, chief of the Department of Justice's civil rights division told the university's general counsel, Dale Pat Campbell, that his office was looking into the complaint, and asked for copies of the university's policies on letters of recommendation (and tortilla tossing at football games).
(Glassman also said, "I'll gladly write a letter of recommendation to a Federal Correctional Facility for Mr. Dini.")
David R. Smith, the Texas Tech chancellor (wearing a black mask and cape), said on Friday afternoon that the university, a state (government) institution with almost 30,000 students and an operating budget of $845 million (¡That's dollars, not pesos mi amigos!), had no such policy and preferred to leave such matters to professors (Well that's not very organized, is it?!).
In a letter released by his office, Dr. Smith noted that there were 38 other faculty members who could have issued Mr. Spradling a letter of recommendation, had he taken their classes (thoroughly, maybe willfully, missing the whole point).
"I suspect (but don't actually know for a fact that) there are a number of them who can and do provide letters of recommendation to students regardless of their ability to articulate a scientific answer (or cite an accepting faith) to the origin of the human species (as well as the origin of our mascot which in no way evolved from the likeness of Yosemite Sam)," Dr. Smith wrote.
Members of the Liberty Legal Institute, who specialize in litigating what they (accurately) call religious freedom cases, said their complaint was a matter of principle (protected by the Constitution).
"There's no problem with Dr. Dini saying you have to understand (theoretical) evolution and you have to be able to describe it in detail," said Kelly Shackelford, the group's chief counsel, "but you can't tell students that they have to hold the same personal belief that you do."
Mr. Shackelford said (while holding a pair of shackels with Dini's name on them) that he would await the outcome of the Justice Department investigation but that the next step would probably be to file a suit against the university (for copyright infringement of that Warner Bros. cartoon character).
