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12 février, 2008 15:01

Leading scientists oppose creation institute's degree plan

Texas higher education commissioner receives dozens of e-mails from critics, proponents of master's degree proposal.

By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Thursday, January 24, 2008

A Bible-oriented group's proposal to offer a degree in science education has drawn opposition from some of the state's leading physicians and scientists, including a Nobel laureate who warned that Texas is at risk of becoming "the laughingstock of the nation."

Critics of the proposal by the Dallas-based Institute for Creation Research have peppered the state's commissioner of higher education with e-mails in recent weeks. Dozens of the institute's supporters, including some scientists and physicians, also have e-mailed Commissioner Raymund Paredes, in some cases apparently prompted by a plea from the institute's chief executive.

The American-Statesman, under the Texas Public Information Act, obtained printouts of the e-mails, which fill nearly 300 pages. Paredes' recommendation on the proposal for an online master's degree program is expected to carry considerable weight, but the final decision is up to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which oversees certain aspects of public and private postsecondary education.

In an e-mail responding to one critic of the proposal, the commissioner said he mentioned the issue to Gov. Rick Perry in mid-December and has been in regular contact with the governor's office about the matter. The governor appoints the members of the coordinating board, who, in turn, hire and fire the commissioner.

Perry has not taken a position on the proposal and is confident that the board will ensure that any program is as rigorous academically as all other master's programs in the state, said Krista Piferrer, a spokeswoman for the governor.

In his e-mail, Robert Curl, a professor emeritus at Rice University who won a Nobel Prize in chemistry, compared Texas to Kansas, a state whose science standards were regarded as the most aggressive in the nation in challenging Darwin's theory of evolution.

"If this program wins approval ... Texas will replace Kansas as the laughingstock of the nation," he wrote.

Alfred Gilman, who won a Nobel in physiology or medicine, said approval of the institute's proposal would hamper efforts to recruit top researchers to Texas and implement a $3 billion cancer research initiative approved last year.

"How can Texas simultaneously launch a war on cancer and approve educational platforms that submit that the universe is 10,000 years old?" wrote Gilman, executive vice president, provost and dean at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas.

Daniel Foster, a professor at UT Southwestern and president of the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas, wrote that "pseudoscience" has no place in Texas schools and universities. The academy's roster includes Nobel laureates and more than 200 people who have been elected to the National Academies of science, engineering and medicine.

The institute's curriculum for the proposed science degree is heavily flavored with Christian references and creationism, which ascribes the origin of matter and species to God. Institute documents on file at the coordinating board say graduates of the program would be able to "design science lesson plans from the creationist worldview" and "refute evolution."

The e-mails show that the institute's CEO, Henry Morris III, urged supporters to send "a kind note of encouragement to Dr. Paredes thanking him for his attempt to be fair in our evaluation, and also expressing your support for the Christian perspective of origins (a better word than creation)."

One correspondent who identified herself as Danna Watkins, a Texas middle school teacher, told Paredes that the "Christian view of creation" should be taught in science classes. "I strongly believe that our students have the right to consider that an option along with the evolution theory that is taught," Watkins wrote.

And R. Steven Pappas, a research biochemist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said competing views should be tolerated. "As a scientist," Pappas wrote, "I urge you to be among those who are truly open-minded and who do not fear information from research, without regard to whether the source has an atheistic perspective or a Christian perspective of origins."