Message-ID: Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 18:58:08 -0400 Reply-To: "William A. Dembski (by way of William Grassie)" Sender: Metanews From: "William A. Dembski (by way of William Grassie)" Subject: [METANEWS] Dembski's Response to His Removal Comments: To: metanews@meta-list.org To: metanews@META-LIST.ORG October 19, 2000: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE STATEMENT BY WILLIAM DEMBSKI ON HIS REMOVAL AS DIRECTOR OF THE MICHAEL POLANYI CENTER AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University President Robert Sloan has removed me as director of the Michael Polanyi Center despite his having personally solicited me to come to Baylor and establish the Center as a means of furthering work on intelligent design. Some Baylor faculty have exerted enormous pressure on Baylor to disassociate the university from me and my research. Earlier President Sloan had properly characterized these efforts as "intellectual McCarthyism." Because I released a press statement (see below) applauding the results of the peer review committee that passed upon and approved the academic soundness of my work, I am now being labeled as not "collegial" and the statement is said to have fatally compromised my ability to serve as Director. My press release allowed me publicly to state my full support for the results of the peer review committee report. Having made that statement, I then expected to proceed full steam ahead to implement the committee's recommendations by expanding the scope of the center while still focusing my own research on intelligent design -- just as the peer review committee recommended and President Sloan agreed. Instead, I was informed that my press release created a "firestorm" on campus. Shockingly, the administration formally asked me to retract my press release. I explained that the press release accurately conveyed how I perceived the outcome of the peer review committee and that for me to retract it would be tantamount to giving in to the censorship and vilification against me that had been a constant feature since I arrived on campus. I could not and would not betray all that I have worked for in my professional career. In the utmost of bad faith, the administration claimed my refusal to retract my press release constituted a lack of collegiality on my part and charged that this compromised my ability to serve as director, thereby providing the fig leaf of justification for my removal. Intellectual McCarthyism has, for the moment, prevailed at Baylor. The announcement of my removal from the Polanyi Center directorship states that I am to be kept on in my capacity as an Associate Professor in Baylor's Institute for Faith and Learning. I look forward in that capacity to continuing to work on intelligent design and its implications. ------Previous Press Release of October 17, 2000------ The Michael Polanyi Center Peer Review Committee has now released its official report (http://pr.baylor.edu/pdf/001017polanyi.pdf) and the Baylor University administration has responded to the report (http://pr.baylor.edu/feat.fcgi?2000.10.17.polanyi). As director of the Center, I wish to offer the following comment: The report marks the triumph of intelligent design as a legitimate form of academic inquiry. This is a great day for academic freedom. I'm deeply grateful to President Sloan and Baylor University for making this possible, as well as to the peer review committee for its unqualified affirmation of my own work on intelligent design. The scope of the Center will be expanded to embrace a broader set of conceptual issues at the intersection of science and religion, and the Center will therefore receive a new name to reflect this expanded vision. My work on intelligent design will continue unabated. Dogmatic opponents of design who demanded the Center be shut down have met their Waterloo. Baylor University is to be commended for remaining strong in the face of intolerant assaults on freedom of thought and expression. --30-- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Footer information below last updated: 1999/12/10. Meta is an edited and moderated listserver and news service dedicated to promoting the constructive engagement of science and religion. Subscriptions are free. For more information, including archives and submission guidelines, go to . There are now four separate meta-lists to which you can subscribe: is commentaries and bookreviews posted three to five times per week. is announcements and news and is posted as frequently as needed. is a monthly digest. is a higher volume discussion list which is unmoderated. You can subscribe to one or all of the meta-lists. If you would like to unsubscribe or change your subscription options, simply go to and follow the links to subscribe or unsubscribe. Note that all subscription changes entered on the web forms, requires your confirmation by email. Copyright 1999, 2000 by William Grassie. Copies of this internet posting may be made and distributed in whole without further permission, including the credit: "This article was circulated on the Meta Lists on Science and Religion ."