News

By John Connolly

DES MOINES, December 6, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An intelligent design think tank has revealed a conspiracy to deny an Iowa State University astronomer tenure on the basis of his belief that God created the universe.

Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez, a member of the Iowa State faculty and author of the book The Privileged Planet, was decried as an “idiot” and “religious nutcase” in private faculty e-mails made public by the Discovery Institute, an intelligent design think-tank based in Seattle. 

The e-mails brought to light a secret campaign among the other Iowa State faculty to deny Gonzalez tenure because of his belief that science shows proof of an intelligent designer of creation, and his refusal to follow a strictly Darwinian atheism.

Gonzalez’s tenure was denied in May, and a subsequent appeal was denied by Iowa State University President Gregory Geoffroy in June. Free speech advocates and intelligent design intellectuals want the Iowa Board of Regents to reconsider Gonzalez’s tenure.

“Dr. Gonzalez’s rights to academic freedom, free speech and a fair tenure process were trampled on by colleagues who were driven by ideological zeal when they should have made an impartial evaluation of Gonzalez’s notable accomplishments as a scientist,” said a spokesman for the Discovery Institute.

This sort of incident is not unusual on campuses everywhere, as atheistic academics do not hesitate to persecute anybody who does not subscribe to a purely materialistic worldview.  The film “EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed,” due for release in February 2008, explores the intolerance rife in today’s universities and colleges, exposing mistreatment much like that of Gonzalez. 

The film features interviews with scientists including biologists, astronomers, chemists and philosophers who have had their ideas suppressed for questioning the materialist theory.

See previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Atheist Scientists in Uproar over Movie Showing Intolerance of Evidence for Intelligent Design
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07100505.html

New Film Investigates Crushing of Dissent from Darwinian Orthodoxy
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/aug/07083009.html

“Brilliant” Pro-Life Professor Denied Tenure at Prominent Baptist College
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06033107.html