Here’s an email from an undergrad friend of mine at UCal Berekeley. He and his fellow students were trying to institute a new course on ID in the physics department. It got shot down, so now they’ll be starting an IDEA Club instead (to learn more about this national ID student movement, go here). Opponents of ID seem not to appreciate that by attempting to block our efforts they simply encourage us to be resourceful and achieve our ends in other ways.
Dear Dr. Dembski,
The course has been denied. The Dean of Physical Sciences told [snip] that ID is not science and so the Physics Dept. cannot sponsor it. He said that he has no problem with ID being taught at Berkeley, except that it should be sponsored through the Dept. of Religious Studies — it could be co-sponsored with Physics. It would have been nice if the Office of the Dean of Physical Sciences had arranged the meeting earlier (somehow they forgot), but now we are only left with one week before the deadline to find a new department-sponsor. The Dean said that the course is too ID-centric, with not enough physics. This is odd to me, since the course IS about ID in physics. What else would we talk about!?
We are now thinking of starting an IDEA Club at Berkeley, an idea that has been sitting on the shelf for a while. By the way, I greatly enjoy your blog and IDtheFuture. I’ve been following for a month now all my friends enjoy the posts that I forward to them. When the IDEA club begins, we will spread the news about internet sources for accurate information on ID. We know exactly where to hit the student body to maximize the spread of information. The students will decide for themselves whether ID is science or religion….
This is the dawn of the Post-Darwinian Era. Shall it be remembered as the Re-Enlightenment?
Best regards,
[snip]
ID critics take note: This student and his compatriots are the cream of the cream of American undergraduate students. They can get into any grad programs they like and from there they will become the next generation of American college and university professors. Think of what happened in the 1960s — Berkeley’s radicals back then changed American education. It will be interesting to see what today’s Berkeley’s radicals will accomplish.