The ID Report

Regular readers may recall that I am reviewing the November 2004 cover story in National Geographic, "Was Darwin Wrong?" NGs tend to hang around a long time in school systems, so a handy source of corrective information may prove useful. Later, I will put all the information on the By Design or by Chance? website as well. Meanwhile, you can find it at the end of each of my blogs, starting with "National Geographic Cheerleads for Darwin but Drops the Baton".

Moving right along here, on page 8, we are told, "Evolution is both a beautiful concept and an important one, more crucial nowadays to human welfare, to medical science, and to our understanding of the world than ever before." First, let's keep in mind that by "evolution," National Geographic means Darwin's theory of evolution, according to which life forms evolved through time from an amoeba to a human without any intelligent design at all. (If you think there is any design at all, you are not a Darwinist.) The term "medical science" struck a chord with me because of a story I researched and briefly told in By Design or by Chance?, and will now present here:

Micah Spradling, who planned to become a doctor and specialize in prosthetics, had no problem in his Texas Tech classes with learning about the evidence for human evolution from lower animals. But he was surprised and concerned when his professor, Michael Dini, demanded in 2002 that he "truthfully and forthrightly" believe in it if he expected a letter of recommendation to medical school. The language is reminiscent of creeds and religious revivals. Worse, Dini was the only professor whose recommendation would be relevant to Spradling's career plans.
When it comes to medicine, Dini argued, on his Web site: "How can someone who does not accept the most important theory in biology expect to properly practice in a field that is so heavily based on biology?" Acknowledging that all the needed information on human ancestry is not yet available, he said that if physicians do not accept common ancestry of humans and lower animals, it is easy to imagine that they can make "poor clinical decisions."

Several area doctors took issue with Dini's claims and said that evolution has nothing to do with clinical decisions. "That would be like Texas Tech telling him he had to be a Christian to teach biology," said one. He asked: "How dare someone who has never treated a sick person purport to impose his feelings about evolution on someone who aspires to treat such people?"

The university backed Dini, arguing that the decision to write a letter of recommendation was a personal one. It also claimed in published documents that Dini was a devout Christian who had studied for the priesthood and that his criteria "are not discriminatory against Christians." The university's Honors College had also named him Teacher of the Year in 1998 1999. Michael Duff, in his column in Universitydaily.net, described Dini as "defending his profession against barbarians who would tear it down."

It came out that Dini was in the habit of talking about religion in his biology class. One student claimed that the professor wasn't "anti-religion" but that he "just believes that religion has no insight on evolution," a comment that gives more insight into the character of the class discussion than the student perhaps realized.

Liberty Legal Institute, which specializes in religious freedom, contended that Dini is a state-paid official using a state-funded Web site to discriminate. In January 2003, the US Justice Department investigated a complaint filed by the Institute.

After discussions between the university, the Liberty Institute, the Justice Department, and Dini, Dini changed his policy in 2003. He changed the wording slightly so that students must be able to explain the Darwinian theory of evolution in scientific terms, while not being required to explicitly profess a belief in it. Justice department lawyer Ralph F. Boyd, Jr., assistant attorney general for civil rights, said:
The new policy rightly recognizes that students don't have to give up their religious beliefs to be good doctors or good scientists. A biology student may need to understand the theory of evolution and be able to explain it. But a state-run university has no business telling students what they should or should not believe in.

Micah Spradling was not in a position to wait for the mess to be sorted out the following year. He transferred to Lubbock Christian University. He almost didn't get in because the classes were full, but when LCU officials were shown Dini's original policy, they relented and made a place for him.

So, is the main effect of Darwinism on medicine the fact that it bars entry to those who doubt it? Next time, we will look more at the state of the evidence for the key mechanism of Darwin's theory: natural selection.