Happy Academic Freedom Day!

Ashley Thorne

  • Article
  • February 12, 2010

Today is Charles Darwin's birthday, and the Intelligent Design community has declared a national Academic Freedom Day in his honor. The Discovery Institute think tank sponsors the Day, encouraging students to "speak out against censorship and stand up for free speech by defending the right to debate the evidence for and against evolution." The campaign logo is a large cartoon of Darwin saying, "A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question." Some curmudgeons are peeved by the appropriation of Chuck Darwin's birthday for this cause. NAS doesn't take a position in the debate between intelligent design and evolution, but we are happy to see it take place.

  • Share

Most Commented

May 7, 2024

1.

Creating Students, Not Activists

The mobs desecrating the American flag, smashing windows, chanting genocidal slogans—this always was the end game of the advocates of the right to protest, action civics, student activ......

March 9, 2024

2.

A Portrait of Claireve Grandjouan

Claireve Grandjouan, when I knew her, was Head of the Classics Department at Hunter College, and that year gave a three-hour Friday evening class in Egyptian archaeology....

April 20, 2024

3.

The Academic's Roadmap

By all means, pursue your noble dream of improving the condition of humanity through your research and teaching. Could I do it all again, I would, but I would do things very differently....

Most Read

June 5, 2024

1.

Subpoenas for All!

Ohio Northern University gnaws its teeth with an appetite for vindictive lawfare....

May 15, 2015

2.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

October 12, 2010

3.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...