Inside Higher Ed reports:
Cornell University’s interim president, Hunter R. Rawlings III, used his “state of the university” address on Friday to denounce “intelligent design,” arguing that it has no place in science classrooms and calling on faculty members in a range of disciplines to engage in public discussions about why the anti-evolutionary theory is both popular and wrong.
Rawlings devoted the entire talk to intelligent design and to the role of Cornell and other universities in defending science from religious attacks. And he said it was time to do so again.
“I.D. is a religious belief masquerading as a secular idea. It is neither clearly identified as a proposition of faith nor supported by other rationally based arguments,” Rawlings said. “As we have seen all too often in human history, and as we see in many countries today, religion can be a source of persecution and repression. As Pascal, the great French philosopher, said, ‘Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.’ “
In recent months, the presidents of the Universities of Kansas and Idaho have also spoken out against intelligent design, which the overwhelming majority of scientists believe is a sham. The speech by Rawlings differed from some other recent criticisms of intelligent design by noting it has strong supporters among some students on his own campus (who promptly denounced his speech) and in his call for professors across fields to get involved in the debate.
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