Desperate times for ID
On UcD our dear friend Salvador Cordova shows how the recent political, scientific and legal disasters to Intelligent Design have made the movement desperate for some ‘good news’. According to Sal, the good news comes in the form of 30% of community college professors considering ID to be science.
So let’s look at the study in question:
The study was done by two sociologists, Neil Gross of Harvard University and Solon Simmons of George Mason University. They contacted 1,471 professors at religious and secular colleges and asked about politics and faith.
Source: Praying for an ‘A’ might not impress your prof
We also asked respondents to weigh in on the controversy over intelligent design. Our question asked respondents how much they agreed or disagreed with the following statement: “The theory of intelligent design IS a serious scientific alternative to the Darwinian theory of evolution.” Overall, 84.1 percent of professors surveyed disagreed with the statement, with 75.3 percent registering strong disagreement. Agreement was strongest at community colleges, where 30.6 percent of professors see intelligent design as a serious scientific alternative, and weakest at elite doctoral universities, where just 5.6 percent of professors do.
Sadly enough the data to do not allow one to determine if community colleges tend to be more religious in nature, nor if these professors where involved in the science. In fact, is there a difference in the distribution of courses on colleges and universities versus community colleges?
Nevertheless, if the news that 30% of community college professors support the concept that ID is a serious scientific contender, is the best news ID has to present… Of course, Sal’s posting is nothing compared to the incomprehensible mutterings of Denyse O’Leary. Then again, she has the excuse that she is not really a scientist at all.
The survey however does indicate that professors are hardly the atheists some Christian make them out to be.
Interestingly enough a relatively large amount of professors proclaim themselves to be born-again
Nor are born-again Christians only to be found at religiously-affiliated institutions, though they are present there in greater numbers. 17 percent of professors at secular schools describe themselves as born-again Christians, as compared to 29.6 percent at religiously-affiliated schools.
At elite doctoral institutions, the numbers are significantly smaller
Professors who are born-again are extremely rare at elite doctoral institutions, composing only about one percent of professors at such institutions,
Would be interesting to see if religious beliefs and the belief that ID is a valid scientific alternative also correlate. I am not sure that Sal should be happy about these findings, but then again, good news is slim pickings nowadays amongst ID activists.