Expelled Exposed: The Untold Sequel - Nancey Murphy

Do you think Expelled will discuss the story of Nancey Murphy as told at the Washington Post?

Let’s look in more detail at Expelled Exposed

Nancey Murphy, a religious scholar at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., said she faced a campaign to get her fired because she expressed the view that intelligent design was not only poor theology, but “so stupid, I don’t want to give them my time.”

Murphy, who believes in evolution, said she had to fight to keep her job after one of the founding members of the intelligent design movement, legal theorist Phillip Johnson, called a trustee at the seminary and tried to get her fired.

“His tactic has always been to fight dirty when anyone attacks his ideas,” she said. “For a long time afterward, I would tell reporters I don’t want to comment, and I don’t want you to say I don’t want to comment. I’m tired of being careful.”

Johnson denied he had tried to get Murphy fired. He said that he had spoken with a former trustee of the seminary who was himself upset with Murphy but that he was not responsible for any action taken against her. “It’s the Darwinists who hold the power in academia and who threaten the professional status and livelihoods of anyone who disagrees,” Johnson said. “They feel to teach anything but their orthodoxy is an act of professional treason.”

What could have been Murphy’s ‘crime’? She published a scathing review of Johnson’s “Darwin on Trial” titled Phillip Johnson on Trial: A Critique of His Critique of Darwin in Perspectives on Science & Christian Faith, 1993, vol 45, no 1 pp 26-36.

Nancey Murphy wrote:

Phillip Johnson’s recent book, Darwin on Trial, claims to show that the reasoning presented in favor of evolutionary biology is defective. Such a book, being one of so many, would excite little attention were it not for the fact that the author is an expert in legal reasoning, and has contributed his particular skills to the debate. However, the canons of scientific argument are quite different from those of the courtroom, and it can be shown that Johnson’s critique of Darwinian thought falls far short of the mark in that it does not fully appreciate the special requirements of scientific argumentation.

The Washington Post also describes the story of Caroline Crocker

GMU spokesman Daniel Walsch denied that the school had fired Crocker. She was a part-time faculty member, he said, and was let go at the end of her contract period for reasons unrelated to her views on intelligent design. “We wholeheartedly support academic freedom,” he said. But teachers also have a responsibility to stick to subjects they were hired to teach, he added, and intelligent design belonged in a religion class, not biology. Does academic freedom “literally give you the right to talk about anything, whether it has anything to do with the subject matter or not? The answer is no.”

Screenshots of Coral Ridge video Caroline Crocker’s powerpoint slides were recently made available and paint a picture of poor scientific arguments. Other examples of her claims can be seen at Coral Ridge which was strongl criticized by PZ Myers

Caroline Crocker is presently employed as the “Executive Director of the Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness (IDEA) Center, as well as being self-employed in the Washington DC area as an author, speaker, and private tutor.”

Read more about Caroline Crocker.