The Ball State Controversy: The limits of accreditation
As Inside Higher Ed reports, there's been a lot of discussion of Assistant Professor Eric Hedin and Ball State University's approval of his Physics and Astronomy courses, "Inquiries in Physical Sciences," "The Boundaries of Science" and "The Universe and You." (Jerry Coyne has written most extensively about them here , here and, most recently, here ). The courses apparently share the same basic syllabus , and if you read it you can see that Hedin has tailored the courses to promote the Intelligent Design movement (which is known for its intimate political and intellectual connections to Christian apologetics). It is hard to imagine that these courses fairly represent the methods, values, findings and competences of contemporary science. Many critics of Intelligent Design say it shouldn't be subject to discussion in science classes. I disagree. I think a science class is the perfect place to debunk ID propaganda. And i...