Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

[Phys-L] fundamentalism was: FL stamps out dictator professors



I want to make it clear that it is not religious people I have problems
with, it is religious people who wish to force their viewpoint down
everyone's throat, ie. Fundamentalists. Whether they be Mormon, Jewish,
Islamic, or Christian is not the issue, but rather that they have a rigid
credo which seeks to force others to the same viewpoint. There are even
Roman Catholic fundamentalists.


The real issue with "fundamentalism" is that it is a manifestation of
a closed mind. Unfortunately, the same term can be applied to a
minority of faculty members in higher education. It's just that their
religion is defined in terms like "diversity" and "political
correctness", etc. Ever try to debate these sort of people on an
issue such as affirmative action? If you oppose AA you are immediately
labled a racist and no rational arguments are really ever heard by
those who have the "religion". You should hear what some of them say
about people such as Star Parker or Linda Chavez, etc. People who are
minorities who also oppose AA. What they call those people is not
appropriate under any circumstance. Tolerence? I don't think so.



I think I stated that I have never seen any persecution of students
because
of their beliefs, so I doubt that it is relevant issue. I believe there
are
already mechanisms to deal with faculty members who commit moral
turpitude.
I would classify punishing students who refuse to believe things that are
against their moral code as such an offense. But requiring students to
understand and know arguments for or against a particular issue is not
offensive. Indeed once they know the side they do not agree with, they
might be able to fashion better arguments for their side.

I have, right here at my own school. Just after the election I
overheard one of our English faculty spend an entire class (which was
listed as a creative writing course) bashing Bush, berating Republicans
in general, and then telling the students they should all consider
moving to Canada. Of course, this violates AAUP policy, but no one
complained. What would happen if I spent my entire E&M class promoting
the opposite???



As a religious person who has seen religious intolerance first hand, I do
not like it one bit. And I do see such a subtext in this bill. I also
see
an anti-intellectual subtext along with an anti-science subtext. It
smacks
of censorship. We already have a rise of McCarthyism in this country, and
this is just another sign of it.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

No, I think there's a lack of tolerence for good old 1st Admendment
rights on the extremes of BOTH sides of the political spectrum.
However, in my view, academia is now dominated by the left. My
proof: would the right-wing equivalent of Ward Churchill ever have
been hired by CU??, If not, then why was Churchill so eagerly
embraced?


Mike Monce
_______________________________________________
Phys-L mailing list
Phys-L@electron.physics.buffalo.edu
https://www.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l