Samford faculty oppose planned intelligent design lecture

Posted: 1/06/06

Samford faculty oppose planned
intelligent design lecture

By Thomas Spencer

Religion News Service

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS)–A planned lecture by a proponent of intelligent design has upset Samford University faculty who don't want the Baptist-affiliated school to be perceived as endorsing alternatives to evolution.

A resolution introduced in the College of Arts and Sciences' faculty senate describes intelligent design as a political movement, not science.

The resolution, by Samford geography professor Max Baber, questions whether Samford should involve itself in a movement that seeks to inject religion into science education in the public schools.

“In accordance with the spirit and letter of Samford's foundation statements, we affirm that church and state should remain separate,” Baber's resolution reads. “We therefore protest the president's decision to involve Samford in a political movement that stands in direct opposition to that principle.”

The senate has formed a committee to examine the issue. The Feb. 23 speaker is John Lennox, a research fellow in mathematics at Oxford University's Green College in England. He is one of a comparatively small band of academics who argue that the complexity of biological life suggests a designer guides the process.

Samford President Tom Corts cooperated with a local Christian ministry group, the Fixed Point Foundation, on plans to bring Lennox to the university.

Corts maintained he doesn't understand the controversy surrounding the visit.

Intelligent design is an issue in the news, and while the school's science department teaches evolution, that doesn't rule out the involvement of an intelligent designer, Corts said.

“This is a university, and you are supposed to talk about ideas,” he said.