Academic Consensus.

[Gwenyfur]

Just so we're clear again...since apparently it's time for yet another reminder of Creationism Forum Specific Rules.

Read 'em, Obey 'em, any further debate and we're closin' this particular playground permanently!!!

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[busterdog]

From what I gather from the net the professors simply parroted what the DA was saying.

The ad was in the Duke University newspaper, but this doesn’t matter. Outside of the courtroom, the Duke academic environment is where the accused athletes’ reputation would be most valuable and most vulnerable.

Here’s a link that has a photo of the ad, but you cannot really read it:

http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2007/03/08/Features/The-Listening.Statement-2771600.shtml

I still cannot find the actual text of the ad, but there are quite a few websites that discuss it.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01182007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/orwell_university_duke_profs_p_c__travesty_opedcolumnists_john_podhoretz.htm?page=0

New York Post commentator says that the 88 professors essentially said that the accused were guilty because so many other Duke students supposedly feel victimized every day by racism and sexism.

According to this website the professors, labeled the Gang of 88, issues wanted posters for the lacrosse players.

This link (if accurate) will give you some idea of the beliefs of the professors that made the ad:

http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/06/responding-to-syl-jones-and-nifong.html

I did find a link to the newspapers’ website, but I doubt that an ad would be archived.

http://www.dukechronicle.com/lacrossenew/

BTW: These 88 professors constitute about 10% of the Duke undergrad faculty.

Let's not forget:

1. The coach lost his job over this. Where is the public apology for that?

2. If the Lacrosse players were so much worse than the frats or anyone else, where was outcry over all the other non-criminal behavior?

3. They were willing to destroy the college careers of these kids for at best noncriminal behavior -- meaning, the profs had convicted them of crime, not just being naughty.

4. When some jerk professor sleeps with his secretary, is that less destructive than hiring a stripper, which is all that was ever proven? This was not outcry over sexism. This was conviction of racism and rape in the paper before the facts were heard and the matter tried.

I can't quite tell for sure if anyone is condoning this type of behavior in the interest of conceding nothing to a creationist, but it kind of sounds that way.

THis is peer review in action. It is evidence of "pre-judice" in academics. Lots of peer review I am sure is not like that. But, the practice is not panacea and no one should be under any illusion that evolution is somehow a safer position intellectually simply because it has "consensus".

By the way, how about this awesome new movie:

[FONT=Palatino, Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][SIZE=+2]Ben Stein to battle Darwin in major film[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Palatino, Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][SIZE=+1]Actor-commentator stars in 'Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed'[/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=-1]Posted: September 28, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

[/SIZE] [FONT=Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times] [/FONT] [FONT=Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times][FONT=Palatino, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times, serif]
[SIZE=-1] © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com [/SIZE] [/FONT] [/FONT]
[FONT=Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times]

[/FONT][FONT=Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times]Ben Stein, the lovable, monotone teacher from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "The Wonder Years" is back in the classroom in a major motion picture release slated for February 2008. [/FONT]
[FONT=Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times]But this time, the actor will be on the big screen asking one of life's biggest questions: "Were we designed, or are we simply the end result of an ancient mud puddle struck by lightning?" [/FONT]
[FONT=Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times]That's right. Evolution – and the explosive debate over its virtual monopoly on America's public school classrooms – is the focus of the film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed." [/FONT]
[FONT=Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times]In the movie, Stein, who is also a lawyer, economist, former presidential speechwriter, author and social commentator, is stunned by what he discovers – an elitist scientific establishment that has traded in its skepticism for dogma. Even worse, say publicists for the feature film, "along the way, Stein uncovers a long line of biologists, astronomers, chemists and philosophers who have had their reputations destroyed and their careers ruined by a scientific establishment that allows absolutely no dissent from Charles Darwin's theory of random mutation and natural selection." [/FONT]

[FONT=Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times]For example, Stein meets Richard Sternberg, a double Ph.D. biologist who allowed a peer-reviewed research paper describing the evidence for intelligence in the universe to be published in the scientific journal Proceedings. Shortly after publication, officials from the National Center for Science Education and the Smithsonian Institution, where Sternberg was a research fellow, began a coordinated smear-and-intimidation campaign to get the promising young scientist fired. The attack on scientific freedom was so egregious that it prompted a congressional investigation. [/FONT]
[FONT=Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times]In the film, Stein meets other scientists like astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez, who was denied tenure at Iowa State University in spite of an extraordinary record of achievement. Gonzalez made the mistake of documenting the design he has observed in the universe. And there are others, like Caroline Crocker, a brilliant biology teacher at George Mason University who was forced out of the university for briefly discussing problems with Darwinian theory and for telling the students that some scientists believe there is evidence of design in the universe. [/FONT]

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57840

 

[Biblewriter]

Thanks for the heads up.

As I said before, I not only know about this kind of thing, I have experienced it.

 

[imind]

for those interested in what peer review really is. one would notice that an advertisement written by professors in non-scientific fields, and having nothing at all to do with their 'area of expertise' would not qualify.

Peer review (known as refereeing in some academic fields) is a process of subjecting an author's scholarly work, research or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field. It is used primarily by editors to select and to screen submitted manuscripts, and by funding agencies, to decide the awarding of grants. The peer review process aims to make authors meet the standards of their discipline, and of science in general.

link

 

[busterdog]

for those interested in what peer review really is. one would notice that an advertisement written by professors in non-scientific fields, and having nothing at all to do with their 'area of expertise' would not qualify.

Please. Everyone knows what peer review is.

Why are we pretending otherwise?

 

[flaja]

Please. Everyone knows what peer review is.

Why are we pretending otherwise?

Peer review is something that isn’t always what it is cracked up to be. If Copernicus had submitted his heliocentric model of the solar system to the peer review of Ptolemaic astronomers, he would have been declared wrong because heliocentrism isn’t what the peers wanted to believe.

If Dr. Harvey had submitted his model of the circulatory system to peer review, he would have been declared wrong because the peers a closed circulatory system isn’t what the peers wanted to believe.

Peer review doesn’t work for scientific pioneers and it doesn’t work when your peers are obstinate and close-minded.

Peer review is also occasionally the criticism of rivals and competitors who wish to publish a book or win a Nobel Prize before you do.