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Thousands of people have signed a petition urging officials at Ball State University to defend the academic freedom of an assistant professor of physics who introduced evidence of intelligent design to his students.
Eric Hedin has been targeted by the special-interest group Freedom from Religion Foundation, which claims his teachings should not be allowed at a public university.
The petition by the Seattle-based Discovery Institute was sent to Ball State President Jo Ann Gora and the school’s board of trustees.
The controversy erupted when FFRF objected to Hedin’s elective seminar called “The Boundaries of Science,” which according to the syllabus explores evidence of intelligent design in nature as well as the limits of scientific knowledge.
Officials at the school have confirmed the bibliography for the course includes distinguished scholars such as Oxford University mathematician John Lennox, Harvard astronomer Owen Gingerich, Oxford mathematical physicist Roger Penrose and physicist and Anglican priest John Pokinghorne.
“Questions about the evidence for design in the universe and the boundaries of science are perfectly legitimate topics for a university seminar,” the Discovery Institute said in support of the professor. “Indeed, these topics have provoked scholarly interest and discussion during much of the history of Western civilization, and the scholars cited in Hedin’s bibliography are some of the leading voices in these discussions.”
http://www.wnd.com/2013/07/atheist-group-wants-prof-questioning-evolution-censored/