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Post by erictheblue on Mar 24, 2009 9:15:14 GMT -5
Richard Dawkins was invited to speak at the University of Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Legislature tried to stop him because many residents of the state didn't agree with the topic of his talk, evolution. When that didn't work, the Legistlature decided to investigate the University regarding how it spends its money. Well, at least it isn't Texas this time! ;D www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-lukianoff/oklahoma-legislature-inve_b_177473.htmlSome excerpts: "Well, it's official: Oklahoma's state legislature is investigating the University of Oklahoma for hosting a speech by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. As I noted in a post over the weekend at Dawkins' website, the legislature first considered two resolutions condemning both Dawkins and the theory of evolution as "an unproven and unpopular theory." (I highly recommend reading both of the proposed resolutions.) Despite their efforts, the legislature failed to prevent Dawkins from speaking on March 6 to an audience of thousands at the University of Oklahoma." "Sure enough, I just received confirmation today in a letter from the Open Records Office at the University of Oklahoma. The letter confirms that on the day of Dawkins' speech, Oklahoma State Representative Rebecca Hamilton requested substantial information relating to the speech from Vice President for Governmental Relations Danny Hilliard. Representative Hamilton's exhaustive request included demands for all e-mails and correspondence relating to the speech; a list of all money paid to Dawkins and the entities, public or private, responsible for this funding; and the total cost to the university, including, among other things, security fees, advertising, and even "faculty time spent promoting this event."
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Post by Julian on Mar 24, 2009 9:26:03 GMT -5
Representative Hamilton's exhaustive request included demands for all e-mails and correspondence relating to the speech; a list of all money paid to Dawkins and the entities, public or private, responsible for this funding; and the total cost to the university, including, among other things, security fees, advertising, and even "faculty time spent promoting this event." You could make a seriously cool mastercard ad from that!
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Post by m52nickerson on Mar 24, 2009 9:27:52 GMT -5
"Unproven and unpopular" now that is funny.
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Post by devilschaplain2 on Mar 24, 2009 10:41:25 GMT -5
Holy shit that's......oh, yeah, it's Oklahoma, nevermind.
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Post by ausador on Mar 24, 2009 10:44:10 GMT -5
O-O-OHH-Oklahoma where the wind goes whistlin where their brains; Should be cause their so fundie, and the Pastors hold the Legislators reins!
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Post by booley on Mar 24, 2009 10:55:32 GMT -5
Well at this point, when has Oklahoma NOT taken a chance to embarress itself?
I would say this is a non issue but it's clearly the legislative version of a SLAP lawsuit. The point is not that there is any merit to the case, only to make sure to scare the University into not hosting anybody the Cons don't like in the future.
And it will probably work too.
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Post by Star Cluster on Mar 24, 2009 11:00:29 GMT -5
Creationists...with their heads buried in the sands of time clear back to the 20th Century BCE.
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Post by ironbite on Mar 24, 2009 11:43:54 GMT -5
Unproven?
Ironbite-so I guess we're just....not evidence enough?
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Post by dasfuchs on Mar 24, 2009 12:38:48 GMT -5
So basically Dawkins was oppressing those poor fundtards so the state stepped in to stop him? Wouldn't this be one of those church/state issues?
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Post by Vene on Mar 24, 2009 12:46:21 GMT -5
Funny, universities pay for academics from various to fields to talk all the fucking time. Dawkins is most definitely an academic. Not just for the whole atheism thing, but he has most definitely contributed to biology. Oh right, it's all about evilution to these folks, I wonder what they would think if they realized that EVERYTHING in biology comes back to evolution. Hell, Dawkins has spoke at other universities in the past, he was in my state a few weeks back at Michigan State University.
But, they don't care about any of that, they just don't want some damn atheist in Oklahoma, especially some damn evolutionist. They're God-fearing folks dammit! They don't really care about fairness, they just want their ideas heard and only their ideas. Anything else is Satanic drivel. Never mind that creationism has been abandoned for evolution for well over a century, never mind that no biology department anywhere teaches creation, never mind that our medical and agricultural systems are in place because of biologists using Darwin's theory, never mind that when evolution has been officially rejected it lead to agricultural disaster (Lysenkoism). It's all about their faith and reality be damned.
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Post by Caitshidhe on Mar 24, 2009 13:13:01 GMT -5
What the hell? I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around this. So, a well-known academic comes to speak at a university... and the university wanted him not to come? And now they're investigating the university for spending too much time promoting the talk? o.0
What?
I don't get it. I can't believe that there are people this STUPID. So much for separation of church and State--and we wonder why America is the running joke of the whole fucking planet.
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Post by booley on Mar 24, 2009 13:16:13 GMT -5
What the hell? I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around this. So, a well-known academic comes to speak at a university... and the university wanted him not to come? And now they're investigating the university for spending too much time promoting the talk? o.0 What? I don't get it. I can't believe that there are people this STUPID. So much for separation of church and State--and we wonder why America is the running joke of the whole fucking planet. It's not even church and state. It's simple free speech. Unless they can show students being held at gun point forced to listen to Dawkins , they don't have a case. But the point is not to win, it's to intimidate.
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Post by Vene on Mar 24, 2009 13:23:47 GMT -5
What the hell? I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around this. So, a well-known academic comes to speak at a university... and the university wanted him not to come? And now they're investigating the university for spending too much time promoting the talk? o.0 What? I don't get it. I can't believe that there are people this STUPID. So much for separation of church and State--and we wonder why America is the running joke of the whole fucking planet. Well not quite, the university wanted him to speak. The problem is that some of the legislators got pissed off. First their excuse was that tax payer money was being spent on it, until it was revealed not only did he not accept any compensation, but actually put money into the state. I think now they're trying some sort of academic freedom bullshit (fundies and irony don't mix).
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Post by dantesvirgil on Mar 24, 2009 13:23:48 GMT -5
Yes, it's to intimidate the university into selecting speakers the State would find appropriate by scaring them with paperwork and implication of impropriety and conspiracy. For example, what exactly do they expect to find in all the emails related to the event? A smoking gun of back and forth between RD and the school saying "Please come indoctrine out students, we hate creationism?" When the school is asked to provide email transactions, it's usually with the implication that something under the table has happened that the emails will expose.
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Post by m52nickerson on Mar 24, 2009 13:30:33 GMT -5
I sure they will find, to their horror, that the biology department supports the scientific theory of evolution. They may even have the audacity to call it the central theorem of Biology.......gasp.
Imagine, teaching science in a science class.
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