Petition launched in support of Darwin-doubting doctor and to stop academic bullying at Emory University

ATLANTA, May 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In an egregious example of academic bullying, renowned neurosurgeon and director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital Dr. Ben Carson has been publicly chastised for his views on evolution and called anti-scientific because he has doubts about Darwin's theory, according to Discovery Institute.  Dr. Carson is the object of an organized bullying campaign by some Emory University faculty and students seeking to discredit him for his critical views on Darwinian evolution.

Discovery Institute has launched a petition campaign to gather support for Dr. Carson.  The petition is available at www.evolutionnews.org.

Carson was invited to deliver the commencement address at Emory University next Monday, May 14th. In response, four Emory Professors –Arri Eisen, Jaap De Roode, Nicole Gerardo, and Ilya Nemenman – have organized a petition that seeks to distort Dr. Carson's position on the moral implications of Darwinian materialism and question his grasp of the science behind evolution. Emory hasn't withdrawn the invitation and the letter's signatories don't demand that. Rather, they are "chilling" the environment to make it uncomfortable for anyone like Dr. Carson to speak out.

According to the Discovery Institute, this is an attempt by Darwinian bullies to create an environment where dissent from Darwin is not allowed.

The academic bullying that Emory's faculty has visited on Dr. Carson is not an isolated episode. Scientists who ask tough questions about evolutionary theory are routinely intimidated and silenced by advocates of Darwinian orthodoxy.

Journalists and courts of law have documented a variety of other, far more disturbing cases of bullying for Darwin, at academic institutions including Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech, the University of Kentucky, Iowa State University, the Smithsonian Institution, and elsewhere.

Many other scientists who would speak out, voicing their doubts about Darwin, fear to do so because of the consequences for their future career prospects.

Discovery Institute has launched a petition campaign to gather support for Dr. Carson.  The petition is available at: www.evolutionnews.org. The petition states in part:

Emory University must take this opportunity to recommit itself to the freedom of scholars to follow the scientific and other evidence wherever it leads. Scholarship is a search for the truth, with no holds barred.

That is why Emory must reconfirm its warm welcome of this great man. Emory officials should quickly offer a statement emphasizing that they recognize the right of Dr. Carson to hold and express his views, and that the university community continues to be pleased and honored to welcome Dr. Ben Carson to speak at Commencement on May 14.

SOURCE Discovery Institute