Michael Polanyi Center
Encyclopedia
The Michael Polanyi Center (MPC) at Baylor University
was the first center at a research university
exclusively dedicated to intelligent design
study. It was founded in 1999 "with the primary aim of advancing the
understanding of the sciences," in a religious context and is named for Michael Polanyi
. All of the center's research investigated the subject of intelligent design. The center was relegated in late 2000 to a minor program within the Baylor Institute for Faith and Learning
and fully dissolved in 2003.
was founded in 1845 by the Republic of Texas (before Texas Statehood) in Waco
, Texas
as a Baptist
University
. Baylor also developed into a research university with a reputable science department.
A new Baylor president, Robert B. Sloan
was appointed in 1995. Sloan, a New Testament Scholar with a doctorate in theology from the University of Basel
, proposed to return the school to its mission of integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment. As a result, the Baylor Institute for Faith and Learning (IFL) was established in 1997.
Sloan noted:
In 1998 Sloan read an article by mathematician, philosopher and intelligent design advocate William Dembski and was impressed. Sloan invited Dembski to the IFL, whose director Michael Beaty was also impressed by his work and credentials. They learned of Dembski's wish to establish an intelligent design research center. As a result in October 1999, Baylor's Michael Polanyi Center was quietly established separately from the IFL and without reference to science academics. Dembski named it after the Hungarian scientist and philosopher of science Michael Polanyi
(1891 — 1976). Dembski appointed Bruce L. Gordon
as his deputy.
The MPC website stated:
and the John Templeton Foundation
. Critics of intelligent design within the scientific community were split as to whether to attend. They thought that the conference might give ID more academic credibility, something it lacks, and that it would be used for propaganda by the ID movement and the Christian press. Nevertheless, the conference attracted a variety of scientists, theologians and philosophers, including Alan Guth
, John Searle
, Christian de Duve
, and Nobel Prize
-winner Steven Weinberg
. Some who attended donated their speaking fees to the National Center for Science Education
.
The conference brought things to a head and, as a result, on April 18 the Faculty Senate voted 27-2 for the center to be abolished. This call was rejected by Sloan on April 20, who commented:
A compromise was later reached to form an independent committee to review the center, consisting of eight faculty members from across the country to be chaired by the Professor of Philosophy William F. Cooper.
The committee met between September 8 and September 10. On October 17 the committee released its report. Although it recommended that there should be a place for the study of intelligent design, it recommended that the center be renamed and reconstituted within Baylor's Institute for Faith and Learning. This was seen as a compromise between the two sides and an attempt to defuse the row that had developed.
Sloan asked Dembski to retract this press release, feeling that it was an unnecessary escalation of the argument and not collegial, but Dembski refused. On October 19, Dembski was removed as director of the center, though he remained an associate professor. He was replaced by his deputy, Bruce L. Gordon
.
Dembski responded with another press release: "Baylor University President Robert Sloan has removed me as director of the Michael Polanyi Center despite his having personally solicited me to come to Baylor and establish the Center as a means of furthering work on intelligent design. Some Baylor faculty have exerted enormous pressure on Baylor to disassociate the university from me and my research. Earlier President Sloan had properly characterized these efforts as 'intellectual McCarthyism.'"
Critics suggested that Dembski deliberately provoked his employers in order to be fired and then be able to claim he was being witch-hunted.
The recommendations of the committee were carried out and the center was renamed Program in Science, Philosophy and Religion. Dembski never taught a course at Baylor. Dembski left Baylor on May 31, 2005 to take up a new position at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
in Louisville, Kentucky
as Carl F. H. Henry
Professor of Theology and Science. After a year teaching in Louisville, he took a position at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
in Fort Worth, Texas
as Research Professor in Philosophy, where he remains to this day.
Baylor University
Baylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...
was the first center at a research university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
exclusively dedicated to intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
study. It was founded in 1999 "with the primary aim of advancing the
understanding of the sciences," in a religious context and is named for Michael Polanyi
Michael Polanyi
Michael Polanyi, FRS was a Hungarian–British polymath, who made important theoretical contributions to physical chemistry, economics, and the theory of knowledge...
. All of the center's research investigated the subject of intelligent design. The center was relegated in late 2000 to a minor program within the Baylor Institute for Faith and Learning
Baylor Institute for Faith and Learning
The Institute for Faith and Learning was founded in 1997 to "assist Baylor University in achieving its mission of integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment, and its goal of becoming a university of the first rank committed to its Baptist and Christian heritage." This is encapsulated...
and fully dissolved in 2003.
Background
Baylor UniversityBaylor University
Baylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...
was founded in 1845 by the Republic of Texas (before Texas Statehood) in Waco
Waco, Texas
Waco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. Situated along the Brazos River and on the I-35 corridor, halfway between Dallas and Austin, it is the economic, cultural, and academic center of the 'Heart of Texas' region....
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
as a Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
University
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
. Baylor also developed into a research university with a reputable science department.
A new Baylor president, Robert B. Sloan
Robert B. Sloan
Robert Bryan Sloan, Jr. is an American academic and theologian, currently serving as president of Houston Baptist University.-Education and background:...
was appointed in 1995. Sloan, a New Testament Scholar with a doctorate in theology from the University of Basel
University of Basel
The University of Basel is located in Basel, Switzerland, and is considered to be one of leading universities in the country...
, proposed to return the school to its mission of integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment. As a result, the Baylor Institute for Faith and Learning (IFL) was established in 1997.
Sloan noted:
Baylor ought to be the kind of place where a student can ask a question and not just get the runaround. He shouldn't have to go to the theology department and be told, "Oh, that's a scientific question. Don't ask me that." And then the student goes to the science department and they tell him, "That's a religious question. Don't ask me that."
In 1998 Sloan read an article by mathematician, philosopher and intelligent design advocate William Dembski and was impressed. Sloan invited Dembski to the IFL, whose director Michael Beaty was also impressed by his work and credentials. They learned of Dembski's wish to establish an intelligent design research center. As a result in October 1999, Baylor's Michael Polanyi Center was quietly established separately from the IFL and without reference to science academics. Dembski named it after the Hungarian scientist and philosopher of science Michael Polanyi
Michael Polanyi
Michael Polanyi, FRS was a Hungarian–British polymath, who made important theoretical contributions to physical chemistry, economics, and the theory of knowledge...
(1891 — 1976). Dembski appointed Bruce L. Gordon
Bruce L. Gordon
Bruce L. Gordon is a Canadian philosopher of science , metaphysician and philosopher of religion.-Early life and education:Gordon was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1963....
as his deputy.
The MPC website stated:
The Michael Polanyi Center (MPC) is a cross-disciplinary research and educationEducationEducation in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
al initiative focused on advancing the understanding of science. It has a fourfold purpose: (1) to support and pursue research in the historyHistoryHistory is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
and conceptConceptThe word concept is used in ordinary language as well as in almost all academic disciplines. Particularly in philosophy, psychology and cognitive sciences the term is much used and much discussed. WordNet defines concept: "conception, construct ". However, the meaning of the term concept is much...
ual foundations of the natural and social sciences; (2) to study the impact of contemporary science on the humanitiesHumanitiesThe humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
and the artsARtsaRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
; (3) to be an active participant in the growing dialogue between science and religionReligionReligion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
; and (4) to pursue the mathematical development and empirical application of design-theoretic concepts in the natural sciences.
"The Nature of Nature"
Between April 12 and April 15, 2000 the Center held a conference entitled "The Nature of Nature," jointly sponsored by the Discovery InstituteDiscovery Institute
The Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
and the John Templeton Foundation
John Templeton Foundation
"The John Templeton Foundation is a philanthropic organizationthat funds inter-disciplinary research about human purpose and ultimate reality. It is usually referred to simply as the Templeton Foundation...
. Critics of intelligent design within the scientific community were split as to whether to attend. They thought that the conference might give ID more academic credibility, something it lacks, and that it would be used for propaganda by the ID movement and the Christian press. Nevertheless, the conference attracted a variety of scientists, theologians and philosophers, including Alan Guth
Alan Guth
Alan Harvey Guth is an American theoretical physicist and cosmologist. Guth has researched elementary particle theory...
, John Searle
John Searle
John Rogers Searle is an American philosopher and currently the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley.-Biography:...
, Christian de Duve
Christian de Duve
Christian René, viscount de Duve is a Nobel Prize-winning cytologist and biochemist. De Duve was born in Thames Ditton, Surrey, Great Britain, as a son of Belgian refugees. They returned to Belgium in 1920...
, and Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
-winner Steven Weinberg
Steven Weinberg
Steven Weinberg is an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles....
. Some who attended donated their speaking fees to the National Center for Science Education
National Center for Science Education
The National Center for Science Education is a non-profit organization based in Oakland, California affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It is the United States' leading anti-creationist organization, and defends the teaching of evolutionary biology and opposes...
.
The conference brought things to a head and, as a result, on April 18 the Faculty Senate voted 27-2 for the center to be abolished. This call was rejected by Sloan on April 20, who commented:
- I believe there are matters of intellectual and academic integrity at stake here … We should not be afraid to ask questions, even if they are politically incorrect
A compromise was later reached to form an independent committee to review the center, consisting of eight faculty members from across the country to be chaired by the Professor of Philosophy William F. Cooper.
The committee met between September 8 and September 10. On October 17 the committee released its report. Although it recommended that there should be a place for the study of intelligent design, it recommended that the center be renamed and reconstituted within Baylor's Institute for Faith and Learning. This was seen as a compromise between the two sides and an attempt to defuse the row that had developed.
Center moved and renamed
On October 18 Dembski responded to the report with a press release/email:Sloan asked Dembski to retract this press release, feeling that it was an unnecessary escalation of the argument and not collegial, but Dembski refused. On October 19, Dembski was removed as director of the center, though he remained an associate professor. He was replaced by his deputy, Bruce L. Gordon
Bruce L. Gordon
Bruce L. Gordon is a Canadian philosopher of science , metaphysician and philosopher of religion.-Early life and education:Gordon was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1963....
.
Dembski responded with another press release: "Baylor University President Robert Sloan has removed me as director of the Michael Polanyi Center despite his having personally solicited me to come to Baylor and establish the Center as a means of furthering work on intelligent design. Some Baylor faculty have exerted enormous pressure on Baylor to disassociate the university from me and my research. Earlier President Sloan had properly characterized these efforts as 'intellectual McCarthyism.'"
Critics suggested that Dembski deliberately provoked his employers in order to be fired and then be able to claim he was being witch-hunted.
The recommendations of the committee were carried out and the center was renamed Program in Science, Philosophy and Religion. Dembski never taught a course at Baylor. Dembski left Baylor on May 31, 2005 to take up a new position at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary , located in Louisville, Kentucky, is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention . The seminary was founded in 1859, at Greenville, South Carolina. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to Louisville...
in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
as Carl F. H. Henry
Carl F. H. Henry
Carl Ferdinand Howard Henry was an American evangelical Christian theologian who served as the first editor-in-chief of the magazine Christianity Today, established to serve as a scholarly voice for evangelical Christianity and a challenge to the liberal Christian Century.-Early Years and...
Professor of Theology and Science. After a year teaching in Louisville, he took a position at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, is a private, non-profit institution of higher education, associated with the Southern Baptist Convention...
in Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
as Research Professor in Philosophy, where he remains to this day.
Baylor University
- Baylor University
- Baylor Institute for Faith and Learning from the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
Baylor press releases
- President Sloan Addresses Polanyi Center Issue, April 20, 2000
- Baylor Releases Polanyi Center Committee Report, October 17, 2000
- Dembski Relieved Of Duties As Polanyi Center Director, October 19, 2000
Lariat news items
(The Lariat is the Baylor campus newspaper)- Archive of news stories
- Professors debate legitimacy of Polanyi
- BU science-religion center draws critics
- committee suggests compromise by Blair Martin
- Polanyi official's e-mail concerns some faculty (sic): Center director issues statement vowing research to 'continue unabated' By Blair Martin date?
- Polyani Center's future is unclear: Director's removal arises from e-mail By Blair Martin date?
Faculty Senate
Dembski
- Statement by William Dembski on his removal as Directory of the Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University
- Intelligent Design Coming Clean an essay by Dembski, November 17, 2000.
Pro-intelligent design
- On The Nature of Nature conference:
- Scientific Test for God a Valid Scientific Goal— Jay W. Richards, ID advocate.
- We're Not in Kansas Anymore: Why secular scientists and media can't admit that Darwinism might be wrong. in Christianity TodayChristianity TodayChristianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 140,000 and readership of 290,000...
- On the end of the center:
- The Lynching of Bill Dembski (part 1) (part 2) from the American Spectator, November 2000.
- Unintelligent Designs: Baylor's dismissal of Polyani Center director Dembski was not a smart move in Christianity TodayChristianity TodayChristianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 140,000 and readership of 290,000...
- Statement of the Cranach Institute Protesting the Removal of William Dembski as Director of the Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University
Anti-intelligent design
- NCSE on Center
- Polanyi Scholarship and the Former Baylor Polanyi Center by Richard Gelwick.