Rhetorical Outbursts

Some people value dissent. Some people don’t. Via The Corner comes this NPR piece on what the Smithsonian Institution and the National Center for Science Education did to Richard Sternberg, a staff scientist at the National Institutes of Health. He dared to publish an article on intelligent design theory in a journal he edits. Ironically, Sternberg doesn’t even believe in intelligent design, but published the article “[b]ecause evolutionary biologists are thinking about this. So I thought that by putting this on the table, there could be some reasoned discourse. That’s what I thought, and I was dead wrong:”

[I]n a letter to Sternberg, [The Office of Special Counsel] wrote that officials at the Smithsonian worked with the National Center for Science Education — a group that opposes intelligent design — and outlined “a strategy to have you investigated and discredited.” Retaliation came in many forms, the letter said. They took away his master key and access to research materials. They spread rumors that Sternberg was not really a scientist. He has two Ph.D.’s in biology — from Binghamton University and Florida International University. In short, McVay found a hostile work environment based on religious and political discrimination.

You can read the offending article here.