Just a week after attracting national media attention, the University of Kansas will no longer offer a course focusing on the "religious mythologies" of intelligent design and creationism next semester.
Paul Mirecki, the religious studies professor slated to teach the highly controversial course, cancelled his involvement last week after inflammatory comments made about Christian fundamentalists came to light.
"I want to be clear that I personally find Professor Mirecki's e-mail comments repugnant and vile," KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway, an outspoken proponent of evolution, said in a statement. "He insulted both our students and the university's public, and he misrepresented beliefs of KU's faculty and staff."
Mirecki's e-mail, sent Nov. 19 to KU's Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics, referred to Christian fundamentalists as "fundies" and said his course would be a "nice slap in their big fat face."
When these comments were first made public last week, Mirecki issued a public apology and planned to move forward with the course — which was renamed by the religious studies department to remove any reference to intelligent design as a mythology.
"I have assured the provost of the university that I will teach the course according to the standards this university rightfully expects — as a serious academic subject and in a manner that respects all points of view," Mirecki said Nov. 28.
Three days later, however, he issued a second statement and withdrew the course from the spring semester's course catalogue.
"My concern is that students with a serious interest in this important subject matter would not be well served by this learning environment my e-mails and the public distribution of them have created," he said. "It would not be fair to the students."
University of Wisconsin history of science professor Ronald Numbers, who praised the university last week for offering such a course, said many college professors are frustrated by the public perception of evolution and intelligent design.
"It's driving people nuts," Numbers said. "Religion is an especially sensitive issue [so] when we disagree with religious points of view we need to try to be respectful, as we try to be respectful of all types of diversity in our classes."
Because intelligent design advocates say it is not a religious doctrine however, Numbers commented that criticism against the theory should not be perceived as criticism against religion.
"It's a big irritant — on one hand it's a miniscule number of scientists who are anti-evolutionists, on the other hand a majority of Americans are anti-evolutionists and would like to see intelligent design taught," he said. "You have a huge chasm between public opinion and scientific opinion here, that doesn't lead to peace and harmony."
Much of the controversy which attracted attention to Mirecki's course in the first place stems from the publicly elected Kansas State Board of Education. The board, which governs only K-12 public education, recently voted to include criticism of evolutionary theory in the curriculum of science classes.
"They have eliminated evolution, geological ages, and the Big Bang from the curriculum," Numbers said. "They have eliminated a phrase explaining the working of science naturally — that is, it [now] allows for supernatural explanations."
