@Sean Pitman, M.D.: Who is suggesting that students shouldn’t be …

Comment on La Sierra Academy students weigh in on creation/evolution debate by Eric.

@Sean Pitman, M.D.: Who is suggesting that students shouldn’t be allowed to ask questions and search for truth? Certainly not Shane. Where did you get such a notion?

correct me if im wrong but it actually does seem like shane is saying we should not be taught any evolutionary views whatsoever?

Eric Also Commented

La Sierra Academy students weigh in on creation/evolution debate

@Eric: Yes, we can agree here. We believe the professors who are at odds with the church should find another organization that is more closely aligned with their beliefs instead of causing so much division by proselytizing Adventist youth with their beliefs.  (Quote)

thats not what i was talking about. I was refering to people like you who make a big deal out of something like this and conservative people who are scared of facing the evidence against creation. Right now there is no evidence for a literal 6-day creation, even you know that. It is our faith in the Bible, which will all be worth it in heaven, that is our only reason to believe. You know full well that if there was evidence for a 6 day creation those professors would be teaching it.


La Sierra Academy students weigh in on creation/evolution debate

Look at exactly what I said in my statement, I said quote “the only difference is that creation and evolution is presented equally throughout the school.” Meaning I did not say that I was talking only about the science department, but as a school as a whole. There are classes within the science department that do teach evolution, and then there is the religion department which teaches a recent creation. So it can be said that there is an equal balance of creation and evolution ideas. If one does not like the views shared in the science department, and cannot accept some of the facts presented, than the department is not for you and there are plenty other classes that you can take at LSU.  (Quote)

i think jordan has hit the nail on the head and those who wish to cause controversy and dissension within the church should just go elsewhere


La Sierra Academy students weigh in on creation/evolution debate

Unless you can show proof to the contrary, I strongly disagree that LSU presents creation and evolution equally. There is not one known science class at LSU that endorses a recent creation.  (Quote)

just this exchange right here shows that some people are fine with how la sierra presents the facts, while others see it as ruining our Adventist youth. Everyone has different opinion regarding this issue, but the majority of people i have met from la sierra have been wonderful people who love doing God’s work and believe in a 6 day creation.
oh and by the way every single teacher i have studied with at la sierra academy has not demonstrated a single leaning toward evolution or theistic evolution, as you suggested above.


Recent Comments by Eric

The SECC stands for something
On May 29, Spectrum reported on a web site attacking La Sierra University for employing faculty members who teach naturalistic evolution. Today, three months after the story broke, we now know that the website, “Educate Truth” originally created anonymously, is owned and operated by Shane Hilde, a high school English teacher, who attended both LSU and Weimar and who lives near Loma Linda.

Educate Truth is an agglomeration of news bits, opinion pieces, and leaked personal correspondence. It also features a petition entitled “Petition to Our Seventh-day Adventist Church Leadership.” The petition originally addressed Randal Wisbey (President of La Sierra University), Ricardo Graham (President of the Pacific Union Conference), Don Schneider (President of the North American Division), and Jan Paulsen (President of the General Conference). A clause has now been added as a side bar on the text of the petition stating:

““While the petition is general in its language, it will be used specifically to address La Sierra University. It will be presented to the Board of Trustees on November 11, 2009. It is our goal to reach 10,000 signatures by this date.””

As of the writing of this article, there were 3,939 signatures, many of them “anonymous,” and some of them apparently faked (Darth Vader was among the signatures listed).

Clearly, Shane Hilde and those allied with the Educate Truth website intend to stop at nothing short of forcing the firing of La Sierra University faculty members. This despite the efforts of President Jan Paulsen to put out the embers of controversy with an article reiterating the church’s stance on the issue of origins. Undeterred by both union and world leadership caution, Educate Truth has sought to push the issue, funneling old self-supporting and traditionalist fears about church change toward the La Sierra University Biology Department. As has happened in the past – from Glacier View to Southern to Walla Walla – when academics are attacked, the personal becomes all too political.

The latest episode involves La Sierra student Carlos Cerna. Cerna attempted to insert Young Earth Creationist views in a capstone biology course final paper. When Cerna was told that his paper was inadequate for the objectives of the course, he accused professors of grading him harshly for his views and for challenging prevailing scientific views.

Cerna exchanged emails with his professors, but did not get the response he wanted. His paper was given a “C” grade, which Cerna felt was reprisal for his Young Earth Creationist views. Cerna then leaked his email correspondence with Gary Bradley and Lee Greer–who co-taught the course–on the Educate Truth site.

Inside Higher Ed, a prominent news site, wrote about Cerna’s interactions with his professors and about the contents of Educate Truth in an article entitled Creating Controversy. The article included statements from Bradley and Cerna. When Spectrum contacted the reporter requesting comment on how the story was initiated, he demurred, saying only that the information was in the public domain.
Educate Truth, in turn, jumped on the retelling of the Cerna story alleging that it validates their quest to see Biology Department faculty dismissed.

Cerna’s professors tell a different story. They note first that the purpose of the paper was to demonstrate students’ understanding of prevailing scientific theories, whether or not students personally accepted those theories. They also note that Cerna was given extra help by having a professor read a first draft of his paper and provide detailed advice, which Cerna refused to follow. Cerna accused Greer of saying that the professor would grade him harder than other students for his creationist views, which Greer says is simply untrue. Cerna never spoke with Greer about the grade afterward though he was invited to do so. After the class ended and Cerna graduated, it came to light that Cerna plagiarized parts of the paper (discovered by someone working with Biology Chair Jim Wilson on TurnItIn.com). If this had been found while Cerna was still a student, he would have received a failing grade.

While Educate Truth has tried to paint Cerna as a martyr in a fight against Creationism, using the student’s experience as a call to arms against the university, in reality, Cerna represents the dishonest lengths to which this small, vocal group will go to in order to get back at their former professors.

The episode reveals the willingness of these critics of La Sierra University to misrepresent facts, to publicly defame school employees, to disregard copyrights (in the case of syllabi publicized online) and to violate personal privacy by leaking personal correspondence on the Internet. Such tactics provide a seemingly shaky foundation for a campaign to see professors dismissed.

What’s at Stake
Despite its questionable approaches, the Educate Truth crusade has had an impact. Since the debacle began, Adventist college administrators and science faculties have gone quiet, refusing to enter the discussion publicly, although many privately find the tactics and arguments against La Sierra University troubling. Many church administrators, likewise have indicated their unwillingness to become entangled in the assault. Significantly, two church leaders have publicly addressed the brouhaha, both Pacific Union Conference President Ricardo Graham and Jan Paulsen have sought a more thoughtful discourse on the issues at stake.

The assault against La Sierra University has created an atmosphere of suspicion on campus, reminiscent of earlier attacks on Adventist faculty from PUC to Southern to Andrews to Walla Walla over the decades.

Failure to directly confront Educate Truth’s tactics could have broad consequences. There is a great deal at stake. If those affiliated with Educate Truth are able to influence La Sierra’s board of trustees in forcing the resignation of professors, it would radically impact the school, Adventist higher education, and the church as a whole.

The removal of LSU biology professors would negatively impact the integrity of La Sierra’s science and pre-med program. A department which currently provides students with a rigorous and thorough exploration of cutting-edge information and technology would be curtailed by the threat of interference from individuals who are not actually confronting the root issues of scientific thinking in the context of faith. The best place for literal Young Earth Creationism’s arguments would be in the laboratory–conducting experiments and presenting scholarly papers, not trying to silence the Adventists who are actually engaged in the professional quest to unite faith and science.

Caving to Educate Truth’s bully tactics would also stymie the pursuit of knowledge and truth, a principle that Adventist pioneers championed from the church’s foundation. Instead, academics would be constrained by statements drafted in committee meetings, and the pursuit of truth, wherever it leads, would lose out. Adventist higher education will suffer a serious blow on the day that consensus statements supplant the search for truth. It is no small matter that many involved in the crusade received training in self-supporting institutions or have a history of preferring graduates of such schools for church employ.

The church as a whole would be impacted by such a move. Future generations of Adventist youth will be presented either with a church that embraces honest inquiry, intellectual curiosity and academic integrity, or with a church that values uniformity and loyalty to a set of static creeds.

Former La Sierra University president Larry Geraty wrote on the need for academic excellence and truth-telling in the December 2002 – December 2003 issue of the Journal of Adventist Education. In an article entitled “Academic Excellence, an Adventist Priority,” Geraty writes,

Academic excellence is a response to God’s call to tell the truth. Christians are called to be responsive to a reality they did not make—to something that is Other. Loving our neighbors as ourselves means showing respect by refusing to manipulate or deceive them. Academic excellence is an outgrowth of the Christian commitment to telling the truth. It means refusing to allow the sloth that so easily besets us to keep us from taking seriously the reality of what we study. It means honoring those with whom we communicate by being clear, responsible and honest. Christian scholars worship a God of truth, so they cannot indulge in any kind of scholarly mediocrity that sacrifices truth to expediency.
“”
The health of Adventist higher education, indeed the future of the mind of the church, depends in large part upon how church leadership responds. Will they stand resolutely against the discomforting political nuance of the few loud voices clamoring, “Educate Truth!” (whatever that means), or will they uphold the scholarly Adventist tradition of intellectual honesty within the context of church faithfulness?


UNST/UHNR 404B Syllabus (LSU)
i truly do not understand why you Mr. Ryan, and Mr. Pitman, devote your time to construct these arguments against good people. you even commented on christmas day! if you continue to post “in christ” at the end of your posts then i suggest you try to act closer to the way you know he would handle this situation.


CCC apprises leadership of LSU news

As I stated on a posting regarding this matter on anther provided site, it seems to me that at least one of the most important issues needing to be addressed is that this institution is claiming to be one of ‘higher learning’. At least I would imagine this is the case. It behooves LSU, then, to follow a mandate of true ‘academic freedom’, regarding what is presented to students; that is, that all courses be taught in an impartial manner, and that the choice of what to believe is left to the student, based upon personal conviction and research. It would seem to me to be professional incompetence, or at least abrogation of duty, to promote one philosophy or ‘explanation’ of our origins as the professor’s personal pick, while then making a mere pretension of the statement that BOTH choices are being presented impartially. The appropriate facility for the promotion of one of these ‘explanations’ would be the campus church (assuming there is one on campus), and, for the other explanation, an off-campus forum for discussion or promotion.  (Quote)

i find it interesting and also disturbing that the comment that is probably the best advice on this whole board got a bunch of dislike votes, but i realize that most people who visit this site, are the people who are conservative people who do not understand the new generation of adventists, and their wish for an honest portrayal of all the different views, so that they can make their own choice.