From Casey Luskin here: www.evolutionnews.org/2011/08/california_science_center_issu050231.html

California Science Center Issues a Press Release Full of Misleading Claims: A Point-by-Point Response

The California Science Center Foundation (herein “CSC,” as it is essentially a shell organization that is very difficult to distinguish from the California Science Center) has put out a press statement full of inaccurate and misleading information about the settlement in the American Freedom Alliance (AFA) v. CSC lawsuit. E-mail evidence disclosed during the case, as well as a myriad of other facts, directly contradicts CSC’s claims. In particular, is noteworthy that CSC’s statement makes no mention whatsoever of the $110,000 price tag they were willing to pay to settle the case and avoid trial. It seems that major detail is too embarrassing to them to be disclosed, because it implies some kind of culpability on their part.

Below is a point by point commentary and refutation of various claims in the statement issued by the CSC about the lawsuit settlement:

And so it goes on…

In a striking e-mail that shows the CSC fishing for a pretext to give the public to justify the cancellation, CSC VP of Communications Shell Amega passes a command from CSC CEO Jeff Rudolph to fish through the contract to find a reason, a pretext, for canceling the event:

“Jeff just called and is wondering if they violated an agreement — like was this supposed to be a private screening or did they say it was a public screening? If they misrepresented the event, then we can cancel them.”

In case it isn’t clear, the above statement shows that CSC first wanted to cancel AFA’s event, and then sought a reason it could give publicly to explain the cancellation. In other words, CSC wanted to cancel the contract before it knew whether the contract had been violated. Shell Amega’s own e-mail contradicts her claims in the statement that AFA’s alleged breach triggered the cancellation. In another telling e-mail, Sion then jubilantly announces the manufacture of plausible deniability: “They did receive an agreement w/the following language — hope this covers us well!”

After witnessing the anger of other LA area scientists and academics over CSC’s allowing a group to rent its IMAX to show a pro-ID film, CSC curator Ken Phillips then warned his CSC colleagues against granting a forum to proponents of ID:

“I personally have a real problem with anything that elevates the concept of intelligent design to a level that makes it appear as though it should be considered equally alongside Darwinian theory as a possible alternative to natural selection. In other words, I see us getting royally played by the Center for Science and Culture resulting in long term damage to our credibility and judgment for a very long time.”

Curator Phillips is welcome to disagree with ID, but here he exemplifies a culture of intolerance against ID within the California Science Center.

Wow.  So we witness again the intolerance of the Darwinian priesthood.  In a mere 500 years, we have replaced one diabolical priesthood with another diabolical priesthood.  Viva the ID revolution. [Read more...]

From Casey Luskin here: www.evolutionnews.org/2011/08/stampede_the_california_scienc050221.html

Stampede! What the California Science Center Scandal Reveals about Our Scientific Culture

You’ve heard a lot in this space the past few days about the viewpoint-discrimination lawsuit settled by the California Science Center for $110,000. That’s money the CSC found it advisable to pay out to the American Freedom Alliance in order to avoid having to go to court and argue the case in public, with all that would have entailed by way of exposing a trail of incriminating emails by CSC staffers and scientists around the Los Angeles area.

Lead by Casey Luskin, ENV writers have already very clearly spelled out the evidence of duplicity and intolerance on the part of the California Science Center, the panicky attempt to squelch the airing of a viewpoint favorable to intelligent design and the subsequent cover-up. Now that there’s a little bit of a breather following the widespread reporting of the settlement, I’d like to suggest why the whole thing matters so much.

And some more:

In episode after episode in the world of science, where mild, scattered expressions of Darwin-doubting were heard, we’ve observed this panicked mentality immediately set in. Staff at the CSC and even scholars at neighboring institutions were driven into a mass anxiety attack. They feared for their reputations and their livelihoods, but there was also something almost existential about the delirium that overtook normally sober, thoughtful men and women.

In terror, our scientific buffaloes have trampled individuals and groups that merely wanted to encourage debate about a scientific issue of profound scholarly, cultural and philosophical importance. What’s changed just in the past year is that, gratifyingly, we’ve seen several instances where the trampled party fought back and won vindication through the legal process. That’s what happened in AFA v. CSC.

Look, money talks. Though Richard Sternberg at the Smithsonian Institution’s American Museum of Natural History had his own account of persecution confirmed by no less than the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, he received no monetary compensation. By contrast, when the CSC reluctantly coughed up $110,000 to the American Freedom Alliance, it was an implicit admission that the CSC had done an injustice. After all, the CSC is a government entity, and government cannot discriminate against viewpoints. In fact, it’s been striking how many of the documented cases of anti-ID discrimination have taken place at state-run educational and scientific institutions.

[Read more...]