Is There Intelligent Life at The Smithsonian?

Scientist Richard Sternberg at the Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C.

Angry fanatic zealots recently attacked a respected research scientist.

They called Richard Sternberg nasty names and demanded that he be fired from his work at the Smithsonian Institution and as editor of the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington.

The August 18^th Washington Post newspaper carried an article by staff writer Michael Powell. telling about the controversy.

According to Powell’s excellent article, the fanatics resorted to name calling using such terms as Closet Bible Thumper,. Shoddy Scientist, Crypto-priest, sleeper cell operative, Anti-Darwinian, Unqualified Scientist, and Young Earth Creationist.

How childish.

They called his ideas bogus and rubbish.

There was even the threat of physical violence.

When the biological society discussed Sternberg’s ideas, he was told not to attend the meeting. He said “Feelings were running so high, they could not guarantee me that they could keep order”.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which was established to protect federal employees from reprisals, is investigating. The Counsel examined e-mail traffic … and reported that, "retaliation came in many forms . . . misinformation was disseminated through the Smithsonian Institution and to outside sources. The allegations against you were later determined to be false."

Really! You’d expect better from scientists associated with the prestigious Smithsonian Institution.

How pathetic.

You see the zealots are scientists who espouse the theory of evolution; Sternberg published an article in the Proceedings questioning that theory.

His raising questions galled the zealots who found this intolerable and launched an attack to hound him from his position at the Smithsonian.

As I see it, the whole furor is about intelligence.

Intelligence exists or it does not.

Thought or intelligence, if it exists, has an origin or it does not.

I suspect that God gave us intelligence and the ability to think -- although I must admit that a lot of my own experiences clash with that idea.

But, if intelligence and the ability to think, did not originate with God, then what is the origin?

As I understand it, the evolutionist thinks that intelligence either does not exist at all; or, if it does, that it is the lucky result of Brownian Movement, the random bumping together of various electrons or molecules inside the brain with no order or pattern or design or purpose.

If they are right, then one thought is as valid as another. Hitler’s thoughts are no better or worse than Mother Teresa’s; Michael Jackson’s, than Elvis’; your thoughts than mine; Billy Graham’s ideas are no different from Dennis Rader’s (He’s the sexual deviant serial killer known as BTK) – because, all those ways of thinking have no origin other than the random bumping together of molecules.

It seems to me that in evolutionary theory nobody’s thoughts count for anything.

Eminent scientist and corner bag lady – their thoughts are the same purposeless muddle of bumping molecules. The thoughts of one scientist holds no more validity than those of another… So why are the evolutionary scientists acting so childish and upset that another scientist voices another idea? If intelligence has no origin, then no thought is valid.

In other words, there is no such thing as intelligence!

And judging from the petty squabling and behavior of the other scientists at the Smithsonian, I wonder if they’re not right.