Bryan College Is Torn: Can Darwin and Eden Coexist?

[cbayer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/21/education/christian-college-faces-uproar-after-bolstering-its-view-on-evolution.html

By ALAN BLINDERMAY 20, 2014

Stephen D. Livesay, president of Bryan College, said a statement was intended to reaffirm, not alter, the institution’s traditional position. Credit Shawn Poynter for The New York Times

DAYTON, Tenn. — William Jennings Bryan earned a permanent place in American history nearly nine decades ago in the Scopes trial, when he stood in a courtroom here and successfully prosecuted a teacher who broke the law by teaching evolution in a public school.

While not quite “the fantastic cross between a circus and a holy war,” as Time magazine put it, that captivated the nation in 1925, a similar debate is again playing out in Dayton, this time at an evangelical Christian college named for Bryan, which is being sued as part of a controversy over its own stance on the origin of humans.

The continuing debate at Bryan College and beyond is a reminder of how divisive the issues of the Scopes trial still are, even splitting an institution whose motto is “Christ Above All.” Playing out at a time when the teaching of evolution remains a cultural hot spot to a degree that might have stunned its proponents in Bryan’s era, the debate also reflects the problems many Christian colleges face as they try to balance religious beliefs with secular education.

Since Bryan College’s founding in 1930, its statement of belief, which professors have to sign as part of their employment contracts, included a 41-word section summing up the institution’s conservative views on creation and evolution, including the statement: “The origin of man was by fiat of God.” But in February, college officials decided that professors had to agree to an additional clarification declaring that Adam and Eve “are historical persons created by God in a special formative act, and not from previously existing life-forms.”

more at link

[Prophet 451]

1. *sigh*

It's this kind of crap that gives the public face of Christianity a shiner. Even the inherently conservative RCC accepts that evolution happened and Adam & Eve are allegory.

[cbayer]

2. Well, the good news, if there is any, is that a good number of students and

some faculty are pushing back.

They recognize that this is going to put them at a disadvantage in the real world.

[skepticscott]

3. Which makes you wonder why

they chose to go to a school that teaches such backwards and embarrassing crap, out of all the choices they had.

Hard to muster much sympathy for people trying to jam two different versions of reality into one head.

[Jim__]

4. Is the school accredited by the state?

I assume that there is some agency that decides whether or not the state recognizes credentials conferred by various colleges and universities. I would also assume that that pledge would cost the college its accreditation - at least as far as any science credentials go.

[cbayer]

5. The college is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges

It appears that this is the accreditation body and it also accredits Vanderbilt. There does not appear to be a separate state body. So it does not seem that this particular position interferes with their accreditation. The do grant degrees in biology.

Interestingly, it is named after William Jennings Bryan who was the prosecutor in the Scope trial, of course.

Two professors of biology are suing the school after their contracts were terminated for not signing the agreement. They have stated that the school should lose it's accreditation.