>In the article, "Confessions of a lonely atheist" (NYT, Jan 14, 2001), >she makes this point, among other things citing the biologist Richard >Dawkins who said "If I say something offensive to religious people, >I'll be universally censured, including by many atheists. But if I >say something insulting about Democrats or Republicans or the Green >Party, one is allowed to get away with that. Hiding behind the smoke >screen of untouchability is something religions have been allowed to >get away with for too long".
My experience has been that it is *not* off-limits at all for academic psychologists to make disparaging comments about religious people or those with conservative political beliefs. My experience as a doctoral student was that those students who professed conservative Jewish or Christian beliefs were more likely to be talked about with condescension. Those students who professed beliefs more in line with New-Age spirituality were often seen as enlightened. I'll never forget one of my fellow students in my doctoral program who believed in reincarnation and the idea that we progressed from lower life forms to higher life forms. Specifically, she believed that in our first lives, we were all cats. She believed we came back in our second lives as dogs (granted, she was right in that dogs are a higher life form than cats...smile). Finally, she believed that in our third and final life we came back as humans. She believed that when we died as humans we then just became part of the cosmic energy of the universe. It was really very funny--to the point of being ridiculous--how people responded to her religious beliefs versus how they responded to more traditional Jewish and Christian beliefs. Several years later, I was teaching at a private, four-year university (with no religious affiliation) during the Clinton impeachment hearings and then later during the Bush-Gore election controversy. It was popular for many of my Democrat colleagues during this time to express considerable disdain against Republicans. My one Republican colleague, whom I had known from a different setting, told me that he had made a conscious decision to not discuss his political beliefs with anyone at the university. He stated that he was afraid of the discrimination he would face if others knew of his political beliefs. I thought he was just being a bit melodramatic, if not paranoid, until I came across an interesting published perspective on the bias in academia against those who hold conservative political beliefs. This article made me think a bit more seriously about bias in the academcy. Check out the article entitled "Confessions of a Republican Academic" by Laura Freburg. Here is the link: http://www.frontpagemag.com/archives/academia/gopacad.htm It's a very interesting article. Controversially yours, Rod ______________________________________________ Roderick D. Hetzel, Ph.D. Department of Psychology LeTourneau University Post Office Box 7001 2100 South Mobberly Avenue Longview, Texas 75607-7001 Office: Heath-Hardwick Hall 115 Phone: 903-233-3312 Fax: 903-233-3246 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage: http://www.letu.edu/people/rodhetzel --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
