Caroline Crocker

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Caroline Crocker (b 1958) is an American immunopharmacologist and intelligent design advocate. She claims that her contract as a part-time faculty member at George Mason University was not renewed because she taught creationist claims about evolution and promoted intelligent design in a biology class, though the university says they let her go for reasons unrelated to her views on intelligent design. Her case has been presented in a Discovery Institute intelligent design campaign as evidence of "persecution",^[1] and features in the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.^[2]

1 Education and work
2 George Mason University
3 Northern Virginia Community College
4 Intelligent design advocacy
5 See also
6 References

[edit] Education and work

Crocker received an Associate of arts from Des Moines Area Community College, a B.Sc. in microbiology and virology from Warwick University, U.K. in 1979, an M.Sc. in medical microbiology from Birmingham University, U.K in 1993, and a PhD in immunopharmacology from the University of Southampton, U.K. in 1999.^[3]^[4] She is a member of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia,^[5] where her husband is associate rector. In 2005 her son was at school in England.^[6]

[edit] George Mason University

Crocker had a position as a part-time faculty member of George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. In April 2005 she alleges that she had been barred by her department from teaching evolution and intelligent design after she mentioned intelligent design while teaching her second-year cell biology course. The dean of the College of Arts and Sciences stated that the university did not have a policy or a rule on whether certain topics should be discussed, but questioned whether a concept with theological underpinnings belonged in a science course. He added "I'm a Buddhist, but I don't think we should teach reincarnation in biology classes."^[4]

Her lecture which raised concerns included statements that macroevolution was not established as "No one has ever seen a dog turn into a cat in a laboratory", that many scientists believe that complex life reveals the hand of an intelligent designer, that experiments that she said were supposed to prove evolution, including the Miller-Urey experiment and peppered moth evolution, had been found to be false. She said that "The problem with evolution is that it is all supposition – this evolved into this – but there is no evidence", and that anti-Semitism, eugenics and death camps in Nazi Germany had been based on Darwin's ideas and on science.^[6] The biologist and critic of creationism PZ Myers described this as educational malpractice and a lack of basic scientific competence.^[7] If a dog turned into a cat, that would contradict evolution theory,^[8] and her erroneous claims about experiments appeared to come from a list by intelligent design proponent Jonathan Wells, based on his book Icons of Evolution, which had been refuted by the National Center for Science Education in 2001.^[9] Myers described her claims about anti-semitism and Nazis as contemptible, noting that Hitler claimed to have been motivated by religious views such as those of Martin Luther and not scientific ideas; indeed, racist ideas long predated Darwin.^[7]^[10]

Later in 2005, her contract as a part-time faculty member at the university was not renewed. A university spokesman said this was for reasons unrelated to her views on intelligent design, and that though they wholeheartedly supported academic freedom, "teachers also have a responsibility to stick to subjects they were hired to teach, and intelligent design belonged in a religion class, not biology."^[6]

[edit] Northern Virginia Community College

At the same time Crocker taught at GMU, she was also an adjunct professor at Northern Virginia Community College(NVCC).^[11] On November 2, 2005, repeated the lecture she claims got her fired from the university. She said "I lost my job at George Mason University for teaching the problems with evolution. Lots of scientists question evolution, but they would lose their jobs if they spoke out." Crocker had described the lecture beforehand as teaching "the strengths and weaknesses of evolution", and when asked afterwards if she would be discussing the evidence for evolution in another class, said that she would not as "There really is not a lot of evidence for evolution" and she was trying to balance other pro-evolution accounts. National Center for Science Education research affiliate Alan Gishlick has described Crocker's arguments as part of a familiar litany of half-truths and errors.^[6]

Subsequently, her contract at NVCC was not renewed.^[11] She currently no longer teaches, but works for a research firm.^[12]

[edit] Intelligent design advocacy

Crocker has become the Executive Director of the Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Center.^[3] She appeared in a Coral Ridge Ministries video entitled The Intelligent Design Controversy in Higher Education^[13] and in the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The claims she made in the Coral Ridge video about transitional fossils (and specifically Archaeopteryx and the evolution of the horse) were criticised by biologist and critic of creationism PZ Myers as being factually incorrect and repetitions of well-documented creationist falsehoods.^[14]