Can Florida College be both Academic and Faithful to God's Word?

We can be both faithful to God’s word and academic. “Academic” is related to “academy,” a school. “Academics” basically relates to the functions of a school. It has developed connotations relative to formal education, and can sometimes indicate that which is not practical, but theoretical. As in many words, there are various shades of meaning. The faulty dilemma has been posed: either academic or faithful to God’s word. The fallacy of this reasoning stems from the way the term “academic” is being used. Here’s the way one spoke of academic freedom: “Those who endorse academic freedom insist on the right of every position on any issue to have equal weight.” The contrast is then made with those who only endorse “the faith,” the inspired word of God; and those who believe in God’s word cannot endorse “academic freedom.” In this, the word “academic” is vague, and it leads to the faulty dilemma.

            Where does this idea of academic freedom come from? Who says that academic freedom means equal weight to every position? I can tell you it is not the norm at Florida College. Even in the grad school of a secular university, I was never told that, to be an academic, I had to give equal weight to every position. In fact, in my papers, I argued very strongly for particular positions, while critiquing other positions. And this was never a problem, even when professors didn’t agree with my conclusions. They never accused me of not being academic. What was important was that other positions are acknowledged and represented properly, that one show an awareness of what has been said and what the more recent ideas about it were. That’s only an issue of fairness. But it is certainly “academic” to take a position. Even the most “academic” of the secular universities take positions without giving equal weight to all others.

            This faulty dilemma is also a straw man fallacy. It sets up the idea of “academic freedom” in a way that few would accept, then knocks it down as being opposed to God’s word. The concept of academic freedom is misrepresented by the argument, and the dilemma becomes nothing more than a way to cloud the issues and prejudice minds.  

            I believe that the Bible is God’s inspired word, and I will fight tooth and nail for it. I also believe in academic freedom. But, as in civil freedoms, academic freedom must be tied to responsibility. Academic freedom does not mean the right to teach anything and everything; nor is it to be equated with absolute free speech (who really believes in absolute free speech? Everyone has limits.). It is not to be divorced from ethical behavior and the pursuit of truth.  It doesn’t mean equal weight to every position (I doubt seriously that one can find a serious academic professional who actually thinks such). It involves responsibly setting forth positions, and includes the ability and even responsibility to criticize other views and draw conclusions. That has been the case in most courses I have taken. In my own classes, I certainly draw and teach conclusions that I believe are based upon Scripture. But I don’t believe that means I do not have academic freedom. I just believe that my academic freedom is to be pursued within the bounds of honesty and responsibility; “academic freedom” without responsibility is not truly academic. The dilemma is faulty because it is based on a bad definition and does not properly represent the issue. Why would someone try to couch it in those terms?

-- Doy Moyer