In a Nutshell

It seems that the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History violated the civil and constitutional rights of Dr. Richard Sternberg, in 2004.

Burke and Small have allowed NMNH officials to demote Dr. Sternberg to the position of Research Collaborator, despite past assurances from Burke that Dr. Sternberg was a “Research Associate in good standing” and would be given “full and fair consideration” for his request to renew his Research Associateship. The failure of Small and Burke to take any action against such discrimination raises serious questions about the Smithsonian’s willingness to protect the free speech and civil rights of scientists who may hold dissenting views on topics such as biological evolution.

This relates to a scientific article that Sternberg allowed to be published in a journal of which he was the editor. That article was friendly to the possibility that life on earth may have originated through some kind of intelligent design. It seems that this is hardly an isolated case, only existing at the Smithsonian. Across the United States, there is often great pressure to suppress any opinions that are friendly to the possibility of the existence of God. More than that, what is also attacked is any reference to the possibility that any intelligence may have been involved in the origin of life on earth.

Also about the Smithsonian:

Smithsonian Attacks Ropen “Myth”

This relates to reports that a flying creature in Papua New Guinea, called “ropen,” may be a living pterosaur. The writer with the Smithsonian, Brian Switek, in a blog post with that institution, severely criticized the opinion that there may be a living pterosaur.

Switek gives no evidence against any of this, apparently only mentioning the religious nature of Woetzel’s beliefs, as if that were enough to dismiss his ideas about living pterosaurs. I suspect Switek has never thought about Isaac Newton’s relationship to this, for Newton had religious beliefs similar to those of Woetzel.