Reviews

Email from Gregg Davis, IT Professional
Thank you so much for making your personal story available to us. After years of hearing rumors about others who have faced intimidation and persecution for questioning the evolutionary dogma, that is currently entrenched within our education system, you have left no doubt, that the rumors are not rumors at all, but they are in fact, our new reality. With “Free to Think,” you take us right to the frontlines of this fight for one of our most basic American rights; the right to choose for ourselves what we believe and think about the world that we live in.

As a veteran, from a family of veterans (3rd generation), I am particularly outraged that the very people that we served to protect are now actively trying to take away the very rights for which we fought. If you are not free think and believe as you wish, then you are a slave. If, through their actions, a person limits or restricts the rights of others, then as far as I am concerned they have forfeited their right to be called an American. Who knew, that after all of this time that our enemy (those who actively seek to take away our freedoms) had already entrenched themselves in the very educational backbone of our country.

Thank you for sounding the alarm. Your book serves as a call to action, for those who want their children to be free to pursue an exciting life of learning and exploration of the world we live in. For those, like me, who wish to take action to restore the integrity of our scientific community, I recommend that you support the work of the AITSE in any way that you can.

From John Calvert, JD posted on Amazon:
Free to Think is a book everyone interested in science and freedom should read.
Science is the one enterprise that we should be able to trust.
It is an enterprise that holds itself out for its supposed open-mindedness and objectivity.
One is reminded of Sgt. Friday, the detective who's only interested in getting "just the facts, Ma'am."
We are told that all scientific explanations are developed using rigorous empirical tests based on data that is intersubjectively accessible to all. If one wants reliable explanations go to science.
Then we read Caroline Crocker's riveting story. The first thought that comes to mind is Galileo.
Galileo was a scientist who was excommunicated because he brought to light data, which contradicted a particular religious preconception of the universe. In response Francis Bacon wrote an essay in 1620 which urged the removal of biases and preconceptions from science so that it could seek knowledge with an open mind. His essay was the foundation for the scientific method and caused the eventual removal of theistic preconceptions from science.

Unfortunately, the removal of the theistic preconception has caused science to embrace a non-theistic one. The preconception is called methodological naturalism or scientific materialism. Its irrefutable dogma promotes a different kind of religion called Religious/"Secular" Humanism. It is the religion of Atheists, Freethinkers, Agnostics and a variety of other materialistic religious belief systems. It has moved science from an open-minded search for truth to an enterprise that promotes an Atheistic worldview.

So, like Galileo, Dr. Crocker, a brilliant and gifted microbiologist, was excommunicated for opening her mind to data inconsistent with the religious preconception that now infects the fabric of science.
It robs science of the objectivity it needs to enjoy the trust of its patrons.
Hopefully others will read about Dr. Crocker and be moved to do what Francis Bacon did. Seek to banish from science a preconception, which closes its mind as it addresses the ultimate questions of life.

From Darwin Researcher posted on Amazon:
Free to Think is about one politically incorrect professor's foray into the academic world. Dr. Crocker, a widely published scientist with numerous peer reviewed publications, goes into detail about both what she taught at George Mason University and how she taught it. In the end, the University did not like her challenging dogmatic fundamentalist Darwinism. What is really upsetting, documented by pages of photocopies of University documents, is how they ended her career. To be blunt, they unethically connived to censor her by very underhanded and unethical tactics, to say the least. To detail what they did here would cause one to lose credibility. You must read the original documents to comprehend what the University did to this excellent professor and how. Reading this book will make your blood boil and, if it doesn't, you need to take a good look at yourself. No one should be treated the way she was in America, the land known for its freedom to think. The book also documents the failure of the American "justice" system. The introduction by Ben Stein was also very helpful in understanding what happened to this bright scholar.

From Jeffrey Brown posted on Amazon:
Sometimes a little controversy helps. Dr. Caroline Crocker has set one rolling that probably will not stop with the publication of her book. Having studied Biology on the undergraduate level, I can only say that Dr. Crocker is one classy teacher: knows her field, is a proven scientist, and wants to reach for all she can to make her students learn. She does not just teach, she cares. Her help to students with heart-wrenching life stories has won her long term admiration and friendship. Any Ph.D. who is so successful at developing the uninitiated into competent scholars of the complexities of biology, is what most colleges and universities crave. It is unfortunate that George Mason University gave Dr. Crocker the boot. They lost one of their best professors. Caroline Crocker is obvioulsy a person who challenges others to think. That brought her to grief in the university (and she has since not been able to find another faculty position elsewhere). But don't expect her to stop now that she is outside of it.

"Free to Think" is the stimulating story of a highly motivated college prof, who ran into trouble through a little naivete. She raised questions about Darwinian evolution in some of her lectures. The university's loss is our gain. We get to see from the inside how sometimes the hallowed halls of the pursuit of ideas become machines of dogma. We also get to know what it is like to run afoul of one's superiors. We get treated to humor in tense situations: like meeting the Ebenezer Scrooge of the academic world in the grievance committee. He declares her cartoons are degrading for a university lecture. You will not find a bitter vent in this book. It presents instead, the fascinating story of being the center of controversy on campus. We get to learn how the lady thinks, and how almost irresistably she gets others to think as well. When you finish, you will probably say with me, "Keep at it, Dr. Crocker."

From Theodore Siek posted on Amazon:
"It ain't necessarily so, the things that you're liable to read in the Biology book, it ain't necessarily so." This is essentially the suggestion Dr. Crocker made to her class while lecturing in cell biology. For this minimal questioning of orthodox evolutionism, Crocker was dismissed from her faculty postion at George Mason University (GMU). What is so ironic about this academic despotism is that George Mason was an author of our US Constitutional Bill of Rights which includes the right to free speech. This reviewer has a Ph D in biochemistry and found the book exhibited Crocker's ability to teach cell biology at the graduate level.

From The Professor posted on Amazon:
Dr. Crocker first documents what she taught, how and when. She also goes into to some detail about her PhD work on phosphodiesterase. Then she details an excellent response to her critics, putting to rest some of the unscrupulous claims surrounding her unjust termination from George Mason University. Her critics have often claimed that Dr. Crocker's termination followed policy but Dr. Crocker documents that the situation was downright unethical. Dr. Crocker, who was featured in the movie Expelled, was an adjunct professor and signed a 3-year contract, a claim that others have verified. Dr. Crocker then became the victim of a bait-and-switch scheme in which her original signed contract was changed unbeknown to her to a one-year term shortly after being accused of teaching creationism (what they meant by creationism was never defined) in her science classes - a charge she steadfastly denies and no evidence exists to support. One of her former students has documented that a student Dr. Crocker caught cheating retaliated against her by making false accusations that culminated in the loss of her position as a professor. The appeals process, as documented by Dr. Crocker, rubber stamped the administration's documented false allegations and also denied her George Mason's own academic freedom policy. Readers are provided with complete documentation by photocopies of what happened as well as her response to the bogus findings of her grievance committee (all fully documented in Appendix IV). The main problem was Dr. Crocker challenged her students to think outside the box and come to their own conclusions based on the evidence, not just to parrot the usual consensus science views. This cost her her career. Dr. Crocker relates exactly how and what she taught so readers can decide if her approach was reasonable. Most readers will agree that she did nothing to warrant the treatment she received. The broader issue posed by Dr. Crocker is how far should society go in limiting the academic freedom allowed to educators who desire to stimulate the thinking of their students. And likewise, how much freedom should be given to students to question the current science consensus. Dr. Crocker's story reveals a very disturbing intolerance among university officials. Unfortunately, the policy against raising doubts about Darwinism at George Mason is all too common in academic institutions across America today as the book Slaughter of the Dissidents (available on Amazon ) documents. Even more alarming is what occurred afterward when she sought legal redress. According to both Crocker and her attorney Ed Sisson, who wrote a preface for this book, the law firm representing her was being considered by George Mason on another unrelated matter with one stipulation - they must first agree to drop Crocker as a client. The law firm agreed to do so, and soon after expelled Sisson from the firm after a successful 14-year career at Arnold & Porter law firm. Much more could be said about the academic freedom issue, but a goal of this book is merely to introduce the problem.