Letters, nails and vehicular sabotage haven't kept two UF biology professors from expressing their belief in evolution.
In a string of events occurring over the past four months, the professors' cars, which were parked in the Bartram-Carr Hall parking lot, were vandalized.
First, religious letters were left on the cars, and then pro-evolution bumper stickers and Darwin-fish emblems were scraped and torn from the vehicles. Most recently, nails were put into the tires.
One of the victims, Brian McNab, said he noticed a problem with his white Volkswagen when air continued to come out of the tires even after he had re-inflated them.
McNab took the car in for an inspection, and two two-inch nails were found and determined as the cause of the flat tires.
"I can't prove who did it and I don't want to jump to any conclusions," McNab said. "But I think it's obvious that it's someone who has a strong opposition to evolution."
The creationism movement, he said, has always stemmed controversy with evolution, and believers of the ideology assert that all humans were made as a part of "intelligent design" by a deity.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but where do you draw the line?" McNab said. "I think they ought to learn something about science."
The other victim, Betty Smocovitis, said in an email she is disappointed at what she called the small-minded nastiness of the individual, and she would continue to replace the Darwin fish on her car.
University Police spokesman Maj. Brad Barber said no reports have been filed for the incidents, but professors have been encouraged to contact UPD if any another incident occurs.
The perpetrators are still at large.
