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Jerry Coyne’s Blacklist of ID Scientists


Prominent evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne recently has made this remarkable assertion:

… adherence to ID (which, after all, claims to be a nonreligious theory) should be absolute grounds for not hiring a science professor.

Notwithstanding Coyne’s absolute assertion that scientists who “adhere” to ID are unemployable, Coyne actually claims that his professional exclusion of scientists who endorse ID is not anti-religious bigotry:

…I abhor discrimination against hiring simply because of someone’s religion…

Yet Coyne has called for the resignation of Dr. Francis Collins, an esteemed scientist who is the director of the National Institutes of Health and who is an opponent of ID. Coyne demands Collins’ resignation merely because Collins has publicly expressed his Christian views.
Coyne:

Collins gets away with this kind of stuff [i.e. speaking publicly about the compatibility between science and his belief in God] only because, in America, Christianity is a socially sanctioned superstition. He’s the chief government scientist, but he won’t stop conflating science and faith. He had his chance, and he blew it. He should step down.

What “chance” did Collins “blow”? Collins blew his chance to pass the atheist litmus test by keeping his mouth shut about his belief in God. Coyne’s religious discrimination is explicit and undeniable.
And Coyne goes further. He asserts that mere adherence to ID, whether held by a scientist with religious views or by a scientist with no religious views, absolutely precludes employment in science. Note that Coyne’s blacklist extends to all areas of science, not just to evolutionary biology or even to biology. Coynes’ blacklist would apply to oceanographers and chemists and meteorologists as well. Coyne proposes a blacklist of ID scientists from all employment in science.
So here’s my challenge to Dr. Coyne:
As of today, over 800 scientists have signed A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism. These scientists, all of whom hold PhD’s or MD’s (with an academic appointment), work at many universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Dartmouth, Rutgers, University of Chicago, Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton, MIT, among others. Many of the scientists are senior investigators (young untenured scientists take enormous risks by questioning Darwinism). The statement they sign is:

We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.

Not all of these scientists explicitly endorse ID, but clearly many do, and those that do would constitute “unemployable” scientists by Dr. Coyne’s standard.

Michael Egnor

Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics, State University of New York, Stony Brook
Michael R. Egnor, MD, is a Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at State University of New York, Stony Brook, has served as the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, and is an award-winning brain surgeon. He was named one of New York’s best doctors by the New York Magazine in 2005. He received his medical education at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his residency at Jackson Memorial Hospital. His research on hydrocephalus has been published in journals including Journal of Neurosurgery, Pediatrics, and Cerebrospinal Fluid Research. He is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Hydrocephalus Association in the United States and has lectured extensively throughout the United States and Europe.

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