Paul and Wesley have already commented on evolutionary biologist David Barash at the University of Washington and his piece in the New York Times summarizing the regular talk ("The Talk") he gives to his students about how evolution disproves religion. Well, not absolutely disproves it but very close.

This is very helpful since I’ve asked before how it is that a scientist gets to evangelize for atheism at one public university while another at a different public university, Ball State physicist Eric Hedin, gets censured and silenced merely for apprising students of the existence of books offering scientific evidence for intelligent design.

Hedin is well liked by his students according to RateMyProfessors.com, and makes an interesting comparison to David Barash who gets complaints about how he is "definitely an atheist and has an agenda to push," "tries to throw dirt on those who believe in anything other than his ‘marvelous’ theories," has a "clear agenda to push, as he’s always rambling off topic about how biology proves that God doesn’t exist."

Barash even publishes his sermon notes in the New York Times so no one can miss what he’s doing in his classroom, and that is just fine as far as I can tell with the administration across town here in Seattle at the University of Washington.

It cannot be repeated too often that this is how the scientific "consensus" on Darwinism theory is maintained: one side in the controversy is coddled, the other intimidated. That’s true not least at state universities.

Image: Suzzallo Library, University of Washington; Curtis Cronn/Flickr.