The image of the proverbial canary in the coal mine keeps recurring to me. Proponents of intelligent design were silenced in academia and evolutionists either yawned or applauded — until the cancel culture came for others, and some scientific atheists suddenly discovered their voice and objected. Too bad that, as respected figures in the university world, they didn’t think of it earlier.

Jews are another canary. The anti-Semitism that flooded college campuses and city streets after October 7 was guaranteed to spread in its impact beyond Jews alone. As one example, last Saturday here in Seattle countless drivers were endangered when pro-Hamas activists blocked an interstate highway for hours, a terrorist act in itself that civil authorities (the mayor, the governor) decided to indulge. No arrests were made. Among the cars trapped on I-5 in downtown Seattle, there was an ambulance. It’s a wonder nobody died.

Sometimes the two “canaries” merge. A group called Canary Mission

documents individuals and organizations that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses and beyond. Canary Mission investigates hatred across the entire political spectrum, including the far right, far left and anti-Israel activists.

Good for them. The other day they shined a light on a vile character with a vast following on YouTube, who has come up in our reporting at Evolution News before: Dave Farina, aka Professor Dave.

A Fake Professor

Farina, not a real professor nor a PhD, has a popular “science education” YouTube channel, Professor Dave Explains, that many science students make use of. Among his offering are videos that grotesquely and dishonestly caricature proponents of intelligent design. I noticed after October 7 that on X, or Twitter, he was also pumping out horrific anti-Semitic tropes. Canary Mission noticed this too and has now documented Farina’s offenses at length. They tweeted about it:

Dave Farina, a science educator on YouTube with 2.8 million followers, says, “Most of what you’re hearing about Hamas is fabricated” & “I know that Israel is lying literally always…fabricating ‘beheaded babies’ and rape and countless other things….”

The much longer and carefully documented version begins:

Dave Farina is a science educator and YouTuber who spreads hatred of Israel and denied Hamas terrorist war crimes against Israeli civilians.

Farina tweeted his remarks in late 2023 and early 2024 following a series of Hamas terror atrocities against Israelis, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings. Hamas executed the attackson October 7, 2023. Over 1,200 Israelis were murdered, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians through mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has also kidnapped children, families and the elderly and held them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 2] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. 

Hatred of Israel during Its War against Hamas

On October 8, 2023, one day after the unprecedented massacre of Israeli Jews by Hamas terrorists, Farina tweeted: “If you feel the need to tweet about one innocent dead woman in a truck but have never tweeted about the thousands of innocent Palestinians who are brutally murdered on a daily basis under an illegal military occupation, you are part of the problem.”

The “one innocent dead woman in a truck” Farina was referring to was Shani Louk, a 23-year-old Israeli civilian kidnapped and murdered by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Her body was paraded through the streets of Gaza in a pickup truck and spit upon by Gazans. She was later beheaded.

It goes on from there. The idea that Jews, alone among indigenous peoples around the world have no right to their historic land, and no right to defend themselves from attacks on it, is at once anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. No less than Martin Luther King Jr. recognized that decades ago.

Debating the Origin of Life

Farina is far more than a marginal figure. As geologist Casey Luskin noted here this morning, he’s also played a role in an emerging and important discussion about biological origins. Chemist James Tour debated him at Rice University and that led to a far more prominent debate on the origin of life (OOL), this one at Harvard, between Dr. Tour and leading OOL researcher Lee Cronin. In both events, Tour had the science on his side while his opponents, in different ways, focused on criticizing Tour personally.

We will see where all this leads. At least we can observe, in Professor Tour’s new prominence in exposing the scam of OOL research, that “Professor Dave” has done one thing that’s good.