Gary Goodyear won't say whether he believes in evolution
ANNE MCILROYFrom Tuesday's Globe and Mail
March 17, 2009 at 2:00 AM EDT
Canada's science minister, the man at the centre of the controversy over federal funding cuts to researchers, won't say if he believes in evolution.
“I'm not going to answer that question. I am a Christian, and I don't think anybody asking a question about my religion is appropriate,” Gary Goodyear, the federal Minister of State for Science and Technology, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.
A funding crunch, exacerbated by cuts in the January budget, has left many senior researchers across the county scrambling to find the money to continue their experiments.
Some have expressed concern that Mr. Goodyear, a chiropractor from Cambridge, Ont., is suspicious of science, perhaps because he is a creationist.
Read it here.
Goodyear is Canada’s “science minister”? Given his “religious view” of the creation of life, isn’t that a bit akin to electing an atheist as Pope?
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Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!!
That is a pathetic screed from the National Post.
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Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!!
I think this guy's feet need to be held to the fire. Certainly he's under no obligation to tell us what he thinks about various omnipotent ghosts, but he should be able to say "I believe in Evolution" out loud.
For added fun, I'd love someone to remind him that God is listening. Somehow the really committed religious types treat that like a lie detector. Remind him that God is listening and he's liable to blurt out "NO! God made us 6000 years ago. Thank you Oh Lord of everlasting mercy!" Denying your faith is bad mojo, even if it's just in the interest of shutting people up.
This is diversionary. A Science Minister doesn't have to "believe in" anything, whether science or religion. His beliefs are his own business. If he said he didn't "believe in" quantum mechanics, I wouldn't care.
This scumbag, however, is de-funding legitimate scientific research and commercializing it. For that, he should burn in the hell of his free choosing. That's what should not get lost in this scandal.
Gee, I hate to quote myself, but guess what? Mr. Goodyear just announced that I was right:
Goodyear says he does believe in evolution after all
That was easy, wasn't it? Now he and Harper can continue to fuck scientists and scientific research.
People shouldn't get sucked in by secondary issues, while guns are being pointed at their heads.
Naci_Sey, I appreciate your post, but it doesn't matter what he believes in. I don't know whether Paul Martin really "believed" in equal marriage or not, but it was his job to introduce and pass the legislation, even in the face of Catholic bishops threatening him with hell. It's a total diversion. We should demand elected representatives who do the right thing. We should not ask what they "believe". You know why? Because the skillful ones will lie.
Colby Cosh By Gosh disagrees with J. Kay.
Goodyear says he now believes in evolution. And if you can figure out what on earth he is trying to say here, then I'll tip my hat to you:
What a word salad. Enough to make Sarah Palin cringe.
I for one thing that believing in God is anti-scientific and every bit as ridiculous as believing in creationism.
Why are people so upset about Goodyear possibly not believing in evolution when probably 95% of all MPs believe all various other ludicrous anti-scientific stuff like the idea that there is a God or that some woman named Mary supposedly got knocked up 2,000 years ago without having been fucked first - which any scientist knows is IMPOSSIBLE.
So why are all these people going berserk over Gary Goodyear when no one cared in the past when we probably had a Catholic as minister of science and technology who almost certainly believed in things that are every bit as ludicrous as creationism - if not more so.
You can call it contrarian if you want. I think its a legitimate question. Why do we turn a blind eye to all the ludicrous stuff that "theists" invariably believe - and then freak out about whether or not someone believe in evolution.
Unionist is right - the issue is whether programs are being funded and what actual government policy is. Would people feel any better if Goodyear was an atheist libertarian who believed in evolution thought that government should spend NOTHING on scientific research? Apparently, Paul Martin went to Mass every single Sunday - why didn't he ever get asked about whether he believed in the immaculate conception?
No, I think Stockholm is right. Would you want a Science Minister who swears that he believes in all the latest science, but slashes research funding and ties what's left to commercial partnerships?
Conversely, what about an atheist prime minister who swears that he personally supports equal marriage, but refuses to legalize it to please his so-con constituents?
Or, how about two Catholic prime ministers in a row who face down screaming wacko bishops and hellfire, and legalize equal marriage? Do we really care what their personal beliefs are? I don't. I judge by deeds.
As I said before, what the Science Minister believes in (or what he says he believes in) is irrelevant. What matters is how much damage he does to the scientific community. And that's what is getting lost in the media scandal over this issue.
ETA: Oh my God, Stock and I crossposted, and each of us said the other was right. I'm going to go get baptized or something.
This is what is wrong with party politics. Who cares what the policy is, let's just exploit gaffes for pollster points. I wrote a letter to MP Michael Ignatieff (among others) over a month ago protesting the proposed ideological targetting of SSHRC, the arms-length funding body that funds research in the humanities and social sciences. The latest Conservative budget wants to give money only to 'business-related degrees'. In the humanities. I guess that means English literature doctorate students better bone up on Ayn Rand.
Anyway, I got a response from Iggy--Rhodes Scholar, ex-Harvard prof--thanking me for my concern about scientific research and assuring me that the Liberal party would do its utmost to protect science research and scientists in Canada. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for scientific research. But all this showed was that the LPC didn't give a fin for research, they just wanted to direct the tide of popular comic relief that issued from this idiot who won't admit in evolution. Would I have got a response at all if Iggy's cohort didn't think they could turn a buck from it? Don't answer that...
Gary Goodyear belongs in a side show. Because that's what he's putting over.
Because it is not the same question. No asked the Science Minsiter if he believes in the holy trinity, he was asked his position on evolution - a scientific theory. Would you want to know if he believed the world was flat? What if believes the earth orbits the sun?
It does matter becuase he is the Science Minister just as much as it matters that a one-time and failed environment minister never bothered to read the science on climate change.
Unionist makes the valid complaint that the science minister is slashing and privatizing science programs and I would counter that a science minister who recognized and supported the importance of science would not take such reckless steps. Only a science minister with a complete disrespect and lack of knowledge of the value of his/her portfolio would be so stupid. Yes, stupid.