Blacklist of Intelligent Design Scientists

Jerry Coyne's Blacklist of ID [Intelligent Design] Scientists [Excerpts]

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.

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2011/03/jerry_coynes_blacklist045041.html