Richard Dawkins leaves atheist foundation after it unpublishes article saying gender based on ...

British outlet The Telegraph reported that the Freedom From Religion Foundation pulled the article "Biology is not Bigotry" from its site following backlash from pro-trans individuals. In turn, Dawkins resigned.

In his resignation letter to the foundation, Dawkins called the removal of the piece "an act of unseemly panic" and accused the foundation of having "caved in to hysterical squeals from predictable quarters and retrospectively censored that excellent rebuttal."

Biologist and fellow FFRF member Jerry Coyne composed the "censored" article as a rebuttal to non-binary author and FFRF fellow Kat Grant’s November article titled, "What is a Woman?"

The biologist’s piece argued that "any attempt to define womanhood on biological terms is inadequate."

Coyne’s follow-up challenged Grant’s point directly, arguing "the biological definition of ‘woman’" is based on gamete type.

Shortly after FFRF published Coyne’s piece, board co-presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor unpublished it and released a statement explaining their decision.

"Publishing this post was an error of judgment, and we have decided to remove it as it does not reflect our values and principles. We regret any distress caused by this post and are committed to ensuring it doesn’t happen again," they wrote.

Following the move, both Coyne and US-Canadian psychologist Prof. Steven Pinker resigned from the foundation. Pinker blasted the group, saying it’s "no longer a defender of freedom from religion but the imposer of a new religion, complete with dogma, blasphemy, and heretics."

In an email to FFRF leadership, Coyne wrote, "That is a censorious behavior I cannot abide. I was simply promoting a biological rather than a psychological definition of sex, and I do not understand why you would consider that ‘distressing’ and also an attempt to hurt LGBTQIA+ people, which I would never do."

He added, "The gender ideology which caused you to take down my article is itself quasi-religious, having many aspects of religions and cults, including dogma, blasphemy, belief in what is palpably untrue (‘a woman is whoever she says she is’), apostasy, and a tendency to ignore science when it contradicts a preferred ideology."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/richard-dawkins-leaves-atheist-foundation-185849168.html