Our Science Minister’s Maladaptive Behaviour
Just got back from the a delicious Breakfast War with Brittney, Adam, Kendrick and a newcomer – Chris LaBossiere, who was quite nice and fun to talk to, even if he did decide to stay neutral in our morning warfare.
Good times had by all. But, unfortunately, there was a dark cloud out in the horizon. It came in the form of this article in the Globe and Mail:
“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.”
Oh my.
Canada’s man in charge of public funding for scientific research won’t say if he believes in one of the most important theories of the modern age. Well, I’m sure he has a rational explanation for his…oh no, wait. Here it is.
“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.
There seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding here, Mr. Goodyear. When someone asks you: “Hey, evolution, yay or nay?” they are not asking you about your religious beliefs. They are asking you about your scientific ones. And seeing as you are the top guy when it comes to science and technology in our government, it’s it absolutely appropriate. It’s like asking Peter McKay if he believes in the battlefield usefulness of our shiny new helicopters, or is Bev Oda believes in the effectiveness of international trust exercises. (I have to assume that’s what takes up most of the time for the Minister for International Cooperation.)
The only thing that is inappropriate, Mr. Goodyear, is that you refuse to answer a simple question that directly speaks to your ability to do this important job that we’re paying you to do.
I really don’t care in your religious beliefs. Honestly, I’m not asking that we have an atheist as the Minister of Science and Tech. (Hell, atheism is as unscientific an approach as blind faith, in my books.)
All I want is for the guy holding the purse strings to actually believe in something that the overwhelming scientific community treats as fact. If you can’t do that, you’re not the right person for the job.
Instead, you hide behind religion, acting as if a belief in the scientific method and belief in a higher power are mutually-exclusive. Your faith doesn’t exempt you from having to be qualified for your job. Shame on you.
I was starting to be a little optimistic after the news that perhaps you were getting on track with this whole science thing, especially after your previous missteps. Perhaps I jumped the gun on that.
Update: Ross Prusakowski (@rprus) is a fellow who I don’t often agree with but always enjoy debating with. He brings a fair point to the table: there is no evidence that Goodyear’s beliefs have any impact on the funding choices he makes as minister. That’s true, we can’t say for sure that they have.
But even he is able to keep his personal ideas and his professional conduct completely compartmentalized in a way most people could only dream of, that only leaves us with only one adds another grim option: that Goodyear is allocating funding to research that he has does not think is without merit. If he doesn’t believe in evolution, and yet is still funding it, that’s also a problem. It means that he’s not governing based on good science, or even personal ideology – what else is there but a desire to prevent public outcry. And that’s a bad way of doing things.
So, even if you’re right Ross, I still think that means Goodyear is the wrong selection.
Update II: Wordpress seems to want to eat up all of my line breaks, making me re-enter the HTML every time I edit. Going to try and fix that – if anyone has had this problem before and knows how to fix it, let me know.
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