Creationists in... Canada?

Posted by : Rev. Ouabache | Tuesday, March 17, 2009 | Published in

Canada has a reputation for being fairly immune to the fundamentalist nonsense that tends to plague us south of their border. It looks like a particular fundie managed to slip through the crack and made it all the way to the top. Federal Minister of State for Science and Technology Gary Goodyear recently has been saying some very odd things to the press lately. When asked if he believes in the theory of evolution, Goodyear said:

“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."

That should throw up caution flags for just about anyone. He was asked a valid science question and gave a religious response. I know of only one group of people who do that and they don't tend to like "materialism", as they call it. It doesn't help that he was a chiropractor by trade, a profession that had a very dubious history. When asked to clarify his position, he started doing the denialism tango:
“I do believe that just because you can't see it under a microscope doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It could mean we don't have a powerful enough microscope yet. So I'm not fussy on this business that we already know everything. … I think we need to recognize that we don't know.”
Whatever that means... There are already major scientists ready to descend from their "ivory towers" and rip Goodyear apart. He hasn't helped his case by slashing through the science research budget recently. Here's hoping that the Canadian branch of the Reality-Based community will win this battle.

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