Cancelled Science: What Some Atheists Don’t Want You to Hear is the title to Dr. Eric Hedin’s new book documenting the Darwinian cancel culture. In 2013, Hedin was attacked by biologist Jerry Coyne and the Freedom From Religion Foundation for having the audacity to include some Intelligent Design materials as recommended reading in his honors seminary course entitled Boundaries of Science. The material was not creationist, and it was not even required reading, but the very whiff of a possibility of “divine intelligence” entering a university science classroom was enough to set Coyne and company into a censorship frenzy. They nonsensically accused Dr. Hedin of proselytizing and teaching Christianity based on “anonymous complaints found on RateMyProfessor.com, which has no verification for whether a reviewer actually took a professor’s courses or not.” This was in spite of the fact that Hedin’s actual students had no complaint. Typical was the following comment: “I’m an agnostic and I find absolutely nothing wrong with his teachings as far as intelligent and thought-provoking discussions go, it is one of the most INNOVATIVE classes I have had during my time at Ball State. There is nothing wrong with this class, and I would recommend it to anyone, no matter what their religious beliefs are.” Free Science reported, “Violating its own procedures, BSU appointed a special ad hoc committee stacked with hostile faculty to investigate Hedin. Despite receiving a petition signed by more than 7,000 people urging BSU to defend Hedin’s academic freedom, the university ultimately cancelled Hedin’s course” (“Investigated, Silenced, Course Canceled,” Free Science.today). Ball State acted against its own Faculty Personnel Handbook, which states, “Academic freedom and freedom of expression include but are not limited to the expression of ideas, philosophies, or religious beliefs, however controversial, in classroom or other academic settings.” Possibly because of widespread outcry against the cancelling of Hedin’s course, he kept his job and earned tenure in 2016. It is ridiculous that evolutionary atheists like Jerry Coyne care one way or the other about creationism and intelligent design. If they are right, nothing has any ultimate meaning. They are nothing going nowhere for no purpose to no end. That is their own professed philosophy, but they don’t live like they really believe it. Stories of a few other scientists who have been censored and blacklisted can be found here – https://freescience.today/stories/
(Friday Church News Notes, May 7, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)