A month ago, if you had asked the average Canadian who Gary Goodyear is, she or he likely would have responded that Gary had something to do with car tires. Not so anymore. Gary Goodyear, a Conservative Member of Parliament for Cambridge and Minister of State for Science and Technology, has made the news recently for comments he made regarding evolution. Evidently, he was asked if he believed in evolution, and responded that he felt it was inappropriate for the reporter to question his beliefs as a Christian (I’m paraphrasing here). This story probably would have been nothing more than filler material in the Globe & Mail if Mr. Goodyear was a regular, run-of-the-mill MP, but because of his Cabinet position as Minister of State for Science and Technology, it raised a few eyebrows. Obviously the fear is that Mr. Goodyear may not be willing to designate funding for scientific research that is not in accordance with his Christian beliefs, and make no mistake, that is a legitimate fear to have. However, I have not yet seen evidence that would suggest that Mr. Goodyear has allocated funding based on his beliefs. If this was the case, he should be replaced immediately. In actuality, the Harper government has been underfunding all scientific disciplines, regardless of their research. But for the moment, I am willing to give Mr. Goodyear the benefit of the doubt. Do I agree with his beliefs? No. Do I think his attempt to state his belief in evolution was rather pathetic? Yes. But I don’t think his beliefs necessarily proclude him from performing his job.

Let’s be honest: the theory of evolution has been all but indisputably proven. The US National Academy of Science has said that “scientists most often use the word ‘fact’ to describe an observation. But scientists can also use fact to mean something that has been tested or observed so many times that there is no longer a compelling reason to keep testing or looking for examples. The occurrence of evolution in this sense is fact. Scientists no longer question whether descent with modification occurred because the evidence is so strong.” Now, the purpose of this article is not to weigh evolution vs. creationism, because the two are apples and oranges. One is a scientific theory, the other is a religious belief. What I am saying is that our elected officials are entitled to their own personal beliefs, as long as these beliefs do not affect their job performance. However, I am advocating caution when it comes time to elect our parliaments and legislatures. If an MP can still deny a scientific theory, despite the overwhelming evidence that supports it, then it certainly reflects poorly on his or her judgement, and poor judgement is not a quality we desire in our elected representatives.

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Tags: creationism, science, stephen harper, technology

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 7:49 am and is filed under Activism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.