‘Feelings don’t create reality,’ scientist says
Three well-known atheist scholars have quit leadership positions at the Freedom From Religion Foundation after it censored an essay that defined the word “woman” and described human sex as “binary.”
Jerry Coyne, (pictured) a professor emeritus of ecology at the University of Chicago, resigned as an honorary board member Saturday. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and Harvard University Professor Steven Pinker did the same a short time later, the Western Standard reports.
At issue was an essay Coyne wrote, “Biology is not bigotry,” which the foundation published on its website Dec. 26 and then removed a day later.
He wrote it in response to another piece, “What is a Woman” by Kat Grant, published in November. Grant, a fellow at the Freedom From Religion Foundation, concluded, “A woman is whoever she says she is.”
However, Coyne’s essay, which Reality’s Last Stand republished, states that human beings cannot change their sex, and those who make that argument are trying to “force ideology onto nature.”
Coyne also defines the word “woman,” writing, “In biology, then, a woman can be simply defined in four words: ‘An adult human female.’”
“Because some nonbinary people — or men who identify as women (‘transwomen’) — feel that their identity is not adequately recognized by biology, they choose to impose ideology onto biology and concoct a new definition of ‘woman,’” his essay states.
He also states that “sex is binary,” and “feelings don’t create reality.”
The essay quickly received strong backlash from LGBTQIA+ readers, according to the Western Standard.
A day later, foundation leaders removed it from the website, calling its publication a “mistake.”
“Despite our best efforts to champion reason and equality, mistakes can happen, and this incident is a reminder of the importance of constant reflection and growth,” co-presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor said in a statement.
“Publishing this post was an error of judgement, 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 stated.
On Saturday, Coyne announced his resignation from the foundation’s board on his personal blog, “Why evolution is true.”
“That is a censorious behavior I cannot abide,” he wrote, adding the leaders have caved into “gender extremism.”
Professors Pinker and Dawkins also submitted their resignations to the Freedom From Religion Foundation over the weekend.
“With this action, the Foundation is no longer a defender of freedom from religion but the imposer of a new religion, complete with dogma, blasphemy, and heretics,” Pinker wrote in a letter republished on Coyne’s blog.
Dawkins also wrote a resignation letter to the foundation’s leaders, describing their censorship decision as “unseemly panic” in response to “hysterical squeals from predictable quarters.”
The former Oxford University professor also has been accused of “transphobia” in the past for defending sex as binary.
MORE: Famed atheist Richard Dawkins accused of ‘violent speech’ for saying ‘sex is binary’
IMAGE: Humanists UK/YouTube
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