"Dr."1 Charles McVety is President of Canada Christian College in Toronto.McVety is currently promoting the movie Expelled in Canada. He claims that it exposes the racism behind "Darwinism" as well as revealing how universities repress academic freedom by firing creationists.
I presume that Canada's Christian College is one of the last bastions of academic freedom where academics are allowed to say and think whatever they believe without fear of reprisal or dismissal. I assume this must be true because McVety feels so strongly about the importance of academic freedom. Evolutionists must be welcome at McVety's college.
The protection of academic freedom is probably behind this statement from the Canada Christian College website on college standards ...
Canada Christian College strives to maintain a distinctly Christian living and learning environment conducive to a rigorous study of God’s Word. Membership in Canada Christian College is obtained through application and invitation. Those who accept an invitation to join the College agree to uphold its standards of conduct. In return, they gain the privilege of enjoying the benefits of college membership and undertake to work for the best interests of the whole community (Phil. 2:4).In an effort to be much more respectful of creationists, no matter how stupid they might be, I will refrain from calling them names, like IDiot. This posting adheres to this new policy. I hope it pleases my atheist friends who favor accommodation.
Compliance with these standards is simply one aspect of a larger commitment by students, staff, and faculty to live as responsible citizens, to pursue biblical holiness, and to follow an ethic of mutual support, Christian love in relationships, and to serve the best interests of each other and the entire community. Individuals who are invited to become members of this community but cannot with integrity pledge to uphold the application of these standards are advised not to accept the invitation and to seek instead a living-learning situation more acceptable to them.
Larry MoranSurprising as it might seem, there are some people who don't like Charles McVety and his activities. A recent posting from Kady O'Malley on Macleans.ca blogs isn't all that complimentary [The opposite of YPF?]. (Macleans is a Canadian newsmagazine similar to Time and Newsweek.)
Perhaps he was inspired by the turnout for Young People Fucking, or maybe he misses all that media attention he got after taking credit for getting C-10 through the House with nary a peep over the controversial changes to the film tax rebate. Whatever the reason, Reverend Charles McVety is headed back to the capital to co-host a private screening of a very different kind of film: Expelled: The Movie, the controversial anti-Darwin documentary that purports to expose a sinister anti-creationism bias within the mainstream scientific community.McVety and his friend(s) are holding an anti-racism rally today at 12:30 outside the Darwin exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. You'd better get there early if you want to be at the front of the crowd where you can touch the great man. I assume traffic on Bloor Street will be tied up for hours.
Interestingly, in his come-one-come-all invite to the film - which was forwarded to all MPs and staffers via parliamentary email by Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott - McVety doesn’t even mention the religious aspect of the debate; instead, he accuses Darwin of “overt racism”, and calls on Canadians to “blot out out this terrible scourge in our society.”
Canadian Cynic might be there. (Warning! If you follow the link to Canadian Cynic you might be disappointed 'cause Canadian Cynic doesn't adhere to my new policy of accommodating accommodationists. Neither does PZ Myers who uses a rude word in referring to McVety and his somewhat misleading interpretation of Charles Darwin.
1. Here's a description of Charles McVety's degree Degree or Not Degree?.
Creationism is nonsense, of course, but the question of the state of inquiry and expression at our universities is interesting.
ReplyDeleteHow much freer are our universities than McVety's outfit?
Universities are bureaucracies that value control of inquiry and expression, particularly inquiry and expression concerning their own operations and decision-making processes.
Control is exercised internally by prior restraint and suppression; externally by propaganda campaigns (spin). In Canada this approach (strict internal censorship combined with aggressive propaganda) has succeeded in eliminating internal news reporting entirely and effectively suppressing and controlling external coverage. The media in Canada simply do not cover higher education on a day to day basis. (For comparison, see the large US daily newspapers and web sites such as insidehighered.com. In the US higher education, including the operations, spending, hiring practices and decisions of major universities, is covered on a daily basis).
"Academic freedom" is akin to Parliamentary privilege. It is a limited immunity. Not unimportant, of course, but not in itself sufficient grounds on which to base a claim of "free" inquiry or expression.
Hmmm, doesn't Expelled offend anyone in Canada? What you need is a good "block-free-speech-that-offends-me" law up there. (DOH!)
ReplyDelete(and Yoko: have your lawyers look into "fair use" under Canadian law)
Oh noes, no more expressive swear words!
ReplyDelete... I will have a hard time accommodate.
My favourite thing about Creationists is how they act like they are the minority and that they are being opressed. One look at the Canadian census will tell you that the majority of Canadian's are Christians and thus a good chuck of those are Creationists.
ReplyDeleteLooks like he's registered a website:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.charlesdarwin.ca
Under your new kinder, gentler policy, will you still refer to those Intelligent Design Creationists who creatively reinterpret facts as "liars" or will you say they are merely "telling whoppers," "stretching the truth," "ejaculating bullshit," or some other euphemism?
ReplyDeleteMark asks,
ReplyDeleteUnder your new kinder, gentler policy, will you still refer to those Intelligent Design Creationists who creatively reinterpret facts as "liars" or will you say they are merely "telling whoppers," "stretching the truth," "ejaculating bullshit," or some other euphemism?
Yes. :-)
Hi,One look at the Canadian census will tell you that the majority of Canadian's are Christians and thus a good chuck of those are Creationists.
ReplyDeleteCreationism has been around for 90 years in north america
ReplyDeletethe issue is most creationists use the same old arguments as truth
when these arguments have been disproved countless times.
I understand you want to provide a setting for cival discord however you must understand faith and facts do not provide this atmosphere. In my view of these so called debates between the creationists and scientific commuities are so polar their can not be a honest and truthfull discord.
In my opinion this effort is doomed from the start, why?
Creationists are so narrow of mind and pathological liars with faith
there can never be any cival discord