Gary BADyear!

Aren’t I clever? See the pun above? The guy’s name is Gary Goodyear and I…well, you see what I did there.

Gary Goodyear, who is Canada’s Minister of Science and Technology, is a chiropractor by training, doesn’t seem to understand evolution and is not able to provide an explanation or valid example of it, and is probably a creationist.

Here’s what he had to say when asked if he believes in evolution: “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.”

This is our SCIENCE minister!

The fact that he equates a question about evolution with a question about his Christian beliefs is evidence enough that he is a creationist. If he were a true scientist he would know that a question about evolution is a question about science, not religion.

He also said, “My view isn’t important. My personal beliefs are not important.” Argh. This is not about personal beliefs; it’s about scientific fact. Clearly he thinks that evolution is a personal belief. Maybe he thinks gravity is a personal belief, too. How about the fact that the earth is round? Is that a personal belief? Or that the earth goes around the sun? Germ theory?

He is our SCIENCE minister!

After refusing to the answer the question for a few days, he finally did on CTV by saying that he does believe in evolution. Goodyear then proceeded to provide the following laughable examples of his “evolution”. Anyone who knows anything at all about evolution should get a huge kick out of this (or a sharp sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach):

“We are evolving every year, every decade…. Whether it is to the intensity of the sun, whether it is to, as a chiropractor, walking on cement versus anything else, whether it is running shoes or high heels–of course we are evolving to our environment.”

This has caused many scientists to speak out. One of them, Brian Hall from Dalhousie University, was quoted in the Globe and Mail saying, “This is not evolution. The minister is confusing evolution with lifestyle adaptation.”

Evolution is small genetic adaptations passed from one generation to the next, causing big changes over hundreds, thousands, millions of years. As Brian Hall pointed out, the minister’s examples would be real examples of evolution if humans had adapted sun-resistant skin or extra padding on our feet to make them resistant to concrete. We have not.

Kudos to the media and the scientific community for being relentless on this one. They have continued to probe Goodyear, asking him to clarify his “explanation” of evolution. Guess what? He refused.

Now can we do something to get him fired?

What the hell is happening to my country?!?!?

(Here’s a great article about this on the CBC web site.)