” Unfathomably controversial and authoritarian”
Critical race theory and “identitarianism” are having concerning implications on the science, according to the mind of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.
In a phone interview with The College Fix next year, Robyn Blumner, the center’s president and CEO, and the Dawkins Foundation’s executive director, discussed her concerns with the transition away from merit-based scholarship and individualism.
The internationalist project is in good agreement with post-modernist viewpoints on race, cultural essentialism, and critical race theory, as well as the notion that we are our unchanging characteristics as we enter community, rather than the individualism that each of us brings to our humanity, Blumner said.
Her group consists of professors like Dawkins, a well-known agnostic evolutionary biologist and artist, as well as other scholars who support scientific research that is based on evidence and critical thinking that are free of all forms of religion and superstition.
The Dawkins Foundation, which is part of the Center for Inquiry, even advocates , against liberal Christian beliefs influencing research and education.
But just Blumner and others have become more outspoken about the issues with politically kept philosophy in disciplines, such as requiring variety, equity, and inclusion statements from professors.
In a recent article for The Skeptical Inquirer, Blumner claimed that “increasingly fanatical social justice/identitarian factors are leaching into research in a way that is preventing progress in the field.”
She cited a situation in New Zealand’s public school system where Mtauranga Mori, a standard indigenous belief system, is taught as “equivalent to American knowledge.” She compared it to the United States ‘ training religion rather than creation, which conjured up religious convictions with scientific fact.
According to Blumner, a journalist and attorney who previously worked for the American Civil Liberties Union, she describes herself as a” traditional liberal” but acknowledges the section that some on the political departed are causing in the sciences.
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She referenced examples like” reference fairness” in which scholars are encouraged to identify people of color, women, and others in their study, placing personality and competition above merit. Some scientific journals even demand that research papers be computer-scanned to prevent citation bias.
” Once again, identity is deemed a value higher than pure merit — the proper yardstick for when a citation is warranted”, Blumner wrote in her article.
Some universities require faculty applicants to submit “diversity, equity, and inclusion” statements, including , the University of California at Berkeley.
Additionally, some science grant programs emphasize DEI in order to receive funding.
” It’s extremely dangerous. And that’s why I wrote the piece, I think, and put science back on its heels. It will get in the way of progress. It will. It will divert us from bettering human outcomes”, Blumner told The Fix. ” And it’s incredibly divisive and illiberal. because it will make people fight off against one another in very destructive ways.
She is not alone in her concerns.
Pamela Paul, a columnist for the New York Times, wrote last year about the rise of subjectivity in research in response to the paper‘s rejection of” In Defense of Merit in Science” from The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
” One need n’t agree with every aspect of the authors ‘ politics or with all of their solutions. However, it would be wrong to ignore or reject their research rather than to impartially evaluate the evidence, Paul wrote. ” We need, in other words, to judge the paper on the merits. That, after all, is how science works”.
In contrast, renowned scientists like Dawkins have been accused of using scientific data that disproved leftist ideology.
Last August, the former Oxford University professor was accused of” transphobia” and “violent speech” for stating that” sex is binary”, The Fix reported at the time. Dawkins said it is “wrong” to claim “lived experience and personal choice trump biology”, and transgender activists are “tyrannical”.
Sex is undoubtedly binary, so to say otherwise is a denial of reality. # Gender# Science# PoetryOfReality pic twitter.com/PHap1TQlaA
— Richard Dawkins ( @RichardDawkins ) July 31, 2023
While Blumner is concerned about ideology infiltrating science from the left and right, she claimed that society has advanced in other ways, including the removal of “barriers to entry” and the welcoming of a “vast diversity” of scientists.
She recalled Martin Luther King Jr.’s statement about embracing skin color as a qualification factor and expressed her hope that others will celebrate the equality they have witnessed grow throughout their lives.
According to Blumner,” we have gone from the notion that some kinds of people who look a certain way do n’t have a place in the sciences, to it’s still a literal celebration of the vast diversity of people who are now putting on a lab coat.” It’s difficult to say in general what a scientist looks like to us now. It looks like everyone”.
” I celebrate that. I do n’t blame society for this’ lack of progress,'” she said. ” It’s a happy occasion to get here.”
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IMAGE: Center for Inquiry
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