Yes, but it’s not the big story:
[Herman] Bouma was to speak on “Darwin and Evolution: Using Historical Critiques and Responses to Address Student Misunderstanding.” Along with the title, he had provided to the NSTA a straightforward summary stating that his talk would address five of the critiques that Darwin received related to his theory of origins, and the responses that Darwin made to those critiques.
Bouma’s emphasis was on the civil dialogue that Darwin fostered in his writings, and the hope that educators today would strive for the same.
His presentation was scheduled for April 14 at 8:00 am. But the night before, something was wrong. Bouma could no longer find the talk on the conference app.
Sarah Chaffee, “National Science Teaching Association Censors Open Inquiry, Stonewalls When Questioned” at Evolution News and Science Today
You can pretty much guess most of the rest:
They told him to pack up. Meanwhile security guards joined the conference officials in turning people away at the door. The witness I spoke to confirmed this: “People were trying to come in and there were people outside the door — then a security guard said basically you need to leave. Herman said, ‘I don’t understand.’ He was told, ‘You have to leave this room.’ They literally were blocking the entrance to get into the room.” Imagine, the major U.S. science teachers group used security guards to stop a scheduled speaker from speaking and to hustle him out of the premises.
Sarah Chaffee, “National Science Teaching Association Censors Open Inquiry, Stonewalls When Questioned” at Evolution News and Science Today
They had apparently been informed that the talk was “faith-based” but don’t seem to have wanted to raise the matter with the speaker before acting in this way.
Now here’s the big question: How can the science teachers’ association be so out of touch as not to know that lots of people today are questioning Darwinism.
It’s understandable if they don’t want a “faith-based” approach. But, from what we see, Suzan Mazur, author of Darwin Overthrown: Hello Mechanobiology, should be invited to speak. She would probably give a great rundown on the various streams of non-Darwinian (and some explicitly contra-Darwinian) research that doesn’t address any faith issues.
Unless, of course, the faith issue is something like: I have faith that I do not need to believe and uphold nonsense in order to be an evolutionary biologist.
See also: Mathematicians challenge Darwinian evolution “Has Darwinism really failed? Peter Robinson discusses it with David Berlinski, Stephen Meyer, and David Gelernter, who have raised doubts about Darwin’s theory in their two books and essay, respectively The Deniable Darwin, Darwin’s Doubt, and “Giving Up Darwin” (published in the Claremont Review of Books). ” When this stuff is happening, Darwinism is on the outs culturally.