Well, in venues where evolution is a sort of religion, this had to happen:
Dr. Stephen Kershnar, a SUNY Fredonia professor, has been suspended after an investigation into video of Kershnar asserting that opposition to pedophilia is “a mistake” and that there are “evolutionary advantages to child/adult sex.” Kershnar teaches libertarian philosophy (no surprise) and applied ethics (you’ve got to be kidding me). His comments provoked a massive backlash from students that contributed to his suspension.
Kerhsnar actually believes that sexual relationships between children an adults can be a good thing…
It is difficult to exaggerate the vileness of Kershnar’s remarks. “[Attraction to minors is] fairly widespread among young men, particularly young men in our society,” Kershnar stated. There could, he averred, be “evolutionary advantages” to permitting this, and noted that in his view, it is society’s reaction to pedophilia that is problematic rather than pedophilia itself. He does, however, state that he still thinks pedophilia should be illegal, although is not entirely clear how this correlates with his other views.
It is not the fact that a professor holds such repulsive views that concerns me the most. He is not, of course, the first… It is the fact that he has been publicly defended by 153 other professors, who noted that while they might disagree with Kershnar’s conclusions, his academic freedom should allow him to explore this subject.
Jonathan Van Maren, “Ethics professor at New York public university praises ‘evolutionary advantages’ of pedophilia” at Lifesite News (February 10, 2022)
Well, a lot depends on how the prof intends to explore the subject. It would be interesting to see whether the same profs would have supported Eric Hedin looking into intelligent design theory at Ball State University.
Anyway, in the late stages of Darwinism, things come out of the woodwork that would have been smacked back into it early on. The classical Darwinians no longer seem to own the story.