Yes, this website is much more open to an honest and open debate than Coyne’s, but I guess there is no point in posting my criticisms of Coyne’s article here as Heather is an independent blogger who did not endorse Coyne’s particular article in it’s entirety.

Hi AU, yes, I think that opening line (“So Jerry Coyne writes he hates being in bed with conservatives, yet the basis of his article is a one-sided, dishonest article written by a pro-Israel neoconservative, in a neoconservative magazine!”) probably sunk your chances of appearing in WEIT comments. They (the comments)are usually not very interesting for that reason. A bunch of “yes people” sharing inside jokes. I agree that Coyne is not interested in an honest and open debate on his web page and screens out opposing views. In a way that is good, because it eliminates all the creationist drivel he naturally attracts. But he really can’t handle criticism. Anyway, Heather is more tolerant, so why not repost your comments here.

I agree with that completely. You put more weight on some causal factors than I do, and I put more weight on others.

Hi AU. Sorry it took so long to get your comment up – I forgot to check my website this morning.

A website address is paid for privately, so it is a private space. If his website was being paid for by his employer, for example, as an employee of a public university he wouldn’t be able to write about about religion. Whether or not any of us agree with who he allows on his website, it is his still his choice.

I won’t give you Jerry’s e-mail address here, but if you go to “Research Interests” on the top right of any website page, there is an e-mail address there that will reach him directly. Again, he may choose not to respond, but you will at least know you’ve contacted him. If you tried to contact him on Twitter, that wouldn’t have worked anyway, as he rarely if ever reads messages sent to him via Twitter.

Hi Paxton,

I stand corrected – it doesn’t strictly speaking infringe our freedom of speech, but it does show that the author isn’t really interested in an honest and open debate.

I made numerous posts on the comments board so there is no one “piece” that I wrote, but none of them were allowed to go through. Maybe the first post I made put him off (“So Jerry Coyne writes he hates being in bed with conservatives, yet the basis of his article is a one-sided, dishonest article written by a pro-Israel neoconservative, in a neoconservative magazine!”) and that’s why he didn’t let any other go through!

Thank you.

Hi Heather,

I completely disagree with your analogy of a mosque and Friday prayers. Friday prayers aren’t an event open to the public for a debate, they are an event only for Muslims to come and pray. Therefore, of course you or anyone else for that matter shouldn’t have the right to go and start debating there.
However, if the members of the mosque have set up a stall in the street and are handing out leaflets criticising atheists, of course you now have a right to go and debate them. They are in a public space, and they are propagating a view you do not agree with. Therefore, you have a right to counter that view. If they do not allow you to counter their arguments in public, then they do not believe in open and honest discussion.

It is wrong to say your website, or Jerry’s website, is an extension of your/his home – it isn’t. Once you start using your website to promote a certain view and to attack a certain group, it isn’t your home anymore, it becomes more like a public hall, and if in a public hall you do not allow opposing views to be heard, then you’re not really someone who is interested in an honest and open debate. Ok, sure, it might be wrong of me to say “you do not believe in freedom of speech”, but you certainly do not believe in an open and honest debate. The question then is, why? Surely if you are so certain that what you are saying is correct, you will then allow opposing views, and then, to borrow a word Jerry uses, “destroy” them. If you want to silence opposing views, then it is quite likely that you are actually afraid that what you are saying isn’t the real deal, and that people, after hearing opposing views, will stop following the view you are propagating. Hmmm, not letting people speak out for fear they might stop following you, where have we heard that before, oh yeah, religious fundamentalism!

As for “he might not have read the posts”, what if I was to tell you I also posted a pro-Jerry message under a different name, and that went through? Wouldn’t it be strange that all the messages that exposed what was wrong in his article didn’t go through, and the one that was pro his view did go through.
Unfortunately, Jerry doesn’t have a contact email address, apart from the one for media inquiries, and as I am not on Twitter, I have no way to contact him, but he is more than welcome to give his reasoning as to why he doesn’t let messages through that show the errors in his articles.

Thank you.

I know why Coyne blocked me. It was because I disagreed with his whitewashing of Israel for the slaughter of 2000 Palestinians last summer. It is clear that he is not willing to subject his own heritage, Judaism, to the same critical standards he holds for Islam.

But I think that Coyne’s bigger blind spot is that he seems to think that by rejecting religious claims he has overcome bias, prejudice, and irrationality. He thinks his animus against Islam is based purely on rational considerations. He abstracts religious motives from motives of power, wealth and nationalism as particularly evil. He attributes all Muslim atrocities to their religion, and will not hear of the role of western imperialism in the radicalization of Islam. He cannot see the parallels between US attacks on helpless Iraqis and Muslim acts of terrorism. He’s so anxious to attribute all the evil in the world to religion, that he ignores or is unaware of cultural and historical context.

It takes courage to speak truth to power. This is the free speech we protect and cherish. If Coyne were writing in Pakistan or in 15th century Europe, he would be a brave man indeed. But it takes no courage to demonize minorities. There has never been a shortage of Free speech that is invoked by privileged majorities to satirize and demean blacks, Jews, indigenous peoples, Muslims and other disadvantaged groups. To use free speech to denounce and stir up animosity against helpless people who we have already harmed and against whom we are contemplating further harm (e.g. military attacks against Iran) is not an act of courage, but joining in with the bullies. The irony is that Coyne is now allying himself with right wing Christian evangelicals, who he otherwise disparages, against Islam. Just as his mentor Hitchins helped prepare the ground for US/UK terrorism against the Iraqi people, Coyne is abetting those, such as Netanyahu and the US neo-cons who are agitating for further western military slaughter of Muslims.

AU, please let me know where I can read your piece on Hirsi Ali. Heather, thanks again for your indulgence in allowing contrary opinions.