Jerry Coyne

Jerry Coyne is a Professor Emeritus of biology at the University of Chicago who specialised in speciation (how species separate) and ecological and evolutionary genetics before retirement in 2015.I retire today, Sep 30, 2015 He is also increasingly prominent as a public skeptic, writer, racialist and atheist.
Coyne claims the invention of the neologism "sophisticated theology".http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/a-sokal-style-hoax-by-an-anti-religious-philosopher-2/#comment-289429
==Summary of beliefs==
Jerry Coyne is a New Atheist who claims religion and science are incompatible, in the same way astronomy and astrology, or medicine and homeopathy are incompatible. He thinks NOMA is unreasonable, and believes trying to reconcile religion (Christian, Islamic, or other) with science is futile.Jerry Coyne. U of C doc touts NOMA. Why Evolution Is True. 2010 December 28. It is a recurring topic on his blog site, and he since has co-authored a paper in philosophy no less,I’m a philosopher! I haz a paper with Maarten Boudry on religious belief, Coyne, 2015 and written a book on the subject, "Faith Vs. Fact" (2015).Faith Vs. Fact site Coyne fears the Templeton Foundation money has a corrupting influence on science.Jerry Coyne. Martin Rees and the Templeton travesty. The Guardian. 2011 April 6. He argues that religion fails the test of scientific scrutiny and that religious dogma harms science.PZ Myers. Coyne on the compatibility of science and religion. Pharyngula. ScienceBlogs. 2009 January 23. In his writings on religion, Coyne has challenged theology, questioning its place as an academic field.Jerry Coyne. Scientists debate philosophers and theologians at CERN—but why? Why Evolution Is True. 2012 October 15.Jerry Coyne. Why am I reading theology? Why Evolution Is True. 2011 July 4. Coyne believes that evolution is completely unguided.Alex Tsakiris. Outspoken Atheist Dr. Jerry Coyne Sees No Connection Between Consciousness Research and Evolutionary Biology. Skeptico. 2012 February 14.
Coyne is an incompatibilist, who believes that free will is illusory and that the notion is incompatible with determinism.
=== Coyne's political incoherence ===
Coyne claims to be on "the Left", but on his blog he strongly aligns with those funded by Republicans, as in the case of Bari WeissGoodbye Bari Weiss Jerry Coyne (January 11, 2022) Why Evolution is True who is funded by "GOP sugar daddy" Harlan CrowBari Weiss Got $500k From GOP Sugar Daddy Harlan Crow To Start 'Anti-Woke' Nonprofit (July 2023) The Majority Report w/Sam Sederhttps://whyevolutionistrue.com/?s=nellie+bowles&orderby=relevance&order=DESC&post_type=post Search on "Nellie Bowles" (girlfriend of Bari Weiss) (Searched September 5, 2023) and Quillette,[https://whyevolutionistrue.com/?s=quillette&orderby=relevance&order=DESC&post_type=post Search on "Quillette" (Searched September 5, 2023) Why Evolution is True funded by Trump-and-DeSantis-supporter Peter Thiel.
====Woke obsession====
Coyne is strongly critical of what he calls the regressive left or extreme liberalism, to the point of being obsessed with "woke" which he has used in the title of over sixty of his blog posts since 2020.Search on the word 'woke' on Coyne's blog (searched September 5, 2023) Why Evolution is True He is also obsessed with "cancel culture."[https://whyevolutionistrue.com/category/cancel-culture/ search on "cancel culture" (searched on September 5, 2023) Why Evolution is True
Coyne's political incoherence is especially clear in his criticism of Trump supporters:
Coyne is apparently incapable of making the connection between Trump and Thiel, in spite of the fact that Thiel is famous for his support for Trump.The Right’s Would-Be Kingmaker Ryan Mac and Lisa Lerer (February 14, 2022) The New York Times
It would seem that Coyne's constant promotion of right-wingers is contrary to Coyne's own political interests as someone on "the Left," so why does he do it? One possible reason is because Coyne doesn't bother to put any effort into researching the political world about which he is so opinionated and doesn't remember anything he does learn about that world. For example, although Peter Thiel was mentioned on Coyne's blog on August 27, 2022,Saturday Hili dialogue Jerry Coyne (August 27, 2022) Why Evolution is True on October 21, 2022, when Coyne announced he would be a speaker at the Stanford conference on academic freedom (Thiel was the keynote speaker), Coyne claimed he had never heard of Peter Thiel.Academic Freedom Meeting at Stanford Jerry Coyne (October 21, 2022) Why Evolution is True
Although Coyne is a well-known atheist, he did not criticize Thiel's keynote speech, which was bad enough for Steven Pinker to call it "data-light and impressionistic".[https://twitter.com/sapinker/status/1599532852831739904?lang=en Steven Pinker (December 4, 2022) Twitter In the speech, Thiel claimed the current political climate is "Armageddon" versus "Anti-Christ" and supported his view by citing the Bible (First Thessalonians five, chapter 3).Peter Thiel and his rambling monologue - audio only recorded by N. G. McClernan (November 4, 2022) Stanford Conference on Academic Freedom Keynote Address: Peter Thiel Although Coyne complains regularly about religious views on his blog[https://whyevolutionistrue.com/?s=religion&orderby=relevance&order=DESC&post_type=post Search on "religion" (September 5, 2023) Why Evolution is True for some reason, Peter Thiel, Republican Party stalwart, gets a pass.
===Pinker's mouthpiece===
Jerry Coyne is a devoted admirer of Steven Pinker: "Since Pinker is wickedly smart, eloquent, and apparently remembers everything he’s ever read, lunch with him is not just a culinary experience, but a bout of cerebral ping-pong"Lunch with Pinkah, and a preview of his next book Jerry Coyne (January 17, 2020) Why Evolution is True and has, on several occasions, acted as Pinker's mouthpiece, conveying Pinker's views through his own blog.Pinker writes to Harvard administrators about University’s new free-speech policy Jerry Coyne (September 26, 2019) Why Evolution is TruePinker on the Worser Angels of our Nature Jerry Coyne (March 15, 2021) Why Evolution is True Coyne solicited Pinker's response to a critique of Pinker's Better Angels and then posted it on his blog.A response from Steve Pinker to Salon’s hit piece on “Enlightenment Now” Jerry Coyne (January 29, 2019) Why Evolution is True The "hit piece" pointed out, accurately, that Pinker had misrepresented the words of others. In his response Pinker said: "The rest of Torres’s complaint consists of showing that some of the quotations I weave into the text come from people who don’t agree with me. OK, but so what?"
In his article about Pinker "The World's Most Annoying Man," Nathan J. Robinson said that Coyne believes the reason people dislike Pinker is because he's famous. Coyne took to his blog to agree with Robinson:
Coyne also enjoys posting photos of Pinker's cowboy boots.Steve Pinker’s new boots Jerry Coyne (February 21, 2020) Why Evolution is TrueHili dialogue (and Academic Freedom Conference) Jerry Coyne (November 5, 2022) Why Evolution is True
===Coyne vs. Myers===
Coyne's slide into far-right hereditarianism can be tracked through his relationship with biologist and progressive P. Z. Myers. 
When Coyne first began his "Why Evolution is True" blog in February 2009, Myers cheered him on from his own blog "Pharyngula".Jerry Coyne has a blog P. Z. Myers (February 6, 2009) Pharyngula In 2009 Coyne actually mocked evolutionary psychology.Evolutionary psychology: the adaptive significance of semen flavor Jerry Coyne (April 18, 2009) Why Evolution is True In 2011, Myers shared Coyne's rebuttal of the "evolution of rape" argument.The evolution of rape? P. Z. Myers (January 17, 2011) Pharyngula
Coyne and Myers had a running joke of cats versus cephalopods.Unnatural shenanigans P. Z. Myers (February 29, 2012) Pharyngula Myers recommended Coyne's blog.https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/09/19/kent-hovind-writes/ Kent Hovind writes] P. Z. Myers (November 19, 2012) Pharyngula In November 2012, Myers can be seen having a friendly disagreement with Coyne and Michael Shermer.In which I join Michael Shermer in disagreeing with Jerry Coyne, and Coyne in disagreeing with Shermer P. Z. Myers (November 8, 2012) Pharyngula Coyne and Myers often made common cause in opposition to religion.Science journalists accept logical fallacy, therefore journalism is compatible with stupidity P. Z. Myers (January 3, 2012) PharyngulaMight Christianity be both true and terrible? P. Z. Myers (March 11, 2013) Pharyngula
Myers' disagreement with Coyne over evolutionary psychology appears on Pharyngula July 15, 2013. Myers says: "I have disturbed and distressed Jerry Coyne, because I have dissed the entire field of evolutionary psychology."[https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/07/15/when-in-doubt-just-question-the-motives-of-evolutionary-psychology-critics/ https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/09/01/jerry-coyne-gets-everything-wrong-again/ ] P. Z. Myers (September 1, 2013) PharyngulaI wish I knew what it was about the appeal of evolutionary psychology that makes otherwise intelligent people promote outright silliness in its defense, but here comes Jerry Coyne again in a poorly thought-out piece.
In January 2014 Myers wrote a piece "Jerry Coyne is trying to defend evolutionary psychology again.""Jerry Coyne is trying to defend evolutionary psychology again P. Z. Myers (December 2, 2014) Pharyngula
In March 2015 Myers allowed "Ben Allen of the Plektix blog" to post on Pharyngula "Why is Jerry Coyne blocking scientific discussion?" although Myers had reservations about the piece.Why is Jerry Coyne blocking scientific discussion? Ben Allen (March 31, 2015) Why Evolution is True Allen noted that Coyne "has taken to blocking commenters who disagree with him, even over substantive scientific issues."
In December, 2016, Coyne referred to Myers as a "blinkered ideologue" in defense of the extreme adaptationism of evolutionary psychology.https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2016/12/18/natural-selection-is-not-the-only-mechanism-of-evolution/ Natural Selection is not the Only Mechanism of Evolution] P. Z. Myers (December 18, 2016) Pharyngua 
And it was all downhill from there.
In January 2018 Myers said Coyne was part of the "racist circle-jerk."Dig into the Racist Circle-Jerk P. Z. Myers (January 21, 2018) Pharyngula In January 9 2019 Myers noted Coyne's support for Quillette.Apparently, freedom from "partisan hysteria" means that you call the Left "regressive" and don’t allow their views to be expressed. Allrighty then. No irony here, no sir. On 12 January, Myers compared Coyne to Goofus in the Goofus/Gallant dichotomy.https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2019/01/12/goofus-and-gallant/ Goofus and Gallant] P. Z. Myers (January 12, 2019) Pharyngula
In October 2020, Myers wrote: "This “cancel culture” nonsense has gone on far too long — it’s nothing but an imaginary assault on the power and privilege of conservatives. It’s a label, nothing more, that idiots hang on any attempt to criticize them. You’re canceling me! How dare you! <swoon>. It’s all really tiresome. Unsurprisingly, Jerry Coyne falls for the BS. He races to defend the notion of racist Noah Carl in the racist online rag the Genetic Literacy Project that Darwin might be next to be canceled."Scientists crying about cancellation, again P. Z. Myers (October 20, 2020) Pharyngula
In 2021, Myers says: "My first thought was to wonder how far gone Coyne has become — I haven’t been interested in reading his blog in ages because he was already incredibly regressive, and his active commentariat mainly seems to be rat-droppings from the slymepit.Who's afraid of the big bad Woke Mob? Not Me P. Z. Myers (April 14, 2021) Pharyngula In 2022 Myers noted that Coyne hated the McLemore article on E. O. Wilson,No saints! P. Z. Myers (January 21, 2022) Pharyngula noted Coyne's support for gender essentialism, Women who don’t want babies are DENYING BIOLOGY! P. Z. Myers (August 30, 2022) Pharyngula and responded to Coyne's attack against him, made during Coyne's presentation at the Stanford Academic Freedom conference.Cranks congregate to demonstrate that they’re cranks P. Z. Myers (November 6, 2022) Pharyngula 
In 2023 Myers said "If anyone wants to find the Slymepit gang today, they’re usually hanging out on Jerry Coyne’s blog."I was wondering what that stench was P. Z. Myers (April 21, 2023) Pharyngula In May of that year, Myers wrote: "I guess I should mention the terrible Wall Street Journal op-ed by Coyne & Krylov."Yuck that was an awful paper by Krylov and her cronies P. Z. Myers (May 21, 2023) In June, Myers wrote: "Years of ignoring Jerry Coyne, a record ruined by the fact that I felt obligated to find out what he’s complaining about in order to address that recent bad article…and what do I find? His usual half-assed whining about people different from him."Fear of the Cat People P. Z. Myers (June 22, 2023) Pharyngula and on the same day: "Jerry Coyne has successfully transitioned from respected senior scientist to angry, bitter crank finding common cause with the worst right-wing academic grifters. It’s sad to see."Jerry Coyne’s bogus fears of “ideological subversion” P. Z. Myers (June 22, 2023) Pharyngula A few days later: "Fresh off that paper about how the liberals are destroying “merit” and science, Jerry Coyne fearlessly rides his hobby horse onto the pages of the Skeptical Inquirer, where he complains about a a grave threat to biology."Moral panics and bigoted subversion of biology P. Z. Myers (June 24, 2023) Pharyngula Several days after that:
==Coyne's support for "human biodiversity"==
It's likely that Coyne, a one-time critic of evolutionary psychology, was influenced in favor of hereditarianism by Steven Pinker. In Coyne's August 28, 2021 blog post "A sensible article on human 'race'"https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2017/08/28/a-sensible-article-on-human-race/#%20-%20Pinker%20influence Coyne wrote that "As a biologist, it irks me when ideologues distort biology in the service of politics. My view, which I absorbed from Steven Pinker, is that we should be able to accept scientific facts without perforce turning those facts into government policy."
Coyne, in the hereditarian tradition, goes on to accuse opponents of biological determinism of politicizing science. 
The "sensible" article is "On the Reality of Race and the Abhorrence of Racism"On the Reality of Race and the Abhorrence of Racism Bo Winegard, Ben Winegard, Brian Boutwell (June 23, 2016) Quillette (archived) published in the arch-hereditarian magazine Quillette and written by advocates of "human biodiversity" Bo Winegard, Ben Winegard and "biosocial criminologist" 
The article is bizarrely post-modern, arguing that racial "categories aren’t real in some metaphysical sense, but they are useful, and they do have predictive value." So although the hereditarians believe that race is a biological reality, as Steven Pinker has claimedEvery geneticist knows that the "Race doesn't exist" dogma is a convenient PC 1/4-truth. Steven Pinker (February 18, 2013) Twitter at the same time, they argue you can invent any racial classification system you wish:
 
The term is an obsolete racial classification and strictly non-scientific, demonstrating how little human biodiversity has to do with science. In the Winegard-Winegard-Boutwell category scheme, anything goes. This is especially interesting considering that Bo Winged has declared on Twitter that he believes it isn't racist to want to "preserve a country's (racial) demographic composition." Presumably Winegard sees himself in the role of determining who counts as which race, before implementing his desired racial quota system.
===Coyne and Bo Winegard===
Coyne is not content to help mainstream race extremist Winegard by promoting his crackpot racial theories. In July 2023, Coyne and Luana S. Maroja co-wrote an article for the "Skeptical Inquirer" called "The Ideological Subversion of Biology" using the hereditarian tactic of presenting themselves as pure pilgrims of empiricism opposed to the woke mob. In it, Coyne and Maroja present racialist extremist Winegard as a poor victim of progressive politics:
 
As Coyne well knows, Winegard doesn't merely "suggest the possibility that there are differences in cognition among ethnic groups" - Winegard is a true believer who would be happy to impose a political system of national racial quotas if he had the chance.
Winegard's extremism apparently does not cause Coyne to have any qualms about continually promoting him and his crackpot theories.
Coyne has also promoted racist Richard Hanania.Thursday: Hili Dialog (September 21, 2023) Why Evolution is True
== Writings ==
Coyne is the author of standard text SpeciationSpeciation (publisher page) (with 2004) and science popularization Why Evolution Is True (2009). The latter has spawned a regularly-updated website (he dislikes the term "blog") of the same name, which contains much top-quality skepticism and atheism (and tangling with other bloggers, theist and atheist) to go with the stuff on evolution. In 2015. Coyne published Faith VS. Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible, in which he argues that any attempt to reconcile religion and science is doomed.
Coyne writes daily on his WordPress blog Why Evolution Is True, named after his first book for a general audience. He covers a wide range of recurring topics, and cats. Greg Mayer, Matthew Cobb and Grania Spingies support him regularly.
==Debates and disputes==
===Coyne vs. Haught (On science and religion)===
Coyne took on theologian John Haught in an October 12, 2011 public debateMy debate with John Haught in Kentucky Why Evolution Is True, 2011-10-13) at the Gaines Center, University of Kentucky over whether science and religion were compatible. After Coyne decisively won the debate, Haught tried to suppress the video of the event. 
After approximately the entire skepticsphere flooded UKY (and the Gaines Center's funders) with complaints, Haught begrudgingly agreedUnder pressure from blogosphere, Haught explains and relents (Why Evolution Is True, 2011-11-02) to the release of the videoScience and Religion: Are They Compatible? October 12, 2011 with Jerry Coyne and John Haught Debate, Q&A and ensuing Q&A (having already destroyed his reputationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Haught#Public_debate). It's worth the hour's viewing. Never debate a theist without a signed release in advance.
===Coyne vs. Thornhill and Palmer (On evolutionary psychology and rape)===
:See Rape and evolutionary psychology
Coyne became part of a larger debate surrounding Randy Thornhill and Craig Palmer, the biologist-anthropologist duo who authored A Natural History of Rape. Coyne gave the book a scathing review in the journal Nature and argued against them on a radio debate hosted by NPR. Although Coyne supports the idea of evolutionary analyses of psychology and behavior, he is a critic of much current evolutionary psychology.Evolutionary Psychology for the Masses, Jerry Coyne, Why Evolution Is True PZ Myers has criticized Coyne for what evo-psychology he does support.Jerry Coyne is trying to defend evolutionary psychology again
===Coyne vs. Pigliucci (On new atheism, the nature of science, and free will)===
Coyne and Massimo Pigliucci have disagreements on a number of issues that have led to some blogospheric debating (and navel-gazing), such as the legacy of Christopher Hitchens and "new atheism."In Defense of Hitch, Why Evolution Is TrueJerry Coyne Loses His Cool, Dawkins His Style, Massimo Pigliucci, Rationally Speaking However, their most recent dust-up has been over the issue of free will. Coyne has argued on the basis of scientific findings (the laws of physics, genetics, and neuro-imaging) that free will is an illusion.Why You Don't Really Have Free Will, Jerry Coyne, USA Today Pigliucci responded that Coyne's arguments were flawed in two ways: (a) presupposing certain debatable positions such as causal closure, denial of emergent phenomena, and physical determinism, and (b) misinterpreting Benjamin Libet's neuroscience experiments.Jerry Coyne on Free Will, Massimo Pigliucci Coyne replied by re-iterating his original position.Am I Unsophisticated About Free Will?, Jerry Coyne Pigliucci added that his issue with Coyne's claims is that they are philosophical or metaphysical rather than scientific, as he claims. Pigliucci contended that Coyne was advancing an eliminativist argument that he had failed to justify.On Free Will: Response to Readers, Massimo Pigliucci Considering that these criticisms are being leveled by someone who thinks that free will is an incoherent concept,The Incoherence of Free Will, Massimo Pigliucci Coyne might benefit from brushing up a bit on the arguments for and against free will.
===Coyne vs. Pigliucci (On the extended evolutionary synthesis)===
Coyne has been very critical towards the idea of an extended evolutionary synthesis proposed by Massimo Pigliucci and others.Are we ready for an “extended evolutionary synthesis”?, Coyne (2009) Pigliucci has responded.Jerry Coyne and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, reply by Pigliucci (2009)
===Coyne vs. haters===
Coyne feels labeling people as "haters" is a way that sloppy thinkers avoid addressing the reasons people criticise something. Antitheists are written off as people who hate religion. Opponents of Islam are called haters, as are critics of Roman Catholicism — and the same goes for others who criticise anything. Terrorists are described as haters without analysing the reasons for terrorism.A new catchphrase for the Regressive Left—and other simple thinkers The reactionary right are also of course problematic.
===Coyne vs. Templeton===
Coyne dislikes the Templeton Foundation. He thinks there is too much money and not enough Science.Templeton wastes $11 million in attempt to change evolutionary biologyMore ill-gotten gains: Templeton gives $1 million to BioLogos Basically, Coyne feels vast sums of Templeton money are used to bribe journalists and scientists to think in warm fuzzy ways about religion and spirituality and also to write warm fuzzy material about religion.The Templeton Bribe
===Coyne vs. psychiatry===
Coyne became convinced, after reading a book review in the New York Times, that the medical field of psychiatry is a scam.Is Medical Psychiatry A Scam? His prime target is antidepressants, which he believes are ineffective. He also argues that psychiatrists frequently portray them as effective, and pretends to know their mechanism of action. He does not address other drugs with similar low efficacy (statins), other drugs with an unknown mechanism of action (acetaminophen), or other psychiatric drugs with demonstrably high efficacy (antipsychotics). Coyne attributes this scam partly to "the desire of pharmaceutical companies to milk the public out of as many dollars as possible" (see Big Pharma). However, he doesn't explain why other countries, many of which lack pharmaceutical industries and for-profit medicine, also continue to practice psychiatry in roughly the same way.
===Coyne vs leftist college students===
Coyne memorably wrote several long posts defending Bret Weinstein as Evergreen University's controversial Day of Absence unfolded. Some of his posts linked to Benjamin A. Boyce, a Youtuber who said he was a student with inside information about what was really happening at Evergreen because he was a student there. It later emerged he was a reactionary propagandist and a reactionary whose most recent tweet as of this writing attacks "the Privilege Game." Benjamin A. Boyce's most recent random tweet on "The Privilege Game."
Rabidly anti-woke, Coyne linked to Boyce's video in 2017, signal-boosting him before he blew up online.https://web.archive.org/save/https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2017/06/20/more-on-the-evergreen-state-situation/ Why Evolution is True: "More on the Evergreen State situation." Boyce would later go on to change his major from "Early Childhood Development" to journalism, and film a long documentary series that white nationalists keep linking to as propaganda titled "the Truth about Evergreen University." Attending Evergreen doesn't mean Boyce wasn't a white nationalist in the fold, and statistically speaking there had to be a few at a university of a couple of thousand students. (Boyce happens to be white and a middle aged 40-year old who obsessed over students briefly protesting Bret Weinstein for ten minutes in a video before leaving him alone to march past his classroom.)
===Coyne vs deplatforming===
Coyne has repeatedly criticized students for the practice of deplatforming, and a non-exhaustive list of examples includes Richard Dawkins,Richard Dawkins Dave Rubin,https://web.archive.org/save/https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2017/03/01/dave-rubin-speech-at-usc-postponed-indefinitely-over-safety-concerns/ Why Evolution is True and for when students helped revoke an honorary degree for Ayaan Hirsi Ali[https://web.archive.org/save/https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/04/18/was-ayaan-hirsi-ali-censored/ Why Evolution is True or Richard Spencer.punching white supremacist Richard Spencer He also condemned a progressive for shaming Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Trump's then-White House press secretary) while she was eating at a restaurant.Sarah Huckabee Sanders
===Coyne vs the Intellectual Dark Web's critics===
Coyne constantly supports grifters from the Intellectual Dark Web, but not their critics who he usually calls "the authoritarian left." He routinely signal boosts reactionaries, and insists he is a liberal Democrat even though he almost always attacks left. To the initiated, he is best thought of as an "Enlightened Centrist," or a Dave Rubin style "classical liberal." Without Trump, he would probably be a pro-science Republican, except there's a bigger audience to be had from saying you're a Democrat even though you keep attacking the left. If you say you're a conservative, you limit your audience to conservatives. He still insists he is a Democrat even though he even attacked the left for criticizing Charles Murray and his friend Sam Harris. Why Evolution is True He has appeared on the Rubin Report, and defended Dave Rubin from controversy. https://web.archive.org/save/https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/mr-rubin-im-ready-for-my-close-up/ Why Evolution is True 
===Coyne vs the Squad===
Coyne still insists he is a liberal, though he loathes "the squad," from Ilhan Omarhttps://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/the-hypocrisy-of-ilhan-omar-and-mendacity-of-her-supporters/ to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,"authoritarian leftist" AOC to Ayanna Pressley,https://web.archive.org/save/https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2019/07/22/a-call-for-ideological-uniformity/ Why Evolution is True: Ayanna Pressley to Rashida Tlaib.[] Rashida Tlaib. It's funny how for so many years he said he was in favor of reforming Islam, but then showed such hatred of prominent progressive Muslims politicians like Ilhan Omar. He appears to have unmasked himself.
===Coyne vs Millennials===
He really hates Millennials in general and routinely rants against them. (How dare they use "OK Boomer!"). Why Evolution is True He has easily acquired his share of "old man yells at the cloud" moments (but don't you dare call the retiree a conservative or he'll ban you from his blog).
===Regressive left's Antisemitism and Israeli moral superiority over Palestinians===	
For example, in his view, regressive leftists are best represented by those from the left who support Palestinian rights, or considered Islamophobia to be a racism, or calling out people for stereotyping and generalizing identity groups, or Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) for hypocrisy.Israeli Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman poses a dilemma for regressives: feminism vs. Israeli “genocide”? Just recently his site posted an article decrying "regressive leftists" take on Gal Gadot "activism".The left eats its own: The demonization of Gal Gadot 
In the context of these events, he posted that the Israeli Army "has killed Palestinian children in military operations", but he knows that this was just collateral damage, a fluke, the IDF does not kill Palestinian kids deliberately — only the "ignorant" could say such a thing.The left eats its own: The demonization of Gal GadotIsraeli strike kills four children playing on the beach On the other hand, those well-informed and knowledgeable, like he is, know for a fact that the opposite is true: it's Palestinian children who kill and/or attempt to kill, because, you see, these little monsters so often do get imprisoned by Israel for terrorist acts.The left eats its own: The demonization of Gal Gadot	
In this light, he's defending Gal Gadot from "regressive left" criticism in the following words: "Gadot had no part in this; her crime was solely to be Jewish, to be Israeli, and to be in the IDF."The left eats its own: The demonization of Gal Gadot	
He then compiled a list of examples where Palestinians kids killed Israelis, or Palestinians killing Israeli kids, while the general Palestinian population "relished acts and celebrated murderers".The left eats its own: The demonization of Gal Gadot 
The post is followed by numerous comments, almost in unison agreement with Coyne, but when one poster strayedTwo readers engaged in discussion on violence and moral superiority equivalence, before Coyen jumped in to reply to one of them from the pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian, pro-Coyen path he — Coyne — decide to plunge himself into debate. On the matter of ethnicities, religions, and nations' propensity for violence and child murder, some commenter who was not actually against Coyne's claims in the article per se simply wanted to point out that he was against blood libel, generalization, and stereotyping, and that he, Jewish himself, won't "stay silent while anybody claims that a particular ethnicity, religion or culture, have a greater propensity for child killing (or any other atrocity) than others", and more clearly that "an individual’s membership of a “race”, ethnicity, culture, nationality, does not give them an inherently greater propensity to commit atrocities",In comment discussion Coyen expresses his beliefs that North Koreans are more violent than Swedes to which Coyne respond that all that is exactly how things are, and why Palestinian Muslims eagerly want to kill Israeli Jews, through developing "murderous instincts" in their children as a result of their culture. There is no doubt on moral superiority of Israeli Jews over Palestinian Muslims in Coyne's mind.When Coyne discovered Palestinian children's "murderous instincts through miracle of science & philosophy"
===Coyne vs Bill Nye===
Coyne is not at all fond of Bill Nye and has several blog posts criticizing him over the years. He feels that Nye deliberately spends most of him time as a "buffoon who will engage in any shenanigans that keep him in the public eye and help him retain the fame he desires-fame accrued as 'The Science Guy'."https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2017/04/24/this-is-science-bill-nye/ However Coyne admits that he never watched Nye's show The Science Guy and concedes that he might have been outstanding in teaching science to kids back in the day, before his "comeback" which Coyne has not been a fan of, to say the least.https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2019/06/11/bill-nye-screws-up-when-tackling-a-question-about-free-will/ Coyne also criticized Nye for debating with Ken Ham.https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2015/04/11/bill-nye-explains-evolution-badly-using-emoji/
===Coyne vs Transgender Women===
In 2024 Coyne was an honorary board member of the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF). He had a long relationship with FFRF, receiving its Emperor Has No Clothes Award in 2011.Jerry Coyne: Odd Couple Science and Religion Can’t Cohabit (October 2011) Jerry Coyne Freethought Now! (Retrieved February 7 2025) 
In December 2024, in response to an essay by Kat Grant, "What is a woman?,"What is a woman?(November 7, 2024) Kat Grant Freethought Now! (retrieved February 7, 2025) Coyne submitted an essay to FFRF entitled Biology is not BigotryBiology is not bigotry (December 26, 2024) Jerry Coyne Freedom From Religion Foundation (Retrieved February 7, 2025) in which Coyne started off by comparing transgender women to people who have anorexia and people who believe they are horses. After receiving criticism from the atheist community,This is embarrassing and sad. The Freedom From Religion Foundation posted an anti-trans screed from “honorary board member” Jerry Coyne (December 27, 2024) Hemant Mehta Bluesky (Retrieved February 7, 2025) FFRF removed the essay and published its mea culpa which included:
The Coyne essay was then published on December 30 on the Substack of anti-trans activist Colin WrightBiology is not bigotry(December 30, 2024) Reality's Last Stand (Retrieved February 7 2025), a staff member of the far-right Manhattan Institute.Colin Wright Manhattan Institute (Retrieved February 7, 2025)
Coyne announced on his blog that he was resigning from the board of the FFRF, sharing his resignation letter in a post. The letter concludes:
 
The claim that Coyne's words were removed "from the internet" was false, as the very next day Coyne's words were published by an anti-trans activist. And Coyne has his own blog, and so there was never any danger, as Coyne well knew, that his anti-trans message would not be available on the Internet.
Coyne claims he was "not out to hurt LGBTQIA+ people" but his essay began by suggesting that transgender women are delusional, and then in the middle suggesting that transgender woman are inclined to be sex offenders, based on a study he found on an anti-trans website:Half of all transgender prisoners are sex offenders or dangerous category A inmates (November 9, 2017) Fair Play for Women (Retrieved February 7, 2025)
Coyne then concluded his essay with:
This seems to indicate that Coyne's real problem with having his essay removed from the FFRF website was not due to having his words removed from the Internet, but rather that he would no longer be seen as speaking on behalf of a well-established organization, while smearing transgender women as delusional and dangerous.
====Support for Coyne====
The organization Center for Inquiry approved of Coyne's essay, publishing it on its Free Inquiry website and stating: "We believe Coyne’s essay presents a well-reasoned, scientifically based analysis of some transgender controversies, and we are pleased to present it to our readers so they can make their own judgment of its merits."Biology Is Not Bigotry (January 2, 2025) Jerry A. Coyne Free Inquiry (Retrieved February 7, 2025)
On the same day, Free Inquiry published Ronald A. Lindsay's supportive essay in which he writes: No, what Barker and Gaylor apparently vehemently oppose—to the extent of censoring an essay and issuing an apology—is a science-based argument that sex is binary and cannot be changed at will. Furthermore, the harm they identify as caused by the essay is the “distress” felt by those reading it.The Regrettable Dogmatism of FFRF (January 2, 2025) Ronald A. Lindsay Free Inquiry (Retrieved February 7, 2025) Lindsay was apparently unconcerned by the fact that Coyne presented trans women as delusional and dangerous while reminding readers he was "speaking as a member of FFRF's honorary board."
Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker resigned from the honorary board of the FFRF in solidarity with Coyne.A third one leaves the fold: Richard Dawkins resigns from the Freedom from Religion Foundation (December 29, 2024) Jerry Coyne Why Evolution is True (Retrieved February 7, 2025)
====Support for FFRF====
Transgender allies in the atheist community approved of FFRF's action. On his Substack The Friendly Atheist, Hemant Mehta wrote:
P. Z. Myers wrote:
====New board====
After Coyne, Dawkins and Pinker resigned, FFRF then dissolved its honorary board, and Coyne wrote a blog post which included a tweet from his anti-trans ally Colin Wright, stating "When your organization has abandoned its core principled, maintaining a Board of principled intellectuals becomes a liability."More fallout from the Big KerFFRFle: Freedom from Religion Foundation dissolves its entire Honorary Board (and other news) (January 7, 2025) Jerry Coyne Why Evolution is True (Retrieved February 7, 2025) The old board included Coyne, Pinker, Dawkins, Jeremiah Camara, Sean Carroll, Ernie Harburg (son of Ron Reagan, and Honorary Board Freedom From Religion Foundation (Archive date August 26, 2024) (Retrieved February 7, 2025)
FFRF announced a new honorary board soon after it dissolved its old board. Other than the absence of Coyne, Dawkins and Pinker, the board had hardly changed at all. Rebecca Goldstein, Pinker's wife, remained, declining to join her husband in solidarity with Coyne. The only other change to the board was the addition of Cheryl Kolbe.Honorary Board Freedom From Religion Foundation (Retrieved February 7, 2025)
===Coyne vs RationalWiki===
Coyne is not a huge fan of RationalWiki. He says that while this site appears to be mostly rational, it is also tainted with "authoritarian leftism" and has "swung too far in the opposite direction" while trying to counter Conservapedia.https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2016/02/13/rationalwiki-guts-a-readers-attempt-to-correct-its-article-on-female-genital-mutilation/
== Bibliography ==
*Coyne, Jerry A.; H. Allen Orr (2004-06-30). Speciation. Sinauer Associates Inc., Sunderland, Mass. ISBN 978-0-87893-089-0.
*Coyne, Jerry A. (2009-01-22). Why Evolution is True. Viking, New York (USA); Oxford University Press, Oxford (UK). ISBN 978-0-19-923084-6.
*Coyne, Jerry A. (2015-05-19). Faith vs. Fact: Why Science and Religion are Incompatible. Viking (USA); Penguin (UK). ISBN 978-0670026531.
== External links ==
* Why Evolution Is True (personal blog website)
* Jerry Coyne, Ph.D. (University of Chicago faculty page)
* Faith vs. Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible by Jerry A. Coyne, Viking (2015) ISBN 0670026530.
==References==
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