By Richard Dawkins
Saturday, March 04, 2023
I’m in
New Zealand, climax to my antipodean speaking tour, where I walked headlong into
a raging controversy. Jacinda Ardern’s government implemented a ludicrous
policy, spawned by Chris Hipkins’s Ministry of Education before he became prime
minister. Science classes are to be taught that Māori ‘Ways of Knowing’
(Mātauranga Māori) have equal standing with ‘western’ science. Not
surprisingly, this adolescent virtue-signalling horrified New Zealand’s
grown-up scientists and scholars. Seven of them wrote to the Listener magazine.
Three who were fellows of the NZ Royal Society were threatened with an
inquisitorial investigation. Two of these, including the distinguished medical
scientist Garth Cooper, himself of Māori descent, resigned (the third
unfortunately died). I was delighted to meet Professor Cooper for lunch, with
others of the seven. His resignation letter cited the society’s failure to
support science against its denigration as ‘a western European invention’. He
was affronted, too, by a complaint (not endorsed by the NZRS) that ‘to insist
Māori children learn to read is an act of colonisation’. Is there an
implication here – condescending, if not downright racist – that ‘indigenous’
children need separate, special treatment?
Perhaps
the most disagreeable aspect of this sorry affair is the climate of fear. We
who don’t have a career to lose should speak out in defence of those who do.
The magnificent seven are branded heretics by a nastily zealous new religion, a
witch-hunt that recalls the false accusations against J.K. Rowling and Kathleen
Stock. Professor Kendall Clements was removed from teaching evolution at the
University of Auckland, after the School of Biological Sciences Putaiao
Committee submitted the following recommendation: ‘We do not feel that either
Kendall or Garth should be put in front of students as teachers. This is not
safe for students…’ Not safe? Who are these cringing little wimps
whose ‘safety’ requires protection against free speech? What on earth do they
think a university is for?
To grasp
government intentions requires a little work, because every third word of the
relevant documents is in Māori. Since only 2 per cent of New Zealanders (and
only 5 per cent of Māoris) speak that language, this again looks like
self-righteous virtue-signalling, bending a knee to that modish version of
Original Sin which is white guilt. Mātauranga Māori includes valuable tips on
edible fungi, star navigation and species conservation (pity the moas were all
eaten). Unfortunately it is deeply invested in vitalism. New Zealand children
will be taught the true wonder of DNA, while being simultaneously confused by
the doctrine that all life throbs with a vital force conferred by the Earth
Mother and the Sky Father. Origin myths are haunting and poetic, but they
belong elsewhere in the curriculum. The very phrase ‘western’ science buys into
the ‘relativist’ notion that evolution and big bang cosmology are just the
origin myth of white western men, a narrative whose hegemony over ‘indigenous’
alternatives stems from nothing better than political power. This is
pernicious nonsense. Science belongs to all humanity. It is humanity’s proud
best shot at discovering the truth about the real world.
My
speeches in Auckland and Wellington were warmly applauded, though one woman
yelled a protest. She was politely invited to participate, but she chose to
walk out instead. I truthfully said that, when asked my favourite country,
I invariably choose New Zealand. Citing the legacy of Ernest Rutherford, the
greatest experimental physicist since Faraday, I begged my audiences to
reach out to their MPs in support of New Zealand science. The true reason
science is more than an origin myth is that it stands on evidence: massively
documented evidence, double blind trials, peer review, quantitative predictions
precisely verified in labs around the world. Science reads the billion-word DNA
book of life itself. Science eradicates smallpox and polio. Science navigates
to Pluto or a tiny comet. Science almost certainly saved your life. Science
works.
Postscript
on the flight out: Air New Zealand think it a cute idea to invoke Māori gods in
their safety briefing. Imagine if British Airways announced that their planes
are kept aloft by the Holy Ghost in equal partnership with Bernoulli’s
Principle and Newton’s First Law. Science explains. It lightens our darkness.
Science is the poetry of reality. It belongs to all humanity. Kia Ora!
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