The Evolution 2010 meetings are taking place in Portland, Oregon as you read this (unless, of course, you’re reading this in The Future, in which case they’re all done) and Jen McCreight is attending and presenting there. She attended a symposium on communicating science which, unfortunately, turned out to be one-sided atheist bashing and the promotion of theistic accommodation — no dissenting views were offered, despite the fact that us ungodly assertive atheists are such a prominent part of the voice of evolution that they needed to discourage attendees from listening to us.

I get this impression that scientific organizations are so afraid of the Dawkins-like trumpet of atheist voices that they’re actively maneuvering to exclude their point of view from sessions like this, when all it does is reduce them to tepid tedium, lacking all fire and passion. They should at least throw in one token assertive atheist to spark some interesting discussion. Heck, Jerry Coyne is right there right now, although it sounds like he’s more interested in sampling great Thai food, the clever guy.