Prof denied grant over evolution

Peggy Curran and Randy Boswell In Canada.com:

A clash between McGill University and the key federal agency that funds social science research in the country is sparking a scholarly debate in Canada about the theory of evolution.

McGill University says the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council made a “factual error” when it denied Professor Brian Alters a $40,000 grant on the grounds that he’d failed to provide the panel with ample evidence that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is correct.

Jennifer Robinson, McGill’s associate vice-principal for communications, said the university has asked the SSHRC to review its decision to reject Alters’s request for money to study how the rising popularity in the United States of “intelligent design” – a controversial creationist theory of life – is eroding acceptance of evolutionary science in Canada.

More here.  [Thanks to Setare Farz.]