A University of Toronto professor led a recruitment session for the Raelians Thursday evening, a religious group that believes aliens created life on earth and claims to have produced human clones. The session, which ran at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, was advertised as “Intelligent Design: A New Twist on an Old Debate,” seemingly related to a debate that took place the prior week run by the Secular Alliance campus group (see “Intelligent design, dumb science?” in the Sept. 15 issue of The Varsity).
The speaker, Prof. David Burman, was introduced as “a U of T graduate of the Faculty of Medicine with a degree in behavioural medicine.” However, when pressed by The Varsity after the talk he admitted that “my degree is in aboriginal medicine, not behavioural medicine.”
Burman’s talk focused on the general terrible state of the world.
“Two hundred and fifty individuals own as much as half the world’s population. Right now nature has no meaning but to be exploited. We need to create a new consciousness to get through this. Capitalism isn’t doing it. God isn’t doing it.” Another speaker, Diane Brisebois, attacked the opponents of genetically modified food.
“The government instills fears about genetically modified organisms because they are not profitable,” she said. “What sells newspapers? Fears.”
A promotional video shown featured a young woman encouraging the audience to become Raelians.
“…[T]he Elohim [the aliens] want us to overcome fear and enjoy life, feel good, and embrace science. Come join us to prepare for the arrival of the Elohim.”
After the video, Brisebois led the audience through a meditation session. “Think of the tiny cells at the tips of your toes. You’re feeling good, totally at peace, connected with infinity.”
Although most religious groups are legitimate, many try to attract students into their ranks at recruitment sessions guised as a conference, debate, or similar presentation. The Raelians hold meditation sessions every second Sunday at OISE.
“I think it’s a bit over the top,” said second-year science student John Soltis. “They advertise this as a discussion but it’s actually a recruitment thing.” Another young woman disagreed.
“It’s good,” she said. “It’s incorporating science and religion and everything. It’s time to interpret things in a way we understand it.” When asked if she was a Raelian, the young woman, who wore a Raelian symbol around her neck, smiled and said, “Oh no. I’m just a student.”
When Burman was asked what he wanted U of T students to learn from this article, he replied that they should “challenge [their] assumptions.”
