Mirecki’s e-mail was sent Nov. 19 to members of the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics, a student organization for which he serves as faculty adviser.
“The fundies (fundamentalists) want it all taught in a science class, but this will be a nice slap in their big fat face by teaching it as a religious studies class under the category mythology.”
Mirecki addressed the message to “my fellow damned” and signed off with: “Doing my part to (tick) off the religious right, Evil Dr. P.”
During the weekend, Chancellor Robert Hemenway began a review of Mirecki’s e-mail, which resulted in Mirecki’s apology, issued Monday night. He called it “an ill-advised e-mail I sent to a small group of students and friends.”
What’s wrong with the email, exactly?
Isn’t it the right wing who’s always talking about the pc thought police?
I wonder what words were replaced by the parenthetical “(tick)”?
He shouldn’t have apologized; furthermore, any public school with religion courses should be forced to teach evolutionary science in those same classes.
Mirecki is the department head who said:
“Creationism is mythology. Intelligent design is mythology. It’s not science. They try to make it sound like science. It clearly is not.”
While I agree with what he says, a department head should excercise a bit of control; now the fundies can target him as an oppressor.
I mean the e-mail. The science quote is fine because a statement of fact can not be oppressive.
Yeah. I think he shouldn’t be too shocked that email got leaked and came back to slap him.
He has my empathy, though. Must be fuckin’ hard to be on the rational side of this battle right now in Kansas. They must get up every day thinking “What are the fundies going to attack us with today?” He probably just finally snapped.
so apparently it’s not ok to have an opinion and express it if you’re a university professor?
“Rep. Brenda Landwehr, vice chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, called the e-mail “venomous,” adding, “He’s not sorry he wrote it. He’s sorry it became public.”"
He shouldn’t be sorry he wrote it, if that’s how he really believes. If the situation were reversed, and he had been a devout christian and wrote something like “The godless heathens (atheists) only want evolution taught in a science class, but this will be a nice slap in their big fat face by teaching ID as science.”, would he have had to apologize?
Free speech? Academic freedom? What happened to America?
It’s interesting that he can get in trouble for telling the truth about ID, but IDiots can lye their asses off and no one bats an eyelash.
I’m with vjack - what has happened to America?
Lya:
Man (I mean Lady, sorry) are you right! Since the masses believe it, speaking out means getting ostracized (sp?).
“Man (I mean Lady, sorry)”
That’s cool. My balls are bigger than most men I know, anyway. *jk*
“Since the masses believe it, speaking out means getting ostracized (sp?).”
On the AN forum there was recently a poster who called themself “Intelligent Designer” who went there specifically to find atheists to debate the finer points of the controversy with. Aside from having his/her ass handed to them fairly quickly - that poster proved once again that those who are in support of ID know fuck-all about evolution.
I just blogged about this on my own, and I think I’ll repost it here.
[…] Just wanted to give a follow-up for that Kansas Professor: […]