Dembski ties himself into knots over Chris Comer
15 December 2007 by The Uncredible Hallq
(Cross posted at The Uncredible Hallq)
Get this: recently, there was a flap about the director of Texas’ science curriculum was fired for forwarding an announcement of a talk by Barbara Forrest. William Dembski responded with a bet-hedging post, claiming the details of the case weren’t clear, but agreeing that if the the director (Chris Comer) had been fired “solely for supporting Forrest,” it would have been wrong. Rather than challenge that, he opted for some derisive remarks about Forrest that Ed Brayton aptly exposed. But then yesterday, he came up with a post with the eye-catching title Chris Comer’s Actual Email, revealing the shocking fact that… the Center for Inquiry (”a virulently atheistic organization”) sponsored the talk. So, it’s wrong to fire someone just for telling people about a talk by someone you disagree with, but okay to fire someone for telling people about a talk sponsored by an organization you disagree with? WTF? I’m also not sure what Dembski means by “virulently.” CFI is indeed an atheist organization, but they hardly spend all their time giving fiery denunciations of religion. I went to a CFI-sponsored talk by Forrest this summer, and the focus was entirely on the details of the Dover trial. She even showed Dembski’s famous “farting Judge Jones” video for him! And we appreciated it! Thought it was hilarious! (Though I admit we weren’t exactly laughing with Dembski there…)
Now on to the kicker: a week before Dembski’s first post on the subject, PZ Myers had already made the text of the e-mail public, complete with sarcastic comments along the lines of “Oh no! CFI was involved!” Bill, it ain’t a good sign when your enemies crack jokes about you and you quickly go do what they imagine you doing in the jokes.
16 December 2007, on 2:41 am
This whole episode would be friggin’ hilarious if it didn’t highlight the fact that the people responsible for an entire state’s science curriculum aren’t qualified to throw sawdust on hallway vomit in a kindergarden.
As for Dumbski, he’s so spectacularly, so viscerally stupid, I wonder if it’s possible for a person to neither hear the words spewing from his mouth, nor be conscious of forming those words into the incoherent “goddidits” he constantly chirps. I mean, a normal human being with just average intellect couldn’t help but cringe at Billy’s garbage.