Paul Mirecki, a University of Kansas religious studies professor wrote online that
he planned to teach intelligent design as mythology in an upcoming course. He wrote it would be a "nice slap" in the "big fat face" of fundamentalists.
In fact, the class was planned and reported on widely
A course being offered next semester by the university religious studies department is titled "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies."
"The KU faculty has had enough," said Paul Mirecki, department chairman.
"Creationism is mythology," Mirecki said. "Intelligent design is mythology. It's not science. They try to make it sound like science. It clearly is not."
It seems, Mr Mirecki's online activities torpedoed the class
The remarks caused an uproar, Mirecki apologized, and the university announced last week the class would be canceled.
But that wasn't enough for the supporters of Intelligent Design, they had to give the professor a beating as well
Lt. Kari Wempe, a spokeswoman for the Douglas County Sheriff's Department, said a deputy was dispatched to Lawrence Memorial Hospital after receiving a call around 7 a.m. regarding a battery.
She said Mirecki reported he was attacked around 6:40 a.m. in rural Douglas County south of Lawrence. Mirecki told the Journal-World he was driving to breakfast when he noticed the men tailgating him in a pickup truck.
"I just pulled over hoping they would pass, and then they pulled up real close behind," he said. "They got out, and I made the mistake of getting out."
He said the men beat him on the head, shoulders and back with their fists, and possibly a metal object.
Wempe said Mirecki drove himself to the hospital.
Intelligent response; someone disagrees with you and you beat him up?
I can understand the Professor's frustration. His decision to put together the class was a response to the boneheads on the Kansas Board of Education who in their infinite wisdom decided "to include
more criticism of evolution in science standards for elementary and
secondary pupils" which just goes to show that you do not need to be educated to serve on the board of education in Kansas or anywhere else in the US.
It is clear that Mirecki went a little over the top in his online scribblings when he wrote
"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."
The point of a University class is not to "tick off" any group but to inform people. Calling Intelligent Design mythology is informational. But his email framed the effort in confrontational terms. The ensuing response to this caused him to cancel the class and issue an apology.
"I made a mistake in not leading by example, in this student organization e-mail forum, the importance of discussing differing viewpoints in a civil and respectful manner," he said.
True 'nuff.
Hopefully cops will catch his attackers and they'll be able to think about being "civil and respectful" while spending some time in the hoosegow.
