The Scientists has a short article on Paul Mirecki, the professor of religious studies at KU who reported having been beaten up over the contents of some e-mails he had sent to a public listserv. The fact that The Scientist publishes this article now is in itself peculiar, as there has been no new developments in the case since December last year, when Mirecki reported the assault. Unfortunately, the article is a testament to the phenomenon that Mike noticed back in December, when he remarked: "An urban legend is clearly evolving into place before our eyes, where many in the blogosphere now tell the story of a professor who insulted some fundamentalists and this caused those in political power to pressure his university to have him fired while taking away his free speech." More beneath the fold.

The Scientist quotes Mirecki as saying, "I've become radioactive and the university's administrators won't support me", as well as Jennifer Gleason at KU criticizing the biology department for not "taking a stand". But what should the department take a stand on? The Scientist only quotes the part of Mirecki's e-mail about using a course on intelligent design he was offering to give a "nice slap" in the "big fat face" of "fundies". But what about the part of the e-mail where Mirecki bragged about being able to "pull Chancellor Hemenway into" the media circus this was about to become?

Furthermore, as troublesome as that e-mail was, it was nothing compared to the e-mails that would surface over the next days. In one, Mirecki told of how he, following his first communion, had swallowed his own vomit, which he considered "a big part of the Catholic experience." He continued: "I don't think most Catholics really know what they are supposed to believe, they just go home and use condoms and some of them beat their wives and husbands." Robert Hemenway called these e-mails "repugnant and vile", but The Scientist only mentions them down in the third paragraph, and then only with the bland description, "controversial comments … apparently disparaging a variety of groups and individuals".

For a comprehensive account of the case of Mirecki's beating and the myths surrounding it, I recommend Mike's post, which is just as relevant as when it was written, back in December.

(HT: Steve Jones)

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 12th, 2006 at 6:48 pm and is filed under Intelligent Design, Media, The Debate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. The trackback link is: http://telicthoughts.com/the-scientist-on-paul-mirecki/trackback/