Angry Astronomer

This post is current.

Looks like Dembski is up to some radically stupid new tricks. For those that aren't familiar with the background of this story let's first introduce the new players:

Dr. Eric Pianka is a professor at University of Texas Austin. He is freqently called by his moniker "Dr. Doom" due to his doomsday predictions that can be quite graphic as to a looming epedimic that will destroy most of the population of Earth.

However, there's some out there that feel that Pianka is doing more than predicting and they have formulated conspiracy theories to explain that he is in fact plotting some sort of secret biological warfare, dispite the complete lack of evidence. However, we know several people that like theories without evidence. Just as long as the pet theory is supported by people with lots of money they'll support it. Forrest M. Mims III happens to be one of those people that's got lots of money and is well known (he's the guy that writes how-to's on electronic circuits frequently available at Radio Shack) and he supports this theory that somehow, Dr. Doom's predictions somehow equal actions.

So now we come to Dembski, our favourite mathematician turned loony. It seems Dembski thinks that Dr Pianka is such a threat, that it is his civic duty to report Pianka to the Department of Homeland Security.

In his blog he writes:

Could Pianka be charged with terrorism/conspiracy to commit a terrorist act? What happens if a student actually takes his suggestion to heart and kills a bunch of people? Why shouldn’t we think that Dr. Doom himself would commit the act of human destruction he is advocating? How is what he is saying any different from somebody at an airport saying that he plans to plant a bomb there. Note: This is not a matter of saying he actually has planted a bomb but saying that he plans to plant one — that surely would be enough in the current climate to get him arrested. So what about Pianka? At what point do his remarks advocating human destruction constitute a terrorist threat that get him arrested? And if not arrested, how about committed?

So let me get this straight Billy. If someone preaches that the end of the world is coming and they might actually be someone relieved, they're a threat to this country and potential terrorists? If that's true, then perhaps we should consider that the hundreds of thousands of Christians over at Rapture Ready need to be arrested for being potential terrorists. And how many millions have gobbled up the Left Behind series? I bet they're all gleefully anticipating the Armageddeon.

But that's all a bit of hyperbole. I doubt anyone sane would advocate that.

Except that's precisely what Dembski has done. I could simply brush him off as insane, but these actions seem a little too intentional for me to do that so quickly.

Instead, Dembski's latest trick is just another of the ID crowd's attacks on science. They don't want to hear about evolution so they try to replace it with stealth creationism or at the very least, make up false critisisms to make unwitting citizens think evolution is a flawed thory.

Dr. Pianka's views also don't mesh with their biblical outlook, so they attempt to censor him by branding him a potential terrorist (wait... didn't I just post something about the ID crowd whining that they're the ones being censored?). So what's going to be next? Censoring scientists that speak about the dangers of global warming? Oh wait... they already have.

So where is this attack on science going to end? From what I'm seeing, these anti-science revolutionaries intent is to remove anything that conflicts with their worldview. And they'll use any methods, from lying, to censorship to accomplish it.