Re: [asa] Theistic Evolutionists Close Ranks ? Let the Bloodletting Begin!

On Jun 15, 2008, at 10:51 PM, Dennis Venema wrote:
>
> What exactly does Dembski hope to achieve with this approach? Death
> threats against TEs? Roughing them up a bit in the shadows? I find
> this language highly disturbing – not that Dembski himself might do
> same, but that some less-than-rational follower might take him at
> his word.

This is not a hypothetical, either. Judge Jones needed Secret Service
protection and this.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/07/colorado_threats

Suspect Missing in Evolution Death-Threat Case

An anti-evolutionary Christian extremist suspected of sending
threatening letters to biology professors at the University of
Colorado has gone on the lam, according to a staff member familiar
with a police investigation into the matter.

Police at the University of Colorado say they know the identity of the
individual who sent threatening letters to several biology professors
who taught evolution. However, the police won't name the individual
until they make an arrest, said detective lieutenant commander John
Kish.

Staff at the biology department have been issued a picture of Michael
Korn, a messianic Jew, who has said he is the "messenger of God" and
runs a website called JesusOverIsrael.

"(Korn's) picture has been circulated on flyers saying: 'If you see
this guy dial this number,'" said Jeffry Mitton, professor and chair
of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology, and one of the
instructors who received the threats.

"He does not seem to be around," Mitton added. "We believe he is gone,
we know not where."

Korn was seen distributing flyers suggesting the instructors were
"child molesters" for teaching evolution to students.

In the last year, a series of threatening letters and e-mails -- the
most recent referring to "killing the enemies of Christian society" --
were sent to several professors at the biology department in Boulder.
(Read more on the developing story in the Wired Science blog.)
How serious are the threats? It's unknown, but the letters appear to
mark one of the most aggressive statements yet in a growing debate
over the place of evolutionary theory in education.

At a time when the Virginia Tech and Columbine school shootings are
fresh in Americans' minds, the threats are particularly worrisome for
Mitton and his colleagues.

"Debate is fine," said Branson Hilliard, a spokesman for the
university. "But threats and invocations of violence and intimations
of violence are not what go on at a college campus. Students cannot
learn in a context of fear."

At first, professors considered the letters a nuisance, but the most
recent threats were delivered after business hours when the biology
building was closed, and police were called. The letters were slipped
under professors' doors in envelopes sealed with tape and decorated
with skull and crossbones.

This week, biology professors met several times with police about
increasing security and canceled extracurricular activities in their
building.

"There have been a lot of meetings about what times the doors will be
closed…. We've increased not only patrols around the building but also
(have police doing) walkthroughs," said Mitton.

According to Mitton, Korn appears to have skipped town. Police visited
Korn's apartment, but found that he and his wife were gone. The
apartment had been sublet and his wife had quit her job, said Mitton,
who added he has met and spoken to Korn on several occasions.

Contacted earlier this week, Korn declined to address specific
questions from Wired News, but he forwarded e-mail messages he had
previously sent to the Denver Post, which published a story on July 10
about the case.

His e-mail message didn't admit to sending the recent threatening
letters, but tried to explain their meaning.

"The skull and crossbones on the envelopes given to the EBIO
(evolutionary biology) professors symbolize the human fossils about
whose age they constantly lie to the public," Korn wrote.

Rich Blinne
Member ASA

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Mon Jun 16 09:42:13 2008