Ed Brayton is a freelance writer and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
I thought I'd seen just about every ridiculous exaggeration and hysterical overreaction the religious right had to offer. Then I saw Troy Britain's post where he quotes the California Catholic Daily saying this:
Now that Darwinists rule academia, they will brook no contradiction, and they will happily commit employment assassination even against tenured professors who dare even to mention intelligent design. The Darwinists even have their own Gestapo in the National Center for Science Education led by a modern day Heinrich Himmler named Eugenie Scott.
Then later on the same moron says this:
Richard Dawkins showed utter disdain for anybody with any religious faith.
Now I've taken Dawkins to task before over this, but it takes some serious chutzpah to be as utterly ridiculous as this guy is and then be outraged that anyone shows disdain for him. I don't have the slightest disdain for someone merely for being religious, but I have enormous disdain for cretins like this guy who blithely compare my friends to Nazis. Seriously, how fucking unhinged do you have to be to claim that Genie Scott is just like Himmler? This is utterly shameless stupidity. In a sane world, the mere uttering of something that idiotic would cause physical pain for the person saying it.
Comments
It fun how a mild mannered and mild spoke man like Dawkins has been demonised, just because he questions religion!
If you read his books, or see his tv series, you will se no disdain for religious people, but why let facts get in the way . Whoever that Ernie Grimm is he sure needs to get his head checked ;)
Posted by: Soren | May 5, 2008 9:56 AM
The creationists long ago gave up any hope of inserting their beliefs into the science curriculum. I think the neo-Paleyists have come to the same conclusion after the Drubbing at Dover so both groups have agreed to take the gloves off and get down to some good, old-fashioned mudslinging as about the only option left to them. (Godwin Alert! Godwin Alert!) Goebbels would have been proud.
Posted by: Ian H Spedding FCD | May 5, 2008 10:08 AM
The really ironic part is that the Roman Catholic Church does not preach ID as part of its theology. I don't think there is an official position, but I know the belief in evolution is considered consistent with being a faithful Catholic.
Posted by: CPT_Doom | May 5, 2008 10:14 AM
Pope Pius XII declared evolution compatible with Catholicism in 1950. Pope John Paul II reaffirmed and strengthened that position in 1996. The current Pope, Benedict XVI went a step further with this statement:
Posted by: Abby Normal | May 5, 2008 10:41 AM
"Grimm's Fairy Tales" -- now with more fantasy and fewer annoying facts!!
Posted by: Rayne | May 5, 2008 12:20 PM
Ummm...Michael Behe? Still employed last I checked.
Posted by: Gerlach | May 5, 2008 12:25 PM
This is bad to compare this woman to Himmler. It is actually slander. SHe should sue. This is not bad it is outrageous.
You guys need to start hitting them with all the times some religious tyrant killed people. This is worse propaganda than Hitler and Stalin combined. I feel better and better every Sunday when I refuse to get up and go spend time with people that think like this. Or at very least give their money mindlessly to the cause in the name of the "Family" or whatever.
I am steaming pissed yet again.
Posted by: King of Ireland | May 5, 2008 12:43 PM
Related to this (via Troy's blog), Kevin Wirth shows up and refers to the next in the line of "teh stoopid" books on "help help we're being repressed"
The book is supposed to called silencing of dissent or some such like name. What I like is even the authors of this book refer to it by a great acronym - SOD.
Yes, SOD.
They must be using the same PR groups as Premise Media... or its the best Poe since Lou FCD's and Mister DNA's most excellent work.
Posted by: szqc | May 5, 2008 12:49 PM
Sounds like a take from someone's whose watched "Expelled" for the 643rd time.
Posted by: CHV | May 5, 2008 1:30 PM
The Darwinists even have their own Gestapo in the National Center for Science Education led by a modern day Heinrich Himmler named Eugenie Scott.
*spit-take*
I've met Eugenie Scott on several occasions. Calling her a "modern day Heinrich Himmler" sounds like a joke.
As for Dawkins "showing utter disdain for anybody with any religious faith," I think he has gone to pains to make it clear that his scorn and criticism is directed towards the specific factual claims of religion, certain moral aspects of some of the religions, and the cultural idea that faith is an ennobling trait. It's unworthy of the believers, who are for the most part better than that.
Posted by: Sastra | May 5, 2008 1:37 PM
"Expelled has nothing to do with creationism" - David Berlinski
Posted by: Bayesian Bouffant, FCD | May 5, 2008 1:39 PM
Why are the ID proponents, and creationists in general, so Nazi-obcessed?
Posted by: Suricou Raven | May 5, 2008 3:11 PM
"Why are the ID proponents, and creationists in general, so Nazi-obcessed?"
Shock value to get people to fear "secular humanists" and the destruction of society. The problem is that I am the rare Christian that will come on a sight like this and get the whole story.
Posted by: King of Ireland | May 5, 2008 5:39 PM
They trivialize the Holocaust. Maybe it's because they are so intellectually deficient that they can't come up with better analogies.
Posted by: NP | May 5, 2008 6:26 PM
Re: Himmler be sure to see Oscar winner The Counterfeiters
Then think about it....
Posted by: ds | May 5, 2008 7:02 PM
I was curious about this publication because this was a strange piece for a Catholic newspaper. Looking up the publisher, I see that it's Jim Holman, the ultraconservative Catholic publisher of the San Diego Reader and several non-Church sanctioned "Catholic" publications. According to one description I read, Holman began publishing his own Catholic newspaper to challenge the Catholic hierarchy for not being orthodox enough -- which in my experience means they aren't crackpot enough for his tastes.
Posted by: Dr X | May 5, 2008 7:46 PM
It takes all the fun out of refuting creationist arguments when they trip over Godwin's Law and automatically lose the argument.
Posted by: Bobby | May 5, 2008 8:32 PM
This reminds me of that Family Guy episode where Peter makes all the horrible ass jokes and then caps it by saying "Sphincter" totally out of the blue. Except with Nazis. And instead of being witty and funny, its just pathetic, lazy and funny.
Posted by: Julian | May 6, 2008 1:59 AM
Who is the person immeadiately subodrdinate to Eugenie Scott?
I'm willing to bet Troy Britian won't be refering to them as "a latter day Heinrich Muller".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_M%C3%BCller_%28Gestapo%29
Posted by: DingoJack | May 6, 2008 3:42 AM
As a not-distant-enough-for-comfort relative of Herman Göring, I wonder why nobody is ever compared to that big slob?
What's a Nazi gotta do to get some respect?
Posted by: Ick of the East | May 6, 2008 6:12 AM
!! STUPID ALERT !!
you want stupid? I'll give you stupid! (via Eschaton)
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/may/05/substitute-teacher-says-wizardry-accusation-cost-h/?news-breaking
Posted by: Kevin | May 6, 2008 9:20 AM
Ed:
Seriously, how fucking unhinged do you have to be to claim that Genie Scott is just like Himmler?
Plenty unhinged, IMHO. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop people like Stein and the douchebag extraordinaire who wrote what you quoted either saying or authoring some of the most shamelessly delusional BS of recent vintage.
My opinion is that this is what happens when little agitprop productions like Expelled fail miserably: the idea seems to be that if you can't use two buckets of steaming manure to smear your opponents, use six.
Posted by: Chris Krolczyk | May 6, 2008 8:01 PM