Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
The desperation of the Discovery Institute is clearly on display in a fundraising appeal they've sent out seeking to exploit the suicide of a college student to get people to send them money. Cheryl Shepherd-Adams has the fundraising letter, which is based on the story from a few weeks ago about Jesse Kilgore killing himself and his parents and the right wing media blaming it on having read a Richard Dawkins book.
This isn't the first time they've tried to exploit this guy's suicide for their own purposes. Anika Smith already wrote an idiotic post on the DI blog declaring that Kilgore's suicide shows "the Consequences of Teaching One Side of Evolution." After all, this kid was raised a creationist; he already got the other side. But it's even more shameless to try and raise money off his death. Here's how the letter begins:
December 11, 2008Dear [name redacted]:
Jesse Kilgore was an earnest young college student who loved to debate issues. But just a few weeks ago, Jesse killed himself.
According to friends and relatives, Jesse had read biologist Richard Dawkin's book The God Delusion and was devastated by it. One of Jesse's relatives recalled a recent conversation:
"[Jesse] mentioned the book he had been reading - The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins - and how it along with the science classes he had eroded his faith. Jesse was always great about defending his beliefs, but somehow, the professors and the book had presented him information that he found to be irrefutable."
When I read Jesse's story, my heart broke - not only for Jesse, but for all of the other students who are facing similar despair right now.
Ideas do have consequences, and the Darwinists' assertion that life is the product of an unguided process can have a devastating impact on young hearts and minds.
That second to last paragraph should read, "When I read Jesse's story, my eyes lit up with dollar signs knowing I could exploit this to get my credulous followers to send in more money." Here comes the pitch:
*$2000 will provide a full scholarship for a college student to attend our summer seminar.*$200 will fund the production of an episode of our internet radio show.
*$50 will enable us to send free educational materials to a teacher.
There used to be a series of ads with the slogan "a mind is a terrible thing to waste." That statement is true for Jesse Kilgore, and it's true for the millions of young people right now who remain unprepared to face the claims of the Darwinian atheists. Please enable us to challenge these claims head-on in the coming year with a message of hope.
Shameless. Absolutely shameless.
Politics
Comments
Might want to throw a comma or something in there. Dawkins isn't inspiring patricide... yet! (Although if he can encourage people to kill the right wing media, good for him!)
Posted by: jpf | December 24, 2008 9:31 AM
There used to be a series of ads with the slogan "a mind is a terrible thing to waste." That statement is true for Jesse Kilgore, and it's true for the millions of young people right now who remain unprepared to face the claims of the theory of evolution.
I am in absolute agreement with this statement (after fixing the stupid on the end). I just come to a completely different conclusion.
Posted by: DuWayne | December 24, 2008 9:35 AM
Loosing faith in the sky papa can be frightening and disillusioning but it is a necessary step in becoming a responsible and independent person.
Just as finding out there is no Santa Claus is painful until you realize it means there isn't some fat old man watching you 24/7.
Posted by: Lance | December 24, 2008 9:41 AM
But I thought Intelligent Design didn't have anything to do with religion?
Posted by: slpage | December 24, 2008 9:45 AM
What I don't understand about their using this incident is that it looks more like an embarrassment for their side. Take this sentence: "Jesse was always great about defending his beliefs, but somehow, the professors and the book had presented him information that he found to be irrefutable." Doesn't that sound like his beliefs have, you know, been refuted?
That Dawkins' atheistic argument is so devastatingly irrefutable that it will drive theists -- even ones that have been "great about defending their beliefs" -- to suicide out of despair for their inability to defend against it doesn't exactly instill one with faith in the god hypothesis. I mean, what's the narrative pitch they're going for here? "We can't let the children learn the awful atheistic truth that we all deep down know"? Or maybe "Dawkins is using Satanic mind-control through his books"?
I can understand how "Dawkins' book killed a guy" would cause in these sorts a knee-jerk desire to point and say "I told you so!", but I don't think they've really thought through the implications.
Posted by: jpf | December 24, 2008 9:53 AM
jpf, they're Creationists. They NEVER think about implications.
Posted by: Iason Ouabache | December 24, 2008 10:05 AM
I'll have to take your word for that. In an irresponsible way, of course.
I would like to point out that the evidence that Jesse killed himself because of the book is lacking. The kid discovered that the Flintstones is not reality TV; this is not normally a psychic shock equal to suicide.
Posted by: kehrsam | December 24, 2008 10:16 AM
I'd put better than even odds that Kilgore was gay, and his family's hatred of gays was what pushed him over the edge. My gaydar isn't 100%, especially from just a photo, but it's certainly a possibility. And his dad's statement had an awful lot of "if he had been gay" in it.
Posted by: Johnny Vector | December 24, 2008 10:57 AM
And yet so par for the course. These people have failed to master the debate on rational grounds, so they resort to smears of the lowest caliber.
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | December 24, 2008 11:13 AM
I completely agree with the letter that ideas have consequences (i.e. what you believe impacts what you do with your life).
The issue that seems to separate scientists from religious fanatics, then, is how to deal with disturbing ideas that appear to be true. Do we teach our children to deal with these disturbing ideas, or do we lie to our children about how true they appear to be?
Posted by: eric | December 24, 2008 11:41 AM
Is there any reliable source for Jesse Kilgore story? All I could find was refs to the WND & the rest of the pro-ID echo chamber. Do we have any reason to believe that any of the details are accurate?
Posted by: Hrafn | December 24, 2008 12:22 PM
They typical zealot prefers option 3: implant in your offspring a psychological kill-switch that tells them life has no meaning if those disturbing ideas are true.
Posted by: DaveL | December 24, 2008 12:31 PM
Posted by: H.H. | December 24, 2008 12:47 PM
As a recovering fundie christian, let me assure you that it's -not- easy. I wasn't born or raised in it (I brainwashed myself voluntarily, over a girl *sigh*) so it was probably a lot easier for me to leave once I got tired of feeling bad about myself all the time. This Kilgore kid was raised in it, though. I can't imagine what finding out that god is not must have done to him.
A brief shameless plug - if there are any other recovering christians out there, stop by www.ex-christian.net. It's easy to feel like you're the only one who's ever left, but you're not.
Posted by: Echo | December 24, 2008 12:51 PM
Yeah, those folks over at the DI are sure desperate for money ever since Bill Gates figured out what a bunch of twits they are are stopped giving them money. They were used to being a big budget operation and made big plans. The change in funding has been as much of a blow to their collective ego as there "Ten Year Plan".
Posted by: Ferrous Patella | December 24, 2008 4:10 PM
Shameful, that they've fallen apart so far they have to fall back on the standard Christian fundraising arguments. For a while they were able to farm out the dirty work of fundraising to other organizations mostly behind the scenes, but not anymore!
The tactic itself isn't news, though. Christian fundraising only uses two:
1) It must suck to be them: Look at this hungry transient/single mom/Ethiopian. Now give us some money.
2) It must suck to be you: So hang out with us! Look, I'm telling you that it sucked to be me, but now that I'm the pastor it doesn't. So it must work, right? Hey, that reminds me, give us some money.
Posted by: John | December 24, 2008 9:06 PM
Some people go to absurd extremes in order to defend their ideological beliefs - we saw that with the Nazi overload in Expelled, and now with this kid's case. And I for one find it absurd that he would have killed himself over a book - there was probably other things going on in his life. Suicides can sometimes be difficult for family members and friends to rationalize - because often people who commit suicide are so depressed that they weren't thinking straight. So I can somewhat understand why the father wants to attribute his son's death to a book - but for the DI to do it in order to raise cash is just shallow.
Posted by: NP | December 24, 2008 11:26 PM
When there's a tragedy, there's always someone out there to exploit it. It's completely shameless but not unexpected given the anti-evolution rhetoric that's come before it.
Posted by: Kel | December 25, 2008 1:58 AM
I'll go out on a limb here and assume that Jesse had read the bible sometime prior to his suicide.
Therefore, I feel confident in asserting that the bible led him to kill himself.
Posted by: Al E. | December 25, 2008 1:12 PM
$2000 for a summer seminar??? What the hell? I guess it's not worth saving souls for free. If I still had a Bible I would quote that part about Jesus up-ending tables and throwing the money changers out of the temple.
Posted by: Jackie | December 26, 2008 12:01 AM
I wonder what the suicide rate is for people leaving a cult.
Posted by: Richard Eis | December 26, 2008 6:46 AM
Interesting article. Its no different than the Discovery foundation. The Discovery group presents a point that differs from the atheist view. Some comments I see hear show an ignorance of their view and a bias that God does not exist. "Sky papa".. "Being a repsonsible indepentent" person. Claims that a "Creationist" isnt such..all this shows a hate towards people who differ in ideas and a presuppositional view that God does not exist. You can reenforce your own ideas here, thats fine but you arent doing with science, decency or logic.
Creationism is the belief that God exists and that God could do as He pleases. If this premise is true, then God could create the universe as He sees fit. Let one person present scientifically, logically or philosophically evidence that this could not be true.
The problem DI faces is that many atheists, ( not all) seem to think they have all the answers and they get them from science. In reality most dont understand science or how it works, they just read a few web sites and become instant professors.
While Im not a Creationist, I cannot agree with this characterization you give it here, its just as dogmatic, biased. hypocritical and presuppositionalist as any creationist. Sure, no atheist solicits money as the DI does...heh... ever look at the Freedom From Religion Group?
Posted by: Vess | December 29, 2008 6:07 AM