Nick Matzke has added an addendum to the bottom of Gary Hurd's post about Mirecki at the Panda's Thumb. I didn't know he was going to do this, but I'm glad he did and it only reinforces the enormous respect I already had for him. While I'm slightly more inclined to be skeptical than Nick is, I don't find anything unreasonable at all in the scenario he draws out for what he thinks happened. It is entirely plausible to me, which doesn't necessarily mean it's true. My argument from the beginning of this has been that reasonable people, regardless of what side of the evolution/ID divide they may be on, can come to different conclusions on this one.
None of us knows what really happened other than Mirecki and whoever assaulted him. And that's why I am content to wait for the results of the investigation before lobbing bombs across the DMZ. I only wish that the extremists on both sides would have considered that before rolling out the big rhetorical guns on one another (and irony of ironies, my call for caution got me described by one such person as a "reactionary" in all of this!). There is a reasonable middle ground on this that acknowledges the possibilities but withholds final judgement, and then there are the folks on the fringe who are looking for any excuse to unload on one another. And unfortunately, the reasonable folks in the middle on both sides are the ones caught in the crossfire.
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Ed, What specificly are you skeptical about? You said you believe that Mirecki did get roughed up - and you don't believe he did it to himself. How do you feel about Michele Malkin calling up the hospital to try to get information about Mirecki? Don't you think that's over the top.
Altevogt's agenda goes far - he wants the SOMA group disbanded and the Chancellor of Kansas fired:
from LJWorld (quoted in a recent post of mine on the topic):
John Altevogt, a conservative columnist and activist in Kansas City, visited the student group's list serv and compiled a series of Mirecki's comments made in recent years.
Altevogt sent the compilation to the media, politicians, university officials and others.
The following day, Thursday, the university announced the course's closure.
Altevogt said cutting the course was the wrong outcome.
"This is again a meaningless gesture," he said.
Altevogt said he was concerned about the focus of the religious studies department and he wants to see Mirecki and another faculty member moved to another department. He said he also wanted the religious studies department cleaned up and perhaps transferred to a religious organization that can monitor it; the chancellor fired, and the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics student group kicked off campus.
EY: This is the sort of thing that should be strongly criticized. Instead, what I seem to hear from you is you are skeptical of Mirecki's story, but can't clearly explain why.
lloydletta wrote:
I'm skeptical that he was targeted because of his advocacy of ID or anti-religious statements. I think there are many other possibilities for just routine run-ins or fights and that he may be blaming it on that as a way of making himself a martyr of sorts. I don't know that this happened, of course, but I think it's a possibility given the unusual nature of the situation given the cautions I was given by those who have more knowledge of Mirecki's behavior than I do. But that's it, it's just a possibility. I don't claim it must be true and I'm not accusing him of doing anything wrong. I just think there is sufficent reasonable doubt to take a wait and see attitude.
It may well be, but that has nothing to do with my statement. I have to confess to being baffled by those who respond to my statements of doubt by pointing out that some folks on the other side have behaved badly. That's certainly true, but it has no logical connection to anything I've said. Granted, many on the other side have behaved badly, but that doesn't have any bearing on whether there are reasonable doubts about the details of his beating story. John Altevogt is first class jerk on a political crusade. All the more reason why we should not be acting like him.