The Discovery Institute is well-known for dealing in sleazy tactics: the Wedge Strategy, promoting the false linkage of evolution=>Holocaust, working to influence state school board elections while claiming not to do so, refusing to remove signers of the "Dissent from Darwinism" statement when requested to do so by the signers, using the PR firm which put the phrase "swiftboating" into our lexicon . . . the list goes on.
Their latest outrage goes well beyond the pale and shreds what remained of the Discovery Institute's integrity. Here's the headline over at Evolution News & Views:
"The Story of Jesse Kilgore and the Consequences of Teaching One Side of Evolution"
You see, the Discovery Institute is claiming that the young man committed suicide because he wasn't taught the "other side" of evolution.
That's right. The Discovery Institute, with some help from the Worldnet Daily - a publication which aspires to be as trustworthy as the National Enquirer - has decided to exploit the suicide of a young college student in order to try to get REAL science out of public school science classrooms.
According to this latest smelly salvo from the Discovery Institute, only by teaching lies under the cover of "academic freedom" can teenagers hope to keep their faith and avoid suicide. The Sensuous Curmudgeon held his nose and dove into the immense wrongness of this DI's latest smear campaign in more detail.
Could it be that a young man learning REAL science for the first time in his life came to realize that what he'd been told about Young-Earth Creationism wasn't true? Is it possible that he felt bereft by the discovery that people he loved and trusted had been misleading him for so many years?
Thoughts and prayers go out to Jesse's family and friends as they try to make sense of this tragedy. May the Lord protect Jesse's friends and family from those who are trying to reap grim publicity and sow false justification for political gain.
posted by Cheryl Shepherd-Adams
