“Hi. I’m Paul Mirecki. I hate God and everyone who prays to Him.”
According to Fox News, a University of Kansas professor who created a class designed to attack Christianity and Intelligent Design theories was beaten by a couple of thugs yesterday.
Last week, Mirecki asked the university to cancel the class after he created a furor by sending an e-mail to a student organization mocking Christian fundamentalists.
Mirecki had referred to religious conservatives as “fundies,” and said a course describing intelligent design as mythology would be a “nice slap in their big fat face.” He has apologized for those comments.
In point of fact, Mirecki did not apologize to the targets of his ridicule, but to his bosses. Here is his “apology”
I accept full responsibility for an ill-advised e-mail I sent to a small group of students and friends that has unintentionally impugned the integrity and good name of both the university and my faculty colleagues. My words were offensive, and I apologize to all for that. (Read the full text on Thoughts From Kansas blog.)
Mirecki goes on to regret having used uncivil words and name-calling, but he never apologizes to those whom he called names. Figures. This guy must be nominated for the Ward Churchill Chair for Professorial Politics.
We shouldn’t go around beating up on liberal professors, kids. Pity him for his Al Franken glasses, Michael Moore physique, and Jessica Simpson intellect.
UPDATE: Prof. Mirecki made the anti-Fundamentalist comments on a listserv that seems to betray his view of God:
According to InsideHigherEd.com,
[T]he head of the **Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics **at the University of Kansas, whose listserv posted the remark, confirmed its authenticity.
However, Andrew Stangl, president of the group, added that politicians in Kansas have taken the posting completely out of context by suggesting that Mirecki was mocking all Christians or all religious people. Stangl said that in the context of the larger discussion in which Mirecki was participating, it was clear that he was talking only about supporters of requiring the teaching of intelligent design.
Stangl also said that the listserv is closed and Mirecki thought that he was sharing his views only with the groups members, but that a mole had apparently leaked the comments to newspapers in Kansas. We assumed that people would have better things to do than monitor a secular groups e-mails and activities with the intent of using them against us or our members, he said. (emphasis mine)