Antievolution &Law and Politics Wesley R. Elsberry on 19 Mar 2012 07:27 am
Time Article on Coppedge v. JPL
Time’s web page has an article up by Jeffrey Kluger. Kluger is a lawyer and relates his reaction to the briefs filed in the case of David Coppedge v. Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech.
Groups like the intelligent design community are not always free to pick their poster children, and it’s unfortunate for them that Coppedge is one of theirs. It’s true enough that employers and colleagues in a science-based workplace might be uncomfortable with the idea of a coworker who believes in intelligent design. But neither the Constitution nor employee-protection laws can regulate feelings — no more than they can or should regulate belief systems. They can, however, circumscribe behavior on both sides of that faith-divide. From the filings at least, JPL appears to have stayed well within those boundaries. Coppedge appears to have jumped the rails entirely.
Yes, even disinterested third parties get it now.
JPL’s brief discusses a lack of self-awareness on Coppedge’s part. The tone-deafness isn’t just Coppedge, though. It permeates the DI and the IDC community. They are so intent on instantiating their myths that they cannot seem to wrap their heads around the idea that one of their own could be in the wrong. You’d think with all those lawyers in their camp that they would be better at this than they are.
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on 19 Mar 2012 at 12:16 pm 1.NickMatzke said …
I just posted this over there:
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“Coppedge both runs a “creative-evolution” website and serves on the board of a company that produces intelligent design videos.”
Um, no, “creative evolution” is something different. Coppedge’s website is called “Creation-Evolution Headlines.” Coppedge doesn’t believe in “creative evolution”, he’s literally an old-fashioned fundamentalist Young-Earth Creationist (YEC).
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Kind of an important difference!
on 19 Mar 2012 at 12:59 pm 2.John Pieret said …
They are so intent on instantiating their myths that they cannot seem to wrap their heads around the idea that one of their own could be in the wrong.
I think you are giving the DI too much credit for honest stupidity instead of dishonest cupidity of using a poor schmuch like Coppedge.
on 20 Mar 2012 at 2:03 am 3.Margaret said …
They don’t dare entertain the idea that one of their own is wrong. If they do that, the very foundations of their beliefs crumble to nothing. They’re doing the equivalent of sticking their fingers in their ears and yelling, “lalalalalalalalalalala I can’t hear you!”
It’s utterly foundational to them that their adherents *not* be wrong. Anything else is simply inconceivable.
on 20 Mar 2012 at 10:16 pm 4.Wesley R. Elsberry said …
I can almost hear Wallace Shawn saying that.
on 21 Mar 2012 at 10:22 am 5.Karen S. said …
Will you be posting this on the PT? I think you should.
on 22 Mar 2012 at 8:55 am 6.Wesley R. Elsberry said …
Karen, it’s up on PT. Thanks for the nudge.
on 26 Mar 2012 at 1:43 pm 7.Karen S. said …
Great! It has 82 comments so far.