[*I have removed my real name for privary purposes]
In this thread, the administrators of the Baptist Board write:
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FROM THE ADMINISTRATOR
Earlier in this thread, Derwood* made this statement:
Behe’s personal incredulity is evidence of nothing but the fact that the answers he demands have not been found yet or have not been investigated yet – indeed, Behe has done ZERO research on the areas he claims to have evidence for design in.
This statement drew the response from the Administrator posting that morning that if Derwood's statement was found to be false, it would be considered slander against Behe and Derwood would be banned from the board.
The following URL's indicate that Behe is an active research scientiest:
http://www.lehigh.edu/~inbios/behe.html
http://www.discovery.org/crsc/fellows/MichaelBehe/
Scott Page will no longer be allowed to make any contributions to this board. This is the only banning we have had to make so far on this board and we hope it will be the last. We understand that the evolution and creation debates cause a lot of intense reactions among some, however lying about others will not be tolerated here. Slander on this board can put us in legal jeopardy as well and will not be tolerated for that reason, too.
Our public apologies to Dr. Behe for what was posted here. We are leaving it up along with this so that Derwood will not be able to lie about what happened here.
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I am sure that you can all easily see the laughable mistake that has led these poor folks astray - astray into the realm of committing an actionable offense - all in an effort to prop up their position and to defame my character.
Libel:
2 a : a written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression b (1) : a statement or representation published without just cause and tending to expose another to public contempt (2) : defamation of a person by written or representational means
To sum up, the Baptist Board Administrators claim:
1. that I lied about Behe being a research scientist and
2. that I would lie about what transpired there
That is, they have publicly claimed, in a written form, that I am a liar. This is clearly defamatory and what is worse for them, based on their own stupidity -they (purposefully?) misinterpreted what I actually wrote!
Here again what I originally wrote, emphasis mine:
"Behe's personal incredulity is evidence of nothing but the fact that the answers he demands have not been found yet or have not been investigated yet - indeed, Behe has done ZERO research on the areas he claims to have evidence for design in."
BB admin writes, emphasis mine:
"The following URL's indicate that Behe is an active research scientiest(sic):"
I did not claim or even imply with my statement that he is not a research scientist, rather - and what should have been clear - I wrote that he does not and did not do any research on the areas in which he indicates he has evidence for design, namely cilia/flagella, blood clotting cascade, visual cascade - the very topics he discusses in his book, a quote form which I had originally been responding to.
I am taking this very seriously...
UPDATE
The 'administrators' at the Baptist Board have removed not only their libelous rant against me, but my much censored post from the thread in question. They have issued a vague and somewhat irrelevant retraction and apology, though they attempt to put themselves in the best possible light by referring to issues that were not even relevant to the quotes in question. I reproduce their post below, with my comments in italics:
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posted July 22, 2002 10:32 AM
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The accusation, since deleted, was previously made on this thread by Dr.Derwood that “ [Dr. Michael] Behe has done ZERO research on the areas he claims to have evidence for design in.” This was challenged by the Administrator and termed slander. Derwood has demanded a retraction of that statement.
A partial retraction can be made regarding what Derwood probably meant to say.
Just as an aside, notice that they refer to Behe as "Dr.Behe" and to me as "Derwood." This is common creationist practice. Dr. Behe has written a book, Darwin’s Black Box in which he describes biological functions he considers irreducibly complex. Regarding research for this book on irreducible complexity, Dr. Behe was kind enough to respond to our email request for clarification on this issue as follows:
quote:
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No, of course I haven't done lab research on the systems described in
Darwin's Black Box. That's easily seen by looking at the references in the book.
I chose widely-known, textbook examples of complex biochemical systems, not ones
that would somehow depend on work I'd done in my own lab. For my money, that
makes the argument more powerful, more widely accessible.
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If Page meant Dr. Behe’s lack of personal research for his book and on the subject of irreducible complexity, then Derwood’s statement was correct.
However, that is not what Derwood said. He stated that Behe had done no research in areas he claims to have evidence for DESIGN in. This is a different matter. Behe’s research is in part what led him to be involved in the Intelligent Design movement, as documented in the video “Unlocking the Mystery of Life” produced by Illustra Media, 2002, in which Behe is interviewed.
Gee - the quote from Behe that I had replied to was not from some video interview, it was from his book:
"Our ability to be confident of the design of the cilium or intracellular transport rests on the same principles to be confident of the design of anything: the ordering of separate components to achieve an identifiable function that depends sharply on the components”.
Behe freely admits that he does no research in these areas, so the Baptist Board censors are still very much in the wrong, but, being Young Earth Creationist zealots, they will not allow that they might actually be incorrect about something...
Thus, the way Derwood’s statement reads, he is wrong. However in considering what he probably meant regarding the evidence used in the book for irreducible complexity, he is right. We also apologize to Dr.Derwood for references to dishonesty on his part.
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Emphasis mine. Maybe they should have ASKED ME what I "really meant" if their comprehension skills are so bad that they could not tell?
The Baptist Board administrators did not once ask me to clarify my position. Instead, as most creationist Internet discussion forum administrators tend to do, they engaged in a combination smear campaign against me and a "hero protection" campaign for Behe.
Amazing what fanatical religious beliefs do to one's mind...
