Violent (Rhetoric) Begets Violence

This is not good. A University of Kansas religious studies professor was attacked by two assailants on Monday. While this would be unsettling news in any case, the circumstances of the incident really case a pall. Professor Mirecki, best known for a recent spat with Intelligent Design proponents which caused him to withdraw a class on ID and other 'myths'. And lest we think the incident was random, it does not appear to have been:

[Professor Mirecki] said the assailants made reference to the intelligent design controversy during the attack.

“I had no idea who they were, but they certainly knew who I was,” he said.

[He] said he was taking a long, pre-dawn drive in the country to clear his mind in wake of the recent controversy and was planning to end his drive by stopping at a restaurant for breakfast.

Mirecki said he was taking a long, pre-dawn drive in the country to clear his mind in wake of the recent controversy and was planning to end his drive by stopping at a restaurant for breakfast.

He said two men were tailgating him in a pickup truck, and he pulled over to let them pass. He said he got out of his vehicle, then they did the same and beat him.

I don't want to read too much significance into this incident, as I strongly suspect that the assailants were simply yahoos rather than part of any sort of organization.

However, I cringe to think of the jokes being made about this on conservative talk radio in the coming days, considering that the furor originally arose over Mirecki describing his 'ID as myth' class as “a nice slap in their big fat face” to "fundies" in private emails.