cross-posted at Talk to Action
Yesterday, RfrancisR wrote about about a fringe fundie outfit that proposes a national registry of atheists. One of the commenters happened to find a link to a creationist, Tom Willis, suggesting that evolutionists should not be allowed to vote, and for good measure should be "expelled from civilized society." Well, I happened to track down the original document--an article in the July/August newsletter of the Creation Science Association of Mid-America. The article, entitled "Should Evolutionists Be Allowed to Vote?", is simply breathtaking in its unhinged nature.
Willis argues that believing in evolution makes it impossible to interact with others.
- They do not and can not know the purpose for Man. In fact, all of them believe Man has no purpose.
- Therefore, they cannot make informed judgments about how men should behave toward each other, or what would be "good" or "bad" for any group of men to do, or not do.
- Thus, they have no sane foundation upon which to base “laws” or rational for insisting that other men obey the laws.
- Thus, the religion they profess to believe renders them incapable of participating in any decision about what men ought to do. But, that is the purpose of all law.
- Therefore, in a sane society, evolutionists should not be allowed to vote, or influence laws or people in any way! They should, perhaps, make bricks to earn enough to eat.
Just in case you're wondering--this isn't coming from a fringe kook. This is coming from the president of the Creation Science Association of Mid-America. In other words, we have the leader of a mainstream creationist organization saying that evolutionists don't belong in our society. Whether you're a creationist or an evolutionist, this is simply unacceptable.
Earlier Willis offers the standard line that evolution's bastard child, social Darwinism, gave birth to Communism and Fascism. Ironic, since what Lewis is proposing could have easily come from Stalin, Hitler or Mussolini's playbook.
The really frightening thing is that this is coming from a supposedly mainstream outfit on the religious right. But then again, this shouldn't be entirely surprising. After all, Operation Rescue, a supposedly mainstream pro-life group, saw fit to hire Cheryl Sullenger, a convicted clinic-bomber. Sullenger, for those who don't know, is the same gal who gave George Tiller's number to Scott Roeder--in essence, giving it to a guy off the street. And yet, not only is she still on Operation Rescue's payroll, but she's been interviewed by OneNewsNow at least once.
If this is what passes for mainstream behavior on the religious right, you really have to wonder if the Latter Rain/dominionist/New Apostolic Reformation crowd really did fall too far from the tree.
Update: A lot of commenters have said that it's an oxymoron to call creationism "mainstream." Actually, Wills and his buddies ARE nominally mainstream within the religious right along with the likes of Pat Robertson, James Dobson and Don Wildmon. The NAR/Latter Rain people are supposed to be the fringe. But as this article amply demonstrates, there's less of a difference between what's "mainstream" and what's "fringe" in this outfit.
Update #2DWG points out in the comments that Willis and his organization helped draft the Kansas Board of Education's infamous science standards back in 1999. Yet more proof this guy is supposedly mainstream within the religious right.