Ed Brayton's lame excuses for Mark Farmer

There is a big controversy over an email that Darwinist Mark Farmer sent to Larry Caldwell in regard to Caldwell's organization called "Quality Science Education for All".

Ed Brayton wrote,

Farmer had written to Caldwell and said:

"Specifically I would like to know whether or not you support the word of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ being taught in our public schools. This is an issue I feel very strongly about and would need to know your position before making a decision to financially support QSEA."

And Caldwell took this to mean that Farmer advocates teaching about the word of Jesus Christ in public schools. But it doesn't say anything about advocating or supporting that; it says that he "feels very strongly" about it. And in fact he does; he feels very strongly that it has no place in a science classroom, but might have a place in an objectively taught comparative religion class.

This is the kind of weaseling that makes it virtually impossible to debate about anything with Ed "It's my way or the highway" Brayton. There is nothing in the above quotation of Farmer that makes any distinction between teaching the word of Jesus in science class and teaching it in a comparative religion class. And what is taught in comparative religion classes is not relevant to the QSEA. The QSEA's mission and policy statements -- here and here -- make it clear that QSEA is concerned only with science education.

Ed continues,

His reply to Caldwell makes that very clear, yet he and Luskin are still using that quote as though it proved that Farmer was "posing as a Creationist who advocates including religious teachings in biology."

Even though Farmer is not "posing" as such a Creationist now, he was certainly "posing" as such a Creationist when he sent the email message above. Caldwell naturally assumed that Farmer was talking about science education because QSEA is concerned only with science education.