Paranoid Darwinist academicians

Some Darwinist academicians have a paranoid fear that anti-evolutionists are conspiring to advance anti-evolution by exploiting the prestige of academic institutions. Ironically named Dr. Mark Chancey (chancey like random mutation), chair of the Department of Religious Studies (!) at Southern Methodist University, said in an article in the campus newspaper,

Unfortunately, the Discovery Institute has a track record of using SMU's prestige and academic reputation to bolster its own claims to legitimacy. Consider this quote from Phillip E. Johnson, a chief ID architect: "The movement we now call the Wedge made its public debut at a conference of scientists and philosophers held at Southern Methodist University in March 1992."

Actually, there are very good practical reasons for holding ID conferences and lectures on university campuses: (1) Universities are centers of intellectual activity, with many students and faculty members who are interested in discussions about ID; and (2) universities have large auditoriums for presenting conferences and lectures. So there is no conspiracy. ID conferences and lectures are presented on campuses for the same sort of reason that robbers rob banks, i.e., robbers rob banks because that is where the money is.

Chancey continues,

Johnson goes on to characterize that conference as "a respectable academic gathering." This language implies that SMU sponsored an academic conference in which ID proponents participated as full-fledged scholars. In fact, the 1992 event, too, was sponsored not by any academic unit of the university but by a campus ministry-a detail conspicuously absent from Johnson's description.

What? How does that language imply that SMU sponsored the conference?

Chancey's article is the subject of a Panda's Thumb post by Wesley "Ding" Elsberry.