Francis Collins Joins the Dark Side

Pharyngula tells us that Francis "Human Genome" Collins is scheduled to appear in a TV special entitled Darwin's Deadly Legacy. You may remember Frank from such stories as humans have stopped evolving. The extremist religious zealots behind the program claim that "Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project will show why evolution is a bad idea that should be discarded into the dustbin of history."

Let's assume that Frankie got duped into appearing in this special. Maybe the wack jobs evangelicals requested that he talk about his faith and his science. With the wonders of video editing, you can make someone say something they don't mean or support a cause they don't support. I'd lay down money that Frank does not think that Darwin's theory of evolution is responsible for the rise of the Nazi party. He probably blames the damn atheists. Just kidding.

Anyway, assuming Frank got duped, he should have never put himself in this position. He has placed his religion before his job and his science. As one of the most public scientist (and one who has had influence in politics) he has certain responsibilities. One of them is to not undermine science. By affiliating his name with this project (and with Billy D, Mickey B, Phillip Johnson, and Jonathan Wells) he is lending a dash of totally undeserved legitimacy to this disgusting display of propaganda and poor scholarship.

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That post has been updated--they used his name without his permission.