An employee at the Discovery Institute, a conservative think tank based in downtown Seattle, received threatening e-mails last week, according to an SPD incident report.

The employee, identified in the officer’s narrative as the Institute’s Vice-President, Steven Buri, says in the report that they occasionally receive e-mails from people who disagree with the think tank’s theories and call the staff “stupid.” Three e-mails this week, however, were turned over to the police after Buri became alarmed by a specific line: “You’ve been warned asshole. Shut the fuck up or die.”

The report states that Buri is concerned because the Discovery Institute is a research group that deals, in part, with Intelligent Design*. He believes that the threats were directed at the entire Institute and not any specific staffer. Repeated calls for comment to the Discovery Institute and Buri have not been returned.

*The incident report’s author helpfully describes Intelligent Design as an “alternative to Darwinian Theory.”

61 replies on “Threats Against Discovery”

  1. The nostradamusa link appears to be broken. Not that a shopped explosion can do anything but affirm to atheists that only causation from within governs our universe.

    Sucks someone had to threaten the Discovery Institute, as threats of violence lend an implication of legitimacy to their cause. I’d like to believe it’s a plant, and I hope the authorities determine this to be the case. Regardless, I hope they get the bastard.

    But the Discovery Institute is certainly not worthy of martyrdom. Rather, their special decline and fall is to the humiliation cha-cha. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have glorious memes like the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to celebrate their absurdity.

    The Catholic Church (eventually) handled the whole heliocentrism thing by incorporating it into Church tradition, as they did, if memory serves, Evolution. This works because tradition trumps scripture. The protestants can’t do that because there is no official church to hold traditions. It’s supposed to be you and God, and no-one in between dictating how to interpret what.

    Sadly this doesn’t keep a parish well congealed, so many ministries would rather tell you who Jesus would bomb, rather than rather than ask you what you think.

    IDT is an alternative theory to evolution only for those who don’t understand the differences between the two. I’ve yet to find an IDT proponent who does.

  2. All of the cases in the film Expelled are meticulously documented in this book, proving the website expelled exposed is inaccurate and distorted.

    Footnotes don’t make the tales accurate. “Expelled” was the wrong title; it should have been “Flunked.”

  4. What I always find amusing is feminists who attack creationists but then get pissed off when you point out they are fat and ugly and you seek out more attractive partners in order to satisfy your evolutionary instincts.

    You just can’t win somedays.

  5. I suppose you are, by the same line of thought, completely understanding about it when the shallow attractive types you do find attractive dump you for the young rich guy in order to satisfy *their* evolved instincts?

    A thin physique has been a point of attraction only in the last century or two. During most of the middle ages, a woman “with meat on her bones” was ensured to survive the winter when not everybody did. We see this still in certain parts of Africa (and some cultures of the US) where, contrary to the western stereotypical definitions of ideal beauty, heavy women are preferred and chosen by the elite.

    So when you’re saying someone is fat [and therefore] ugly, you’re not acting on “evolutionary instincts”, but your childhood imprinting on Barbie and Playboy. But mostly, you’re just being an asshole.

    But we’re in luck, as women are more able to breadwin for themselves, their standards as to the male ideal becomes more flexible as well, and they’re more inclined to mate with poor sods such as yourself, provided you have any other redeeming qualities.

  6. “We see this still in certain parts of Africa (and some cultures of the US) where, contrary to the western stereotypical definitions of ideal beauty, heavy women are preferred and chosen by the elite.”

    ========

    All this means is that they are fucking retarded. They rape babies in Africa thinking it cures AIDS too.

  7. From first hand knowledge I know that this threatening e-mail was not a plant and that the Discovery Institute (DI) reported the incident believing that it would not be made public. This was not the first threat that they have received, and some threats were worse then this one, and they know it will not be the last threat, so the folks at DI were trying to deal with the problem in the best way possible. Somehow it was made public (a media leakage?) and caused more problems.

  8. First hand? How close are you to the situation, Abby?

    As I said, I have no love for the Discovery Institute, but don’t regard them as an adversary worthy of obliteration or even threats. And I still imagine that these emails, if genuine, only further their cause.

    Sadly, many folks on the atheist bandwagon are on it because it’s an alternative bandwagon, and not because they reasoned it through, and are as prone to argumentum ad baculum as those on the other side. The threat of violence in the name of a position weakens that position in the eyes of the neutral public since it conveys the illusion of desperation.

  9. All this angst because someone wrote “Shut the fuck up or die?” Big deal. When did someone blowing off steam become a reason to call in the National Guard? The Discovery Institute probably knows this was an idle threat at best, but they want to make a big deal about it so they can say they are being persecuted for their beliefs. I am not falling for this bullshit. They are using police resources, paid for by taxpayers, to advance their agenda.

    Hey Discovery Institute, Shut The Fuck Up or I’ll put a pox on your house! And send locusts and frogs and a plagues too! All the trials of Job will come your way if you do not shut the fuck up NOW!

    There. Now you have a threat of BIBLICAL proportions. Go call the police. Assholes.

  10. Well, since the DI has a history lying about everything, I distrust their story. And why would anyone want to cut off a free supply of comedy gold?
    Has anyone held that “death-threat email” up to a mirror?

  11. I never cease to be amazed as to how absolutely nasty and irrational the opponents of the Discovery Institute are. No wonder 90 percent of the population hold to some form of Intelligent Design. This blog illustrates this observation very well. Is this what Darwinism makes people into? The only rational person who calmly states their views without some nasty remarks on here is Abby. Darwinism fundamentalists are not nice people. I have carefully investigated the accusations of lying leveled against the DI and found all without any merit whatsoever. None. As I said, Darwinism fundamentalists are not very nice people and this blog proves it.

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