Two weeks ago we wrote Incredible Free Offer from the Discoveroids, about a free summer seminar on intelligent design being conducted by the Discoveroids in Colorado. The deadline for applying was April first. Naturally, we expected that they’d be swamped with applications.
But it seems that we were wrong. Today, at the creationist blog of the Discovery Institute, we found a new post begging for people to sign up for the thing. It’s titled Summer Seminars in Colorado — A FREE Remedy for Cancel Culture; Applications Due April 1, and it was written by Klinghoffer. Here are some excerpts, with bold font added by us for emphasis, and occasional Curmudgeonly interjections that look [like this]:
In the current cancel culture [Huh?] , you can’t open your mouth to express a reasoned opinion without risking everything short of your life. The situation is bad in the media, but worse in academia.
Yes, it’s dangerous to be a creationist these days. Klinghoffer says:
Proponents of intelligent design experienced this well before other did. Considering what to do in light of the threat to free speech, we launched the Summer Seminars on Intelligent Design. The application deadline for this year’s Seminars is April 1. [Klinghoffer’s bold font.]
Wowie — creationists are suffering a threat to free speech, and that’s what their Summer Seminars are all about. Those folks are so brave! Klinghoffer tells us — again with his bold font:
Running June 26 to July 2, the Seminars are FREE and we can even help with transportation costs to the spectacularly beautiful Glen Eyrie Castle & Colorado Conference Center. The instructors are the stars of the ID research community. [Ooooooooooooh! The stars of the Discoveroid movement!] The students — mostly undergrads and graduate students, plus a few professionals, teachers, and professors — are a remarkably diverse and interesting group.
It sounds absolutely wonderful! He continues:
As one of our students last year said at the emotional concluding banquet, the Summer Seminars represent “science as it should be, rather than science as it is.” [Hee hee!] She was grateful to feel “safe” to explore fresh ideas about biological origins, and about the cultural consequences of those ideas. Very different from the oppressive atmosphere of many colleges and universities, here you can openly discuss the evidence for intelligent design without fear of being canceled.
Verily, it sounds like paradise — for creationists. Let’s read on:
This year’s instructors include [list of creationists].
Another excerpt:
For more information and an easy online application, go here for the Seminar on Intelligent Design in the Natural Sciences [Link omitted!], and here for the C. S. Lewis Fellows Program on Science and Society [Link omitted!].
And now we come to the end, with more of Klinghoffer’s bold font:
Do take note of that application deadline, however. April 1 is coming up fast!
Well, dear reader, what are you waiting for?
Copyright © 2023. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.
The Sensuous Curmudgeon 
I am always amazed at how the Discovery Institute attacks the closed-mindedness of mainstream academic life, which recently promoted one of their number (Behe) to full professorship, while remaining silent on how a creationist institution forced out one of their own (Dembski) for daring to question the universal nature of Noah’s flood
@Paul Braterman
Indeed.
One wonders about faculty in some institutions, senior faculty. What would become of a professor of, say, Bible, who would lose one’s job if it were discovered that they had a private opinion – not that they published it, let alone taught it – a private opinion that differed from the official doctrine. What kind of a job they could get. Their only
experience and expertise is in YEC or ID.
And then, what is a student to think. Professor X, who is a beloved teacher – what do they really think about the subject?
“Proponents of intelligent design experienced this well before other did.Proponents of intelligent design experienced this well before other did.”
Say what? The annals of the persecution complexed runs deep. In fact one martyr, who was obsessed with martyrs, was literally named Martyr, if you can believe that one.
Wowie! I SAID after your earlier post about this Summer School that I would love to go if the DI would pay my fare from England, and it sounds from this latest advert as if they are now stating their willingness to do just that, so desperate are they to fill the places on their courses. 😁
And I would be absolutely delighted to take them up on their promise that I will be free to frankly express my views on Intelligent Design in their seminars, unlike in those American universities where the students are not permitted to disagree with their professors and voice opinions not the official party line. The Discovery Institute party line is of course that Intelligent Design is the truth and” Darwinism” is wrong, whereas my own opinion is that ID is is just Creationism repackaged, and that what they call Darwinism is right, so I am thrilled that their regard for academic freedom is so strong that they will encourage me to speak up and freely critique the views of the summer school lecturers and my fellow students, without trying to shut me down, or insisting that I bow to their authority. I look forward to some really interesting discussions.😁
@sallyhawksworth
Be careful because every time Star Trek beamed down to a paradise planet it wasn’t paradise at all and the had flowers would spray brainwashing pollen on everyone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Martyr
“This notion allows him to claim many historical Greek philosophers (including Socrates and Plato), in whose works he was well studied, as unknowing Christians.”
Very convenient. This is your brain on religion folks.
@sallyhowsworth
As I read the application, one must have a recommendation which supports your interest in ID, and have an interview.
It’s funny that they have to gate-keep their attendance like that. A real scientific conference would be thrilled to have creationists attend and learn something.
Oh, sorry Klingie, I’m playing tennis that week. Maybe next year. And Sallyhawksworth, I’d be tempted to join you this year, but I think we’d both flunk the interview.
In Australenglish, to give something away usually means to stop doing it, to give up on it. “There’s Merv, still magging on about the workers’ revolution. It’s time he gave it away, I reckon.”
In that sense, I wish the DI would give it away.
@Paul D., our church hosted a creationist conference, and they were quite similar in that respect. There were parts of the conference that were intended to convert the doubting, but all of the calls for attenders went out to neighbouring churches and nowhere else.
Klinkledoofer wants to fight “cancel culture” with creation “science”. Creation “science” is a proven antidote for “wokeness”
as well. Klunker and Micky Meyers totally need to call attention to how this is a threat to “the trvth”..
“Proponents of intelligent design experienced this well before other did.”
A classic example of a Freudian typo. The typo at the end of the sentence, “before other did”, which bears a comical resemblance to how a caveman or a Frankenstein would talk, was triggered by the first words of the sentence, “Proponents of intelligent design”. Subconsciously he remembered the embarrassing “cdesign proponentsists” typo from the past, and by the end of the sentence he was tripping all over himself.
Is it OK to cancel woke-ness?
As always when discussing any aspect of politics, or any social question whatsoever, definition is crucial. What is meant by the term “wokeness”?
And what is “cancel”?
Cancel is what they did to “Heil Honey I’m Home!” after one episode.
@ Dave Luckett
As I recall, Woke Ness is a promontory in east Scotland occupied by a hamlet that receives the first rays of the morning sun.