Email sent:

President Bruininks,



I fully support Professor PZ Myers and his recent blog post that condemns the ridiculous antics of the Catholic League. Professor Myers' blog, Pharyngula, provides a refreshing drop of reason into the reeking and stagnant pool that is the American public square, which is overflowing with religious superstition. Professor Myers is an important voice. Religious fanatics, emboldened by our country's rights concerning freedom of conscience, seem to confuse respect for an individual's right to follow his/her conscience with respect for the ideas formed by his/her conscience. This common misconception shelters dangerous ideas from criticism and is the essence of the privacy and liberty fallacies discussed in Austin Dacey's great book, "The Secular Conscience." According to Dacey, "The result of these misconceptions about privacy and freedom is a culture unwilling or unable to sustain a real public conversation about religion, ethics, and values. What culture can survive without that conversation?"



Wolf S. von Pankow

Palo Alto, California