We haven’t said anything about the horrendous tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, because other than expressing the same shock, anguish and compassion for the victims that everyone else feels, there is nothing to say. Really, next to nothing is known about the killer’s motivations or state of mind.
But that hasn’t stopped some Darwinists — bizarre and distasteful as it is — from trying to make hay of the event. Jerry Coyne of Why Evolution Is True sought to use a tweet from Pastor Rick Warren, that had nothing to do with the Colorado tragedy, to impugn religion as a whole. He informed his readers that Warren had blamed evolution for the rampage, which Pastor Warren had not in fact done. For this, Coyne won some cheap publicity at MSNBC (“Don’t blame the shootings on Darwin (or on God’s wrath)“).
I don’t want to draw unnecessary attention to Professor Coyne’s shot at Warren, other than to point out that Coyne was ultimately forced to back down and admit, without grace, that he was in error and had leaped to interpret Warren’s words in a way that made the pastor seem foolish, crude and insensitive.
So what else is new? Oh, and did Coyne apologize? No.