Ray Comfort again... though scarier

Okay, at the risk of coming across as a militant anti-theist I'm going to have to bring up Ray Comfort yet again in this blog. I'm a little behind on this one, but its something so incredibly under-handed and manipulative that I really need to say something. The creationist evangelist has decided that he'd go a bit 1984 in his tactics to spread the good word and has produced his own "abridged" version of Charles Darwin's Origin Of Species to be given out... at public schools.

The front cover gives no indication of the fact that its a creationist propaganda version of what is essentially now a historical rather than strictly scientific text, instead claiming to be a 150th Anniversary Edition. Inside however is a 50 page introduction associating Darwin with racism, Hitler, hoaxes... the usual. As Ray puts it "It presents a balanced view of Creationism with information on scientists who believed that God created the universe--scientists such as Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Nicholas Copernicus, Francis Bacon, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur and Johannes Kepler." So you know, gives an educated opinion on evolution from all those renowned... biologists?

What concerns me more though, and I have to admit I haven't had a chance to actually get a hand on the book, is that this is an 'abridged' version - meaning its been edited. Whilst that might sound innocent enough, lets not ignore the fact that in Ben Stein's recent movie Expelled, they decided to edit Darwin's words to make him sound racist, and completely contradict what he actually said.

Now I don't know if Ray is quite as sinister as that, and frankly if he wants to use under-handed stealth tactics to cram creationist propaganda into kids hands, thats bad enough. But is he in ANY way qualified to be let loose with a cut-and-paste tools on a scientific textbook? Presenting two sides of an 'argument' is one thing, but handing out your own version of a historical work whilst maintaining the original authors name and only minimal indication that its been changed? That's a scary thought, and has a distinct 'Ministry of Truth' feel to it that really crosses the line.

Brainwashing kids with wildly innacurate interpretations of evolutionary theory has been a staple of the creationist movement for a long, long time. As has quote-mining. As I haven't read the book I can't comment on the faithfulness of the editing in this case (though I'd be stunned if it was actually accurate), but the idea that a primary source can be hacked up by people with a religious/ political agenda, keep the original author's name on the cover, then be handed out to kids is something I find frankly terrifying. Whilst I'm aware of the naivety in that sentiment, this is a much more overt case than might be found elsewhere and I do think it warrants concern.