Entry #050: Kirk Cameron

Formerly beloved former child star Kirk Cameron is currently a dysfunctional apologist for the ever moronic Ray Comfort (to be covered later). He claims to have been an atheist who later found Jesus (yes, that one again). Since “Growing Pains”, his most prominent roles have been in the “Left Behind” movies and “Fireproof”. So, yes – he is currently a religious fundamentalist touring with Ray Comfort, possibly the most ignorantly inane road show ever, prominently featuring Comfort’s banana argument and the crocoduck argument.

Vigorously opposed to evolution, and has – together with Comfort – designed a board game (here and here). His project to hand out copies of his and Comfort’s annotated version of “The origin of species” generated this response (among many others).

And of course there is a conspiracy theory here. Cameron is worried that we are currently experiencing a whole generation “brainwashed by atheistic evolution” (I don’t think “brainwashed” means what Cameron thinks it means).

Here's Kirk Cameron trying his hand at American history. According to himself, criticizing Kirk Cameron is the same as criticizing freedom itself. I suppose it is superfluous to point it out, but sometimes Cameron says really stupid things.

More entirely unsurprising incoherence from Cameron here.

Here's Cameron entering hardcore David Barton territory, predictably with the same aptitude for truth and accuracy. A fine summary of the weirdness of Cameron's otherworldly pseudo-history is found here.

Would you believe it, but Cameron has come clean as a hardcore conspiracy theorist, and so thoroughly so that he seems to entertain entering the terrains of Eric Jon Phelps rather than Alex Jones. At least Kirk Cameron’s movie is out.

More Bartonisms from Cameron here.

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Diagnosis: Among the most breathtakingly moronic bozos alive, Cameron manages to make Mel Gibson look moderately intelligent. The Comfort/Cameron superteam is, I suppose, not taken seriously as anything who could even begin to pose a threat. I suspect their popularity is more due to their breathtaking inanity.

Entry #038: Sam Brownback

Former US Senator, current Governor of Kansas, and a pretty high-profile fellow. Fundamentalist theocrat and outspoken creationist. Yes he’s been known to pound on the “evolution is just a theory” confusion, thereby automatically displaying his meager understanding of science. Even worse he believes in “micro-evolution, but not macro-evolution” (a well-known gambit, using a distinction that makes absolutely no scientific sense), relies on false appeals to controversy (look, biologists don’t agree on the details, hence the theory of evolution must be false), claims that evolution is an atheistic conspiracy (evolution entails materialism and determinism, modus tollens), and says that evolution means that everything is just chance (no, he doesn’t understand the theory of evolution). Dunning-Kruger running rampant, in other words, but ignorance has never stopped a politician like Brownback.

Brownback also asserts that if science contradicts the Bible, then science must go:

“While no stone should be left unturned in seeking to discover the nature of man's origins, we can say with conviction that we know with certainty at least part of the outcome. Man was not an accident and reflects an image and likeness unique in the created order. Those aspects of evolutionary theory compatible with this truth are a welcome addition to human knowledge. Aspects of these theories that undermine this truth, however, should be firmly rejected as an atheistic theology posing as science.”

His views on science are nicely summed up here, and (more succinctly) here, and also here.

The famous “blogs for Brownback”, notable for arguing that heliocentricism is an atheist conspiracy and that electrons are really angels in disguise whereas protons are demons, is widely believed to be a parody and might easily be.

Among other notable views, Brownback is known to support stem-cell research – conditional on advice from the Family Research Council (the “Research” part must surely be a typo), as described here. Brownback also wishes to ban human-animal chimeras. Also seems to toy with David Barton-style reconstructionism.

Here's Brownback being classy.

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Diagnosis: Zealous Lysenkoist. His understanding of science is best characterized as a severe case of Dunning-Kruger. Moron. Wielded some power as a Senator, wields much more as Governor.

Entry #017: Glenn Beck

This guy needs no introduction. A non-comprehensive list of his travesties can be found here. Beck has, among other things, written the book “Arguing with Idiots” - an apt title. Also suffers from Nazi Tourette's.

I like the diagnosis offered here. MediaMatters has put together a Glenn Beck's fifty greatest hits. It's rather amusing, or whatever you wish to call it.

Task for today: Make sense of this claim (in fairness, I don't think Beck intends people to make sense of it, just nod in agreement). This video displays the empty idiocy of Glenn Beck rather well.

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Diagnosis: Idiot. Has a lot of fans, but the hope is that his influence might in the end be self-undermining.

Entry #014: David Barton

This one is my personal favorite. We have mentioned the historical revisionists/reconstructionists before, but Barton is perhaps the most prominent advocate for religiously zealous, Orwellian reconstruction of American history to fit Christian fundamentalist ideals. Barton is a crank historian and Christian Nation apologist (and activist) and founder of Wallbuilders; has written extensively on the alleged religious fundamentalism of the founding fathers and the “true intent” of the constitution as a foundation for a theocracy. Has been caught lying, cherry-picking and fabricating material many, many times, as discussed here (in particular fabricating quotes he attribute to the founding fathers). Many of the alleged quotes have achieved lives of their own, even though Barton has admitted to lying. More here and here.



The problem is that his writing has exerted profound influence over the Texas Board of Education and other radically religious curriculum builders. And of course, his ideological commitments ensure that he can say virtually whatever he wants without being called out by his allies.

Keeping up with Barton's lying, quote-mining and fact-twisting would be a full-time job. He seems, however, to have deteriorated to the point where he doesn't even seem to care to hide it. He knows he has no credibility among those who actually know anything, and he knows that his fan based on the extreme right is willing to accept whatever shit falls out of his mouth. I recommend this deconstruction of Barton's Stewart appearance in several parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five.

Further:
• Hooy. He seems to be kicking it up yet another notch...Oh fucking dear.
• See David Barton "argue" that schools force children to be gay. A good primer on Barton's fraudulent revisions of history can be found here.
• Oh, hell. I can't leave him be. Here is Barton claiming that there is a "spiritual" solution to abortion and poverty because people of faith do not "choose to live in poverty." He claims that once poor people change their humanistic attitude that tolerates abortion, poverty will end. Seriously. Ok. To clinch it, Barton is claiming that actual demonic powers are literally running rampant in the current government. There isn't really much left to say. Barton has fully embraced the crazy of Bryan Fischer and Tony Perkins, but is an even more hardcore religious fundamentalist than either (Barton, for instance, is more or less explicitly a dominionist). And that takes some work.
• Ok. One more.
• As mentioned, we are not going to keep track of Barton's antics. That would be a full time job (in fact, Chris Rhodda is thankfully taking on herself that task), to say the least. Barton is nothing if no productive, and just in the course of two days did he manage to spill at least this and this example of insanity, as well as some breathtaking displays of dishonesty. Here's an example of why he is so dangerous.
• ... and from the department of alternative realities, we bring you this.
• ... and one more: Barton spectacularly commits a naturalistic fallacy.
• ...and this must be something of a record, even for Barton. At least he gets slamdunked here, though he'll of course never admit as much.
• And in yet another breathtaking display of wingnut stupid Barton blames the theory of evolution for the (state level) separation of church and state.
It is interesting that Barton doesn't even seem to care about hiding it anymore: He has come out as a pure Biblical literalist who rejects any scientific result that can be remotely interpreted as conflicting with a literal reading of any part of the Bible - and he rejects it precisely because it conflicts with a literal (that is "literal" - meaning reading the Bible so that it fully conforms to Barton's preconceptions about what it ought to say) of the Bible.
• Now, this must surely count as among the most ridiculous things Barton has ever said. At least he does not have the faintest clue about American history, and he props up his ignorance with the most ridiculous glassy-eyed, evangelical explanatory attempt we have yet to see. More of the usual stuff. Here's Barton claiming that secular law leads to sharia, because he doesn't know how words work, what expressions mean, what distinguishes reasoning from delusional ranting, or (even cursorily) how reality is put together. Chris Rodda has started a new series debunking Barton's newest book. You can read the first entry here.
• And here is Barton claiming that schools don't teach his version of history because of evolution. Which would, of course, be an argument against him if it were true, but Barton doesn't quite manage to see it that way.
• Barton is known to try to claim that it's not the religious right who is trying to institute a theocracy, but the liberals. His evidence, however, is more abysmally insane than you'd thought possible.
• This illustrates fairly well the danger a complete loon like Barton pose to civilization.
• A small sample of falsehoods from Barton's most recent book.
• Barton continues his battle against reality, as expected.
• Well, this man sure continues to astound us.

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Diagnosis: Liar and fraud, dishonest quack and zealot, and also a victim of severe confirmation bias. He has had a lot of influence however (Texas Board of Education, for instance) and must be ranked among the most dangerous, destructively influential forces of lunacy out there.