May his noodly appendage bless you and keep you... "R-amen"

USA Today has an article on the pending release of The Gospel of the Flying Spahghetti Monster, a "holy book" for a parody "religion" (that I have claimed allegiance to on more than one occasion) that rose out of a satirical letter to the Kansas School Board during the debate that went on following their order that Kansas students be given exposure to intelligent design as an alternative to evolution. (I've blogged about this particular event before and no doubt will do so again.)

Its not really a remarkable article--very little that comes out of the USAToday is--but one quote struck me:

"It's too bad that they'll get attention for this sort of drivel when we have a robust scientific research program that the media doesn't seem to want to write much about," Discovery Institute spokesman Robert Crowther said in an e-mail interview.

Um, no, Robert, you don't. There's nothing scientific about postulating supernatural explanations for natural phenomena. Your so-called "robust scientific research program" has failed to produce a single legitimate, peer-reviewed scientific paper that does anything more than attack evolutionary theory with misinformation and misinterpretation. The fact that anyone knows anything at all about your work is almost entirely due to your constant, incessant (and might I add, annoying!) public relations campaign waged in the popular press outlets.

If you're upset that no one in the scientific community takes you seriously, then start practicing science instead of chicanery. You're nothing more than proverbial snake-oil salesmen, little yappy dogs nipping at the heels of legitimate scientists. You misrepresent evolutionary theory to the world at large, knowing full well that the majority of people outside the scientific community are unable to rationally evaluate your claims. You present the world with a strawman theory and tell them, "You can't believe in God and this at the same time!" when in fact nothing can be further from the truth, as many if not most scientists can personally attest.

You're charlatans and scam artists, the scientific equivalent of circuit-riding revival preachers, and its high time the country sees you for what you are.