Appeasers, Spaghetti Monsters, and NCSE

 
John West, one of the IDiots at the Discovery Institute, has posted an interesting article [Why Does National Center for Science Education (NCSE) Spokesman Think "Mocking Traditional Religion" is OK?].

West is referring to a newspaper article published in last Sunday's Toronto Star (see Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Makes Front Page of The Toronto Star). In that newspaper article, Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) defended the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. West asks, why does NCSE think it's okay to mock religion in this case and yet go out of their way to defend religion in other cases?

We've heard for years from Branch's boss Eugenie Scott that evolution and religion are perfectly harmonious (indeed, the NCSE has helped use our tax dollars to promote the message that true theology endorses evolution, and its director Eugenie Scott has recommended that students study theological statements endorsing evolution during biology class). But now it turns out that mocking religion in the name of science is "probably healthy" and that it is illegitimate for proponents of ID even to question such anti-religious diatribes.

Good point. Does anyone know the answer? The people over at NCSE (and their allies like Ed Brayton) go apoplectic whenever some atheists criticize the silly superstitions of Ken Miller and Frances Collins. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster mocks all superstitious beliefs, including those of theistic evolutionists. Why is one so bad but not the other?

As far as I'm concerned, it's just as much fun to mock theistic evolution directly as it is to do it through the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.