Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Creationist "Wins" Debate Against Evolutionist by Killing Him


[via The Independent]
Alexander York... was sentenced to a maximum of five years in jail yesterday for the manslaughter of Rudi Boa, 28, a biomedical student....

York had become friendly with Mr. Boa and his girlfriend…. [T]hey became embroiled in the creationism versus evolution argument, and it escalated into a shouting-match…. Mr. Boa and Ms. Brown were both adamantly opposed to York's Christian fundamentalist point of view….

York, who had been making dinner, attacked the couple outside his tent and delivered a single stab wound [to] Mr. Boa with a kitchen knife… He was found guilty of manslaughter but acquitted of murder, and ordered to serve at least three years in jail. The judge said he was giving him a relatively lenient sentence partly because of the accidental nature of the stabbing….

"The offender's act was done impulsively and on the spur of the moment. I do not think the offender was aware of how seriously he had harmed Mr. Boa."

The judge added that York was "a person of good character" and that the offence was "a complete aberration".

1 comment:

jimf said...

The damndest things can become grounds for a religious
war.

25 years ago, in high-end audiophile circles, you could
lose friends for suggesting that CD players and those
little silver coasters had **any redeeming qualities**
whatsoever (or ever **might** have any redeeming qualities
in future versions) compared to the black vinyl LP.

I can easily imagine such a debate escalating to mayhem
among, um, emphatically opinionated friends.

It's also amazing how "superlative" discourse can get
attached to such trivialities.

Back then, folks who didn't like the sound of digital audio
(and there was plenty not to like about it in its infancy)
claimed that it was destroying music as an art form and
destroying recorded music as an entertainment medium.
Further, some opponents claimed that digital audio had actual
physiological and mental health ramifications -- that it
could increase stress and shorten people's lifespans.

Mastering engineer Doug Sax's exhortation to the readership of
the audio magazines to "Boycott Digital Audio" was taken
by some people as a call to holy war.
(see also http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/194/ ).

OTOH, the history of the same debate from the perspective
of Usenet has "rationalist" CD lovers (the preponderance
of opinion on the net) pitted against "mysterian" analog
lovers.
(and see also http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/193/index8.html ).

Ah, those were the days. ;->