Kan. Professor Attacked Along Rural Road

Monday, December 5, 2005


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(12-05) 20:25 PST Lawrence, Kan. (AP) --


A college professor whose planned course on creationism and intelligent
design was canceled after he derided Christian conservatives said he
was beaten by two men along a rural road early Monday.


University of Kansas religious studies professor Paul Mirecki said the
men referred to the class when they beat him on the head, shoulders and
back with their fists, and possibly a metal object, the Lawrence
Journal-World reported.


"I didn't know them," Mirecki said of his assailants, "but I'm sure
they knew me."


Messages left by the Associated Press on Mirecki's cell phone were not
immediately returned.


Sheriff's Lt. Kari Wempe said Mirecki reported the attack just before 7
a.m.


The professor said he confronted the men after they were tailgating his
vehicle along a road south of Lawrence. "I'm mostly shaken up, and I
got some bruises and sore spots," he said.


Mirecki planned to offer a spring course called "Special Topics in
Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious
Mythologies" after the Kansas Board of Education decided to include
more criticism of evolution in science standards for elementary and
secondary students.


Last week, Mirecki asked the university to cancel the class after he
created a furor by sending an e-mail to a student organization mocking
Christian fundamentalists.


Mirecki had referred to religious conservatives as "fundies," and said
a course describing intelligent design as mythology would be a "nice
slap in their big fat face." He has apologized for those comments