Backdoor . . . or Backfire?

As I posted a few days ago, the 'Creation Summit' group was all buzzing over a pending 'summit' at Michigan State (Backdoors take on a whole new meaning . . . or maybe not).  The conference/summit/revival meeting happened this past weekend and apparently was much more of a whimper than a bang.  They were hoping to get the faculty up in arms and generate lots of free publicity, but for the most part the faculty blew them off.  What few comments were made were not made in anger but more derision.  Slate reported " “It’s Not Debatable” Michigan State University’s perfect response to a creationist conference on campus." which detailed a few.

Here are a couple of my favorite comments:

“We don’t debate evolution because it’s not debatable,” she said. “It’s like debating the existence of Canada.”
" . . .scientists shouldn’t engage “in forums where the discussion is controlled by people who equate evolution with Nazism.”  "

The group organizing this revival meeting even tried the very childish tactic of 'daring' to try and con Dr. Robert Pennock, who testified during the Dover Trial, into a debate, to which he pretty well ignored.  He did talk about it and said:

“Scientists have already shown that there is no substance worth debating in these old creationist challenges to evolution,” . . .“Evolution is fact, creation is fiction, and there’s just no point in pretending like there’s a real scientific debate between reality and fantasy.”

 Apparently total attendance was about 100, with few students.  A handful of students did attend, either out of curiosity, or maybe to for a chance to win a free iPad.  The winner of the give-away was identified as a 'pro-science graduate student who studies evolutionary microbiology'.  I wonder if Creation Summit will make him/her sign an article of faith before receiving the prize.

It will be interesting to read about any spin put on by Creation Summit.  But then again, maybe a turnout of about 100 is a rousing success for them.