Patheos Blog Repeats Unsubstantiated Sexual Allegations Against Prominent Skeptics: Due Process and #MeToo

An article titled “Secular Humanist Values Don’t Accommodate Predatory Sex” written by James A. Haught was published on the Patheos Blog on October 17, 2018.

Haught writes: “We agnostic-doubter-atheist-freethinkers are free from religion’s Puritanical sex taboos, but most of us have empathetic decency. We respect the feelings of others. We don’t force ourselves selfishly onto those who aren’t interested. Secular humanism strives to make life better for everyone – and young women’s lives are hurt by crass abuses by domineering men. It’s disgusting. Women deserve complete equality. Their wishes carry the same weight as men’s.”

Which is all fine and good, but in his article Haught proceeds to detail alleged predatory behavior of Michael Shermer, Editor of Skeptic Magazine and Columnist for Scientific American; Lawrence Krauss, Physicist, Professor and Author; David Silverman, Former President of American Atheists and Author;  and Richard Carrier, Author, Speaker and Historian.

As Haught describes the allegations against the four men, he does make some factual errors or fails to detail the accused’s side of the story. Instead, he just goes with this: “All the accused skeptics deny misconduct, but their rebuttals are questioned.” Let’s take a look:

  1. Michael Shermer: Haught says there have been “years of dispute over whether Dr. Michael Shermer – founder of Skeptic magazine and a Scientific American columnist – took advantage of a tipsy young woman at an atheist convention.”

Shermer has repeatedly defended himself against allegations of sexual misconduct, to the point that he kept an ongoing personal statement refuting accusations up on his website. However, when I checked, this statement is currently not available.

In a recent incident that occurred regarding a speaking engagement Shermer had scheduled at Santa Barbara City College, these allegations surfaced again when, according to Inside Higher Ed, “Raeanne Napoleon, chair of chemistry, shared a four-year old BuzzFeed article with the campus, detailing sexual misconduct allegations against Shermer.

“Shermer is someone who has been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault (rape) by multiple women,” Napoleon wrote, linking to BuzzFeed.

“Although the police did not bring formal charges against him, there have been many witnesses that have publicly corroborated the stories of the victims.”

Napoleon wrote that while Shermer “still has the right to free speech,” she wanted “to warn the women attending the talk that they should be careful not to be alone with him or hang around late on campus after the talk is over. I am also using this platform to highlight this information to faculty and staff so that you can choose whether or not you will support this event.”

—–

In fact, the Buzzfeed article specifically denies these are rape allegations: “Two more women agreed to go on the record, by name, with their Shermer stories. (Neither accused him of rape, and neither was in a position to corroborate Smith’s story.)” The original accuser, Alison Smith, describes a situation in which she says she was too drunk to consent to a sexual encounter. Smith’s story was shared by a blogger five years after the event.

Also, “multiple witnesses” seems to be a stretch as the two other apparently anonymous women in the Buzzfeed piece cannot confirm Smith’s story.

Here is an excerpt from an email sent to SBCC by Shermer in response to Napoleon’s accusations.:

“After the event I was informed that earlier in the day an assistant professor at SBCC named Raeanne Napoleon sent out an email on a campus-wide email server that defamed me by suggesting that I am a rapist and sexual assaulter. She added to the defamation by implying that any students who do attend should not be alone with me, especially if it is dark, as if I were a rapist hiding in the bushes. This is a disgusting, repulsive, defamatory lie. I am no such thing and never have been and never would be and I will not stand by and allow my name and reputation to be so denigrated. Dr. Napoleon doesn’t know me and doesn’t know anything about me. And yet she feels no compunction whatsoever to publicly hurl such calumnies against me in an act of wonton irresponsibility.

Further, Dr. Napoleon willfully and intentionally left out of her email my public response to the libelous BuzzFeed article, clearly and unmistakably posted in the article itself. So Dr. Napoleon either didn’t read the article she is relying on to defame me, or she did and knowingly and willfully left out my response so as to convince you all to boycott my talk and form an unopposed opinion of me as a rapist and sexual assaulter. Either way, it is a form of fraud, in addition to libel and defamation.

As well, in her email Dr. Napoleon implies that the police were called to investigate me but “did not bring formal charges against him.” This is another defamatory lie. Dr. Napoleon has no evidence whatsoever about anything the police did or did not do because there never were any police ever involved in relation to me about anything I have ever done. I have never once spoken to a law-enforcement officer or anyone in any capacity about the lies told about me in the BuzzFeed article. The only motive for Dr. Napoleon to include this lie in her group email to you all was to defame me. That is illegal.

  1. Lawrence Krauss: According to Haught, “Physicist Lawrence Krauss, a brilliant hero of the freethought movement, fell into disgrace because several young women accused him of unwanted sexual advances, crude gropings and molestations.”

Haught adds, “Backlashes can be fierce. For example, Dr. Krauss was banned from Arizona State University’s campus pending an investigation. He also was banned from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Ontario.”

Krauss’s response to these allegations may be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IgAGpkAa2vwSMOtFD4iAfwfryTNJbJ_5/view

Haught even speculates: “I wonder if the American Humanist Association will revoke his 2015 Humanist of the Year award.”

I updated my own article about Krauss

https://skepticreview.com/2018/02/23/lawrence-krauss-dissecting-buzzfeed-article-sexual-misconduct/

to include the following information:

UPDATE JULY 31, 2018

Arizona State University has investigated a complaint regarding allegations that Krauss touched the breast of a woman attending a conference in Australia in 2016. ASU ruled the incident is a violation of the university’s sexual harrassment policy. On page 2 of the review, there is a note that the woman involved in the incident had not wanted to make a report and did not feel the incident merited losing one’s job. However, witnesses felt the incident was reportable. The full letter and review is here:

http://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/Melanie%20Thomson%207.31.18.pdf

UPDATE 10.21.2018 Krauss has decided to retire.

  1. David Silverman: Haught writes, “Next, David Silverman was fired as president of American Atheists after he was accused of forcing himself onto unwilling women in hotel rooms during the group’s meetings.”

However, this is not the reason David Silverman was fired, and in an interview given with the Washington Post, Silverman states these interactions were consensual. (If consensual, they likely would have been considered inappropriate and unprofessional conduct, but this was never adjudicated.)

Alleged sexual misconduct was not a subject of the investigation that led to the firing of Silverman. According to Pamela Whissel, Editor in Chief of the American Atheists Magazine, “the first complaint alleged violations of American Atheists’ policies, including allegations of undisclosed conflicts of interest, as well as breaches of confidentiality and staff management guidelines. It’s important to know that the first complaint was received before the two individuals brought their allegations to the board.”

And finally, Haught addresses the case of Richard Carrier. I know little to nothing about this case and it is ongoing, but Carrier himself writes about it frequently on his own blog. Carrier is actually asking for support to bring a defamation suit  against FreethoughtBlogs Network et al.

https://www.richardcarrier.info/legalfund.html

So, I’ll just leave you with this thought. On October 18, I posted the following question on the article’s discussion forum:

Where is the due process among “we agnostic-doubter-atheist-freethinkers?”

The answer: My comment was removed.

 

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2018/10/secular-humanist-values-dont-accommodate-predatory-sex/

patheos blog saved 10-18

 

For more, see Inside Higher Ed:

 

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/06/04/how-sexual-harassment-allegations-against-guest-speaker-rocked-santa-barbara-city

 

Full email from Michael Shermer to SBCC:

https://www.thechannels.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/email-on-March-21.pdf