Over the past couple of weeks or so a man called Joe Vaz (whom I do not know in person, and who does not know me) has sent a series of posts to Goanet with the singular aim of maligning me by resorting to repeated innuendo, insinuations, distortions and outright lies.
The sole reason for his dishonest campaign against me (which on a prior occasion also included gross and transparent plagiarism and deception) is because I have argued in the past, and have always stood by, the contention that Biblical and other religious miracles are NOT historical facts, that belief in miracles in general is an appeal to ignorance, and that religious satire such as Satanic Verses should NOT be banned in a free, open and secular public forum such as Goanet. These views are not mine alone. They are held by an overwhelming majority of the worlds scientists and rationalists, some of who consider themselves religious. Many of them have publicly expressed such views in terms much stronger that I can ever imagine myself doing. The lies that Joe Vaz has spread directly or by insinuation in his disingenuous, boorish and sanctimonious propaganda against me are the following: 1. I have spammed Joe Vaz and told my friends to spam him because he put me in some kind of awkward position. 2. Some unknown people with "pseudo IDs" have spammed him with email attachments on my behalf, but he deleted their emails and attachments without reading them, for good reason. 3. I have the habit of conducting a clandestine political operation, and of strategizing with a support-group to browbeat people like him who disagree with me, which he found out because I cced one solitary Goanet post to some Goanetters, including two Goanet Administrators, who according to him constituted my support-group. 4. The students/audience of New Rochelle College in New York were baffled by the confusing and inaccurate data in a paper of mine that was presented in a forum, which Joe Vaz did not attend. 5. I admitted to making errors or to some inconsistencies and inaccuracies in my paper only after some people pointed them out. 6. Fr. Basilio Monteiro who conducted the New Rochelle symposium did not know about my admission of errors; otherwise he would not have said that Joe Vaz, who did not attend the symposium, was inaccurate in stating that the students/audience were baffled by my paper. 7. I am involved in a conspiracy with one or more members of my support-group to browbeat Joe Vaz. 8. I have resorted to subterfuge and spin to detract Goanet readers. 9. I have the habit of presenting inaccurate data, and I have made conflicting statements which are purely nonsensical and without sound basis. 10. I have the habit of changing my statements. Despite my denials, despite being corrected and questioned by others, and despite his inability to substantiate any of his charges, Joe Vaz continues to repeat these bogus charges to smear me. In his latest post, not only does he regurgitate the same lies about my admitting to committing gross errors in my paper, he shamelessly parades his smugness and gall to deride Fr. Basilio Monteiro, the organizer of the New Rochelle symposium, a scholar and a professor, for failing to recognize my inaccuracies. I had addressed the matter about the inherent inaccuracy of prehistoric dating in my original article, itself, and in a recent post of mine (Please see: http://www.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet/2005-July/031071.html). Quite predictably, however, Joe Vaz has conveniently chosen to ignore it, just as he has deviously avoided to address his lie about the bafflement of New Rochelle students/audience, which was exposed by Fr. Basilio. Joe Vaz now claims that his latest post is his final post on this subject. I do NOT trust him to keep his word at all. Therefore, I have decided to take the following course of action. I hereby issue this warning to Joe Vaz: If he repeats any of the above false accusations against me in a future Goanet post of his, if he continues to fabricate additional spurious charges against me, or if he continues to exhibit his holier than thou attitude towards me and to give me his sanctimonious advice, I will take the following action: 1. I will lodge a strong complaint against him with his ISP on charges of slander and plagiarism. 2. I will take any legal action as is deemed to be appropriate in such circumstances under the libel law of the United States of America where I reside and/or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where he resides. 3. I will file a formal charge against him for plagiarism with the publishers of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia to take legal action under the copyright law of the United States of America and/or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This is my final response to Joe Vaz on the matter of his lies, bogus accusations, innuendo and insinuations against me. Cheers, Santosh
