Atheist Texas Tech professor says he might start believing in God if Trump died from coronavirus
Richard Wigmans, a professor at the Texas Tech University, told his colleagues that he might "reconsider" his atheism if President Donald J Trump died after contracting the deadly novel coronavirus
Wigmans came under fire this week for an email he sent to faculty members suggesting he would reconsider his lack of faith in God if the President contracted COVID-19 and died, according to a report by Campus Reform.
On his faculty profile, Wigmans describes himself as “the world’s foremost expert on calorimetry” for particle physics experiments. Calorimetry is used to measure the heat released or absorbed during a chemical reaction.
The professor began his email by questioning why the media “do not present the data in logarithmic form, because that is how pandemics develop.”
Wigmans said South Korea had a “fixed percentual increase” of five percent per day and Italy was increasing at ten to fifteen percent per day. In contrast, the numbers are “unabated at a rate of twenty-five to thirty percent per day" in the US, he claimed.
“In that way, we will cross the 10,000 death line by next weekend,” Wigmans wrote, adding that this pandemic equals the sum of casualties of 9/11, the Iraq wars, and the Afghanistan wars, combined.
And according to the professor, Trump was "downplaying" the situation when he said that "one week later the whole thing will be over, we can all attend packed Easter church services and restart the country.”
The President later announced at a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing on March 29 that the federal government would extend the current social distancing guidelines for at least another month, adding that his previous Easter remarks were only "aspirational".
“I am personally an atheist, but if #45 would die as a result of this virus, I might reconsider,” Wigmans wrote in the email.
The professor responded to Campus Reform's request for comment saying his email is being misinterpreted.
“This is a statement about myself, not about someone else," he said. "I have distributed some emails to my colleagues in which I provide a scientist’s perspective on the available COVID-19 data, and use the observed trends to make some predictions.”
But when prodded further about his comments hoping that the President would die from the virus, Wigmans said he has "not expressed such a wish."
That said, Wigman's distasteful remarks were condemned by Skyler Wachsmann, chairman of Young Conservatives of Texas at Texas Tech.
“Implying that the President would enjoy for supporters of political opponents and for the elderly to suffer from this virus is disgusting, as is his comment expressing hope that President Trump would die from the Coronavirus,” Wachsmann said.
She told Campus Reform that Wigmans’ “words were not only full of hatred and vitriol for the President but also extremely ignorant and inappropriate for an academic setting. Using this pandemic as an excuse to share his political gripes with colleagues is appalling and puts them in such a very uncomfortable situation.”
She added that his comments are “inconsistent with the values of the Texas Tech community."