A Dover Pennsylvania school district had science teachers read a 1-minute statement saying intelligent design (ID) is an alternative to evolution. That life is too complex to evolve on its own, and that evolution’s theories have lots of holes. Many science teachers and parents became angry about this and sued the school saying that the school was pushing religion. The science teachers refused to read the one minute ID possibility statement required by the board! Court trials ensued. Currently it is considered a violation of rights to teach ID!
The evolutionists in the presentation said ID is just an attempt to push religion. They said they value their theory more than mere facts (what!?). They spoke of how evolution is much more than a theory to them, and how doubting evolution to them would be like saying the US Civil War never occurred (so much for it being a theory). They talk about the “theory of gravity” – wait, isn’t it the “law” of gravity? Yep, because we have specifically demonstrated it over and over, unlike evolution of species (and no one can even define species, because they don’t want to be exposed when we show that one species can’t cross into another)! The evolutionists in the presentation claim that nothing has disturbed the theory of evolution for 150 years. This is ultimate pride. How can these scientists be unaware of the scores of errors in this theory and make such a pompous statement? Ultimately the evolutionists, of course, won the case.
The ID advocates in the presentation said they wanted both evolution and ID taught to give the students fair exposure to both theories. George W Bush was in favor of intelligent design being taught at schools as another theory to be presented. (Good for Bush!) Of course, the presentation did a terrible job of presenting the ID view, not really talking about any evidence of ID, but mostly just featuring ID people talking about how upset they are. They put on quite the show demonstrating the blundering horrors of the twisted creationists (obviously threats and vandalism are uncalled for, but why focus on that?), while leaving the evolutionists enthroned, not showing flagrant deception perpetrated by their hand. This bias even in this documentary on a two-sided battle is not surprising as NOVA themselves are of course dogmatic evolutionists, as all mainstream “scientific” establishments are these days. A few cases for ID were presented by Michael Behe, author of Darwin’s Black Box, such as the flagellum motor and other things which have irreducibly complex parts, meaning parts that if removed the whole system doesn’t work, and therefore cannot form through gradual evolution. Of course NOVA gives the evolutionists plenty of time to throw things at this, as the majority of the presentation gives time to evolution rather than ID.
Analysis:
The real issue is that we have misunderstood separation of church and state for a long time now. It wasn’t meant to mean state should be free from religion, as in only atheist. It was meant to not have the state push a certain church as the only true church. Saying that intelligent design is one of various scientific theories is in no way violating separation of church and state.
Science should be concerned with pointing out flaws in all theories. If evolution doesn’t hold water, they should drop it. Unfortunately, conspiring leaders dogmatically and militantly drive evolution. Ironically, atheism has become the state religion, and no dissenting views are tolerated. It’s a vertical wall in the academic journals and peer review process when you try to publish anything that isn’t in line with evolution. These professional pharisees don’t dare put their name on the line by getting involved.
One flaw in the theory of evolution includes the tree of life which has many gaps. The tree is shown a few times in the presentation. In reality, there is no tree! There are some similar species, but no continuous flow of one species to the next, culminating in the evolution of the human.
One flaw of the ID theory (actually it’s more of a tenant of popular creationism in particular than intelligent design) is that limiting idea that the creation took place in 7 days, when the bible itself says that 1000 years to man is a day to God, meaning a 7000-year creation is wholly possible within the parameters of the 7-day narrative of the bible. The critics of ID always talk about a ridiculous 7-day creation, when ID is not even necessarily limited to that! It could be either way, but evidence I’ve seen points to the 7000 year creation over the 7 day version.
Intelligent Design resources mentioned in the presentation:
Textbook: Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins, 2nd Ed.
Darwin’s Black Box by Michael Behe
Discovery Institute: a major organization in favor of intelligent design
DVD: Unlocking the Mystery of Life
Book: Darwin on Trial by Phillip E. Johnson
Movie: “Inherit the Wind” is an old movie retelling the account of a Tennessee teacher fined for teaching evolution at school back in the day. I’ve not seen the film but it looks, from the clips shown, to portray the evolutionists as the sophisticated ones, and the ID advocates as backwards hillbillies, which obviously is bias. One value of this movie might be in simply demonstrating to youth that there is debate, that its not all one sided as modern schools portray.
Book: Traipsing into Evolution by the Discovery Institute, responding the Dover case.
