You probably know what Intelligent Design is, and you also likely know about the recent media frenzy surrounding the Dover vs. Kitzmiller court decision that threw ID out of public schools.

Try this on for size:

House Resolution 888 might as well be in endorsement of Intelligent Design because the people trying to slip falsified American history into the Congressional Record, and into American public schools, and those who who tried to slip ID into public schools are working together in the same movement. They lecture together at the same conferences and retreats and their goals, which are explicitly religious, are the same - promotion of the fundamentalist, Christian reconstructionist "Biblical Worldview". They are committed to re-making America

But, falsified American history, compared to ID and Creationism, is almost off the collective cognitive map of even committed political progressives.

After W. Mitt Romney failed to show up in Durham, I spent Election Eve campaigning and rallying for John Edwards.  The day closed with a great rally at the Dover Elks Lodge.  --Timothy Horrigan: January 7, 2008

Here we go again.
Yesterdays New York Times reports that Texas is well on their way to becoming the newest laughing stock of the scientific education community as they've just fired Christine Comer, the states top expert in science education.
The reason?

Forwarding an e-mail message about a talk by a distinguished professor who debunks "intelligent design" and creationism as legitimate alternatives to evolution in the science curriculum.

Why can't democrats just run on a simple platform of competence, transparency and honesty.  Is there something so difficult about that?

Bill Clinton had his BJs but they didn't cost us world leadership, half a trillion dollars and thousands of dead and crippled sons and daughters.

Dear Members of Congress,

Do not insult me by telling tell me that having the public see the coffins of our deceased soldiers is somehow a disgrace.  That it does a disservice to these brave men and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for the policies of this government.  Military families want to see their sons and daughters honored for their sacrifices to their country, not ignored and shipped like so much cargo getting under foot, receiving an honor guard reception inside a plane or at night (read: out of sight).

I recently had the occasion to listen to a public lecture at McGill University by Dr. Brian Alters, the only Canadian expert witness called in the Dover, PA Intelligent Design trial.  Dr. Alters holds the Tomlinson Chair in Science Education at McGill, he is the author of several books on biology and education, and he holds an appointment at Harvard University, where he once debated IDer Ken Ham.  

Dr. Alters commented on the outcome of the Dover Monkey Trial by saying the decision was "a major defeat for the proponents of a religious concept that attempts to introduce supernatural causation into science, where it simply doesn't belong."

So why do I care?

If we are to believe William Dembski, our local expert in intelligent design, the theory of evolution is on its way out. Within the next decade, he says, evolution will be dead.

Dembski, a professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary here in Louisville, made this astounding prediction in an Associated Press articlepublished in Sunday's Lexington Herald-Leader.

Needless to say, evolution as a theory is not anywhere close to being dead, or even knocked out, but among the ID folk, I guess hope reigns supreme.

Someone recently said that "America is not just a place, not just a powerful nation, it's an idea." I concur and add that it's a damn good idea; or at least it was.

The "idea" of this nation was created with wisdom, caution, and just intentions. America was built of experience abroad. Mistakes that were taught our founders at great expense as they fled their home lands, and these trials, tribulations, and soul breaking pains are what formed the American idea.

Do you feel that Separation of Church and State is integral to the health of the nation and to the integrity of religious freedom for every American? Are you worried your community may become the next national embarrassment, solely because of a few knuckle dragging anti-science demagogues dominating your local school board? Or maybe you're an atheist, an agnostic, or progressive Christian, who is sick and tired of religion being hijacked to fill the coffers of political opportunists and right-wing ideologues? Perhaps you're a science teacher? If so, I have a friend I'd like you to meet: His job is to help you, and with a little help from his friends, it's a job he's exceedingly good at it.

Dr. Wesley Elsberry works for the National Center for Science Education, which means he works for anyone who values science and science ed. Wesley and the NCSE were a driving force behind the recent win in the Dover, Pa. Intelligent Design Creationism case. And he is something else: Living proof that not only can you be a Christian and embrace science, you can actively work to expose and defeat those who would happily cast you or your religious friends as ignorant dopes in order advance the most un-American policies in living memory. I had a chance to chat with Wesley and ask him about the recent victory, future battles, his religious beliefs, and related issues. His answers below are illuminating; his critique of purveyors of anti-science who misuse his own Christian faith, is sharp.

I know the Great Man approach to history is now considered undemocratic and simplistic. History, says the redux, is not what great men do but what happens in common peoples' lives.  But in my humble opinion this is grad-student horse manure, an effort to create something new if not better. I mean, can you image the American Revolution without George Washington, or the Napoleonic Wars without Napoleon? And can you image the Intelligent Design movement without Richard Thompson? Trust me, without this guy it doesn't happen.

For a bit of schadenfreude I moseyed on over to the Discovery Institute's website to see their reaction to Judge John Jones III's decision that the Dover (PA) Area school district's decision to require the teaching of "intelligent design" as an alternative theory to evolution violated the No-establishment Clause.

Since the decision struck at their mission's central nervous system, the institute has an army of news and opinion pieces on it, and I'm not going to take the time to read all of them.  I did, however, read a short opinion piece by institute fellow David Klinghoffer published in the Seattle Times December 23.  Despite the article's brevity, it still managed to present several falsehoods and fallacies.  In fact, almost the entire article is misguided.  But the worst part about it (for the institute) is that it is good evidence for what everyone knows but the institute continues to deny: intelligent design is just a front for fundamentalist Christianity.

crossposted to The Next Hurrah

Tomorrow is Christmas, and Chanukah the day after that. We've got the traditional Christmas movie and Chinese dinner planned for Sunday, but for today, let's celebrate a science battle before it's back to war.

This USA Today articles sums up the Dover decision:

Backers of "intelligent design" have been advising school boards to
avoid lawsuits by encouraging criticism of evolution rather than
mandating that students learn about intelligent design. But a judge's
ruling this week has given ammunition to those fighting challenges to
evolution in three states.

Intelligent design, or ID, is the idea that some
forms of life are so complex, they show the distinct hand of a
designer. Federal Judge John Jones ruled this week that intelligent
design is creationism with a new label and can't be taught in public
school science classes.

DefCon board member Lawrence Krauss will be the guest on Fox News' The Big Story with John Gibson tonight, discussing yesterday's groundbreaking Dover decision.

Krauss, a physics professor at Case Western, was a scientific adviser to the plaintiff team in the Dover trial. Gibson, on the other hand is the author of "The War on Christmas" which has made recent headlines thanks to fellow Fox host Bill O'Reilly's comments.

The interview is scheduled to begin around 8:10 p.m. eastern time.  Hope you can tune in.

Faced with the complete repudiation of Intelligent Design in science classrooms, portending worse days for the anti-intellectual climate necessary for George Bush's plutofascist takeover, the Dallas Morning News editorialized an endorsement of anti-intellectualism today.

Selective quotes below, with the obligatory "head explosion" warning, of course:
 

Today we celebrate a judicial repudiation of "intelligent design."  Almost 23 years ago we celebrated the judicial repudiation of "creation science" in McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education.  Check out the materials here:
http://www.talkorigins.org/...

My hope is that someone with legal acumen will compare the two cases.

Having read my share of dry judicial opinions over the years, I can tell you that Judge Jones III's verbal smackdown of "intelligent design" (pdf) is a welcomed breath of fresh air.  His opinion spans 139 pages of pure, razor-sharp analysis.  It's beautiful. It's scathing. It's so good I want to wallpaper my dining room with it. Almost.

It's not just his bulletproof legal reasoning that makes this opinion so great. It's how he made sure every fact was memorialized in this landmark opinion. The opinion is long, complex, with various legal tests applied both to the text of the disclaimer and the circumstances of its adoption.  I want to focus though on one particular aspect of the opinion: the ruling that ID supporters were pursuing a religious objective.  Here are some facts you don't hear about from the ID supporters:

1. The board members wanted a 50-50 ratio between the teaching of creationism and evolution in biology classes (p. 95)
   
2.  The President also wanted to inject religion into social studies classes, and supplied the school with a book about the myth of the separation of church and state. (p. 96)
   
3. Another board member said "This country wasn't founded on Muslim beliefs or evolution. This country was founded on Christianity and our students should be taught as such." (p. 102)
   
4.  At a meeting, a board member's wife gave a speech, saying that "evolution teaches nothing but lies," quoted from Genesis, asked "how can we allow anything else to be taught in our schools," recited gospel verses telling people to become born again Christians, and stated that evolution violated the teachings of the Bible. (p. 103)
   
5. Other statements by board members included "Nowhere in the Constitution does it call for a separation of church and state," and "liberals in black robes" are "taking away the rights of Christians, " and "2,000 years ago someone died on a cross. Can't someone take a stand for him?"

All this evidence was presented, and yet the defense still claimed that "intelligent design" was secular and they wanted it taught for secular purposes.  They perjured themselves time and time again on the stand in an attempt to inject their religious beliefs into the public school system. Judge Jones, in the most riveting part of the opinion, calls them on their bullshit.  

More on the flip...

A federal court turned aside the tide of Creationism, and ruled instead that Intelligent Design has no place in biology classrooms in public schools.

MSNBC writes:

Dover Area School Board members violated the Constitution when they ordered that its biology curriculum must include the notion that life on Earth was produced by an unidentified intelligent cause, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III said.

Judge John E. Jones III was appointed to his current seat on the Middle District of Pennsylvania by President George W. Bush in 2002, after having been appointed to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board by Gov. Tom Ridge in 1995. While not making him attack-proof to Conservatives, it certainly should provide him with some level of protection from them.

Cross-posted at my little spot in blogoland

ID violates the establishment clause.

Not even close

"The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy," Jones wrote. "It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy."

More when the full text comes available
Full text here (warning-PDF)