Nasty Little Man

ID falls, knees jerk at Discovery Institute

Judge Jones saw through the intelligent design charade (sha-RAID? sha-ROD?) with his biting decision that sent the ID movement scattering like cockroaches when the lights are flipped on.

And the predictable reaction came from the ID pests.

Discovery Institute:

"The Dover decision is an attempt by an activist federal judge to stop the spread of a scientific idea and even to prevent criticism of Darwinian evolution through government-imposed censorship rather than open debate, and it won't work," said Dr. John West, Associate Director of the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute, the nation's leading think tank researching the scientific theory known as intelligent design.
full text of press release

Who could have predicted that the "activist judge" slam would come? Never saw that one coming. Actually, Judge Jones saw it coming:

"Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred as this is manifestly not an activist Court. Rather, this case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board, aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case on ID, who in combination drove the Board to adopt an imprudent and ultimately unconstitutional policy."

The activist judge charge is so tired that it's become like the boy who cried wolf. Now, I just wish the wolf would come along and take these people away.
Meanwhile, in Ann Arbor at the Thomas More Law Center, all's quiet in the TMLC.org newsroom with nary a press release to be found, so we'll have to rely on some quotes from Dick Thompson, TMLC's executive director, from today's New York Times:

"A thousand opinions by a court that a particular scientific theory is invalid will not make that scientific theory invalid," said Mr. Thompson, the president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, a public interest firm in Ann Arbor, Mich., that says it promotes Christian values. "It is going to be up to the scientists who are going to continue to do research in their labs that will ultimately determine that."
Judge rejects teaching intelligent design

But here's the rub, Dick. The evidence presented at trial showed where the scientific community stands on this today, and it soundly rejects ID as a scientific theory.

Cutting through the nonsense, as he did throughout the trial, is the York Daily Record's Mike Argento, who posted a brilliant column today. It included this:

This ruling should consign intelligent design to the scrapbin of bad ideas and finally permit the fanatics who push it - the disingenuous drones of the Discovery Institute - to fulfill their true destiny of trying to sell their ideas, along with flowers, at the airport with their fellow cultists, Scientologists and people who believe the CIA is trying to give us all brain cancer with satellites.

The Times article actually revealed one moment of clarity from an ID'er, William Dembski, who said

"I think the big lesson is, let's go to work and really develop this theory and not try to win this in the court of public opinion," Dr. Dembski said. "The burden is on us to produce."

Dr. Michael Behe, the defense's star witness, which is akin to being a star on the Houston Texans, told the Times, "That was a real drag." I guess he's saying that the decision wasn't groovy, man.

Finally, there's former school board member Bill Buckingham with this gem in the Patriot News:

Contacted at his home in Mount Airy, N.C., Buckingham said of Jones: "If he says I'm a liar, he's a liar. I would love to be in a room one on one with him, with cameras. I would like to ask him where it says in the Constitution that there is a separation of church and state. If someone violated the Constitution, it was the Supreme Court when it said there was a separation of church and state, and Judge Jones.

"It's one thing to lose playing by the rules. It's another thing to lose by having things taken away unjustly, and that's what happened in Dover."

To which a friend of mine responded, "Buckingham wants to make himself into a martyr when he is actually the pesky little twerp on the playground who pokes at you until he leaves you no choice but to knock him on his ass."

There's plenty more to be said on this topic, but this post would go on and on. For now, check out these resources:

Panda's Thumb, a pro-science blog
Speaking Freely, a pro-freedom blog from the ACLU of PA
National Center for Science Education's Dover trial page
ACLU-PA's "Intelligent Design Challenge" page

posted by Kinder Gentler Little Man @ 3:49 PM