Dover
You may remember this (excerpt from MSNBC) from December of last year:HARRISBURG, Pa. - In one of the biggest courtroom clashes between faith and evolution since the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, a federal judge barred a Pennsylvania public school district Tuesday from teaching “intelligent design” in biology class, saying the concept is creationism in disguise.
U.S. District Judge John E. Jones delivered a stinging attack on the Dover Area School Board, saying its first-in-the-nation decision in October 2004 to insert intelligent design into the science curriculum violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
...Jones decried the “breathtaking inanity” of the Dover policy and accused several board members of lying to conceal their true motive, which he said was to promote religion.
A six-week trial over the issue yielded “overwhelming evidence” establishing that intelligent design “is a religious view, a mere re-labeling of creationism, and not a scientific theory,” said Jones, a Republican and a churchgoer appointed to the federal bench three years ago.
"Breathtaking inanity." The man can turn a phrase.
A few days ago, DQ reader Brian Witte sent me a link to the transcript of the cross-examination by Eric Rothschild of intelligent design theorist and proponent Michael Behe.
The cross-examination is brilliant beyond belief. Rothschild does a relentless, impeccable job of drilling through Behe's obfuscations and "scientific" half-truths. Time after time, Rothschild both exposes Behe's deceptions and demonstrates clearly that intelligent design is not a scientific theory and has nothing to do with science.
This transcript is long, but if you are interested in either the attacks upon science or masterful cross-examinations, it's a sensational read. You can find it here.
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