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Not-So-Quick But Nonetheless Dirty Review of the Kitzmiller Decision
By Casey LuskinIntroduction:
This is a response to the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board (hereafter “Kitzmiller) decision (see http://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/kitzmiller/kitzmiller_342.pdf to download the full opinion). This response is adapted from an e-mail I sent out to a bunch of friends in late December, 2005, just a few days after the Kitzmiller ruling was released. I’ve been asked by some friends who received the e-mail to post it on the internet in presentable fashion, and so I’m finally getting around to it in February, 2006.The Kitzmiller ruling declared intelligent design is religion, not science, and unconstitutional to teach in public schools. This response here is by no means an exhaustive response to the problems with the Judge’s ruling. In fact, a more extensive discussion of many of these issues may be found in the Response to the ACLU ID FAQ which I wrote in February, 2005, about 7 months before the trial started. In some cases I simply provide links to other places which provide more complete discussions and refutations to the assertions made in the Kitzmiller decision. However, I hope this will help the reader see 4 things clearly:
Summary:
(a) The fact that some Dover Area School Board members had religious motivations and may have even lied on the witness stand is a sad thing, but it is irrelevant to the important question of whether intelligent design is a scientific theory which is constitutional for teaching in public schools;
(b) The Kitzmiller decision was predicated upon a false definition of intelligent design that is not endorsed by design theorists;
(c) The Kitzmiller decision delved into numerous scientific controversies which were not only unnecessary to address in order to resolve this case, but should not have been touched by a court or a judge who is not an expert in scientific disputes. Most poignantly, Jones inappropriately ruled that religious people who view evolution as antithetical to the existence of God are wrong;
(d) The Kitzmiller decision stated many inaccurate conclusions surrounding the scientific issues at stake in this debate.