From Evolution News & Views:
Following Kitzmiller v. Dover, an Excellent Decade for Intelligent Design
Tomorrow marks the tenth anniversary of opening of arguments in the Kitzmiller v. Dover case that resulted in the most absurdly hyped court decision in memory. In 2005, did an obscure Federal judge in Dover, Pennsylvania, at last settle the ultimate scientific question that has fascinated mankind for millennia?
Of course not. The decision by Judge John Jones established nothing about intelligent design — far from being the “death knell” sometimes claimed by Darwin defenders.
A number of post-Dover achievements are listed, including
– Lots of pro-ID peer-reviewed scientific papers published.
– Experimental peer-reviewed research showing the unevolvability of new proteins.
– Theoretical peer-reviewed papers taking down alleged computer simulations of evolution, showing that intelligent design is needed to produce new information. Much more.
With the ten-year anniversary of Dover upcoming, expect Darwin’s followers to be too busy with hype to notice that the ground is subtly shifting.
Ironically, Dover was a major help in making it all possible.
Darwin’s followers are more apt to believe their own storytelling than reality. The reality was that people who wanted design taught in schools were a major hassle and distraction in the years leading up to Dover.
Much theoretical and research work needed to be done. But theorists and researchers were overshadowed by well-meaning people with ideas about what the school system needed—resulting in some amazing Darwinblog rants and opinionating by concerned bimbettes from Talk TV.
It would be useless to ask if the latter had read any book by an ID theorist. Most likely, Bimbette had not read any book since graduating from the journalism program. A characteristic of the type is that they “believe in evolution,” but know almost nothing about it and see no need.
Dover, thankfully, got the crowd out of people’s laptop cases and lab coat pockets, and that was —in my opinion—one of the reasons the decade was fruitful.
Darwin followers continued to claim that the Discovery Institute wanted ID taught in schools. As someone with a ringside seat, I knew that wasn’t true; its involvement in Dover was more or less forced by events.
The “teach the controversy” approach the institute did advocate was taken to be a plot to advance ID in the schools. It was actually an attempt to teach evidence-based thinking, as opposed to the Darwin lobby’s metaphysical claims.
But fortunately, the pants in knot street theatre Darwin’s faithful created over the issue was an unexpected help. It tended to focus much of the hysteria on something other than the main work of the ID community.
Here’s to another decade of fruitful work for the ID community and creative profanity from the Darwinblogs! Oh yes, and pontificating about what God would or wouldn’t do from the Christian Darwinists. At least we will all have our priorities straight.
Follow UD News at Twitter!