In “Legal Smackdown: NASA, Religion and Intelligent Design”(Time, March 19, 2012 ), Jeffrey Kluger tells it like Time sees it,
Groups like the intelligent design community are not always free to pick their poster children, and it’s unfortunate for them that Coppedge is one of theirs. It’s true enough that employers and colleagues in a science-based workplace might be uncomfortable with the idea of a coworker who believes in intelligent design. But neither the Constitution nor employee-protection laws can regulate feelings — no more than they can or should regulate belief systems. They can, however, circumscribe behavior on both sides of that faith-divide. From the filings at least, JPL appears to have stayed well within those boundaries. Coppedge appears to have jumped the rails entirely.
Interesting that the guy from Time calls us what UD News calls us – the intelligent design community. That’s true, actually; we are not a cause, we are a community of people who think that the evidence shows actual design in nature.
Here’s an account of Coppedge’s testimony from the San Gabriele Valley News, “Coppedge testifies: JPL open culture of political ideas, religious views didn’t extend to him” Brian Charles reporting (March 19, 2012),
“You’re handing out DVDs in intelligent design. Intelligent design is religion,” Coppedges testified Monday as to Chin’s words with him during the March 2009 incident.
Coppedge claims Chin raised his voice and become agitated.
“I tried to argue with him, but he cut me off and said ‘intelligent design is religion,’” Coppedge said in court.
It’s important to consume media on this and similar cases with care. For example, we read,
Coppedge claims he was fired in 2011 due to his expressed belief in intelligent design over the theory of evolution.
Design is not inconsistent with all theories of evolution; only with theories that attempt to account for life and the universe as products of law and chance alone.