07.08.08
Dover trial and cross-examination of neo-darwinism
Judge says creationism for the birds
Federal Judge John E. Jones III casts but a dim glow compared to the candescent brilliance of James Madison, yet just more than two years ago he found the Klieg lights of media-driven stardom sufficient to subvert the Bill of Rights into a Bull of Wrongs. Wielding Madison’s magnificent contribution to freedom and the American way as a club, Jones dispensed with subtlety or nuance as he flogged a local Pennsylvania school board for establishing a religion in violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Overreacting to teachers informing students of a library book on intelligent design, Jones not only found an egregious establishment of religion, he indignantly made it a violation of the Constitution to require so much as critical analysis of evolution in the science classroom. Let freedom ring.
The judge correctly applied the law, and ‘failure’ of the case is entirely the fault of those who tried to cast the debate in terms of ID.
If it could ever happen that it were a question of ‘Darwin on Trial’ a good lawyer could skewer neo-darwinism.
What is remarkable is the way the trial was structured so that no cross-examination of the Darwinian side was possible.
Nathan Schneider said,
July 31, 2008 at 8:52 am
You might be interested in an article of mine, a review of Lauri Lebo’s “The Devil in Dover,” which is an excellent book about the Dover “monkey” trial. The review appeared in today’s edition of AlterNet. I’m always eager for feedback, so I’d love to hear from you about the piece. And if you choose to mention my article on Darwiniana please let me know so I can take a look.
On AlterNet:
http://www.alternet.org/rights/93188/despite_overwhelming_evidence%2C_creationists_cling_to_unreality/?page=entire
Some reflections on the article on my blog, The Row Boat:
http://www.therowboat.com/2008/07/can-creationism-go-on-forever/
nemo said,
July 31, 2008 at 9:05 am
Thanks for the links, this is grist for the mill at Darwiniana,
I may have already cited this article, but will now do so again.
The previous comment refers to a comment at Alternet, I will get the link soon.
BTW, Alternet just received a review copy this week of World History And The Eonic Effect, rescue it from the slush pile.
patience…later today