"Besides, whatever special restrictions scientists adopt for themselves don’t bind the public, which polls show, overwhelmingly, and sensibly, thinks that life was designed.
Everything about ID can come down to that. There is an implied threat to the scientific community. That no matter how ID is unaccepted by the experts and scientists, no matter how thoroughly evolutionists defeat them in debate and results, a non-scientifically trained entity, the public through the courts, can impose its will on the instruction of science. All Behe and IDers do is demagogue this issue to the gullible public. This is an outrage. In no other academic field can outsiders dictate to academic insiders how their field is to be run. You can't have the inmates run the asylum.
But the IDers are doomed to fail. The longer this is prolonged, the greater will be the attention upon this issue. Once that happens, the resistance by the imposed upon scientific community will increase, leading to a more dramatic and humiliating ID defeat.
Professional organizations have pretty much already stated their positions, but they don't have the time to go around participating in county fair hog-wrestling contests with slimy creationist showmen. They make their livings doing research, not selling books and tapes full of lies.
Botanical Society of America's Statement on Evolution. Excellent statement.
AAAS Board Resolution on Intelligent Design Theory. ID isn't science.
The National Association of Biology Teachers' Statement on Teaching Evolution. Over 9,000 members.
And the ID gang have stated their aims:
Discovery Institute's "Wedge Project". Replacing science with theism.
The Wedge at Work. The Discovery Institute's war against reason.
The "Wedge Document": "So What?" The Discovery Instutute defends the Wedge document.