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Judge copied ACLU in anti-design ruling
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | December 12, 2006 | Art Moore

Posted on 12/12/2006 8:52:13 AM PST by editor-surveyor

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

A historic judicial ruling against intelligent design theory hailed as a "broad, stinging rebuke" and a "masterpiece of wit, scholarship and clear thinking" actually was "cut and pasted" from a brief by ACLU lawyers and includes many of their provable errors, contends the Seattle-based Discovery Institute.

One year ago, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones' 139-page ruling in Kitzmiller v. Dover declared unconstitutional a school board policy that required students of a ninth-grade biology class in the Dover Area School District to hear a one-minute statement that said evolution is a theory and intelligent design "is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view."

University of Chicago geophysicist Raymond Pierrehumbert called Jones' ruling a "masterpiece of wit, scholarship and clear thinking" while lawyer Ed Darrell said the judge "wrote a masterful decision, a model for law students on how to decide a case based on the evidence presented." Time magazine said the ruling made Jones one of "the world's most influential people" in the category of "scientists and thinkers."

But an analysis by the Discovery Institute, the leading promoter of intelligent design, concludes about 90.9 percent – 5,458 words of his 6,004-word section on intelligent design as science – was taken virtually verbatim from the ACLU's proposed "Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law" submitted to Jones nearly a month before his ruling.

"Judge Jones's decision wasn't a masterpiece of scholarship. It was a masterpiece of cut-and-paste," said the Discovery Institute's John West in a phone conference with reporters yesterday.

West is vice president for public policy and legal affairs for the group's Center for Science and Culture, which issued a statement saying, "The finding that most of Judge Jones' analysis of intelligent design was apparently not the product of his own original deliberative activity seriously undercuts the credibility of Judge Jones' examination of the scientific validity of intelligent design."

(Excerpt)


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: creation; evolutionism; id; idiocy; idjunkscience; whereistheresearchdi; worldnutdaily
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To: js1138

And just as well - the defense perjured itself enough even without them.


81 posted on 12/12/2006 1:01:11 PM PST by highball ("I never should have switched from scotch to martinis." -- the last words of Humphrey Bogart)
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To: Quark2005
"Jones' decision was to leave science to scientists. A good one."

Judge Jones used ACLU documentation (including errors).

"Biological scientists overwhelmingly accept evolution."

Ah, truth by popular vote. Good for science and good for America.

82 posted on 12/12/2006 1:27:59 PM PST by GourmetDan
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To: antiRepublicrat
"Just as in my examples -- a spin of facts equals a lie."

Well then. Judge Jones 'spinning' the words of the ACLU as his own was a lie then wasn't it?

83 posted on 12/12/2006 1:29:05 PM PST by GourmetDan
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To: editor-surveyor

This whole "dust-up" is bogus.

My advice to you is to actually learn some real science for once. However, I already know that will not happen.


84 posted on 12/12/2006 1:34:47 PM PST by RadioAstronomer
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE
"Neither was "created" (as we think of it) from nothing, their matter already existed. But they could not be seen until the plants cleared up the atmosphere."

Sorry, whether you think they were created from nothing or made from existing material, the verse says they were 'made', not made visible.

"Then again, I could argue that this means that plants (now thought to be "only" 3 some-odd billion years old) were actually already present before the moon's collision at around 4 billion some-odd years ago.

Do you think that's why the Book says, "...and there was evening and morning..." so that you could fit billions of years in there?

"We shall see. Science has been wrong before in confirming what the Book already said.

And is wrong now. That's why you should not accept science first and the Book second.

85 posted on 12/12/2006 1:35:12 PM PST by GourmetDan
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To: editor-surveyor; doc30
Get back to your garbage truck before it gets ripe.

I will put his REAL PhD up against you any day.

86 posted on 12/12/2006 1:37:43 PM PST by RadioAstronomer
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To: editor-surveyor

Judge Jones is a moron plagiarist and tool of the hard-core Communist Left.


87 posted on 12/12/2006 1:38:33 PM PST by WashingtonSource
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To: highball
"You obviously haven't read the transcripts - the defense's star witness, under oath, admitted that ID is as scientific as astrology."

I think you (and Judge Jones) misunderstood what Behe was saying.

"The only side to put forward a valid scientific analysis was the plaintiff."

Would that be the 'truth by popular opinion' analysis?

88 posted on 12/12/2006 1:41:48 PM PST by GourmetDan
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To: GourmetDan
Welllllll, that depends on how the Bible is interpreted.

Catholic teaching holds that it is divinely inspired, absolute Truth in matters of Faith and morals, but composed of many different forms of literature: Songs, poems, parables, stories, histories and tales, lists of Kings and judges, genealogies, laws, eyewitness accounts, letters, etc.

The story of Genesis is one of many stories telling how and why and what God created. Thus, in the Catholic teaching, I do not need to explain what is meant by the "morning and evening of ..." but rather just let the story reveal the glory that God created. It (genesis) does not need to mention the details of the story of creation, the Book merely reveals that creation happened - and now, finally, science has evolved to the point of being able to tell us the same thing. (It's about time they caught up.)

It says, for example, that life was formed from the earth: If God chose to do that by manipulating molecules and atoms, it's rather easier to believe that than that random lightning strikes somehow created life.
89 posted on 12/12/2006 1:44:02 PM PST by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but Hillary's ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: editor-surveyor

It's very common for judges to copy-n-paste sections from the parties' submitted briefs.


90 posted on 12/12/2006 1:53:22 PM PST by Teacher317
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To: doc30

To paraphrase the 'sanitation' worker:

Evolution is to science what an Etch-A-Sketch is to a CAD program.

Evolutionists are to scientists what road-kill is to the Cordon Bleu.


91 posted on 12/12/2006 1:57:57 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Atheist and Fool are synonyms; Evolution is where fools hide from the sunrise)
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To: RadioAstronomer

My advice to you is that you should take your own advice.

You obviously don't realize that most people see through the fallacy of evolution easily. Only those given to believing the lie have difficulty with the truth.


92 posted on 12/12/2006 2:03:40 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Atheist and Fool are synonyms; Evolution is where fools hide from the sunrise)
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To: GourmetDan
Ah, truth by popular vote. Good for science and good for America.

Ah, let's see - truth by the consensus of professionals in a relevant area of expertise actually trained to analyze, interpret and review data properly, or truth by consensus of Gourmet Dan and the Discovery Institute. Tough call...

93 posted on 12/12/2006 2:16:59 PM PST by Quark2005 (Incredulity doesn't make facts go away.)
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE
"The story of Genesis is one of many stories telling how and why and what God created. Thus, in the Catholic teaching, I do not need to explain what is meant by the "morning and evening of ..." but rather just let the story reveal the glory that God created. It (genesis) does not need to mention the details of the story of creation, the Book merely reveals that creation happened - and now, finally, science has evolved to the point of being able to tell us the same thing."

Do Catholics think God couldn't tell us what he really did but had to tell us a lie so that we would believe him?

"It says, for example, that life was formed from the earth: If God chose to do that by manipulating molecules and atoms, it's rather easier to believe that than that random lightning strikes somehow created life."

The Book says that he created animals to reproduce after their kind. Man says that isn't how it happened. The Book says God created the sun/moon one day after the plants. Man says that isn't how it happened. The Book says that woman came from man. Man says that isn't how it happened.

"(It's about time they caught up.)"

Have they?

95 posted on 12/12/2006 2:24:51 PM PST by GourmetDan
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To: Teacher317
"It's very common for judges to copy-n-paste sections from the parties' submitted briefs."

I know what is common in court. I've given considerable expert testimony; sued, and been sued. What is not so common is a judge gullibly accepting the kind of rubbish that was accepted in this one.

96 posted on 12/12/2006 2:25:53 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Atheist and Fool are synonyms; Evolution is where fools hide from the sunrise)
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To: GourmetDan

No.


97 posted on 12/12/2006 2:27:44 PM PST by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but Hillary's ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: editor-surveyor
"A historic judicial ruling against intelligent design theory...."

There is no such thing as Intelligent Design Theory, it is a hypothesis at most

98 posted on 12/12/2006 2:30:52 PM PST by muir_redwoods (Free Sirhan Sirhan, after all, the bastard who killed Mary Jo Kopechne is walking around free)
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To: muir_redwoods
"There is no such thing as Intelligent Design Theory, it is a hypothesis at most"

It's neither. - It's a postulate that is supported by the entirety of the statistical domain.

99 posted on 12/12/2006 2:36:56 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Atheist and Fool are synonyms; Evolution is where fools hide from the sunrise)
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To: editor-surveyor
"It's neither. - It's a postulate that is supported by the entirety of the statistical domain."

Please demonstrate or prove if you can

100 posted on 12/12/2006 2:39:28 PM PST by muir_redwoods (Free Sirhan Sirhan, after all, the bastard who killed Mary Jo Kopechne is walking around free)
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