Posted on 09/22/2005 6:53:07 AM PDT by Right Wing Professor
The Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based nonprofit that describes itself as a "nonpartisan policy and research organization," recently issued a policy position against Dover in its upcoming court case.
John West, associate director of Discovery's Center for Science & Culture, calls the Dover policy "misguided" and "likely to be politically divisive and hinder a fair and open discussion of the merits of intelligent design."
Eleven parents filed a federal suit last December, about two months after the school board voted to include a statement about intelligent design in its ninth-grade biology classes.
Intelligent design says living things are so complicated they had to have been created by a higher being, that life is too complex to have developed through evolution as described by biologist Charles Darwin.
The parents, along with Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union, said the board had religious motives for putting the policy in place.
The non-jury trial is expected to start in Harrisburg Sept. 26.
No surprise: The school board's attorney, Richard Thompson, said he isn't surprised the Discovery Institute has distanced itself from the school board's stance.
"I think it's a tactical decision they make on their own," said Thompson, top attorney with Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center, a law firm that specializes in cases related to the religious freedom of Christians.
Though the Discovery Institute promotes the teaching of intelligent design, it has been critical of school boards that have implemented intelligent design policies, Thompson said.
Discovery Institute's Web site offers school board members a link to a video titled "How to Teach the Controversy Legally," referring to the organization's opinion that there is a controversy over the validity of the theory of evolution.
The video doesn't specifically mention teaching intelligent design.
But Discovery Institute is the leading organization touting intelligent design research and supporting the scientists and scholars who want to investigate it.
Dover is the only school district that Discovery has publicly spoken out against. West said that's because they mandated the policy. Discovery Institute supports teaching intelligent design, but not requiring it through a school board policy.
He said there are few proponents of intelligent design who support the stand Dover's board has taken because the district has required the reading of a statement that mentions intelligent design and directs students to an intelligent design textbook.
"They really did it on their own and that's unfortunate," West said.
The "bad policy" has given the ACLU a reason to try to "put a gag order" on intelligent design in its entirety, he said.
Discovery also spoke out against Pennsylvania legislators who wanted to give school boards the option of mandating the teaching of intelligent design alongside evolution.
Avoiding politics: Teaching intelligent design is not unconstitutional, but the institute doesn't support the Dover school board's stand because it doesn't want intelligent design to become a political issue, said Casey Luskin, program officer in the Public Policy and Legal Affairs department at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture.
He said the Discovery Institute is "not trying to hinder their case in court," but the organization wants intelligent design to be debated by the scientific community, not school boards.
Lawyer: Won't hinder case: Thompson said the Discovery Institute's noninvolvement in the trial won't hinder Dover's case because "the judge is going to look at the policy ... not who is in favor of it on the outside."
But the institute has been a hindrance to the school district's attempts to find "scientific" witnesses to testify about intelligent design, Thompson said.
Though Discovery representatives said they have never been in support of Dover's policy, Thompson said the organization's unwillingness to get involved in the trial became evident after it insisted that some of its fellows -- who were lined up to testify -- have their own legal representation, instead of the Thomas More Center, which bills itself as "The Sword and Shield for People of Faith."
Some of the Discovery Institute's intelligent design supporters backed out of testifying, even after Thompson told them they could have their own legal representation if they wanted, Thompson said.
"It was very disappointing" that the institute would prevent its members from testifying, Thompson said.
But he still found some willing Discovery fellows to testify that intelligent design is not a religious movement: Michael Behe from Lehigh University and Scott Minnich from the University of Idaho.
West said Discovery fellow Charles Thaxton is also slated to testify.
I was already one of your worshippers! Please don't tell me you are a false goddess, because what am I supposed to do now with all this chocolate cake I was about to sacrifice in your honour!?
Great article to post, btw -- cheers!
Mat 5:11 Blessed are ye, when [men] shall revile you, and persecute [you], and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Mat 5:12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great [is] your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Now I am no prophet but I do realize as a Believer in a literal and inspired Word of God I'll be persecuted.
I got big shoulders...I can handle it.
And the Word of God created the reality around you. Yet you reject that reality because "it is not the Word of God".
I think you worship a mass manufactured book called "the Bible", not God.
So how, so far, have you been persecuted?
Your first article from the Discovery Institute has been withdrawn by the publisher.
Aside from that, the other articles are God of the Gaps stuff. At best they simply point out that science doesn't know everything.
Take any of your gaps articles, assume it is good science and what do you get? Another opportunity for mainstream research to discover the natural cause of the phenomenon.
Can you name a phenomenon studied by science, where science hasn't made progress by assuming natural causes?
You believe in Creation too. Nice.
Yet you reject that reality because "it is not the Word of God".
huh?
I think you worship a mass manufactured book called "the Bible", not God.
Wha...??
narby...go try and find a debate with someone else...I'm not playing today.
No, freedom from religious persecution is one of the great guarantees of our Constitution--I value it deeply.
But the agenda of the ID proponents, as set forth in the Wedge Document, is a direct assault on everyone's freedom of thought. The commitment of the Discovery Institute to the freedoms protected by our Constitution are somewhat questionable, in my view.
You are free to believe as you will, and even to proslytise in most places. But the science classroom is not one of those places
Dont get so dramatic.
Last time I check 2+2=4
When evo is that clear...you can have your freedom.
2/3 of America is waiting.
Since you are not omniscient I'm pretty sure I can rule you out.
Here, why don't you both have some chocolate cake?
I am confident my freedom was guaranteed in 1776, though it took a few years to secure it. And some of my countrymen had to wait until 1863 for their freedom, and that also took a few more years to secure. But golly, the Constitution has come through pretty well for us, all in all.
2/3 of America is waiting.
For what, some of this chocolate cake!?
That would need a loaves and fishes intervention...
Dictated by the ArchAngel Gabriel directly into the Prophet's Ear.
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