The Armies of Know-Nothingism

Big article in today's WashPost proving the theory of evolution ... at least the evolution of the anti-evolution crowd, who've evolved to promote "intelligent design" as their counter to Darwin.

"Intelligent design" is a little more complicated than the six-day creation blitz recounted in Genesis Chapter 1, but the ultimate goal of promoting "intelligent design" is not only to turn back the clock on accepted science but to set the calendar back on culture and politics as well: "The idea [is] to sow doubt about Darwin and buy time for the 40-plus scientists affiliated with ['Intelligent Design'] to perfect the theory.... Also, by deferring a debate about whether God was the intelligent designer, the strategy avoids the defeats suffered by creationists who tried to oust evolution from the classroom and ran afoul of the Constitution."

When the mere presence of science threatens religion, there's something fundamentally weak about that religion. When the mere presence of science threatens political power, then science had better watch out. El Presidente, for example, has already delivered himself of the scholarly opinion that "the jury is still out on evolution," angering many scientists and teachers who can still tell a hawk from a handsaw.

Defeating science is just another front in the political wars, make no mistake: "To fundamentalist Christians ... the fight to teach God's role in creation is becoming the essential front in America's culture war .... If evolution's boosters can be forced to back down, [one of the promoters of 'Intelligent Design'] said, the Christian right's agenda will advance. 'If you believe God created that baby, it makes it a whole lot harder to get rid of that baby,' [he] said. 'If you can cause enough doubt on evolution, liberalism will die.' "

Everything's so simple when all your demons are "liberal."