Evolution Road Trip

Here's the only reason now extant perhaps to be in balmy Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, today as a spectator: Appearing before a federal judge, 11 parents of school-age children in the Dover Area School District will offer proof that "Intelligent Design," as the current popular term for tossing evolutionary science out of school curricula, is not, well, intelligent at all. Last year, the Dover Area School District decided, under pressure from know-nothing parents enraptured by the false "science" of "Intelligent Design," decided -- mandated, rather -- that science teachers in their schools must tell students that there is an "alternative" to evolution, which is after all merely a "theory," and refer those students to an alternative textbook that champions "Intelligent Design." Three opposing school board members resigned after the vote making this change.

The parents contend that the directive amounted to an attempt to inject religion into the curriculum in violation of the First Amendment. Their suit has been joined by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation for Church and State. The school board is being defended pro bono by the Thomas More Law Center, a Christian law firm in Ann Arbor, Mich. The case is being heard without a jury in Harrisburg by U.S. District Judge John Jones III, whom President Bush appointed to the bench in 2002.

But here's where it gets interesting: scientists are using this case as an opportunity to get aggressive with the equally aggressive right-wing forces who have been pushing "Intelligent Design" as a way of undermining Darwin.

It isn't enough for the plaintiffs to discredit intelligent design. Instead, what they must do is show that the school board's decision would have an unconstitutionally religious purpose and effect. Intelligent design as science is bogus, they insist, and teaching it is a grave disservice to students.

Today's lengthy WashPost article outlines both the science and the legal argument. (Disclaimer: The only 'C' I ever got in college was in a science class, so don't depend on me, but I can read English prose fairly well and find the recent advances in science extraordinarily astounding.)

Here's part of the current proof of evolution:

Scientists have now decoded the billions of bits of genetic code that make up both chimpanzees and human beings. Darwin had predicted back in the 19th century that chimps were humans' nearest cousins. And guess what? Scientists announced last month that the 3 billion strands of DNA in chimp genes were more than 96 percent identical to human DNA.

Now if that shakes the foundation of your religious belief, that's your problem and should not be the burden of science teachers in the public schools.

Evolution is proven. It's testable. It's a "theory" about the same way that gravity is a "theory." "Intelligent Design," on its best day, doesn't even rise to the level of a theory. It's a metaphor hiding a religious/political agenda. The trial in the Harrisburg courtroom today should prove it ... if the fix isn't in already with this Bush-appointed judge.