Bad Statement; Bad Policy; Bad Board; Bad Case; Bad Judge; Bad Decision; Constitutional Confusion; ID Is Not Religious!

The Dover Pennsylvania Intelligent Design court case has finally come to an end. The Judge has ruled for the plaintiff, thus banning even the mention of Intelligent Design in biology classes within the Dover Area School District; and the ruling will probably not be appealed, since the school board that initiated the ID statement to be read to biology students has been voted out of office.

What are we to make of the whole debacle? Trying to sort out all the complexities of the case has my head spinning. Let’s see some of the factors that are making it spin.

Bad Statement. The 160-word statement that was to be read to biology students before the evolution unit looks like it was designed by a committee, as in, “There is an old saying, be it true or be it witty, that a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee.” It was added to, subtracted from and rearranged through many drafts, ignoring suggestions by the science teachers who were to read it. Here it is in its final form:

"The Pennsylvania Academic Standards require students to learn about Darwin's Theory of Evolution and eventually to take a standardized test of which evolution is a part. Because Darwin's Theory is a theory, it continues to be tested as new evidence is discovered. The Theory is not a fact. Gaps in the Theory exist for which there is no evidence. A theory is defined as a well-tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations. Intelligent Design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view. The reference book, Of Pandas and People, is available for students who might be interested in gaining an understanding of what Intelligent Design actually involves. With respect to any theory, students are encouraged to keep an open mind. The school leaves the discussion of the Origins of Life to individual students and their families. As a Standards-driven district, class instruction focuses upon preparing students to achieve proficiency on Standards-based assessments."(York Daily Record, January 8, 2005)

In fact, the science teachers refused to read it, so an administrator had to do it.

Bad Policy. Never tell a bunch of proud (egotistical?) science teachers that they have to read a prepared statement, the content of which they don’t believe. My former colleagues would have reacted much like the Dover teachers did. And I probably would have joined them. And the Discovery Institute, the principal Intelligent Design think-tank, refused to get involved in the case because they (along with creationist organizations, such as Answers In Genesis) disagree with mandating the teaching of ID. Permit and encourage, yes; mandate, no, is their policy. It is also bad policy to take action on such a potentially inflammatory issue without wide community support. It takes a lot of educating of the public before taking controversial action.

Bad Board of Education. Their motives might have been good, but their methods and behavior, as I gather from the judge’s decision, were anything but God-glorifying. Apparently they intimidated and threatened non-believing board members and others, even calling them atheists and telling them they were going to hell. They rejected a biology textbook because it didn’t balance coverage of evolution with creationism. There was a mysterious burning of an evolution poster removed from a biology classroom wall. And seemingly, the board members didn’t understand the theory they were trying to support.

Bad Case. A handful of parents instituted the lawsuit, supported, of course, by the ACLU and several other atheistic, church-state separatist and anti-creation groups. The defense was represented by the Thomas More Law Center, whose mission is to “defend the religious freedom of Christians.” – which, of course, could have made a poor impression on the judge, since this was an “establishment of religion” case. Although I have used the term, “Bad Case” to continue in my emphasis of the “badness” of the overall situation, the expert witnesses were scientifically well qualified. Among others, they included Kenneth Miller (Brown University, author of Finding Darwin’s God) for the plaintiffs; and Michael Behe (Lehigh University, author of Darwin’s Black Box) for the defense. They each testified for several days; and reading through the court record of their testimonies was quite informative. In my opinion, Dr. Behe was more convincing—obviously the judge didn’t think so—if, indeed, the decision had anything to do with the expert testimony. In fact, the scientific testimony by both sides seems to have been a mere showcase; and as far as the final decision goes, the judge might just as well have slept through it all.

Bad Judge. I saw trouble coming when I heard that the judge, Honorable John E. Jones III, intended to research the case by renting a copy of the movie Inherit the Wind in order to compare the present case with the “Scopes Monkey Trial” of 1925. At least one organization wrote to the judge to inform him that the movie was a fictional adaptation of a fictional play (which was intended as an anti-McCarthyism message) and that neither movie nor play was in any way an accurate representation of the Scopes trial. Apparently, Judge Jones was not terribly interested in the question, “Is Intelligent Design Theory science?’ but was convinced from the start that it was “religion.” In his 139-page decision, he used language that seemed particularly non-judicial—terms like “breathtaking inanity,” “lied to cover up…” And how about this statement in his decision as a classic example of activist overreaching: “we will enter an order permanently enjoining Defendants from maintaining the ID Policy in any school within the Dover Area School District, from requiring teachers to denigrate or disparage the scientific theory of evolution, and from requiring teachers to refer to a religious, alternative theory known as ID.” Dr. John West of the Discovery Institute opines: "Judge Jones found that the Dover board violated the Establishment Clause because it acted from religious motives. That should have been the end to the case," said West. "Instead, Judge Jones got on his soapbox to offer his own views of science, religion, and evolution. He makes it clear that he wants his place in history as the judge who issued a definitive decision about intelligent design. This is an activist judge who has delusions of grandeur."

Bad Decision. First, it was a bad decision by the Dover Area School District Board of Education to institute the “Intelligent Design as an alternative to evolution” policy without educating the public, without convincing its teachers of the soundness of the policy, and without the imprimatur of the Discovery Institute, the primary ID think tank. Second, it was a bad decision by the Thomas More Law Center to take on the case. It is a fine institution, but they should pick their battles more carefully so as to prevent embarrassing themselves and the cause of Christ. Third, the judge’s decision was bad in that it was based on his confused thinking and his arrogance in believing that in the space of a few weeks he had become an expert in a highly complex field of science and its relation to religion. It is my humble believe that Judge Jones’s mind was made up from the beginning—evolution is science; ID is religion, and that is that.

Constitutional Confusion. Ultimately, the most frustrating thing about this case and so many others is that it should have anything whatsoever to do with the “establishment” clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. That clause, through countless bad decisions through many decades, has become like a wax nose on a dartboard (to badly mix metaphors,) so distorted and punctured so as to have “original intent” advocates despairing of the very survival of the Constitution. Even if ID were in some way “religious,” what happened to the “free exercise” clause?

Intelligent Design is Not Religion. Liberal, atheistic, church-state separationist and scientific organizations, as well as the liberal press and activist judges, have allowed the definitions of both science and religion to be radically changed. The definition of science has been so narrowed that it excludes anything outside of Karl Popper’s “falsifyability” philosophy and ignores the difference between operational science and historical science—and most certainly “denigrates and disparages” any disagreement with the “fact” of Darwinian evolution. And the definition of religion has been broadened to include any suggestion that anything other than the interaction of atoms and energy is operating in the universe.

How did anything get done in science before Karl Popper? How did those Bible-believing creationist founders of modern science ever discover anything without the “modern” definition of science? And what about religion? I always thought it involved words like church (or synagogue or mosque,) worship, prayer and sacraments. The Dover ID case has served to further damage the definitions of both science and religion.

Is Intelligent Design Theory good science? Only time will tell. It is too young, too squelched by the establishment, to have its ideas fairly adjudicated. But the work will go on in spite of bad court cases here and there.

Is ID religion? By any reasonable definition of the term, absolutely not. Does it have philosophical, metaphysical, even theological implications? Of course it does. Every facet of life has philosophical implications, whether we have thought them through or not. But only those with the biblical worldview have the opportunity to appreciate fully those implications. In this matter, there are confused scientists and there are confused Christians. Let us “study to show ourselves approved unto God as workmen who do not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth”—as it applies to both the material sciences and the “Queen of Sciences”—theology.