UPDATE: The Episode is now watchable online here.
By Siamang
Tomorrow night on PBS, NOVA will air “Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial”.
Here’s a promo for it:
Judgement Day chronicles the Dover Pennsylvania court battle that pitted parents against Intelligent Design advocates on the Dover PA school board who wanted to force the schools to offer ID as an alternative to evolution. It was a fascinating trial because it illuminated the political, religious and scientific flaws of the ID movement.
Specifically the Discovery Institute, as ID’s biggest think-tank has a difficult line to walk. They know that if they label the “designer” God, they will be by anything but name, “Creationism” and that has already been shown as unconstitutional to teach in schools.
But ID’s mainstream popularity relies on the power of conservative Christians who believe the Designer is God. What the trial showed is that the members of the Dover School Board who were pushing ID didn’t seem to be aware of the need to walk that line. They invoke God and Jesus repeatedly in their quest to bring ID to science classes in Dover, then deny that they did this under oath.
One scientific problem with ID is that it’s not purely a philosophical position. It’s not saying “science tells us the ‘how’ of the universe, but not the ‘why’”. No, a big problem is that ID is making specific, testable, falsifyable physical claims about biology. Claims that have been falsified. ID proponent Michael Behe makes certain claims about the bacterial flagellum which have been falsified. He makes claims about the blood-clotting cascade which have been falsified. So this isn’t about teaching evolution in such a way that we don’t smuggle in atheism… far from it. It’s about teaching demonstrably false claims by a disgraced biochemist in order to advance a theological claim about God, in public school. And that’s only one of the issues that came to the fore in Dover. ID is full of fail.
This should be an interesting film, as certain portions will be reenacted using actors reading from the trial transcripts. I’m really looking forward to some of the more dramatic moments that I read about in the transcripts… especially Michael Behe’s cross-examination.
The Discovery Institute has posted this bizarre video on YouTube claiming that the episode of NOVA is a “PBS propaganda hit piece.” It’s got lots of silly music cues, but no fart sound effects… otherwise I might think that it was the creation of Bill Dembski.
Of course, as usual, comments are disabled on the Discovery Institute’s You-Tube video rebuttal to the NOVA promo. They love having the last (or only) word.
-Siamang
Posted in A Cacophony of Posts | 90 Comments »Remember folks, Super Mario Galaxy comes out Monday for the Nintendo Wii!
H/T: The God Blog.
Posted in A Cacophony of Posts | Comments OffYesterday was Billy Graham’s 89th birthday. Billy Graham is my hero, but not because he’s a great preacher or even a great Christian (whatever that means). Sure, I admire those things about him but his occupation and fame are not why he’s my hero.
Billy Graham is my hero because he remained humble when fame should have screwed him up. To play on a point made by Benjamin Ady last week, there is very little disparity between Billy Graham’s “projected image” and his “actual image.” Billy Graham, for all his fame, never projected more than he really was. He is a simple man with a simple message that never changed and never got sullied. Frankly, I suspect he’s surprised at - and a bit uncomfortable with? - the recognition he’s received.
I admire his unswerving, confident, quiet integrity. When other televangelists fell, he stood. When religion got soiled, he stayed clean. When others thought he should distance himself, he risked his ministry to stand with people other Christians would have nothing to do with - President Clinton comes to mind.
Billy Graham made the world a better place. His faith did to him what I hope my faith does to me - it made him strong and relationally attractive rather than abrasive and judgemental. If more Christians handled their humanity the way he handled his - with humility - perhaps Christianity would be a bit more attractive than it is today.
Here’s a video tribute to Billy Graham.
Happy Birthday, Billy.
Posted in A Cacophony of Posts, Mike O | 7 Comments »