NOVA– “Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial”

Tonight we watched the PBS Nova program, “Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial,” which follows the story of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, the 2005 Pennsylvania case brought about when the local school district mandated inclusion of a disclaimer in science classes calling evolution “theory” rather than “fact,” and encouraging students to investigate “intelligent design.”

Nova’s bias was clear–it wanted to continue the prosecution. If you want an objective recounting of the trial, skip this program. I think it was particularly unfair to Michael Behe. It prided itself on its “refutation” of his idea of irreducible complexity, claiming that pieces from a bacterium flagellum could be removed and it would work fine–as a poison injector. That doesn’t answer the question he poses, of course. Are they suggesting that poison injectors evolved into motors? They tried to be cute, with one man showing that a mousetrap with pieces removed could function as a tie clasp. Again, are they suggesting that tie clasps evolve into mousetraps? That may work as a lawyer’s trick–but it isn’t a logical refutation of his argument.

The program also couldn’t deal with the fact that Behe is an evolutionist, albeit one who uses “intelligent design,” as he understands it, to fill in the gaps that natural selection can’t explain. He’s a theistic evolutionist, who sees God as guiding the process of evolution over its billions-of-years course. So it simplified things and lumped together all “intelligent design” advocates, portraying them as creationists who were playing a shell game with names to get Christianity in the public schools.

But this portrayal isn’t entirely a caricature. I think the Dover school board and its allies were creationists who were playing a shell game with names to get Christianity in the public schools. This was depicted powerfully by showing the changes in drafts of a book, Of Pandas and People, in which the term “intelligent design” simply replaced the term, “Creation.”

We had a family discussion afterwards. We saw we aren’t comfortable being entirely in one camp or the other. As Adventists, we believe in Creation–and we believe in Creation a because we believe in the Bible. But we also believe in strict separation of church and state, and don’t want to entrust teaching of religion to governmental institutions, nor do we want those governmental institutions to be the puppet of any religious body.

We’re concerned about the ultimate goals of those pushing for inclusion of religious ideas in public schools–they themselves see “intelligent design” as a “wedge” leading to “the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies” (or, put another way, as the restoration of a Christian worldview permeating culture, education, and government).

This Nova episode would have been better if, in its two hours, it would have done a fairer job of exploring the complexities of the issues involved, and omitted the corny dramatizations.

Update: Documents from the trial are available at the webpages of the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Discovery Institute.

Update: Something else Nova didn’t mention–Judge John E. Jones III plagiarized his decision from materials presented by the ACLU, as I had noted in a link on January 9, 2007. Documentation of both the plagiarism, and of misstatement of fact in the decision (and documentation of courts frowning on the practice).

Catholic Bishops Comforted by Sexual Abuse Report

US Catholic Bishops heard a preliminary report from John Jay College of Criminal Justice about the “causes and contexts” of the sexual abuse crisis yesterday.

Research falls into six categories, Terry explained: a historical overview of social and political events since 1950; recruitment and seminary training; leadership; victimization; a clinical analysis using data from three treatment centers; and a discussion of prevention and education tactics.

Terry said early research seems to indicate that the patterns of sexual abuse within the church are consistent with the experience of society as a whole. …

Data so far from John Jay confirms the findings of social scientists “that general social changes have had significant impact on the lives of those who are part of or closely associated with religious organizations,” she said. …

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., said if the research bears out that the Catholic Church differed little from other organizations in the incidence of abuse he recommended offering the John Jay material to others to see if it benefits them.

He also noted that because of the broad acceptance of the notion that sexual abuse is a problem particularly tied to the Catholic Church it “will take some time to overcome the myth that has developed about the church.”

Sounds like the bishops are getting their money’s worth.

Baltimore Sun summarizes:

Terry told the gathering of church leaders that her research showed that despite popular opinion, there was “not something distinct about the church that led to the abuse.”

And gives some reaction:

The findings, released yesterday at the Fall Assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore, worried advocates for abuse victims, who said they hoped that sexual abuse by priests would not be played down just because other members of society did the same.

“We believe that bishops and priests should be above reproach,” said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, a Chicago-based organization that is in Baltimore for the assembly. …

Blaine said she and other advocates are doubtful that the final report will give an accurate account of abuse by priests because the church is paying for it. “Anytime an organization is evaluating itself, it begs the question of whether it is truly objective,” she said.

John Allen also reports.

RIP

Please remember Shawn Landres and family in your prayers, upon the death of his father, Dr. Peter David Landres.

Man Arrested for Cleaning His Backyard

In Marin County, Sigward Moser was handcuffed, thrown face down in wet muck, and threatened with a taser. Why? Because he went out to clean up his backyard. His house is on Muir Beach, scene of last week’s oil spill. No one was doing anything about the big black globs, so he got a bunch of monks and went down and filled about 500 bags of goo. Then came the feds.

At an advertised “training” session for volunteers, said volunteers were made to sign a “loyalty oath,” and then told to go home and do nothing.

Writer’s Block

You wouldn’t know it from the prolific prose on this blog, but I get writer’s block. A blog, of course, consists of thoughts that are provoked by something read on-line. It’s a very different process than writing an assigned article. I’ve been struggling with the latter for a couple of weeks. My brother Jason was coordinating a week’s worth of lessons for CQ, the Seventh-day Adventist young adult Bible Study guide. I only had to write one 950 word article, doing exegesis of some supplied texts. He gave me an extension from Friday’s deadline, and I finally got it knocked out this morning (after spending a couple of hours in the HBU library yesterday looking up some commentaries on Matthew 23).

Partly, I just didn’t have time to sit down and think quietly about it. The research helped, too, to broaden my vision. The difficulty lay in the fact that a group of texts were brought together that I wouldn’t have thought of connecting, and yet my task was to connect them. Jason now gets to take a look at it before passing it on to the CQ editors, who may do something else with it.

Tasered for Being Sick

In Alabama, a man having a diabetic seizure was found slumped over the wheel of his car and tasered by police for not complying with their orders.

In Waxahachie, TX, earlier this year, a man called 911 because he was having a diabetic seizure–cops broken down his door, forced their way into his bedroom, and tasered him while he was lying in bed. A lawsuit has now been filed.

No action was taken against the police involved by their departments.

Cheapening the “Right to Privacy”

Abortion advocates claimed that a “right to privacy” must guarantee their right to abortion.

That’s all it may guarantee these days. Donald Kerr of the Office of National Intelligence said recently we should say good-bye to privacy. James Pinkerton comments. Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial. New York Times.

Big Brother is watching (and is at school).