Saturday, March 11, 2006

Know Your Creationists: Know Your Allies

Know Your Creationists: Know Your Allies

by DarkSyde

Sat Mar 11, 2006 at 06:04:48 AM PDT

In the recent victory for both sanity and scientific integrity in the Kitzmiller Vs Dover case concerning Intelligent Design Creationism, the presiding judge utterly hammered the opposition over what he clearly judged as attempts to repackage creationism under the guise of ID. One of the key contributors to establishing the position that IDC is simply creationism redux was DR Barbara Forrest. Barbara is coauthor of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design (A must read for anyone who wishes to take on school boards if and when creationism rears its ugly head in the local area). Research and data garnered from writing that book allowed Barbara to undercut and falsify the defendants (Intelligent Design Creationists) using their own on the record statements....

...Clarifying the meaning of "anti-science movement" would be helpful here. The ID movement is certainly part of a broader anti-science contingent. However, although the ID movement has suffered severe setbacks lately (in Dover, Ohio, and California), I don't think the same can be said regarding anti-science efforts in general. The government has politicized science committees. The American people have consequently lost the valuable expertise of scientists who have either left or were removed from these committees. The federal government's credibility in science-related policy matters has been severely undermined. This is the direct result of the influence of the Religious Right in the Bush administration, and every American should be concerned since matters of life and death are at stake here. An example of this is the decision by NASA scientist James Hansen to blow the whistle about efforts by political appointees to influence what he can tell the public about global warming....