12.20.05
Every time I think that all of tangible reality is coming unravelled across the stitching, I enconuter a string of events like I have in the last week and a half, and my faith in the intellectual capacity of the human race is, for a time, restored. First I was treated to an incisive episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit that depicted quite eloquently the destructive effects that religion has on human society; today I rewarded with the news that U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III ruled that so-called "intelligent design" -- the newest euphemism for "creationism" being bandied about by religious rightwingers in an attempt to make their baseless mysticism sound legitimate -- cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district.
The decision is only the newest development in what has become known as the Dover Panda Trial. In October of 2004, the Dover Board of Education passed a resolution requiring ninth-grade biology teachers to preempt their classes with the following statement:
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 is still being 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 to see if they would like to
explore this view in an effort to gain an understanding of what intelligent design actually
involves.
As is true with 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.
Three of the school board members in the minority of the vote resigned in protest, and science teachers throughout the district refused to read the statement, citing a Pennsylvania code of education which states that teachers cannot present to their students information that they believe to be erroneous. In November of the following year, the people of Dover, Pennsylvania then proved their inimitable good sense by voting out of office all eight members of the school board who had voted for the resolution, and replacing them with new officials who vehemently opposed the policy and vowed to remove it.
As usual, self-important social parasite Pat Robertson felt the need to weigh in on the topic, delivering a heated statement that fell just short of being a bona fide threat against the city of Dover in the November 10th episode of his cashcow television-show the 700 Club:
"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't
turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city, and don't wonder why He hasn't
helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do,
just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for
His help, because He might not be there."
Of course, Mr. Robertson's statement serves to achieve precisely two objectives as he proves both his ignorance and his insanity simultaneously. Firstly, the citizenry of Dover did not "vote...God out of [their] city;" they simply proved, as is their right as the population of a democratic city, that they would not allow an unsubstantiated fairy-tale -- creationism -- to be taught as fact in public schools as if the child's-story had any scientific merit whatsoever.
I applaud the people of Dover for standing up against the irrational tide of theocratic oppression that threatens to swallow the last vestiges of logic in this country, and upholding the First Amendment stipulation that separates church from state. They did not, as Mr. Robertson's statement seems to imply, storm every church in the city limits and burn them to the ground; "God" is still a perfectly viable idea in the city of Dover. The citizens of Dover are simply intelligent enough to know that the dissemination of such superstitious rhetoric is the province of the home and the church, not public education.
Secondly, Mr. Robertson clearly establishes that he is certifiably insane, because he implies that God is a real being with real influence over the real world. The very definition of insanity involes the inability of the individual to distinguish fantasy from reality. As we have already adequately established that there is no God, any idea of a God would clearly be fantastical (that is, borne from fantasy); anyone who actually believes that such a fantastical creature exists, then, is by definition manifesting symptoms of insanity. Any claims or statements by such an individual would thus obviously hold no weight, as they are the rantings of a lunatic.
What Mr. Robertson neglects to acknowledge is the simple truth that creationism -- even under the guise of "intelligent design" -- "is simply not science," and thus has no place in a science classroom. Even Judge Jones -- a church-going Republican named to the bench in 2003 by Bush II himself -- points out that "intelligent design" "relies on 'flawed and illogical' arguments" and "'violates the centuries-old ground rules of science by invoking and permitting supernatural causation'" "which cannot be explained by natural causes, or be proven through empirical investigation, and is therefore neither testable nor falsifiable."
The objective of science has always been the pursuit of the truth in an attempt to understand the mechinations of the universe in which we exist; science begins with a question and works toward an answer based on observable and repeatable facts. Creationism, on the otherhand, is precisely the opposite of science; it begins with a desired answer and attempts reframe the question until its answer is "proven" in spite of established scientific fact, even to the point of outright ignoring contradictory information.
Yet somehow this nondebate continues today despite the fact that evolution has been adequately proven by scientifically accepted methods, and creationism is an idle children's fantasy. When humans first began wondering where the species came from, no adequate explanation existed to satisfy the question; those who asked the question did not have adequate means to find the actual answer, and so they concocted a whimsical tale about a God that made man out of dust. Unfortunately, this story became so deeply engrained into the human psyche that when science eventually provided the actual answer -- that humans were the biological outcome of millions of years of accidental evolutionary adaptation -- some people were unwilling to acknowledge proven facts over quaint superstition.
Fortunately for advanced civilization, Judge Jones saw that October resolution for what it really was: a flagrant attempt to circumvent the Constitution and shoehorn religion into public education. Jones blasted the disclaimer in his 139-page ruling today, determining that it "singles out the theory of evolution for special treatment, misrepresents [evolution]'s status in the scientific community, causes students to doubt [evolution]'s validity without scientific justification, presents students with a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory, directs them to consult a creationist text as though it were a science resource, and instructs students to forego scientific inquiry in the public school classroom and instead to seek out religious instruction elsewhere."
But the most inspiring effect of the news is that, of the more-than-64,000 votes collected in an MSNBC poll, a heartening two-thirds of voters agreed with Judge Jones's decision. Maybe people are coming around; I can hope.
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