Judgment day – Intelligent design on trial

Conflict between religion and science has rarely been of more concern. Whereas the rhetoric of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and others has little measurable effect, the outcome of a juryless trial in a two-bit Pennsylvania town in 2005 had a profound impact on how science is taught throughout the United States, and beyond. The parents of 11 pupils at the only high school in Dover launched a legal challenge to prevent the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution by natural selection. There followed thefts, fires, death threats, a media sensation and a robust verdict. (Adam Rutherford, Nature 450:170; 2007).

Judgment day tells the story of the Dover trial. It airs tonight at 8:00pm on most PBS stations.¹ Once again, Cornelia Dean getis it just right:

Though prominent intelligent design theorists and their allies speak on camera, and their testimony, like that of the scientists, is re-enacted (no cameras were allowed in court), the program as a whole recognizes that there is no credible scientific challenge to the theory of evolution as an explanation for the complexity and diversity of life on earth. (“Battlefield Report From the Evolution War,” New York Times, 11 November 2007)

Let me put that last phrase in bold. It's worth repeating and re-emphasizing: “there is no credible scientific challenge to the theory of evolution as an explanation for the complexity and diversity of life on earth.”

Right on schedule the Discorvery Institute has launched intelligentdesign.org.² They're good at putting up websites, but they don't do science. Don't believe me? Here's what Philip “Father of Intelligent Design” Johnson has to say:

I also don't think that there is really a theory of intelligent design at the present time to propose as a comparable alternative to the Darwinian theory, which is, whatever errors it might contain, a fully worked out scheme. There is no intelligent design theory that's comparable. Working out a positive theory is the job of the scientific people that we have affiliated with the movement. Some of them are quite convinced that it's doable, but that's for them to prove...No product is ready for competition in the educational world. (from an interview with the Bereley Sceince Review, quoted at Panda's Thumb).

There you have it, from the father of intelligent design creationism himself: there is no credible alternative to the theory of evolution.

¹If you're in Connecticut, CPTV is airing it at 9:00pm. The NOVA at 8:00pm is about a family that walks on all fours. WGBH is airing it at 8:00pm.
²I'm not going to contribute to raising the Google ranks of those sites by linking to them.