Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Good coverage of the Dover story by ABC News Last night ABC News did a nice job at covering the story of the ongoing battle in Dover, PA to teach intelligent design. The article on the ABC News website is more detailed, but a bit "too balanced" for my taste (and as usual, it leaves the last word to the creationists). A couple of things strike me as painfully obvious here. First, the people voting in favor of teaching ID -- literally -- don't know what they are talking about. Read the answer given by School Board member Bill Buckingham when asked if she could explain what ID is: "Back through time, something [~] molecules, amoeba, whatever [~] evolved into the complexities of life we have now" (which sounds to me a lot like evolution!). Second, there is a recurrent claim in this controversy that ID is an alternative "explanation" for the history and diversity of life on earth. But since all the theory says is "soomebody (God, really, wink wink) did it" in what perverse sense does this represent an explanation of anything? If I ask you to explain how the Eiffel Tower was built, and your answer is simply "Eiffel did it" you haven't answered my question at all (though at least you have a clear idea of who the designer is, which is much more than ID proponents are willing to admit!). Ray Mummert, a town resident frustrated by the controversy and media attention, is reported by ABC as saying: "They've made a lot of accusations that are just generalizations: If you believe in creationism, you're a nonthinking person." Well, Mr. Mummert, you're pretty darn close to the truth, at least this time! 8:17:30 AM    comment []