Discovery Institute scrambling
Seattle’s Discovery Institute scrambling to rebound after intelligent-design ruling
When a federal judge stopped intelligent design from being taught in a Pennsylvania school district in December, the concept’s chief advocates issued a quick and pointed response.U.S. District Judge John Jones was an activist judge whose opinion shows he’s misinformed and biased, said officials at the Discovery Institute, a Seattle think tank that promotes intelligent design as a challenge to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
The only comfort they found in the stinging rebuke was that the ruling would carry no weight beyond Dover, Pa.
They were right in that, without an appeal to higher court, the case sets no legal standard beyond the central Pennsylvania region where Jones’ court has jurisdiction. But nearly five months after the ruling, the Discovery Institute is fighting to control fallout from the decision.
“Dover is a disaster in a sense, as a public-relations matter,” said Bruce Chapman, a former Seattle city councilman and founder of the Discovery Institute, the country’s primary supporter of intelligent design. “It has given a rhetorical weapon to the Darwinists to say a judge has settled this,” he said.
ID is lousy science, and (as many religious Conservatives have said) it is lousy religion, too.
The PR to Research Ratio
Dean Esmay, Scientist
Witness: ‘Design’ Replaced ‘Creation’
World With 3 Suns
Discovery touches down safely