The Dover decision

Judge John E. Jones III released his ruling in Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District et al., argued in the U.S. Disctrict Court in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania today. The judgement in favor of the plaintiffs comes as no surprise, but the opinion is extremely satisfying in how it restores my faith that at least part of our system of government is working and on the level.

Compressing the lengthy decision into a nutshell, Judge Jones was not bamboozled by the proponents of Intelligent Design Creationism. As his opinion states, he recognized that there is no science in ID; ID is just Creation Science relabelled to avoid the Creationism prohibition (Consitutional anti-establishment clause); and school board members who were pushing for ID had pro-Creationism histories and shamefully lied to the Court in an effort to cover up the true motivations of the board decision to introduce ID.

Despite Judge Jones' clear opinion, Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center ("the sword and shield for people of faith"), interviewed tonight on The News Hour (PBS), tried to debate the issue anew, and claimed Intelligent Design Creationism is about science, not religion. What science did he bring up to support his contention that there is a scientific theory of Intelligent Design? The musty, dusty duo: the bacterial flagellum and the blood-clotting cascade.