As is to be expected of any fraudulent philosophy, its worst enemy turns out to be its own proponents. I was urged by the latest podcast from The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe to read Judge Jones’ 2005 decision in Kitzmiller. This was the case in Pennsylvania where the school board and the “Intelligent Design” movement were sued for putting a “disclaimer” into 9th-grade biology texts in an attempt to supplant the theory of evolution with their own.
Jones is thorough, thoughtful, and scientific. (Three things refreshing in a judge.) The decision is here in PDF format. Some of the most damaging testimony came from Professor Behe, Mr. ID himself. It includes gems such as this:
In fact, on cross-examination, Professor Behe was questioned concerning his 1996 claim that science would never find an evolutionary explanation for the immune system. He was presented with fifty-eight peer-reviewed publications, nine books, and several immunology textbook chapters about the evolution of the immune system; however, he simply insisted that this was still not sufficient evidence of evolution, and that it was not “good enough.”
And this footnote made me laugh out loud.
The one article referenced by both Professors Behe and Minnich as supporting ID is an article written by Behe and Snoke entitled “Simulating evolution by gene duplication of protein features that require multiple amino acid residues.” (P-721). A review of the article indicates that it does not mention either irreducible complexity or ID. In fact, Professor Behe admitted that the study which forms the basis for the article did not rule out many known evolutionary mechanisms and that the research actually might support evolutionary pathways if a biologically realistic population size were used.
The decision is recommended reading unless you want to hold on to the false dichotomy presented by the ID movement, namely that acceptance of evolution as a scientific theory somehow disproves the existence of God. Judge Jones does an excellent job at dismantling that fallacy.
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