The Dover school board’s assault on science education is now officially over.
From the 139 page ruling:
The breathtaking inanity of the Board’s decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial. The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources.
The ruling is a fantasic document describing how a few people on the Dover School Board bullied their religious agenda into schools with no consideration for anyone or anything but their own beliefs. It’s incredible what these people did, and that they thought they could get away with it. They didn’t consult any scientists, dismissed their own science teachers, and couldn’t even explain what Intelligent Design was while on the stand. Read the whole judgement. It’s amazing.
Also of interest is the Discovery Institute’s “Wedge Document” which outlines their agenda to undermine science and education and restructure culture around their religious beliefs. A little more aboutthe Discovery Institute. Normally you would dismiss this kind of organization as a christian fringe group. But they played a central role in the Dover school Board’s decision to adopt Intelligent Design and provided materials to show district teachers.
It’s easy to think that the effort to get religion back into schools is a grass roots movement by local parents, and that is in fact how it is usually couched by IDers. In fact, there is a concerted effort on the part of groups like the Discovery Institute to push religion back into education not because evolution is contrary to our beliefs, but because they are interested in dismantling our current culture, “a materialist, atheist culture” and erecting a new religious culture in its wake. Attacking evolution is just one prong in their plan.
It looks like this case will prove to be a significant setback to the ID set. Which can only be a good thing. Looks like the Board is not going to appeal the case.