“Kitzmiller vs. The Dover Schoolboard is scheduled to reach closing arguments this Friday, November 4”:http://www2.ncseweb.org/wp/. It’s remarkable to me that this first landmark trial in the new century over the zealous attempt to inject non-science into the science classroom has taken just a few months. Part of me wishes that the nuanced cross-examination and scientific testimony could go one for a while longer. I would ask this even if all it achieved was to enter into the public legal record the long chain of evidence that supports the theory of evolution, and the lack of even simple experiments that test intelligent design. Oh well… can’t have everything, I guess.
I’m getting kinda nervous about the outcome. It seems, from the press reports, that the schoolboard is overwhelmingly revealed in motive as trying to force a particular religious viewpoint into the methodological naturalism of science. From the “recommended” ID text (“Of Pandas and People”), which was changed only recently from a creationist book to an “intelligent design” book, to the public and private statements of the schoolboard members hell-bent on their attempt to derail American science education, the evidence all seems to point to a violation of the “establishment clause” of the Constitution. However, this is still a case in the hands of the court, and I have to wait and see the outcome.
