How the ACLU Silenced the Evolution Debates

With Darwin on the Ropes, the Refs Suspended the Fight

December 20 represents the twentieth anniversary of one of the darker days in the history of science. This is the day on which the ACLU convinced a federal judge in Pennsylvania that some “science” is sacrosanct and beyond criticism. Going forward, debate on the most fundamental of all issues was essentially verboten.

Specifically, Judge John Jones ruled that “intelligent design” is a form of “creationism,” and that the Dover school board policy violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution. At the nub of judge’s ruling was this: “ID violates the centuries-old ground rules of science by invoking and permitting supernatural causation.” Permitting “supernatural causation,” oh my!

In the way of background, the theory of intelligent design holds that certain features of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not by a purposeless, undirected process as Charles Darwin proposed in his 1871 opus The Descent of Man. Darwinism was the nineteenth century equivalent of climate change. All the best people felt obliged to believe. If the evidence did not hold up, there were always ways to tinker around the edges and “hide the decline.”

The emergence of Intelligent Design as a movement can be traced to the publication of Darwin on Trial in 1991 by distinguished Berkeley law professor Philip Johnson. By 2004, when the ACLU brought suit in Pennsylvania, many serious scientists and philosophers, some of them agnostic, had begun to explore intelligent design in earnest.

Members of the Dover school board took note and proceeded cautiously. They did not eliminate Darwin from the curriculum or even require the teaching of intelligent design. All that the board asked was that teachers read to ninth grade biology students a short statement that began, Darwinism is a “theory…still being tested as new evidence is discovered.”

Yes, Virginia, Darwinism is a theory that is still being tested. In its childlike innocence Google AI confirms just that. “Some scientists question aspects of Darwinism, particularly the ability of natural selection and random mutation to account for the complexity of life, citing limitations in the fossil record like the Cambrian explosion and issues with mathematical probabilities.” Natural selection is not an “aspect” of Darwinism. It is the essence of Darwinism.

Most Americans accept “evolution” don’t buy the Godlessness of the Darwin paradigm. According to recent data from Pew Research, 47 percent of adults believe that humans have evolved “due to processes that were guided or allowed by God or a higher power.” Another 17 percent believes humans” have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.” Both of these positions are antithetical to Darwinism, the theory that, according to Richard Dawkins, makes it possible to be an “intellectually fulfilled atheist.”

Darwinists are at their weakest in explaining how life began. Google AI, an aggregator of conventional wisdom, begins its explanation with these words: “Life on earth is believed to have started…” Believed? The Dover statement reads, “Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin’s view.” Yes, it differs. Intelligent design theory raises the possibility that life started as a conscious act of a larger intelligence. The testing of this theory is now all but forbidden.

Although the Dover statement concluded, “As is true with any theory, students are encouraged to keep an open mind,” Jones’s mind was shut. To discourage further inquiry, he levied a punishment on this 3,000-student school district north of $1 million. It could have been more. Said one of ACLU’s allies, “Any board thinking of trying to do what the Dover board did is going to have to look for a bill in excess of $2 million….I think $2 million is a lot to explain to taxpayers for a lawsuit that should never be fought.”

Google AI explains the consequences of Judge Jones’s decision: “The intelligent design (ID) movement is no longer a prominent force due to its significant legal and scientific setbacks, most notably the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District court case in 2005. This ruling found that ID is a form of religious creationism, not a scientific theory, and therefore its teaching in public school science classes is unconstitutional.” The “scientific setbacks” included ad hominem attacks and losing one’s job for questioning Mr. Darwin.

Parents rightly protest the advocacy by public school teachers of the LGBT and DEI agendas, but even teachers in Christian schools uncritically teach the material naturalism of evolutionary Darwinism, a theory that rejects the core beliefs of Christians, Jews, and Muslims among others. To protest, as the Dover School Board learned, is to risk bankruptcy and disgrace. All nine members of the board were voted off.

I’m guessing here, but I suspect the same school teachers that celebrate Kitzmiller get weepy-eyed when talk turns to Galileo.

Empire of Lies will be available for purchase on Amazon and Barnes & Noble November 1 in plenty of time for Christmas. Paid subscribers, even new ones, will receive a free signed copy. Directions will be posted soon.