Друг поглед към споровете относно еволюцията

ВМЕТКИ

През последните месеци и в българския печат започна да се появява по-често терминът интелигентен дизайн. Причината за това беше и един съдебен процес в Доувър, щата Пенсилвания. В последния бюлетин на Access Research Network може да се прочете следния материал, който представя една по-различна гледна точка към въпросния процес, в сравнение с масово представената в българската преса. В случай, че не разбирате английски, а темата ви интересува, препоръчвам ви да се запознаете с препратките към материали на български език в края на тази статия.

What Went Down in Dover?

On December 21, 2005, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones rendered a court decision on the Dover, PA School District Board resolution requiring a four paragraph letter to be read to students indicating that evolution was only a theory, and that other theories, such as Intelligent Design, existed, and if students were interested in this, they could find a book on the topic in the school library.

I had plenty of time to read the entire 139 page Kitzmiller v. Dover decision while riding the train from Denver to Sacramento over the Christmas holiday, and let me tell you it is a doozy! ARN Correspondent Kevin Wirth has been working on a detailed analysis of the decision and he sums it up like this:

Many things become evident from a reading of the Kitzmiller opinion, but this much is clear: it is literally laced with scores of innuendos and tainted interpretations about ID and the value of the Dover Board’s disclaimer. The Kitzmiller court also frequently accepts testimony from Defendants’ expert witnesses that supports the views of the Plaintiffs in key places, while rejecting or ignoring valid testimony from the Defendants’ expert witnesses to create a blended caricature of the ID position which is full of inaccuracies, assumptions, and half-truths. The Court then takes the resulting caricature of ID it has created, holds it up as fully accurate, and uses it to show why it fails the establishment clause tests. I cannot think of a more unfair, unjust, and abusive use of judicial prerogative than this.

When you consider the working definition of intelligent design: “Intelligent causes exist and these causes can be empirically detected (by looking for specified complexity)” and you consider the Dover expert witness testimony of scientists working under this definition like Michael Behe and Scott Minnich, you begin to understand the games Judge Jones had to play to declare ID a religion. Not only that, but Jones went on to provide special protection for the theory of evolution, stating that the Board could not require teachers to denigrate the theory of evolution in any way. In other words it is beyond criticism. With all the religious implications that are tied to Darwinian evolution it is ironic that what the court in fact did in Dover was establish religious worldviews attached to evolution in our public schools. Other Dover expert witness statements of interest to ID proponents are those of Professors John Angus Campbell and Steve William Fuller.

Thanks to our friends at NCSE you can find most of the documents related to the trial available in .pdf format online. If you are stuck at home in a snowstorm and looking for something to do, you can read through the entire transcripts of the trial. I highly recommend the testimony and cross-examination of Michael Behe, which starts on day 10 and runs for several days. This might also be a fun assignment for students to read testimonies from experts on both sides and write their own decision.

Detailed analysis of the Kitzmiller v. Dover decision is still in process, but those wanting to understand some of the flaws of the decision may want to start with IDers like John West, Kevin Wirth, and William Dembski, or non-IDers Albert Alschuler and Bradley Monton.

I predict that if the Court continues to over-reach its authority in defining religion and science in such a way as to alienate and insult the vast majority of citizens in this country with theistic worldviews, that we will see a rapid privatization of education in the form of vouchers and homeschooling. While proponents of particular viewpoints may welcome this move, I think it will only hasten the culture wars as we segregate ourselves into like-minded conclaves rather than force ourselves to debate the issues in the public square. But if the answer continues to be “there will be no debate,” then I say bring on the vouchers and the homeschoolers.

A FEW NOTES ABOUT ARN ANNOUNCE

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ARN-ANNOUNCE IS PRODUCED BY ACCESS RESEARCH NETWORK

ARN-Announce is produced by Dennis Wagner (dwagner@arn.org)

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Ето някои допълнителни материали по темата на български език.

Във форума на Проектория може да намерите много интересна дискусия относно движението “Интелигентен дизайн” и процеса в Доувър. Тази статия в изданието “Епохални времена” и следният материал в Демокрит могат да дадат известна представа за подхода на популярните български медии по въпроса^[1]За съжаление, междувременно и двата сайта са променили системата си за адресиране на статиите, и материалите … Continue reading. Информацията е предимно едностранчива, повърхностна и по-често заблуждаваща. Не става въпрос за собствени изследвания на български автори, а просто за препечатване или повече или по-малко творческо компилиране от няколко чуждестранни източника. На този фон се откроява една чудесна статия: “Интелигентният проект между вярата и науката” – своеобразен фикционален диалог – от проф. Ангел Стефанов, публикувана отново в Демокрит и в сп. “Философски алтернативи”.

Във форума на HARTA-BG.INFO също може да намерите сериозна дискусия относно интелигентния дизайн.

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