It was a radio commercial for a local church that got me.
The speaker never mentioned Intelligent Design.
Instead he reeled off a list of "improbabilities," a list which could have come straight out of an Intelligent Design talking points memo.
That was when I had my Aha! moment.
The evangelical strategy set forth in the Wedge Document is rolling along right on schedule.
Judge Jones trounced Intelligent Design in his ruling in Kitzmiller vs. Dover, correctly naming it religiously motivated pseudo science. The pro - ID school board in that case was buffoonish. One boardmember, William Buckingham, denied that he had called for the teaching of creationism in a news program. When he was confronted with the video, he defended himself by saying that he was addicted to painkillers at the time.
The amateur religious zealots of the Dover school board delivered a huge setback for the ID movement. The negative publicity from that case cost the Dover school board their jobs in the next election, and contributed to anti - ID actions in Ohio and Wisconsin.
Despite the defeats, Intelligent Design is still popular among Christians and the American public. There is a great deal of political support out there. Proposed laws in Maryland, Utah, Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas, and several other states will open the door to ID in the classroom if passed.
Other states don't even need new laws. Governor Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky recently stated his support for the theory and pointed out that the laws are already on the books in that state.
Those laws actually allow the teaching of creationism, but hey, what's the difference?
*******
I heard my radio ad in Kentucky. The next day I read this story. Churches in Pennsylvania, and I suspect across the country, are using ID as an advertising tool.
The pro - ID crowd simply has to turn this into a political issue rather than a science issue. Indeed, that has been their plan all along. The Discovery Institute and other ID thinktanks are, after all, nothing more than PR firms, pumping out press releases in place of science.
If evangelical churches support ID from the pulpit, the political deception will be depressingly easy.
With polls showing that the majority of Americans support ID, pro - ID legislation simply has to be put to a popular referendum in suitable states. Or the pro ID forces will pick strategic court districts, and judges with the proper disposition will preside over the legal battles.
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