Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial
Summary: Judgment Day is a documentary about Dover, Pennsylvania mandating that a one minute statement about the faults of evolution be said in biology class and points the students to an Intelligent Design book as supplement material for the class that would give answers these faults. The documentary goes over the six week trial in detail with the results being Intelligent Design is nothing more than Creationism, and thus religious in nature. For full detail: <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/program.html>.
To be honest, the moment a bunch of lawyers and businessmen decided to make decisions about science their motivations became suspect. They wouldn't have had a biology class in years. They have no biology credentials to be commenting on any biology class. So, it was impossible for these men to make a legitimate decision on biology curriculum. Let alone to add alternative to evolution theory, since there isn't current alternative in science. It was clear from the get go that with these guys background the only alternative they had in mind was Creationism.
Intelligent Design
The main argument for Intelligent Design was that life was too complex to happen at random. The Intelligent Design group used the flagella as an example. The thought was that the flagellum is irreducibly complex and that without all of its parts the proteins and other components would have no function. Unfortunately, the plaintiff (parents) gave a counter argument of using the plague virus that uses many of the same proteins in a needle that injects toxins into host cells. Another argument used by Intelligent Design (although not during the trial) was the words written in the sand, 'John Loves Mary'. The thought behind it was that the words written in the sand are too complex to have happened at random… Stop, reread, and think about that. What does that have to do with science again? When all else failed, the Intelligent Design comment on it not having any connection with Creationism and the fact that it doesn’t use God, but intelligent designer. Plaintiff ripped the defendants a new one with this one, by finding manuscripts with Creationism in place of Intelligent Design… Ouch…
Still, there is other evidence that support evolution including genetics which is explored during the trial as well. Moreover, large scale evolution can be seen in the similarities of DNA throughout life, I give one of the histone proteins as an example of a highly conserved DNA sequence which is similar (extremely) in all organisms. Even more, Intelligent Design can't be used to explain natural world, since it is a negative argument. Why can't people believe in both God and Darwinism... oh that's right the bible is to be taken as a literal account word for word let’s not look at any inconsistencies. This wasn’t the first time Creationism (wait I mean Intelligent Design) has been put on trial. The Scopes Trial, better known as the Monkey Trial was the first of such insistences.
The Monkey Trial
In 1925 Tennessee passed legislation prohibiting “teach[ing] any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man in the Bible and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals”.
John Scopes a biology teacher from Dayton Tennessee violated the ban on teaching evolution in class. His lawyer Darrow went up against the defender of Chritian faith Bryan. Bryan asserted that law was legal since added with the instance of popular and parental control over public education. Darrow emphasized that law violated constitutional guarantees of free speech and the separation of church and state. Darrow was not allowed to put scientific experts on the stand, so when all looked lost Darrow called Bryan as expert witness on the Bible. He managed to get Bryan to admit that there were some ambiguities in the bible, but after that omission the judge had the testimony erased from hearing. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100. The Supreme Court of the state of Tennessee later overturns the decision without ruling on the constitutionality of the law itself.
The battle would continue in the 1940s to bar public school religious instruction and outlawing of sponsored religious oriented prayers in public schools. In the 1960s, the US Supreme Court would overturn the anti-evolution statute in the Tennessee law.
Modern America and the Bible
As our society advances so does our understanding of natural processes. To turn a blind eye on the reason, is the same as slowing the advancement of human understanding. With that said, I like to say that the bible, while a nice story, is too similar to folk lore to be ignored. The bible has many tales that seem to have been exaggerated over time to a point where the underlying message is the only thing the same. I find it hard to believe any intelligent individual would believe the bible is literal. So, I have to agree with the people from Judgment Day that this approach ‘makes Americans stupid’. It limits the advancement of science. If we answer a problem by saying 'well God did it', then we would not be helping ourselves (a point from the bible in Job) and we would be stopping the progress of science.
This is just one example of warring subculture within America. As America becomes more modern many issues arise like crime, gun control, and affirmative action.
Death Penalty
The death penalty is one of many controversy issues involving crime. The nation is seemingly divided although data shows that the death penalty is being used less and less in America. One argument involving the death penalty is that it is a form of physical torture. I’d like to ask this question, “Is not caging people for the rest of their life not a type of mental torture?” Why is having them die in prison many years after committing the crime and death two or three years later in prison any different? The men and women on death row get a detailed appeal of their case, while individuals serving life without parole don’t have the same amount of resources on their side for their own appeals. I’m not saying the death penalty is without flaws, because right now the system is extremely faulty. However, I don’t see how mental torture is any better than physical torture, since physical torture is only temporary.
Gun Control
Gun control would decrease crime rate in America, I have no doubt in that. The problem is getting Americans to let go of their guns or the possibility to own a gun. Impossible. We are entitled people, and we will not let go of one of our 'God given rights'. Too bad the founding fathers hadn't thought of a day when individuals didn't need guns in their homes. I'm going to be honest here; I'd like my own rifle one day too… What can I say? It’s my God given right.
Side Note: of UFO and Satanic Worshiper
UFO Religious Movement
The UFO phenomenon started when Kenneth Arnold saw nine shiny objects in a chain-like formation speeding at 1600 miles per hour “like a saucer” (media used the term flying saucers). After which, UFO observes can be categorized into both scientific investigation and religious aspects. These aliens from outer space have taken roles as either space borne saviors or stock demonic figures. Either way they have become intertwined within folkloric or mythological characteristics that are associated with supernatural entities (after all it would take something more than a human to be able to travel across galaxies since we, humans, have yet to discover the technology). Phenomena like the Stonehenge and the pyramids have been explained using the aliens from outer space having constructed them. Other puzzling aerial phenomena in medieval, classical, and Vedic sources have also had alien explanations. The prophets of this ‘religion’ can be considered as the contactees. With that it is possible to like Spiritualism and UFOism in the same category. They both have religious interpretations and scientific inspection. They are essentially a new popular religion of the same type with significant beings between humans and ultimate reality and physical phenomena or traces to support belief.
Satanism and Satanic Churches: The Contemporary Incarnations
The first Satanic Church began with Anton Szandor LaVey born Howard Stanton Levy in 1966 with Year One in the Anno Satanas. LaVey became the Black Pope (that’s a lot of power there…) and promoted his new belief in a club called the “Witches Sabbath”. Before the start of the Church of Satan, LaVey had an interesting life as a rebel. Living home at the age of 16 to join a circus and continuing on in that line at 18 with a carnival, then burlesque, the then Levy established a background in entertainment and persuasion (tell me the circus isn’t a type of art of persuasion). The startup of the Magic Circle with Kenneth Anger as a Friday-night gathering to discuss occult phenomena soon turned into an enterprise with LaVey entertaining his audience with stories of witches, werewolves, and vampires. His exotic pets (boa constrictor, black leopard, and Nubian lion) just made him seem more in-line with the occult. (All he needed was a black cat… wait that was the black leopard. This guy did it big.)
The Church of Satan has some surprising rules that would have made it compatible with its God centering counterparts. None surprisingly sex is considered natural and encouraged (second only to self-preservation). Drugs are discouraged since they were viewed as escapist and would interfere with realism LaVey preaches. More importantly, violence was prohibited. The breaking of church or state or federal laws constitutes grounds for ex-communication. Guess Susan Atkins/Sharon King didn’t get the message (She was a member of Manson Family). Like many churches, disagreements within the church which resulted in a sect breaking away and forming. Temple of Set started by Michael Aquino was one of those sects. It was during the 1980s when Satanism Scare really began. Before that LaVey was pretty much a celebrity. I kind of wonder why America and Europe decided about twenty years after the formation of the religion to have a Satanism scare… What every the reason accusations about animal deaths were disproved upon further investigation. Succession of recent homicide cases in the 80s had perpetrators linked offenses to Satanism, but no credible evidence was found that any of these individuals had been a member of a satanic cult network or that the crimes were satanic rituals. I’ll just point back to the Church of Satan’s nonviolence policy here… Clearly Satanic Churches just get a bad rep… I wonder why…
