Scientific American's blog has a posting about the upcoming "trial" of intelligent design — actually a panel discussion — to take place at Biola University on May 12th.
From Biola's press release:
Critics of intelligent design will cross-examine intelligent design by asking its leading proponents the difficult questions in a Q-and-A format.
In his posting, John Rennie, Sciam's editor-in-chief, walks us through all aspects of this "trial", including the venue (evangelical bible university), the framing (opportunity to answer the "many questions still left unanswered about ID theory" — according to the sponsors) and the specific critics who will ask questions (only one of whom is a scientist).
I find it hard to disagree with Rennie's basic conclusion that
ID was literally given its day in court in Kitzmiller v. Dover, and it lost. The tough questions were asked there — as they were in other places at other times.
But here's my prediction:
Expect a self-congratulatory press release after the "trial" claiming a rousing and convincing defense of ID. If only Judge Jones could have heard this evidence Kitzmiller v. Dover would have had a different outcome. (That's sarcasm in cased you missed it.)
In a way, though, it is good that this is happening at a bible college, and not anywhere else. Religious discussions belong in religious venues. The more ID is discussed in such venues, the more people will see that it is a religious, not scientific, construct.
I'm sure we'll hear more about this May 13th.
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