Depending on your tolerance for bad behavior, it’s either been kind of funny or sad to watch people rip apart the judge for his ruling in Dover. Funny because people are literally trying to say that the judge didn’t say what he said, in order to put his ruling in the best possible light for intelligent design. Sad because their mischaracterizations are essentially an all out assault on his character.
Judge John E. Jones III is a Republican. He was appointed to a US District Court in Pennsylvania by current president George W. Bush. He is also a church-going Lutheran. About as controversial as his career had been up until now was his involvement as chairman of Pennsylvania’s Liquor Control Board when he found the logo of Bad Frog Beer distasteful (it featured a frog giving the finger) and fought to prevent its sale.
Yet since his ruling on the case in Dover, intelligent design proponents have had some harsh words. John West of the Discovery Institute, in a recoiling press release about the trial writes:
The Dover decision is an attempt by an activist federal judge to stop the spread of a scientific idea and even to prevent criticism of Darwinian evolution through government-imposed censorship rather than open debate, and it won’t work.
[…]
Judge Jones found that the Dover board violated the Establishment Clause because it acted from religious motives. That should have been the end to the case. Instead, Judge Jones got on his soapbox to offer his own views of science, religion, and evolution. He makes it clear that he wants his place in history as the judge who issued a definitive decision about intelligent design. This is an activist judge who has delusions of grandeur.
Other, much harsher things were said of course, particularly in the blogosphere by those with lots of passion but little knowledge of the case. But I’ll leave it at that.
I still find it amazing just how fast this good conservative judge turned into a liberal God-hating Darwinist, but then again, I guess that’s how every person on the other side of the issue from creationists and IDists is painted — as liberal God-hating Darwinists. (I guess I better tell people at my church, they might not have realized.)
I’ve been reading through the 139 page decision in the Dover case. It’s good reading if you’re actually interested in the results. Since I know most of you are, you can get the entire thing here (pdf format). For a fast read on the trial, MSNBC also this story that covers it quite well. (I actually take issue with the opening line, “In one of the biggest courtroom clashes between faith and evolution…” simply because the clash wasn’t so much against faith per se, but a particular type of faith, and the methods of science. Oh well, the rest of the article’s good.)
Since you might not have time for 139 pages, (oh come on, it’s the Christmas season — surely some of you will need an excuse to get a break from family…) here are some of my favorite snippets from the decision. I’ll include page numbers just so you can check them out yourself if you want the full context. Read the rest of this entry »