This is no violation of the TOS, FM:
The Panda's Thumb, Steven Jay Gould, 1980, was a launching pad for "arguments from design" in our times. The theological William Paley had first articulated the argument from design in 1802 with his analogy about finding a watch in a field, and inferring an intelligence behind the device. This thesis was not seen as terribly remarkable at that time, as there were few people who would have taken issue with it. However, with the publication of the work of Darwin and Wallace more than half a century later, Paley's thesis was taken up again and used as a bludgeon against those espousing Darwin's view, largely out the desparation of those who denied the Darwinian thesis, as his argument for descent with modification was but poorly understood by much of the devoutly religious community. Scholars of science in that day, including many men of religious conviction, were not notably critical of Darwin's thesis, although some disputed the details of his observations, particuarly as they were made from a morphological basis.
The argument from designed rested silent then for more than a century, as evolutionary biological investigation moved from one triumphant demonstration of the predictive ability of a theory of descent with modification to another. The opposition to a theory of evolution centered in charismatic and fundamentalist christian sects and demagogues who exploited them. Such sects being then unrecognized as sources either of exploited cash or electoral exploitation, no scientific claims for the argument from design were advanced, and they were the object only of the exploitation of the eternal theocratic demagogues.
But the publication of Gould's book seemed to particularly stir up critics of evolution, and i believe they saw an opportunity to revive Paley's argument from design. In 1989,
Of Panda's and People: the Central Question of Biological Origins was published by The Foundation for Thought and Ethics (of which, more in a moment). This could be said to be the contemporary starting point for the "intelligent design" movement. This is significant, because it antedates the several Federal court and Supreme Court decisions which struck down the teaching of creationism. This is of course, why, as FM points out, it is crucial to a successful defense of the religionist assault on science education to demonstrate forensically the connection between creationism and intelligent design.
Snood is one of many here who has made the reasonable suggestion that ID can be taught in classes other than science classes. That is fine as far as it goes, but the IDers don't want it taught in other classes, because they have an agenda to destroy "Darwinism," and they specifically intend to supplant the teaching of evolution in science classes. The first step is to get ID accepted on an equal footing, despite the lack of scientific evidence for ID. ID is principly concerned with demonstrating that a theory of evolution is "wrong," or that the supporting data were obtained in a faulty or knowingly false manner. The one thing with which ID is very definitely not concerned, is offering an alternative theory which accounts for all of the data now available,
and which would be successfully predictive.
If one does a web search for "panda+intelligent design," one can find a wealth of information, including links to blog sites, on this controversy.
The Panda's Thumb seemed to have really honked off religious people for some reason, and that explains why an otherwise humble (and sometimes internally silly) book has become the center of so much attention. Another good product of such a web search is a number of papers which shoot down Demski and Behe, the principle villains in this piece.
The Foundation for Thought and Ethics is the front organization of Demski's wing of the ID movement. When, earlier in this thread, it was suggested that i read one of Johnson's books, and i did the basic sort of search i would on any book which is recommended to me, i stumbled across FTE, and then reported here on what it says on their website's "about us" page:
FTE wrote:The Foundation for Thought and Ethics is working to restore the freedom to know to young people in the classroom, especially in matters of worldview, morality, and conscience, and to return the right of informed consent to families in the education of their children.
To do this, FTE has organized several influenctial scientific symposia, produced major publishing breakthroughs on the subject of origins, helped to inspire the robust and exciting international movement of Intelligent Design, and launched an enriching series of high school textbooks now used in both public and private schools.
I then observed that i wouldn't spend my money on a book which obviously had propagandizing a dogma as its purpose. I was roundly assailed for that, with the attackers notably ignoring that i had offered to read an online version, but refusing to buy the book. As the thread has developed to this point, i wouldn't even read the tripe now. Using the "panda" search parameter will provide a host of links to sites which shoot down the ID nonsense, and a good many of them are pages maintained by respectable universities.
Do the "panda" search sometime, it is most revealing.
