The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything: Evolution, Intelligent Design, and a School Board in Dover, PA

A science reporter's breezy account of the clown show that was the 2005 Dover trial.

New information not in the news at the time:
- the Discovery Institute really IS funded by RW millionaires, working toward the explicit goal of stopping scientific progress.
- the creationists on the Dover school board LIED at their depositions. (Amusingly, Slack ties this to the Straussian/ conservative "Noble Lies". Uh-huh.)
- various parents who signed on as plaintiffs received death threats from their xtian neighbors. Death threats!

Much of the rest of the sad story could be gleaned from a reading of PZ Meyers: e.g., the 'wedge' document that a) makes the DI's goals explicit and b) shows them to be liars, busy hiding their true purpose.

I was broadly show more familiar with the story from the coverage in the scientific press, and from a quick skim of the decision; the book was a quick but useful overview, well worth the couple of hours invested.

I notice that back when I was studying this stuff, it was still called "Creationism" - I seem to have missed the entire rise and fall of the "Creation Science" stage that preceded its current "ID" stage. There's foreshadowings that the thrice-defeated creationists will be back, now calling their lies "Sudden Emergence".

Hard to believe that anybody still goes through these motions in a post-Scopes world. show less

A well written account of the Dover, PA school Board's attempt to force Intelligent Design to be taught in the schools. The court case is covered in detail and the writing style is fluid and entertaining enough to make all the tedious court battles interesting to read. Provides insight into school board member's, students, parents, and teachers, thoughts about what was happening in their town. While the author maintains throughout the book his strong belief that science must be taught, he provides fair treatment to the people in the book who do not share his views.