Proponents of the so-called "academic freedom" bills introduced in some state legislatures clamor for official recognition of their pseudo-scientific ideologies. They cry that "Students want to know both sides of the issue" while not informing the public that their side has no factual basis. They blame Jesse Kilgore's suicide on him not being exposed to "both sides" of the evolution issue, which makes one wonder how he missed those creationism lessons in Sunday School and Bible study.
Cornell's Allen MacNeill has done some digging into this supposed groundswell of support for ID. He found that after the intelligent design movement's devastating 2005 loss in Kitzmiller v. Dover, ID leader William Dembski predicted that the nation's youth would continue to seek out opportunities to learn about intelligent design by starting up chapters for Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness (IDEA):
My, how times change. Dr. MacNeill found that, of the 39 IDEA chapters active in 2006, not one affiliated with an academic institution is still functioning as of last week. Even more interestingly, he found that:
2) of the 39 listed IDEA Clubs, eight (21%) are located at high schools or community colleges;
3) four (17%) are located at religious institutions;[ed: by my math, this number should be ~10% - csa]
4) nine (23%) simply do not exist (i.e. have 404: File Not Found at their link); and
5) 18 (46%) have links that simply redirect to either a national IDEA Center press release or main website homepage.
Dr. MacNeill has shown that despite what ID proponents claim, intelligent design is rightly regarded by our nation's youth as an extinct political movement that failed even at masquerading as science. Those who now support "academic freedom" bills like the one passed in Louisiana are just trying to manufacture a demand for balanced treatment where no such demand exists.
HT: Ed Brayton
posted by Cheryl Shepherd-Adams
