BOOKS & ARTS NATURE|Vol 450|8 November 2007

TELEVISION Dover trial documentary screens

Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial intelligent-design case, and the overwhelming The judge at the centre of the dispute, produced by NOVA & Vulcan Productions strength of the prosecution in systematically John E. Jones III, is the hero of the piece. When for PBS deconstructing it, render the verdict clear just this republican lutheran, appointed by the com- broadcast on 13 November on PBS minutes into the programme. The makers of mander-in-chief himself, was assigned to the Judgement Day inject tension with eyewit- case, the pro-evolution lobby feared they had Adam Rutherford ness accounts from the people of Dover, and been dealt an unsympathetic ear. Happily, the Conflict between religion and science has rarely home-video footage of raucous school board measured, dry-witted Jones was fascinated by been of more concern. Whereas the rhetoric of meetings shows how passionate and divided the comprehensive scientific case for darwinian Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and others has this small community became. It works: it evolution. He handed down a damning judg- little measurable effect, the outcome of a jury- is inspiring to hear parents and educators, ment that intelligent design is not science, and less trial in a two-bit Pennsylvania town in 2005 such as Sunday school and physics teacher that its teaching is a violation of the cherished had a profound impact on how science is taught Bryan Rehm, recount how they refused to be First Amendment. As a result, Time magazine throughout the United States, and beyond. The steam-rollered into bringing religion into the rightly put him in their 2006 list of the world’s parents of 11 pupils at the only high school in science classroom. 100 most influential people. Dover launched a legal challenge to prevent gracefully avoids ridiculing Intelligent design has not gone away. Next the teaching of intelligent design as an alter- intelligent design for the pseudo-intellectual February, cinemas will be showing the pro- native to evolution by natural selection. There fundamentalist fig-leaf that it is, by simply intelligent-design film Expelled: No Intelli- followed thefts, fires, death threats, a media showing how the protagonists shot themselves gence Allowed, written by comedian Ben Stein. sensation and a robust verdict. in the foot. They plead for the teaching of Richard Dawkins, prominent anti-creationist Hot on the heels of several books chroni- “alternative theories” to strengthen children’s blogger P. Z. Myers, and others claim the pro- cling Kitzmiller vs Dover, comes Judgment education (the misguided sentiment picked ducers duped them into appearing. Day, a rigorous television documentary from up by President Bush). But subpoenaed drafts But the Kitzmiller vs Dover verdict, matched the producers of the prestigious science series of a textbook that promoted intelligent design this September with the outlawing of intelli- Nova. This two-hour montage of interviews reveal that the word ‘creationists’ was simply gent design in the UK national curriculum, and reconstructions, to be shown on the Public replaced with ‘design proponents’. In one marked the official neutering of this unpleas- Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States, instance, this alteration was made so hastily ant, sneaky movement in much of the west- features all the main players, bar one. Michael it caused the misprint ‘cdesign proponentsists’, ern world. Judgment Day is just the sort of Behe, inventor of the specious meme “irreduc- satirized by the prosecution as the transitional thoughtful programming that celebrates ible complexity” and guiding light of the intel- verbal fossil linking creationism to intelligent how sensible people — faithful and other- ligent-design movement, refused to participate. design. wise — can use science and reason to combat His testimony — the cornerstone of the defence At times in this overlong show, one feels fundamentalism. ■ — revealed a definition of science so loose that almost sorry for the intelligent-design team, Adam Rutherford is podcast producer for Nature. it includes astrology. they’re so inept. And then you remember that Herein lies the dramatic challenge of retell- its champions take comments from scientists For more information on the documentary, see ing this important story. The feebleness of the out of context and even lied under oath. www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/

Judge Jones’s damning verdict NOVA/PBS neutered the intelligent-design movement.

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