An example of the increasing visibility of "intelligent design" has just
appeared in the June 10 issue of "The Nation", in the form of a review
by David Hawkes of SJ Gould's last book, The Structure of Evolutionary
Theory. See:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020610&s=hawkes
The first sentence of the review sets the tone of ignorance of history
of science (and contemporary biology) found throughout the review:
"Popular perception notwithstanding, the theory of natural selection was
accepted by every serious evolutionist long before Darwin." Further down
in the review Hawkes observes that "The recent advocates of
'intelligent design', however, demand to be taken a little more
seriously because of their recent political and pedagogical successes...
Hard-fought cases involving the boards of education in Kansas (1999) and
Ohio (2002) have established a new beachhead for intelligent design in
the public mind, while simultaneously throwing a shadow on natural
selection's claim to be the exclusive motor of evolutionary change."
Apparently the complete lack of SCIENTIFIC successes for intelligent
design aren't considered worthy of mention in this context. David Hawkes
is a Professor of English at Lehigh University, which is also the home
of "intelligent design's" chief biologist, Michael Behe. Behe and his
book, Darwin's Black Box, are mentioned several times in the review,
although not in Gould's book supposedly under review. Hawkes also claims
that "... Gould's silence on the subject of intelligent design can be
regarded as extremely eloquent."
The webpage cited above has a link for submitting letters to "The
Nation" editors. You might want to take a moment to read the review and
send a brief comment to the editors.
--Eric Meikle
Dick Fischer - The Origins Solution - www.orisol.com
"The answer we should have known about 150 years ago"
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