Social Darwinism and ID: My article "Intelligent Design on Trial"

Thanks to Ted for posting his article. I agree in general with what he
said, including his final paragraph, on the Dover Trial.

I now want to comment on a peripheral matter mentioned by Ted, who wrote:
"Culture wars are inherently political, and in the politics of science
the politics usually drives the science. Creationists routinely depict
“evolutionists” (the very word itself has a derogatory connotation for
many conservative Christians) as “atheists” and literally blame
evolution for being the root cause of racism, Nazism, communism,
homosexuality, and sexual promiscuity. (Let me add that ID authors do
not typically do this.) "
If Ted means to say that most ID authors do not mention this matter in
their writings, then I agree with him. If he means that this matter is
not typical of the ID movement, then I think that there is more to be said.

Benajmin Wiker is a Senior Fellow of the Center for Science and Culture
of the Discovery Institute. His book /Moral Darwinism: How We Became
Hedonists/ (InterVarsity Press, 2002) has been widely advertised on ID
friendly websites, such as that of the Access Research Network. William
Dembski prescribed it for reading (and examined on it) in his Fall 2005
course on Christian Doctrine and the Natural Sciences at the Baptist
Theological Seminary. It seems to me that this suggests that ID is
fairly closely entangled with those who blame evolution for Nazism.
Don

Ted Davis wrote:

>I now have available a pdf of my article, "Intelligent Design on Trial," at
>the following URL:
>http://home.messiah.edu/~tdavis/Intelligent%20Design%20on%20Trial.pdf
>
>I'll alert readers to the fact that this journal is aimed at journalists; I
>was expected to focus some attention on news coverage of the trial, which
>took space from things I otherwise might have said. Although several cuts
>had to be made, this is still (so I am told) the longest article that
>magazine has ever published, which I assume reflects the extraordinary
>interest in this topic. Magazines quite fairly have editorial policies, of
>course, and one cannot always say everything that one would wish to say in a
>given place. Thus my views on the First Amendment (or more accurately on
>how the Supreme Court has (mis)interpreted that amendment for the past
>couple of generations) are not found in this article. That's a very
>important omission that should be kept in mind, when evaluating my views:
>there is more to say about this issue, and this represents only a fraction
>of the things I can and would say if space and place allowed it.
>
>Happy reading.
>
>Ted
>
>
>

-- 
Donald A. Nield
Associate Professor, Department of Engineering Science
University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
ph  +64 9 3737599 x87908 
fax +64 9 3737468
Courier address: 70 Symonds Street, Room 235 or 305
d.nield@auckland.ac.nz
http://www.esc.auckland.ac.nz/People/Staff/Nield/