Noteworthy followup story in the Seattle Times on intelligent design, and more specifically on Seattle’s Discovery Institute, which has been its leading national proponent.
The article’s basic point is that the campaign for ID was dealt a serious blow in last year’s federal court decision in Dover, Pennsylvania, holding that the teaching was essentially religion, not science – as the Institute has proclaimed.
Most striking quote in the story, from no less than Rush Limbaugh: “The people pushing intelligent design believe in the biblical version of creation. Intelligent design is a way, I think, to sneak it into the curriculum and make it less offensive to the liberals.” Which, as he seems to suggest, didn’t work.
Regionally, what does that suggest for the Discovery Institute itself? Spokesmen note that the Institute didn’t suggest the Dover officials teach intelligent design, only “the controversy” surrounding it – but that seems a thin distinction.
This might suggest the large institute, which has a wide range of research territory far afield from creation, might reorient itself. And yet that might be difficult too. The Times again: “Discovery Institute funders, including the Maclellan Foundation in Chattanooga, Tenn., have open religious agendas. Another donor, the Stewardship Foundation of Tacoma, says it ‘provides resources to Christ-centered organizations whose mission is to share their faith in Jesus Christ.’ Its founder, the late David Weyerhaeuser, was also interested in science, Meyer said.”
Its researchers seem to know what they want to find.
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