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Origins & Science
- Design : From DNA to a Designer
- Evolution : From Soup to Sioux City
- Philosophy of Science : History and Method
Phillip E. Johnson, Adapted from Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds.
People who only want unbiased, honest science education that sticks to
the evidence are bewildered by the reception they get when they try to
make their case. Their specific points are brushed aside, and they are
dismissed out of hand as religious fanatics. The newspapers report that
"creationists" are once again trying to censor science education
because it offends their religious beliefs. Why is it so hard for
reasoned criticism of biased teaching to get a hearing?
The answer to that question begins with a Jerome Lawrence and Robert E.
Lee play called Inherit the Wind, which was made into a movie in 1960
starring Spencer Tracy, Gene Kelly and Frederic March. You can rent the
movie at any video store with a "classics" section, and I urge you to
do so and watch it carefully… The play is a fictionalized treatment of
the "Scopes Trial" of 1925, the legendary courtroom confrontation in
Tennessee over the teaching of evolution. Inherit the Wind is a
masterpiece of propaganda, promoting a stereotype of the public debate
about creation and evolution that gives all virtue and intelligence to
the Darwinists. The play did not create the stereotype, but it
presented it in the form of a powerful story that sticks in the minds
of journalists, scientists and intellectuals generally…
