Traipsing into Evolution: Intelligent Design and the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Decision

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Traipsing Into Evolution: Intelligent Design and the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Decision is the first published critique of federal Judge John E. Jones's decision in the Kitzmiller v. Dover case, the foremost trial to attempt to address the constitutionality of teaching intelligent design. In this concise yet comprehensive response, Discovery Institute scholars and attorneys expose how Judge Jones's Kitzmiller decision was based upon faulty reasoning, non-existent evidence, and an elementary misunderstanding of intelligent design theory.

�The Dover trial was hardly the final word in the debate over evolution,� says attorney Casey Luskin, a co-author of the new book Traipsing into Evolution: Intelligent Design and the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Decision (DI Press 2006). �Mark Twain once allegedly refuted his own obituary proclaiming that �reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.� Traipsing into Evolution disproves similar exaggerated reports from Darwinists about intelligent design in the wake of the Kitzmiller v. Dover decision.�

The authors conclude that the Judge�s ruling will have �teachers seeking to �teach the controversy� over Darwinian evolution in today�s climate will likely be met with false warnings that it is unconstitutional to say anything negative about Darwinian evolution.�

�The impact of this ruling is that even students who ask critical questions about Darwinism, or about intelligent design theory will scare administrators� about whether that puts the school in constitutional jeopardy,� said Luskin. �There�s already been a negative chilling effect on open inquiry in places such as Ohio and South Carolina. Judge Jones� message is clear: give Darwin only praise, or else face the wrath of the judiciary.�

About the Authors
The book was written by David K. DeWolf, professor of law at Gonzaga University, Dr. John G. West associate professor and chair of the political science department at Seattle Pacific University, Casey Luskin, attorney and program officer for public policy and legal affairs at Discovery Institute, and Dr. Jonathan Witt a senior fellow and writer in residence at Discovery Institute.

The book also includes a lengthy response to the ruling from Dr. Michael Behe, entitled �Whether ID is Science: Michael Behe�s Response to Kitzmiller v. Dover.� Dr. Behe was the lead expert witness for the defense at the trial.

Endorsements
The history of intelligent design theory does not square with Judge Jones� fanciful assertion that ID is essentially creationism. The history of science should be judged by historians of science, rather than by cloaked judges. Traipsing Into Evolution reminds us of the ancient Greco-Roman forms of ID theory in which the designing intelligence was thought to be part of the natural world (thus conforming to what moderns calls methodological naturalism). The ID scientists who testified in Jones� court similarly insisted (apparently to the deaf ears of the judge) that ID theory today does not invoke a supernatural form of intelligent agency. Mere intelligent causation is the defining inference of 21st-century ID theory. The exact character of that intelligence, ID advocates insist, is not a scientific question. The public policy implications of an accurate history of ID and creationism are striking against the backdrop of the 2005 court case in Dover Pennsylvania. Judge Jones missed his historical moment. This little book shows why.
Michael Newton Keas, Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science, Biola University