"Intelligent Design On Trial"
(Science Week - Day 5!)
Standing up for science!
Like most science week things, this one is as close to my heart as to my brain. Though that’s mainly because Pennsylvania is far enough away to place them both around optical infinity, if you will.
Science is often attacked – a corollary cost of people’s freedom to think one can find stuff out without finding it out. That particular thought is reliably found at the core of enterprises like superstition, religions and alternative medicine. Fighting back? Expect to parry shenanigans as though from a pressurized piñata.
This happened in a historic skirmish about a decade ago, when the Dover Area School District’s own school board worked to erode science education. It was like a modern-day Scopes trial, only better: because where the Scopes narrative veered away from investigating the scientific validity of the proposals, this one dove straight in.
Also better because this one ended properly.
I followed the trial when it originally happened, but the story was retold at least a handful of times. This documentary is my favourite of those: I love the sheer thoroughness with which it recounts the details, characters and science.
If you’ve ever felt ashamed that America’s powerful figures soft-pedal science, watch and take pride in this example.