Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Is intelligent design wave of the future? Lord only knows

By Laura Berman / The Detroit News

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On the late night "Daily Show," Jon Stewart hosted a week's worth of ridicule titled "Evolution, Shmevolution" -- cheerfully mocking the latest debate on the origin of our species, among others.

And, oh, it is kind of funny.

Here we are, many of us belonging to the generation of adults who were taught, in those now discredited '60s and '70s school days, that evolution was settled theory and creationism was a crock of anti-scientific nonsense.

Those were the days when teachers earnestly distributed copies of "Inherit the Wind," a drama based on the 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial" that contained, among its themes, the idea that progress -- intellectual or otherwise -- tends to win out, and that science is in the vanguard of progress.

Eighty years after that first famous trial of the 20th century, neither of these ideas is unquestionable.

Yesterday's progressive ideas are now widely questioned, fundamentalism is in full flower and crediting an intelligent designer for the universe is newly being regarded as a sophisticated and modern idea.

And now -- poof -- a former Oakland County prosecutor is in a Harrisburg, Pa., courtroom, playing the William Jennings Bryan part of the religious crusader with a law degree.

Only the acronyms change

In this upside-down world, the regressive reformer runs an Ann Arbor law firm dedicated to being "Christianity's answer to the ACLU."

The ACLU -- whose lawyers are representing 11 Dover parents whose children attend school there -- is playing the role of Clarence Darrow.

Only the centuries -- and the acronyms -- have changed.

Richard Thompson, whose Oakland County political career foundered over the repetitive prosecution of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, is now leading the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor and its legal battle to keep alive the teaching of "intelligent design" in the Dover, Pa.., school district.

The school district, and Thompson's legal team, reasonably argue that the theory of evolution does not explain the origin of matter or life -- only the process of natural selection that enabled simple organisms to grow more complex over time.

Since science cannot yet, if ever, prove the origins of the universe, why not introduce the notion of a higher intelligence at work. Designer, like Planner, is the modern idiom often used to describe powerful presences in our lives we may not choose to identify publicly.

Trial may last six weeks

The Ann Arbor legal team delivered opening arguments Monday, in a trial expected to last six weeks.

The Pennsylvania branch of the ACLU is -- just as predictably -- backing the parents who want to kick the intelligent designer out of the kitchen.

Funded by Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, the Thomas More Law Center has crafted some of the nation's most restrictive abortion legislation. Now, the Ann Arbor group argues there's nothing inherently "religious" about crediting the Intelligent Designer for universal handiwork.

Even if you have to take his or her existence on faith.

Laura Berman's column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday in Metro. Reach her at (248) 647-7221 or lberman@ detnews.com.