Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Political Function of Intelligent Design

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
American Creationism, Creation Science, and Intelligent Design in the Evangelical Market

Part of the book series: Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World ((CTAW))

  • 167 Accesses

Abstract

Building on the examination of separate timelines for creation science and intelligent design organisations, Huskinson shows how the intelligent design movement deviated from creation science in its function, using political means to advance its concerns. The chapter demonstrates that the intelligent design movement operated as a political platform for co-ordinated movement of opposition to establishment science. The intelligent design movement did not share the same goals of creation science organisations in determining theological and social boundaries for evangelicals, and instead offered a national network for critiques of evolutionary theory. This chapter examines the alleged overlaps between creation science and intelligent design and shows that their competing philosophies of science are ultimately incompatible. Huskinson concludes by investigating the role of the Discovery Institute, the main hub of the intelligent design movement, and its monopoly over the movement’s history and trajectory.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross, Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

  2. 2.

    Matt Carter, “Lab Scientists Challenging Darwin,” Tri Valley Herald (Pleasanton, CA), September 26, 2001.

  3. 3.

    See http://www.icr.org/research/rate/.

  4. 4.

    “Blind Evolution or Intelligent Design? Bill Dembski/Michael Behe vs. Kenneth Miller/Robert Pennock,” YouTube video, 2:10:45, posted by “ThomisticTheist,” September 2, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewg9kIG_8Ek, 48:15.

  5. 5.

    See “Bill Nye Debates Ken Ham—HD (Official),” YouTube Video, 2:45:32, posted by “Answers in Genesis,” February 4, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6kgvhG3AkI.

  6. 6.

    For example, see Larry Laudan, “The Demise of the Demarcation Problem,” in Physics, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis: Essays in Honour of Adolf Grünbaum, eds. Robert S. Cohen and Larry Laudan (New York: Springer Science and Business Media, 1983), 111–127.

  7. 7.

    See William A. Dembski, The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

  8. 8.

    See Michael J. Behe, Darwin’s Black Box (New York: Free Press, 1996).

  9. 9.

    For a characteristic critique, see Maarten Boudry, Stefaan Blancke, and Johan Braeckman, “Irreducible Incoherence and Intelligent Design: A Look into the Conceptual Toolbox of a Pseudoscience,” The Quarterly Review of Biology 85, no. 4 (December 2010): 473–482.

  10. 10.

    At the time of this writing, Behe’s Darwin’s Black Box and several books by Dembski regarding his inference filter are available from the Discovery Institute’s site for purchase. See http://www.discovery.org/id/books/.

  11. 11.

    Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross devote an entire chapter of Creationism’s Trojan Horse to documenting this, entitled “Religion First—and Last” (pp. 257–315).

  12. 12.

    “The ‘Wedge Document’: ‘So What?’” The Discovery Institute, accessed July 10, 2016, http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/filesDB-download.php?id=349, 14.

  13. 13.

    See Forrest and Gross, Creationism’s Trojan Horse, pp. 215–255.

  14. 14.

    Ed O’Keefe, “The House has Voted 54 Times in Four Years on Obamacare. Here’s the Full List,” The Washington Post (Washington, DC), March 21, 2014.

  15. 15.

    At the time of this writing the Senate has been unable to offer a majority vote to pass the Republican bill (often dubbed “Trumpcare) to replace the Affordable Care Act. See also Philip Bump, “Enough about McCain. It was Collins, Murkowski and Red-State Democrats Who Killed Trumpcare,” The Washington Post (Washington, DC), July 28, 2017.

  16. 16.

    “Small Group Wields Major Influence in Intelligent Design Debate,” ABC News (New York, NY), November 9, 2005.

  17. 17.

    During the trial, Barbara Forrest appeared as an expert witness for the plaintiffs, citing Discovery Institute fellow Paul Nelson’s admission from an interview in the July/August 2004 edition of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity that “Easily the biggest challenge facing the ID community is to develop a full-fledged theory of biological design. We don’t have such a theory right now, and that’s a real problem. Without a theory, it’s very hard to know where to direct your research focus. Right now, we’ve got a bag of powerful intuitions, and a handful of notions such as ‘irreducible complexity’ and ‘specified complexity’—but, as yet, no general theory of biological design.”

  18. 18.

    William A. Dembski, Intelligent Design: The Bridge between Science and Theology (Downer’s Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1999): 13.

  19. 19.

    William A. Dembski, “Signs of Intelligence: A Primer on the Discernment of Intelligent Design,” Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity 12, no. 4 (1999): 84.

  20. 20.

    Jonathan Wells, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2006), 174.

  21. 21.

    Philip E. Johnson, “How the Evolution Debate Can Be Won” (speech, Reclaiming American for Christ Conference, Fort Lauderdale, FL, February 26–27, 1999). The conference drew a crowd of 1700 participants and delivered a myriad of conservative speakers on issues such as homosexuality and abortion. See James D. Davis, “Reclaiming America Conference May Draw 1,200,” Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL), February 26, 1999, http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1999-02-26/news/9902260131_1_dr-john-willke-abortion-homosexuality. At the time of this writing, the current Reclaiming America for Christ page appears to advocate young-earth creationism, with numerous links to sites such as Answers in Genesis. See http://reclaimamericaforchrist.org/.

  22. 22.

    Percival W. Davis and Dean H. Kenyon, Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins, (Richardson: The Foundation for Thought and Ethics, 1989).

  23. 23.

    “Missing Link Discovered!” National Center for Science Education (Oakland, CA), November 7, 2005, accessed August 10, 2016, https://web.archive.org/web/20071107040048/http://www2.ncseweb.org/wp/?p=80.

  24. 24.

    Erik Larson, “Darwinian Struggle: Instead of Evolution, a Textbook Proposes ‘Intelligent Design’,” Wall Street Journal, November 14, 1994.

  25. 25.

    Percival Davis also co-authored “A Case for Creation,” published by the Moody Bible Institute in 1983. It contains passages that criticise the accepted geological consensus on the age of the earth.

  26. 26.

    “Affidavit of Dr. Dean H. Kenyon,” dated September 17, 1984, in the case of Edwards v. Aguillard 482 U.S. 578 (1987).

  27. 27.

    Advertisement for Of Pandas and People, Answers in Genesis 7, no. 8 (August 2000): 6.

  28. 28.

    “Closing Statement of the Plaintiffs,” dated November 4, 2005 in the case of Kitzmiller v. Dover 400 F. Supp. 2d 707 (M.D. Pa. 2005).

  29. 29.

    Ibid.

  30. 30.

    Daniel J. Keyles, “Foreward,” in The Panda’s Black Box: Opening Up the Intelligent Design Controversy, ed. Nathaniel C. Comfort (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), 6.

  31. 31.

    Ronald L. Numbers, “Religion and Contemporary Science: Scientific Creationism and Intelligent Design,” (lecture, Science and Religion Summer School, Kolympari, Crete, June 7, 2017).

  32. 32.

    “Decision of the Court,” dated December 20, 2005 in the case of Kitzmiller v. Dover 400 F. Supp. 2d 707 (M.D. Pa. 2005), 31.

  33. 33.

    “Blind Evolution or Intelligent Design?,” YouTube Video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewg9kIG_8Ek, 48:15.

  34. 34.

    “A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism,” The Discovery Institute, 2001, accessed using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://web.archive.org/web/20030406220559/http://www.discovery.org:80/articleFiles/PDFs/100ScientistsAd.pdf.

  35. 35.

    Previous research by this author in 2014 included a list with 946 names, which would suggest that several scientists have requested removal from the list in the intervening years.

  36. 36.

    Barbara Forrest and Paul Gross, Creationism’s Trojan Horse, 172.

  37. 37.

    Skip Evans, “Doubting Darwinism through Creative License,” National Center for Science Education, November 29, 2001, https://ncse.com/library-resource/doubting-darwinism-creative-license.

  38. 38.

    Barbara Forrest and Glenn Branch, “Wedging Creationism into the Academy,” Academe 91, no. 1 (January–February 2005), accessed using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://web.archive.org/web/20070927223725/http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2005/JF/Feat/forr.htm.

  39. 39.

    “Employed U.S. scientists and engineers, by field and level of highest degree attained: 1999,” National Science Foundation, 1999, https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/us-workforce/1999/tables/TableC1.pdf.

  40. 40.

    “The List of Steves,” National Center for Science Education, http://ncse.com/taking-action/list-steves.

  41. 41.

    Carter, “Lab Scientists Challenging Darwin.”

  42. 42.

    Georgia Purdom, “The Intelligent Design Movement,” Answers in Genesis, May 2, 2006, https://answersingenesis.org/intelligent-design/the-intelligent-design-movement/.

  43. 43.

    Henry M. Morris, “Intelligent Design and/or Scientific Creationism,” Acts and Facts 35, no. 4 (2006), https://www.icr.org/article/2708/.

  44. 44.

    Ibid.

  45. 45.

    Forrest and Gross, Creationism’s Trojan Horse, 165–166.

  46. 46.

    See http://www.arn.org.

  47. 47.

    See “About Access Research Network,” Access Research Network, http://www.arn.org/infopage/info.htm.

  48. 48.

    Ibid. See also “Fellows: Center for Science and Culture,” Discovery Institute, http://www.discovery.org/id/about/fellows/.

  49. 49.

    “Chapter Locations,” Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Center, http://www.ideacenter.org/clubs/locations.php.

  50. 50.

    Donald D. Schmeltekopf, Baylor at the Crossroads: Memoirs of a Provost (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2015): 77.

  51. 51.

    “About ISCID,” International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design, 2013, accessed using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://web.archive.org/web/20130123000342/http://www.iscid.org/about.php.

  52. 52.

    “Society Fellows,” International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design, 2013, accessed using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://web.archive.org/web/20130123000307/http://www.iscid.org/fellows.php.

  53. 53.

    “Intelligent Design and Peer Review,” American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2012, accessed using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://web.archive.org/web/20120114143309/http://www.aaas.org/spp/dser/03_Areas/evolution/issues/peerreview.shtml.

  54. 54.

    “Contact Information,” International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design, 2011, accessed using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://web.archive.org/web/20110514103606/http://www.iscid.org/contact.php.

  55. 55.

    William Dembski and Jonathan Wells, The Design of Life: Discovering Signs of Intelligence in Biological Systems (Richardson: Foundation for Thought and Ethics, 2007).

  56. 56.

    See “Foundation for Thought and Ethics Books,” Discovery Institute Press, http://www.discoveryinstitutepress.com/fte/.

  57. 57.

    “Debate on “Intelligent Design”: Michael Shermer and Ronald Bailey VS George Gilder & Stephen Meyer,” YouTube video, 1:21:12, posted by “TheEthanwashere,” August 2, 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD4grsoI4lo, 1:01:50.

  58. 58.

    Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006).

  59. 59.

    See “You are a Simulation and Physics Can Prove It: George Smoot at TEDxSalford,” YouTube video, 19:26, posted by “TEDx Talks,” February 11, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chfoo9NBEow.

  60. 60.

    Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (London: Pan Books, 1979): 1.

References

  • “A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism.” The Discovery Institute. 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • “About Access Research Network.” Access Research Network. http://www.arn.org/infopage/info.htm.

  • “About ISCID.” International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design. 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. London: Pan Books, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  • “Affidavit of Dr. Dean H. Kenyon.” September 17, 1984. Edwards v. Aguillard 482 U.S. 578 (1987).

    Google Scholar 

  • Answers in Genesis 7, no. 8 (August 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  • Behe, Michael J. Darwin’s Black Box. New York: Free Press, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • “Bill Nye Debates Ken Ham—HD (Official).” YouTube Video, 2:45:32. Posted by “Answers in Genesis.” February 4, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6kgvhG3AkI.

  • “Blind Evolution or Intelligent Design? Bill Dembski/Michael Behe vs. Kenneth Miller/Robert Pennock.” YouTube Video, 2:10:45. Posted by “ThomisticTheist.” September 2, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewg9kIG_8Ek.

  • Boudry, Martin, Stefaan Blancke, and Johan Braeckman. “Irreducible Incoherence and Intelligent Design: A Look into the Conceptual Toolbox of a Pseudoscience.” The Quarterly Review of Biology 85, no. 4 (December 2010): 473–482.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bump, Philip. “Enough about McCain. It was Collins, Murkowski and Red-State Democrats Who Killed Trumpcare.” The Washington Post (Washington, DC). July 28, 2017.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carter, Matt. “Lab Scientists Challenging Darwin.” Tri Valley Herald (Pleasanton, CA). September 26, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • “Chapter Locations.” Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Center. http://www.ideacenter.org/clubs/locations.php.

  • “Closing Statement of the Plaintiffs.” November 4, 2005. Kitzmiller v. Dover 400 F. Supp. 2d 707 (M.D. Pa. 2005).

    Google Scholar 

  • “Contact Information.” International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design. 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, James D. “Reclaiming America Conference May Draw 1,200.” Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL). February 26, 1999. http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1999-02-26/news/9902260131_1_dr-john-willke-abortion-homosexuality.

  • Davis, Percival W. and Dean H. Kenyon. Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins. Richardson: Foundation for Thought and Ethics, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • “Debate on “Intelligent Design”: Michael Shermer and Ronald Bailey VS George Gilder & Stephen Meyer.” YouTube Video, 1:21:12. Posted by “TheEthanwashere.” August 2, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD4grsoI4lo/.

  • “Decision of the Court.” December 20, 2005. Kitzmiller v. Dover 400 F. Supp. 2d 707 (M.D. Pa. 2005).

    Google Scholar 

  • Dembski, William A. The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance Through Small Probabilities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dembski, William A. Intelligent Design: The Bridge between Science and Theology. Downer’s Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1999a.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dembski, William A. “Signs of Intelligence: A Primer on the Discernment of Intelligent Design.” Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity 12, no. 4 (1999b): 76–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dembski, William A. and Jonathan Wells. The Design of Life: Discovering Signs of Intelligence in Biological Systems. Richardson: Foundation for Thought and Ethics, 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  • “Employed U.S. Scientists and Engineers, by Field and Level of Highest Degree Attained: 1999.” National Science Foundation. 1999. https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/us-workforce/1999/tables/TableC1.pdf.

  • Evans, Skip. “Doubting Darwinism Through Creative License.” National Center for Science Education. November 29, 2001. https://ncse.com/library-resource/doubting-darwinism-creative-license.

  • “Fellows: Center for Science and Culture.” Discovery Institute. http://www.discovery.org/id/about/fellows/.

  • Forrest, Barbara and Glenn Branch. “Wedging Creationism into the Academy.” Academe 91, no. 1 (January–February 2005).

    Google Scholar 

  • Forrest, Barbara and Paul R. Gross. Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  • “Foundation for Thought and Ethics Books.” Discovery Institute Press. http://www.discoveryinstitutepress.com/fte/.

  • “Intelligent Design and Peer Review.” American Association for the Advancement of Science. 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, Philip E. “How the Evolution Debate Can Be Won.” Speech at Reclaiming American for Christ Conference, Fort Lauderdale, FL, February 26–27, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keyles, Daniel J. “Foreward.” In The Panda’s Black Box: Opening Up the Intelligent Design Controversy. Edited by Nathaniel C. Comfort. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larson, Erik. “Darwinian Struggle: Instead of Evolution, a Textbook Proposes ‘Intelligent Design’.” Wall Street Journal, November 14, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laudan, Larry. “The Demise of the Demarcation Problem.” In Physics, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis: Essays in Honour of Adolf Grünbaum. Edited by Robert S. Cohen and Larry Laudan, 111–127. New York: Springer Science and Business Media, 1983.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd, Seth. Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  • “Missing Link Discovered!” National Center for Science Education (Oakland, CA). November 7, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris, Henry M. “Intelligent Design and/or Scientific Creationism.” Acts and Facts 35, no. 4, (2006). https://www.icr.org/article/2708/.

  • Numbers, Ronald L. “Religion and Contemporary Science: Scientific Creationism and Intelligent Design.” Lecture at Science and Religion Summer School, Kolympari, Crete, June 7, 2017.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Keefe, Ed. “The House has Voted 54 Times in Four Years on Obamacare. Here’s the Full List.” The Washington Post (Washington, DC). March 21, 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Purdom, Georgia. “The Intelligent Design Movement.” Answers in Genesis. May 2, 2006. https://answersingenesis.org/intelligent-design/the-intelligent-design-movement/.

  • Schmeltekopf, Donald D. Baylor at the Crossroads: Memoirs of a Provost. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  • “Small Group Wields Major Influence in Intelligent Design Debate.” ABC News (New York, NY). November 9, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • “Society Fellows.” International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design. 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • “The List of Steves.” National Center for Science Education. http://ncse.com/taking-action/list-steves.

  • “The ‘Wedge Document’: ‘So What?’” The Discovery Institute. http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/filesDB-download.php?id=349.

  • Wells, Jonathan. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  • “You are a Simulation and Physics Can Prove It: George Smoot at TEDxSalford.” YouTube Video, 19:26. Posted by “TEDx Talks.” February 11, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chfoo9NBEow.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Juneau, Alaska, USA

    Benjamin L. Huskinson

Authors
  1. Benjamin L. Huskinson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Huskinson, B.L. (2020). The Political Function of Intelligent Design. In: American Creationism, Creation Science, and Intelligent Design in the Evangelical Market. Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45435-7_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45435-7_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-45434-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-45435-7

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation