So saith a conservative judge:

“It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose” behind a pseudo-science.

U.S. District Judge John Jones was referring to the now-ousted Dover, Pa., school board, which rooted its case for the teaching of creationism in false claims of secularism, false claims about the theory of evolution, and self-contradictions about “intelligent design.” Whatever the merits of intelligent design, during the course of the trial it became apparent that the school board intended to replace available scientific theory with self-serving falsehoods, and Jones reacted to that.

But Jones’ comment about deceit also applies to Focus on the Family, which continues the self-contradiction that ID — which is, among other things, the belief that the origins of man and the universe are unknowable to science — equals science.

[Apart from this story’s connection to Focus on the Family, and the various James Dobson organizations’ broader habit of distorting science and misrepresenting judicial rulings, this post is off topic. Please consider this an invitation to discuss anything. For more observations about the debate over “intelligent design,” visit Dispatches from the Culture Wars.]

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