Worldviews and the Bad Legal Judgment at Dover

The Kitzmiller v. Dover legal decision was one of the worst miscarriages of justice and violations of American freedom of our time. Atheists and other anti-creationists have celebrated it for years — which is both ironic and instructive for us.

The ironic part is people having Atheism Spectrum Disorder cheer the ruling, saying that the judge was wise in declaring Intelligent Design a religious movement (and other words to that effect). Darwin's handmaidens will also tell creationists that we have no business discussing flaws in evolution if we are not scientists — but Judge Jones was not a scientist. Two standards, no waiting.

Let me make this worse for them: they have no business promoting evolution because they are not scientists themselves, nor can they criticize the Bible because they are not theologians. They get shot with their own guns that way.

This decision was not binding outside of the school district, but anti-creationists have acted like it was a Supreme Court ruling. They sure do put a great deal of work to deny the Creator his due.

Some vitally important things come out when reviewing this historical event that apply to discussions of origins. One is something that we've dealt with several times, and that is worldviews. Everyone has one, and our worldviews have many presuppositions. This judge had his worldview, and was biased toward those fond of atheistic naturalism.

Another important point is something else that we've examined, and that's the importance of definitions. As you should know by now, evolution has several definitions, so evolutionists can be sneaky in conflating words in order to "prove" fish-to-fool evolution. Atheists have conveniently redefined atheism from the long-accepted definition of "believes that there is no God or gods" into the nonsensical "lack of belief". They also deny that atheism is a religion, but that is completely false. Redefining words and denying the facts do not change reality.

A key element in the Dover case is how the Intelligent Design movement was mischaracterized as a kind of creationist covert operation. The ID people detest being called creationists, as that group is under a wide umbrella that includes biblical creationists, old-earth creationists, theistic evolutionists, agnostics, and people from other religions. 

Judge Jones knew that creation is a foundation for Christianity, but neglected that evolution is foundational to the religion of atheism. To reject the falsely-redefined ID material because it is allegedly a part of the Christian religion, thereby violating the establishment clause in the Constitution, was actually favoring the religions of atheism and it's ugly kid brother, Secular Humanism. The false belief of Jones was a double standard.

He also presumed to know what was going on in a typical student's mind, but refused testimony from students.

Now that I've made my points, I want to turn you over to an article on this case that was written by a lawyer. It's extremely interesting and should be helpful when you encounter misotheists and other evolutionists who want to act like this case was somehow conclusive and not just subjective opinions.

On November 19, 2004, the Dover County Area School Board in Pennsylvania passed a resolution requiring ninth grade biology teachers to read their students a disclaimer concomitant with their mandatory teaching of evolution.The short disclaimer made three basic assertions: (1) that evolution was a theory with gaps in the evidence and, like all theories, was subject to continuous testing as new evidence was discovered; (2) that the idea of Intelligent Design (ID) provided an alternative explanation for the origin of life; and (3) that, with respect to any theory, the students should keep an open mind. No questions were permitted, nor any further discussion of ID allowed.  In a decision issued December 20, 2005, and after a six-week non-jury trial, United States District Court Judge John E. Jones, III, declared the resolution unconstitutional, opining that it violated the “Establishment Clause” of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, et al., 400 F.Supp.2d 707 (M.D. Pa. 2005). Thereafter, eight of nine school board members lost reelection, and the school board president announced that the board would not appeal. I believe Judge Jones’ ruling to be among the worst decisions never appealed.

I really hope you'll read the rest of this. It's a mite long, maybe half an hour's reading time. Kindly go to "The Worst Decision Never Appealed".