Judgment Day - Intelligent Design on Trial
by Nova
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DVD details
Actor: NovaDirector: Nova
Brand: Wgbh Wholesale
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 112 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-02-26
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS
Product features:
- In a tiny town of Dover in eastern Pennsylvania, in 2004, the local school board ordered science teachers to read to their high school biology students a statement that suggested there is an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution called "Intelligent Design." NOVA captures the emotional conflict in the historic six-week trial, Kitzmiller v. Dover School District, which was closely
DVD Reviews of Judgment Day - Intelligent Design on Trial
DVD Review: Victory of scientific method, secularism and justice over ignorance, distorted thinking and religious fundamentalism
Summary: 5 Stars
This documentary DVD reenacts in a very interesting way the events in 2004 and 2005 at Dover High School USA and the related court trial. It concerns the attempt of directors of a high school to try to sneak in a religious interpretation of the origin of the species into the science class of the Dover High School. Some parents and teachers reacted by filing a legal suit on gounds that what was termed as " Intelligent Design " an alternative to Charles Darwin's scientific theory of evolution by natural selection, was in fact " Creationism " in disguise i.e. a religious explanation of the origin of the species that refuted Darwin's theory that mankind is a descendant from apes.
While watching the DVD we learn in detail both about what Darwin's theory and the allegations of Intelligent Design are all about. The reenactments of testimonies of both sides in the court are very interesting. The verdict was the conviction of the school directors on grounds that they had lied in court, did in fact have ulterior motives to bring religion into education of science, which is forbidden by the American Constitution article requiring the secularity of the state and of education. The insistence of the defendants that they had no religious intentions that Intelligent Design was just an alternative scientific theory which they wanted the students to learn about besides Darwin's theory falls flat on its back when their most trusted "scientist" testifies in court that his definition of the scientific method includes Astrology...a proponent of Intelligent Design and the author of a book titled Darwin's Black Box.
For those who are not familiar with the Darwinian theory and Intelligent Design claims; according to Darwin all species have a common root and branched out into different species over time under the influence of environmental circumstances, some species adapted to the environment and others couldn't adapt and became extinct. Intelligent Design by contrast claims that some aspects of species are too complex to have arisen by evolution alone. Those aspects must have been designed by an intelligent agent ( God ). Different species came into existence suddenly and independently, they did not branch out from a common root. In court they present as evidence for Intelligent Design the complex motor of a bacteria as something too complex to arise simply from Darwinian evolution. However, they can not prove their case. By contrast, the proponents of Darwin were able to show some fossils in court as evidence of Darwinian theory. Moreover, even though there maybe non religious believers in the Intelligent Design concept, in the particular case at Dover religious motives were hidden behind it. Because the religious intention to refute homosapien evolution from apes was served by a concept that called itself Intelligent Design. In essence it turned out to be Creationism.
By the same line of reasoning those who believe in Darwinian Evolution don't necessarily have to be atheists. To theorize that the species evolved by natural selection from a common root is not to deny the existence of God. The Intelligent Designer of the Universe i.e. God may have designed evolution the way Darwin explained it, not the way Intelligent Design proponents claim. Moreover, the scientific community admits that there could be mistakes in Darwin's theories just like in any scientific theory. But those mistakes are to be discovered and changed by scientifc methods, not by throwing out the scientific method and replacing it by some kind of irrational religious thinking.
Scientific methodology and thinking have been the primary enemies of religious fundamentalism ever since Galileo challenged it centuries ago. Since decades, many countries in the world including the USA have been requiring a secular state and educational system as an indisputable article in their constitutions. Yet even in the 21st century in many countries and religions there are still significant numbers of people who want to overthrow the secular systems and replace them by religious fundamentalism. They are not necessarily bad intentioned people. They believe that what they want - a state based on religion and lifestyles controlled by religion only - are the right things to do. The sad thing is that their thinking is distorted and deprived of scientific enlightenement.
***Subsequent note*** March 16th 2009
By an interesting coincidence just one week after I watched this film anti- Darwinist Islamist Creationists made a move against Darwin in Turkey ; the monthly magazine of a government sponsored Turkish Scientific Research Organization in Turkey put Darwin's picture on the cover of the March 2009 issue and devoted 16 pages to him in commemoration of Darwin's 200th birth year. Immediately after this,the director of the organization purged the editor from the organization and had Darwin erased from the cover of the magazine. His justification was that the current situation in Turkey was too sensitive to tolerate Darwin on the cover of the magazine. For many days after this event a strong reaction continued from the secular organizations and press in Turkey and internationally. Some Turkish secular organizations conducted protest demonstrations demanding the resignation of the directors of the government sponsored Scientific Research Organization who they claimed were Islamist Creationists. The directors backed down and denied they had anything against Darwin. But the editor of the magazine who was purged subsequently claimed that the directors were lying, that she was told that she was fired for putting Darwin's picture on the cover of the magazine and that she would take the matter to court. The issue is still hot in Turkey on the newspapers everyday as I write these lines.
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