November 16, 2007

A creationist "Senior Fellow"

As noted below, Seattle's Discovery Institute is a “think tank” from whence much of the “intelligent design theory” issues, generally in the form of political rhetoric and pronouncements grounded in an allegedly objective morality. Science? Not so much.

Now comes news (nice picture) the DI has named as a “Senior Fellow” the noted population geneticist Michael Medved. Mr. Medved's contributions to evolutionary biology are legion, not least of which are his review of Jurassic Park and his recent apologetic for American slavery, published by ClownHall.com.

As a Senior Fellow, Mr. Medved outranks such luminaries of biology as the mere Fellow Nancy Pearcey, whose scientific credentials include “graduate work at the Institute for Christian Studies” in Toronto, which corresponds roughly to authoring a scholarly paper on the behavioral psychology of leprechauns.

Apparently the DI has now discharged all pretense to credibility, and Mr. Medved's appointment to Senior Fellow serves only to confirm that the intelligent design movement truly is nothing more than “creationism in a cheap tuxedo,” a set of fallacious assertions against evolution and a dyspeptic, polemical rejection of the fact that our species is as much a part of nature as any other creature.

It is, as another of the DI's Senior Fellows acknowledged during the Dover trial, every bit as scientific as a horoscope and nothing more than a ploy to smuggle religion into the one remaining area of human endeavor where it clearly has no place.

Its advocates shouldn't be granted an inch of concession.

4 comments:

Other Side said...

I must object to the sarcastic tinge to this post. There is a need for scholarly papers on the behavioral psychology of leprechauns.

illusory tenant said...

You're always after me lucky charms.

James Rowen said...

The Discovery Institute hired Scott McCallum as a senior fellow after his loss to Jim Doyle. McCallum's gone from DI now.

Anonymous said...

I'm reminded of the fired schoolteacher, long-time golf pro, and deficit-hiding former premier of Ontario, Mike Harris -- who upon his retirement from (the nearest he came to) active politics was appointed Senior Fellow at The Fraser Institute, where he remains so styled to this day.

Which is why critical thinkers pull on welding gloves before handling anything manufactured in a "think tank".