From the "War on Christianity" to the "War on Science"
This week's episode of The Cutting Edge (SBS) deals with what the fundies no doubt consider to be another front line in the "War on Christianity:" intelligent design. The BBC "Horizons" documentary pits ID advocates Phillip Johnson, Michael Behe and Stephen Meyer against Richard Dawkins (I'm still waiting for the ABC or SBS to screen his two-part doco for Channel 4, The Root of all Evil?) and David Attenborough--which one imagines is hardly a fair contest, but it is very difficult to resist the opportunity to see creationists made to look like idiots.
Set your VCRs.
Speaking of the aformentioned "War," the fundies are up in arms over the planned participation by hundreds of gay and lesbian parents in this year's annual White House Easter Egg Roll. The appropriately-named Mark Tooley of the right-wing think-tank (of which there must be half a dozen per head of population in the United States) the Institute on Religion and Democracy whines:
These groups are demanding acceptance of same-sex 'marriage,' adoption rights for 'alternative' families, and public acceptance of 'transgender' sexual arrangements [. . . .] They are free to advocate their perspective, and everyone with a child is welcome to attend the egg roll, of course. But there are a thousand other times and places they could demonstrate. How unfortunate they should choose to politicize the White House egg roll.(Read more about the Institute on Religious and Democracy at Right Web.)
UPDATE: Back in January, when the documentary first screened, the BBC conducted a survey into the acceptance of evolution in its "birthplace" (so to speak).
Over 2,000 participants took part in the survey, and were asked what best described their view of the origin and development of life:
- 22% chose creationism
- 17% opted for intelligent design
- 48% selected evolution theory
- and the rest did not know.
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