Timeline of intelligent design
Encyclopedia

This timeline of intelligent design outlines the major events in the development of intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...

 as presented and promoted by the intelligent design movement
Intelligent design movement
The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the idea of "intelligent design," which asserts that "certain features of the universe and of living things are...

.

Creationism and Creation science

  • 1920s: Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy
    Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy
    The Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy was a religious controversy in the 1920s and 30s within the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America that later created divisions in most American Christian denominations as well. The major American denomination was torn by conflict over the...

     – in an upsurge of fundamentalist
    Fundamentalism
    Fundamentalism is strict adherence to specific theological doctrines usually understood as a reaction against Modernist theology. The term "fundamentalism" was originally coined by its supporters to describe a specific package of theological beliefs that developed into a movement within the...

     religious fervor, anti-evolutionary sentiment stopped U.S. public schools from teaching evolution
    Evolution
    Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...

    , through state laws such as Tennessee’s 1925 Butler Act
    Butler Act
    The Butler Act was a 1925 Tennessee law prohibiting public school teachers from denying the Biblical account of man’s origin. It was enacted as Tennessee Code Annotated Title 49 Section 1922...

    , and by getting evolution removed from biology textbooks nationwide.
  • 1959 National Defense Education Act
    National Defense Education Act
    The National Defense Education Act , signed into law on September 2, 1958, provided funding to United States education institutions at all levels. The act authorized funding for four years, increasing funding per year: for example, funding increased on eight program titles from 183 million dollars...

    , responding to fears of backwardness raised by the 1957 Sputnik, promoted science and Biological Sciences Curriculum Study textbooks teaching evolution were used in almost half of high schools, though the prohibitions were still in place and a 1961 attempt to repeal the Butler Act failed.
  • 1961 publication of The Genesis Flood
    The Genesis Flood
    The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and its Scientific Implications is a 1961 book by young earth creationists John C. Whitcomb and Henry M...

    .
  • 1965 The term "scientific creationism
    Creation science
    Creation Science or scientific creationism is a branch of creationism that attempts to provide scientific support for the Genesis creation narrative in the Book of Genesis and disprove generally accepted scientific facts, theories and scientific paradigms about the history of the Earth, cosmology...

    " gained currency.
  • 1967 Michael Polanyi
    Michael Polanyi
    Michael Polanyi, FRS was a Hungarian–British polymath, who made important theoretical contributions to physical chemistry, economics, and the theory of knowledge...

     article argued that “machines are irreducible to physics and chemistry” and that “mechanistic structures of living beings appear to be likewise irreducible.”
  • 1968 Epperson v. Arkansas
    Epperson v. Arkansas
    Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 , was a United States Supreme Court case that invalidated an Arkansas statute that prohibited the teaching of human evolution in the public schools...

     ruled against state laws prohibiting the teaching of evolution, concluding that they violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment
    Establishment Clause of the First Amendment
    The Establishment Clause is the first of several pronouncements in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, stating, Together with the Free Exercise Clause The Establishment Clause is the first of several pronouncements in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,...

     of the U.S. Constitution which prohibits state aid to religion. States may not alter the curriculum to conform to the beliefs of particular religious sects.
  • 1975 Daniel v. Waters
    Daniel v. Waters
    Daniel v. Waters was a 1975 legal case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit struck down Tennessee's law regarding the teaching of "equal time" of evolution and creationism in public school science classes because it violated the Establishment clause of the US...

     rules that a state law requiring biology textbooks discussing "origins or creation of man and his world" to give equal treatment to creation as per Genesis is unconstitutional, creationists change to Creation science
    Creation science
    Creation Science or scientific creationism is a branch of creationism that attempts to provide scientific support for the Genesis creation narrative in the Book of Genesis and disprove generally accepted scientific facts, theories and scientific paradigms about the history of the Earth, cosmology...

     omitting explicit biblical references.
  • 1977 Hendren v. Campbell
    Hendren v. Campbell
    Hendren et al. v. Campbell et al. was a 1977 ruling by an Indiana state superior court that the young-earth creationist textbook Biology: A Search For Order In Complexity, published by the Creation Research Society and promoted through the Institute for Creation Research, could not be used in...

     rules that use of the 1970 Creation Research Society
    Creation Research Society
    The Creation Research Society is a Christian research group that engages in creation science. The organization has produced various publications, including a journal and a creation-based biology textbook...

     textbook Biology: A Search For Order In Complexity, though claimed to present a balanced view of evolution and Biblical Creation, promotes a specific sectarian religious view, and is unconstitutional in public schools. "We may note that with each new decision of the courts religious proponents have attempted to modify or tailor their approach to active lobbying in state legislatures and agencies. Softening positions and amending language, these groups have, time and again, forced the courts to reassert and redefine the prohibitions of the First Amendment. Despite new and continued attempts by such groups, however, the courts are bound to determine, if possible, the purpose of the approach."

Creation science school textbooks and the Foundation for Thought and Ethics

  • 1980 Foundation for Thought and Ethics
    Foundation for Thought and Ethics
    The Foundation for Thought and Ethics is a Christian non-profit organization based in Richardson, Texas, that publishes textbooks and articles promoting intelligent design, abstinence, and Christian nationism. In addition, the foundation's officers and editors are some of the leading proponents...

     (FTE) formed by ordained minister Jon Buell as a "Christian think-tank", its first activity to be the editing of a book "showing the scientific evidence for creation.".
  • 1981 state of Arkansas passed a law, Act 590, mandating that "creation science
    Creation science
    Creation Science or scientific creationism is a branch of creationism that attempts to provide scientific support for the Genesis creation narrative in the Book of Genesis and disprove generally accepted scientific facts, theories and scientific paradigms about the history of the Earth, cosmology...

    " be given equal time in public schools with evolution, and defining creation science as positing the “creation of the universe, energy, and life from nothing,” as well as explaining the earth’s geology “by occurrence of a worldwide flood.” McLean v. Arkansas
    McLean v. Arkansas
    McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education, 529 F. Supp. 1255, 1258-1264 , was a 1981 legal case in Arkansas.A lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas by various parents, religious groups and organizations, biologists, and others who argued that the...

     ruling issued on January 5, 1982, is that the Act was unconstitutional, the creationists' methods were not scientific but took the literal wording of the Book of Genesis and attempted to find scientific support for it. The clear, specific definition of science used to rule that “creation science” is religion, not science, had a powerful influence on subsequent rulings.
  • 1982 Louisiana's "Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science in Public School Instruction" Act (Creationism Act) forbids the teaching of the theory of evolution in public schools unless accompanied by instruction in "creation science." Thus two states had passed these "equal time" laws.
  • 1982 The Mystery of Life’s Origin (see 1984) nears completion, work begins on the book that will become Of Pandas and People.
  • 1983 Percival Davis
    Percival Davis
    See also Clifford Grey, whose real name was Percival Davis.Percival William Davis, also known as Bill Davis, is an American author, young earth creationist, and intelligent design proponent.-Education and career:...

     and Dean H. Kenyon
    Dean H. Kenyon
    Dean H. Kenyon is Professor Emeritus of Biology at San Francisco State University and an intelligent design proponent. He is also the author of Of Pandas and People, a controversial book on intelligent design.- Career :...

     produce Creation Biology Textbook Supplements, an early draft of the work later retitled Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 school-level textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics...

    . Charles Thaxton
    Charles Thaxton
    Charles B. Thaxton is an intelligent design author and Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture.-Biography:Thaxton earned a doctorate in physical chemistry from Iowa State University...

     was the project chairman and academic editor.

The ID movement begins

  • 1984 book The Mystery of Life’s Origin by Charles Thaxton
    Charles Thaxton
    Charles B. Thaxton is an intelligent design author and Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture.-Biography:Thaxton earned a doctorate in physical chemistry from Iowa State University...

     and others, foreword by Kenyon, argues for ‘a profoundly informative intervention' by an intelligent cause, "the authors conclude that while design can be detected in biology, science cannot determine from this evidence whether the design was from a creator outside the cosmos." Barbara Forrest describes this as the beginning of the ID movement.
  • 1984 Kenyon's affidavit for what becomes Edwards v. Aguillard
    Edwards v. Aguillard
    Edwards v. Aguillard, was a legal case about the teaching of creationism that was heard by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987. The Court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools, along with evolution, was unconstitutional because the law...

     gives Definitions "Creation-science means origin through abrupt appearance in complex form, and includes biological creation, biochemical creation (or chemical creation), and cosmic creation.", "Creation-science does not include as essential parts the concepts of catastrophism, a world-wide flood, a recent inception of the earth or life, from nothingness (ex nihilo), the concept of kinds, or any concepts from Genesis or other religious texts." Statements included "The creationist scientific conclusion is that empirical data currently in hand demand the inference that the first living organisms were created." and "The origin of printed texts, manufactured devices, and biomolecular systems require intelligent design and engineering knowhow (Wilder-Smith 1970). In each case the characteristic order of the system must be impressed on matter 'from the outside.'" It claims creation and evolution the only scientific explanations of life — what Forrest calls "the dual model".
This is later described by the DI's Witt as "There Kenyon described a science open to intelligent causes but one free of religious presuppositions or assertions about the identity of the designer. He described how he did origins science, how a science open to intelligent causes ought to be done." Witt claims that this is a different creation science from Young Earth Creationism (YEC).
  • 1985 District Court "Aguillard v. Treen" held that there can be no valid secular reason for prohibiting the teaching of evolution, a theory historically opposed by some religious denominations. The court further concluded that "the teaching of 'creation-science' and 'creationism,' as contemplated by the statute, involves teaching 'tailored to the principles' of a particular religious sect or group of sects." (citing Epperson v. Arkansas (1968)). The District Court therefore held that the Creationism Act violated the Establishment Clause either because it prohibited the teaching of evolution or because it required the teaching of creation science with the purpose of advancing a particular religious doctrine. The court of Appeals affirmed.
DI's Witt claims that "In Edwards, the Court found Louisiana’s act entailed the teaching of religion by virtue of a specific religious construction, particular teachings clearly paralleling the ‘Book of Genesis. Thus, it was a specific set of teachings or doctrines from a religious source that constituted religion." and so didn't apply to Kenyon's definition of the term “creation science”.
  • 1985 Michael Denton
    Michael Denton
    Michael John Denton is a British-Australian author and biochemist. In 1973, Denton received his PhD in Biochemistry from King's College London.-Biography:...

    's book: Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
    Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
    Evolution: A Theory in Crisis is a 1985 book by Michael Denton in which he claims that the scientific theory of evolution by natural selection is a "theory in crisis"...

    . Prominent figures in ID credit his critical examination of Darwinism with their change of view (Behe, Johnson).
  • 1986 FTE copyrighted draft entitled Biology and Creation by Kenyon & Davis. (note Charles Thaxton
    Charles Thaxton
    Charles B. Thaxton is an intelligent design author and Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture.-Biography:Thaxton earned a doctorate in physical chemistry from Iowa State University...

     academic editor, not clear from when)
  • Autumn 1986 FTE, under the name of "Austin Analytic Consulting", carried out survey of 300 high-school science teachers to show potential mainline publishers that a market existed for a supplementary textbook to "balance" evolution teaching in class.
  • 1987 FTE copyrighted draft entitled Biology and Origins by Kenyon & Davis.
  • 1987 FTE's founder Jon Buell sought a publisher for the book, telling a Boston firm "A new independent scientific poll (report enclosed) shows almost half of the nation's biology teachers include some creation in their view of biological origins. Many more who don't still believe it should be included in science curriculum.... The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals says that teachers are free to teach scientific information that happens to support creation if they wish. In ruling on the so-called Louisiana "Balanced Treatment Act" this Spring the U.S. Supreme Court may not affirm state-mandated teaching of creation, but they will almost certainly let stand the above academic freedom for teachers." "The enclosed projections showing revenues of Over 6.5 million in five years are based upon modest expectations for the market provided the U.S Supreme Court does not uphold the Louisiana "Balanced Act". If, by chance it should uphold it, then you can throw out these projections, the nationwide market would be explosive!" "the book will not be subject to the major criticism of creation, that the supernatural lies outside of science, because its central statement is that scientific evidence points to an intelligent cause, but that science is silent as to whether that intelligence is within or beyond the material universe. So the book is not appealing to the supernatural."

Edwards v. Aguillard ruling, Pandas

  • August 1986 Amicus Curae brief by scientific organisations and 72 Nobel Prize winning scientists set out argument that the Louisiana Act's definition of "creation-science" was religious dogma, including creation ex nihilo, created kinds of life, worldwide deluge
    Flood geology
    Flood geology is the interpretation of the geological history of the Earth in terms of the global flood described in Genesis 6–9. Similar views played a part in the early development of the science of geology, even after the Biblical chronology had been rejected by geologists in favour of an...

     and young earth
    Young Earth creationism
    Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...

    , the legislation described conventional "creation-science" and not the "abrupt appearance" construct presented to the court which was ill-defined and "a post hoc invention, created for the purpose of defending this unconstitutional Act." They asserted that:

  • 1987 Supreme Court ruled in Edwards v. Aguillard
    Edwards v. Aguillard
    Edwards v. Aguillard, was a legal case about the teaching of creationism that was heard by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987. The Court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools, along with evolution, was unconstitutional because the law...

     that the Louisiana Creationism Act violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment: it lacked a clear secular purpose, did not protect academic freedom as claimed, and instead of encouraging "the teaching of all scientific theories about human origins... [had the] purpose of discrediting evolution by counterbalancing its teaching at every turn with the teaching of creationism.... endorses religion by advancing the religious belief that a supernatural being created humankind... [Its] primary purpose was to change the public school science curriculum to provide persuasive advantage to a particular religious doctrine that rejects the factual basis of evolution in its entirety." However, the statement that "teaching a variety of scientific theories about the origins of humankind to school children might be validly done with the clear secular intent of enhancing the effectiveness of science instruction." left a loophole for ID.
  • 1987 FTE copyrighted draft retitled Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 school-level textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics...

    : The Central Questions of Biological Origins
    , reference to Edwards decision added in footnote, as in earlier drafts had definition "Creation means that the various forms of life began abruptly through the agency of an intelligent creator with their distinctive features already intact. Fish with fins and scales, birds with feathers, beaks, and wings, etc."

Creation becomes intelligent design, “cdesign proponentsists”

  • 1987 (according to a 2005 apologia by the DI's Witt) Thaxton's definition of "creation-science" had been overruled at Edwards by being equated to YEC, so he needed a new term and found it in a phrase he'd picked up from a NASA scientist – intelligent design. He thought "That’s just what I need, it’s a good engineering term….. it seemed to jibe... And I went back through my old copies of Science magazine and found the term used occasionally." Soon the term intelligent design was incorporated into the language of the book.
  • 1987 In a new draft of Pandas, approximately 150 uses of the root word "creation", such as "creationism" and "creationist", were systematically changed to refer to intelligent design, with "creationists" being changed to "design proponents" or, in one instance, "cdesign proponentsists". Accordingly, in the definition "creation" was changed to "intelligent design", so that it now read "Intelligent design means that various forms of life began abruptly through an intelligent agency, with their distinctive features already intact. Fish with fins and scales, birds with feathers, beaks, wings, etc." This wording was essentially unchanged when published in 1989 and in the 1993 2nd. edition.

Johnson vs. evolution

  • 1987 Phillip E. Johnson
    Phillip E. Johnson
    Phillip E. Johnson is a retired UC Berkeley law professor and author. He became a born-again Christian while a tenured professor and is considered the father of the intelligent design movement...

     (in England) read Dawkins' Blind Watchmaker, the creationist book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
    Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
    Evolution: A Theory in Crisis is a 1985 book by Michael Denton in which he claims that the scientific theory of evolution by natural selection is a "theory in crisis"...

    by Michael Denton
    Michael Denton
    Michael John Denton is a British-Australian author and biochemist. In 1973, Denton received his PhD in Biochemistry from King's College London.-Biography:...

    , then Isaac Asimov
    Isaac Asimov
    Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...

    ’s Guide to Science, and found purpose in life – he read the amicus briefs in Edwards and concluded that the definition of science was loaded against creationism. Johnson decided that the creationists had lost that case because of their unfair exclusion from science by the scientific community’s naturalistic definition of science. Consequently, creationists must redefine science to restore the supernatural.
  • 1987-8 Johnson met Steven Meyer who subsequently introduced him to "the others", starting with Denton and Paul Nelson
    Paul Nelson (creationist)
    Paul A. Nelson is an American philosopher of science, young earth creationist and intelligent design advocate.- Biography :Nelson is the grandson of the creationist author and Lutheran minister Byron Christopher Nelson and edited a book of his grandfather's writings...

    .
  • June 23–26, 1988, Charles Thaxton
    Charles Thaxton
    Charles B. Thaxton is an intelligent design author and Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture.-Biography:Thaxton earned a doctorate in physical chemistry from Iowa State University...

    , editor of Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 school-level textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics...

    , held a conference titled Sources of Information Content in DNA in Tacoma, Washington
    Tacoma, Washington
    Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...

    . Stephen C. Meyer
    Stephen C. Meyer
    Stephen C. Meyer is an American scholar, philosopher and advocate for intelligent design. He helped found the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute , which is the main organisation behind the intelligent design movement. Before joining the DI, Meyer was a professor at...

     was at the conference, and later recalled that "the term came up" ("intelligent design").
  • August 1988 Johnson produced draft to develop into his book (Darwin on Trial
    Darwin on Trial
    Darwin on Trial is a 1991 book about the theory of evolution and the creation-evolution debate. It was written by Harvard graduate and University of California, Berkeley law professor emeritus Phillip E. Johnson...

    ).
  • December 1988 Thaxton decided to use the label "intelligent design" instead of creationism for his new movement.
  • 1989 Johnson funded to speak at Seattle conference, "I soon became the leader of the group."

Of Pandas and People published

  • 1989 survey found that more than 30% of a national sample of high school biology teachers wanted to teach "creation science".
  • 1989 Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 school-level textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics...

    was published, printed by "Haughton Publishing Co." (Horticultural Printers, Inc. of Dallas, with no other books in print). It included all of the basic arguments of intelligent design in essentially modern form (except for Behe's irreducible complexity argument which appeared in the 1993 edition). In 2004, Jon Buell of the FTE stated this was "the first place where the phrase 'intelligent design' appeared in its present use."

Campaign to get intelligent design into schools

  • 1989 Haughton and the FTE campaigned to get Pandas into schools across the U.S. – mobilizing local Christian conservative groups to push school boards and individual teachers to adopt the book and also to get themselves elected to school boards and local educational committees. They claimed that intelligent design was "accepted science, a view that is held by many highly qualified scientists".
  • September 12, 1989, at the Alabama hearings on approved school textbooks. Pandas was on the list but not in the libraries for public viewing as required. An Eagle Forum
    Eagle Forum
    Eagle Forum is a conservative interest group in the United States founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972 and is the parent organization that also includes the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund and the Eagle Forum PAC. The Eagle Forum has been primarily focused on social issues; it describes...

     chapter director praised Pandas as an exemplary scientific text presenting an alternative to modern evolutionary theory based on "intelligent design". With NCSE assistance, written criticism was sent to committee members and on October 2, a majority of the State Textbook Committee voted against Pandas, partly because of its thinly disguised religious underpinnings. This decision was subject to adoption by the State Board of Education in December.
  • November 1989, Haughton advertised Pandas in the monthly of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and other journals, claiming it had been "prepared with academic integrity" and had been "Authored by mainstream, published science educators", and promoted it at teachers’ association conventions.
  • November 1989, Pandas was promoted by members of religiously-oriented citizen pressure groups like Concerned Women for America and Citizens for Excellence in Education. It was under consideration for state adoption in both Idaho and Alabama, and to be submitted in Texas and other states in the coming months. With grass-roots promotion it also had a good chance of showing up in local districts of non-adoption states.
  • December 1989 a church campaign in Alabama gathered over 11,800 signatures on a petition to add Pandas to the list of approved school textbooks, after weeks of urging from a Christian radio station in Tuscaloosa.
  • December 14, 1989, at the Alabama State Board of Education meeting to consider adoption of the textbook list, Haughton Publishing made an elaborate presentation. A Birmingham businessman presented petitions with over 11,800 signatures urging the board to adopt supplementary materials presenting "Intelligent Design" as an alternative to evolution. The attorney for Haughton, Hare, charged that opponents had falsely painted Pandas as a creationist text, and said that "Intelligent Design" does not compel belief in the supernatural. The Board requested legal advice, and a January hearing was set up just to consider Pandas.
  • January 8, 1990, Buell and Thaxton were amongst speakers for Pandas at the hearing, but the publisher Haughton tried to withdraw and end the hearing on procedural grounds. The meeting continued, but Haughton then threatened to sue the committee members if they rejected the book rather than accepting that it had been withdrawn, as rejection would injure future sales prospects. The committee passed a resolution recognizing its withdrawal.
  • Active promotion by creationists of "Pandas for public school use continued throughout the 1990s, then after 2000 activity largely died down.

Discovery Institute founded, Johnson's views

  • November 30, 1989, Johnson's "informal summary of my views" (from the book he was working on) stated "The important issue is not the relationship of science and creationism, but the relationship of science and materialist philosophy." He wanted school textbooks to acknowledge alleged problems with evolution. "More importantly, the universities should be opened up to genuine intellectual inquiry into the fundamental assumptions of Darwinism and scientific materialism. The possibility that Darwinism is false, and that no replacement theory is currently available..."
  • 1990 Haughton admitted sales of Pandas so far had been single-copy. Instead of attempts to get state textbook approval, the FTE was now directing efforts "outside the schools" to the grass-roots level, targeting local school boards, teacher's groups, and parents.
  • May 1990 a FTE letter by Jon Buell announced a new sales campaign as they'd found it best to approach the local school system through the biology teacher. It included an 18-minute video with the endorsements of a number of scientists, educators, and an authority on First Amendment law, and a Suggested Plan of Action for volunteers suggesting: finding a sympathetic biology teacher (perhaps a fellow church member) who then convinces the curriculum committee and/or administration to approve use of Pandas without need for funding, then a local church purchases the books and donates them to the school.
  • 1990 Discovery Institute (DI) is founded by Bruce Chapman, but lacks a defining issue.
  • 1990 Johnson's booklet Evolution as Dogma: The Establishment of Naturalism was published under the auspices of the FTE by Haughton Publishing. He claimed that science holds a metaphysical materialist viewpoint that rejects the possibility of a Creator, so cannot countenance evidence for supernatural intervention.
  • October 1990 -Johnson's article "A Reply to My Critics" stated that "Victory in the creation-evolution dispute therefore belongs to the party with the cultural authority to establish the ground rules that govern the discourse. If creation is admitted as a serious possibility, Darwinism cannot win, and if it is excluded a priori Darwinism cannot lose." He cited the logic of what he called "the Natural Academy of Sciences
    United States National Academy of Sciences
    The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

    ", as accepted by the Supreme Court at Edwards, that "creation-science" is not science because it does not rely upon naturalistic explanations, but holds "that the creation of the universe, the earth, living things, and man was accomplished through supernatural means inaccessible to human understanding".
  • 1991 professor Phillip A. Bishop at the University of Alabama
    University of Alabama
    The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....

     was told to stop proselytizing students in class and teaching "intelligent design theory" in an optional class. At Bishop v. Aronov
    Bishop v. Aronov
    Bishop v. Aronov, 926 F.2d 1066 , was a 1991 legal case in which Phillip A. Bishop, an exercise physiology professor at the University of Alabama, sued the college on free speech and academic freedom grounds, when it instructed him not to teach "intelligent design theory" in an extracurricular...

     he sued the college on free speech and academic freedom grounds, and won at District Court but the Appeals Court found that the university had a right to set the curriculum.

Johnson's first book, Darwin on Trial

  • 1991? (publisher says 1992) Johnson's first book, Darwin on Trial
    Darwin on Trial
    Darwin on Trial is a 1991 book about the theory of evolution and the creation-evolution debate. It was written by Harvard graduate and University of California, Berkeley law professor emeritus Phillip E. Johnson...

    described a creationist in the broadest sense as "simply a person who believes that the world (and especially mankind) was designed, and exists for a purpose." Johnson claimed that Darwinism inherently and explicitly denies such a belief and therefore constitutes a naturalistic philosophy intrinsically opposed to religion.
    It does not use the term "intelligent design" for Johnson's ideas, though it does mention at one point that "the presence of intelligent design in the cosmos is so obvious that even an atheist like Pagels
    Heinz Pagels
    Heinz Rudolf Pagels was an American physicist, an adjunct professor of physics at Rockefeller University, the executive director and chief executive officer of the New York Academy of Sciences, and president of the International League for Human Rights...

     cannot help noticing it...", and in the citations list includes Of Pandas and People, saying "This book is 'creationist' only in the sense that it juxtaposes a paradigm of 'intelligent design' with the dominant paradigm of (naturalistic) evolution".
  • 1991: Johnson later claimed that "By the time Darwin on Trial was published, I had pretty well worked out the strategy I thought would, in time, win this campaign, and I’ve been able to convince most of the young-earth creationists and the old-earth creationists that this is the right way to proceed."
  • March 1992, as Johnson recalled, "The movement we now call the Wedge made its public debut at a conference of scientists and philosophers held at Southern Methodist University in March 1992, following the publication of my book Darwin on Trial. The conference brought together as speakers some key Wedge figures, particularly Michael Behe, Stephen Meyer, William Dembski, and myself" to debate "Darwinists, headed by Michael Ruse
    Michael Ruse
    Michael Ruse is a philosopher of biology at Florida State University, and is well known for his work on the creationism/evolution controversy and the demarcation problem in science...

    ", on the proposition that "Darwinism and neo-Darwinism [have] an a priori commitment to metaphysical naturalism". He writes "Once it becomes clear that the Darwinian theory rests upon a dogmatic philosophy rather than the weight of the evidence, the way will be open for dissenting opinions to get a fair hearing. In a nutshell, that is the Wedge strategy."
  • From 1992 onwards, ID proponents engaged in an energetic schedule of conferences, publication, lectures (mostly at universities, where there is a ready pool of recruits), website creation, radio and TV appearances, and later blogging and podcasting.
  • Mar-Apr 1992, Televangelist James Dobson
    James Dobson
    James Clayton "Jim" Dobson, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian author, psychologist, and founder in 1977 of Focus on the Family , which he led until 2003. In the 1980s he was ranked as one of the most influential spokesman for conservative social positions in American public life...

    's newsletter directed his supporters to march down to the school board and demand of Of Pandas and People be used when evolution is taught.
  • July 1992 in the Scientific American
    Scientific American
    Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...

    , Gould reviewed Johnson's book Darwin on Trial, making no mention of ID.
  • 1992 Johnson wrote an anti-naturalistic response, which Scientific American refused to print: Dembski, Behe, Meyer and 36 other anti-evolutionists responded by mass-mailing a copy of it to scientists and biology departments all over the U.S., along with a supporting letter in which they called themselves the "Ad Hoc Origins Committee" and "Scientists Who Question Darwinism"
  • January 1993 Johnson wrote claiming that it was wrong for theists to accept evolution (without mentioning ID) "Their position, which I call theistic naturalism, starts from the premise that God refrains from interference with those parts of reality that natural science has staked out as its own territory.... the fundamental disagreement is not over the age of the earth or the method of creation; it is over whether we owe our existence to a purposeful Creator or a blind materialistic process".
  • June 1993, the nascent ID movement met again at Pajaro Dunes in California, organized by Johnson, with participants including Scott Minnich
    Scott Minnich
    Scott A. Minnich is an associate professor of microbiology at the University of Idaho, and a fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture...

    , Michael Behe
    Michael Behe
    Michael J. Behe is an American biochemist, author, and intelligent design advocate. He currently serves as professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and as a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture...

    , Steven Meyer, Jonathan Wells and Dean Kenyon. (Paul Nelson
    Paul Nelson (creationist)
    Paul A. Nelson is an American philosopher of science, young earth creationist and intelligent design advocate.- Biography :Nelson is the grandson of the creationist author and Lutheran minister Byron Christopher Nelson and edited a book of his grandfather's writings...

     gives list) "and this meeting is generally acknowledged as the birth of the Intelligent Design movement", Behe first presented his ideas about "irreducible complexity"

Pandas revised, DI meets ID

  • 1993 2nd. edition Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 school-level textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics...

    published. References to "evolution" and "evolutionists" were changed to "Darwinism" and "Darwinists" to make the distinction between "evolution" which can mean "change in living things over time" and "Darwinism" referring to mutation and natural selection. Chapter 6 Biochemical Similarities was extensively revised by Behe, who added sections on the complex mechanism of blood clotting and on the origin of proteins, introducing Behe's irreducibly complexity argument in all but name. Charles Thaxton's A Word to the Teacher at the end of the book was supplanted by Notes to teachers written by M. D. Hartwig, and S. C. Meyer.
  • December 1993, Johnson's Darwin on Trial
    Darwin on Trial
    Darwin on Trial is a 1991 book about the theory of evolution and the creation-evolution debate. It was written by Harvard graduate and University of California, Berkeley law professor emeritus Phillip E. Johnson...

    revised, with minor changes to footnotes, a new section on embryology and an epilogue.
  • December 1993 Bruce Chapman
    Bruce Chapman
    Bruce K. Chapman is the director and founder of the Discovery Institute, an American conservative think tank often associated with the religious right. He was previously a journalist, a Republican Party politician and a diplomat.- Political career :After graduating from Harvard University in 1962,...

    , president and founder of the Discovery Institute
    Discovery Institute
    The Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...

    , noticed an essay in the Wall Street Journal by Meyer about a dispute when biology lecturer Dean H. Kenyon
    Dean H. Kenyon
    Dean H. Kenyon is Professor Emeritus of Biology at San Francisco State University and an intelligent design proponent. He is also the author of Of Pandas and People, a controversial book on intelligent design.- Career :...

     taught intelligent design creationism in introductory classes.
  • 1994 the "Origins Resource Association" began a campaign to force creationist doctrines including ID into science classes in Livingston Parish, Louisiana
    Livingston Parish, Louisiana
    Livingston Parish Is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Its parish seat is Livingston. As of 2010, its population was 128,026....

    : affects Barbara Forrest
    Barbara Forrest
    Barbara Carroll Forrest is a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. She is a critic of intelligent design and the Discovery Institute.- Biography :...

     who leads resistance.
  • 1994 Stephen C. Meyer
    Stephen C. Meyer
    Stephen C. Meyer is an American scholar, philosopher and advocate for intelligent design. He helped found the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute , which is the main organisation behind the intelligent design movement. Before joining the DI, Meyer was a professor at...

     introduces Bruce Chapman
    Bruce Chapman
    Bruce K. Chapman is the director and founder of the Discovery Institute, an American conservative think tank often associated with the religious right. He was previously a journalist, a Republican Party politician and a diplomat.- Political career :After graduating from Harvard University in 1962,...

     to idea of intelligent design approach to re-establishing spiritual values and getting funding. By 1995 Chapman and George Gilder
    George Gilder
    George F. Gilder is an American writer, techno-utopian intellectual, Republican Party activist, and co-founder of the Discovery Institute...

     were negotiating with the Howard Ahmanson
    Howard Ahmanson, Jr.
    Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Jr. is an heir of the Home Savings bank fortune built by his father Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Sr.. Ahmanson Jr. is a multi-millionaire philanthropist and financier of many Christian conservative cultural, religious and political causes.- Biography :Ahmanson is the son...

     family for a grant to set up the CRSC.
  • August 1994 "In a pattern that is becoming familiar all over the country, a newly elected school board... " Plan to purchase thirty copies of Pandas to distribute to science teachers, plus as many additional copies as teachers might request "Also, if local school control comes to pass, as advocated by Texas' new governor George Bush, we can expect creationism to be proposed again in Plano and many other communities in the state."
  • November 14, 1994, the WSJ discusses Pandas – Phillip Johnson is reported as believing that "...a bit more candor about the nature of the designer might be in order. 'You're playing Hamlet without Hamlet if you don't say something about that,' he says." To Eugenie Scott
    Eugenie Scott
    Eugenie Carol Scott is an American physical anthropologist who has been the executive director of the National Center for Science Education since 1987...

    , it disguised religion as science, which is of questionable honesty: Johnson agreed that that a more explicit expression of the motivation of belief was in order, but countered: "The fact is they're working against enormous prejudice here, and enormous bigotry. And they're vying to put it in terms that the courts and science will allow to exist." On December 5 he wrote to the WSJ stating that scientific organizations and textbooks use "creationism" to mean literal YEC, so it's not dishonest for Pandas to repudiate the label in order to question the "dogmatic philosophy" of evolution "defined in scientific usage as a completely naturalistic system in which God played no discernible part."
  • 1995 John Buell FTE fund raising letter "Production of supplemental textbook for biology is already complete. The teachers are now using it in all 50 states. This book Of Pandas and People is favorably influencing the way origins is taught in thousands of public school classrooms." "Our commitment is to see the monopoly of naturalistic curriculum in the schools broken."

Theistic realism, DI takes up ID and founds CRSC

  • "By the mid-1990s Johnson was collaborating with other critics of naturalistic evolution in forming the intelligent-design (ID) movement."
  • Abrahamsons get involved with DI
  • 1995, Johnson released another book, "Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law and Education" opposing the methodological naturalism of science
    Science
    Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

     in which "The Creator belongs to the realm of religion, not scientific investigation", and promoting "theistic realism
    Theistic realism
    Theistic science, also referred to as theistic realism, Augustinian science or Islamic science is the viewpoint that methodological naturalism should be replaced by a philosophy of science that is informed by supernatural revelation and/or allows occasional supernatural explanations. The viewpoint...

    " which "assumes that the universe and all its creatures were brought into existence for a purpose by God", expecting "this 'fact' of creation to have empirical, observable consequences.
  • 1995 Behe's Darwinism, Science or Philisophy? published by the FTE.
  • May 1995 " 'The whole point of Darwinism is to explain the world in a way that excludes any role for a Creator,' says Johnson. 'What is being sold in the name of science is a completely naturalistic understanding of reality.' "
    "If scientists are wrong about Darwinism, are they also wrong about the notion of intelligent design? Might not the notion of design be worthy of a second look?
    A new breed of young Evangelical scholars thinks the answer to both questions is yes. They are arguing persuasively that design is not only scientific, but is also the most reasonable explanation for the origin of living things. And they're gaining a hearing." [i.e. Meyer, Dembski: also Paul Nelson
    Paul Nelson (creationist)
    Paul A. Nelson is an American philosopher of science, young earth creationist and intelligent design advocate.- Biography :Nelson is the grandson of the creationist author and Lutheran minister Byron Christopher Nelson and edited a book of his grandfather's writings...

     and Behe, describes IC]
  • summer 1995 conference titled "The Death of Materialism and the Renewal of Culture", source of CRSC.
  • 1996, Behe released his book, Darwin's Black Box
    Darwin's Black Box
    Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution is a book written by Michael J. Behe and published by Free Press in which he presents his notion of irreducible complexity and claims that its presence in many biochemical systems indicates therefore that they must be the result of...

    .
  • August 10, 1996 Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture
    Center for Science and Culture
    The Center for Science and Culture , formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture , is part of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank in the United States...

     announced in Discovery Institute Press Release, to examine and confront "materialistic bias in science", "the idea that God is either dead or irrelevant". CRSC "will award research fellowships to scholars, hold conferences, and disseminate research findings among opinionmakers and the general public." Director Stephen Meyer, co-director John West working with Phillip Johnson and Michael Behe. 1996-97 full-time Discovery research fellows to be William Dembski, Paul Nelson and Jonathan Wells. Founded "specifically to address the Darwinian controversy in public education" by Discovery Institute president Bruce Chapman, with help from Stephen C. Meyer
    Stephen C. Meyer
    Stephen C. Meyer is an American scholar, philosopher and advocate for intelligent design. He helped found the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute , which is the main organisation behind the intelligent design movement. Before joining the DI, Meyer was a professor at...

    . At some stage, Charles B. Thaxton and Walter L. Bradley become DI fellows at the CRSC (In 2002 the name was changed to the Center for Science and Culture.)
  • August 31, 1996 – In A review of The Battle of the Beginnings: Why Neither Side is Winning the Creation-Evolution Debate by Del Ratzsch, Johnson argues against naturalism in science and its acceptance by theistic evolution
    Theistic evolution
    Theistic evolution or evolutionary creation is a concept that asserts that classical religious teachings about God are compatible with the modern scientific understanding about biological evolution...

    , notes Ratzsch's reference to "an 'upper tier; of creationists" who "advance concepts like 'intelligent design' and 'irreducible complexity' as legitimate descriptions of biological reality", and identifies his group as this "upper tier". He states "My colleagues and I speak of 'theistic realism' -- or sometimes, 'mere creation" --as the defining concept of our movement. This means that we affirm that God is objectively real as Creator, and that the reality of God is tangibly recorded in evidence accessible to science, particularly in biology. We avoid the tangled arguments about how or whether to reconcile the Biblical account with the present state of scientific knowledge, because we think these issues can be much more constructively engaged when we have a scientific picture that is not distorted by naturalistic prejudice. If life is not simply matter evolving by natural selection, but is something that had to be designed by a creator who is real, then the nature of that creator, and the possibility of revelation, will become a matter of widespread interest among thoughtful people who are currently being taught that evolutionary science has show God to be a product of the human imagination."
  • 1996 "Mere Creation" conference at Biola University in California, organized by CRSC to plan strategy — very important, "a major research conference bringing together scientists and scholars who reject naturalism as an adequate framework for doing science and who seek a common vision of creation united under the rubric of intelligent design." – no actual research, but produced strategy.
  • June 24, 1996, Eugenie C. Scott wrote that "phrases like 'intelligent design theory', or 'abrupt appearance theory' are used instead of 'creation science', 'creationism', and related terms. I call this newest stage of antievolutionism 'Neocreationism'."
  • 1997 Johnson's Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds states "God is our true Creator.... I speak of a God who acted openly and who left his fingerprints all over the evidence. Does such a God really exist, or is he a fantasy like Santa Claus? That is the subject of this book." and "If we understand our own times, we will know that we should affirm the reality of God by challenging the domination of materialism and naturalism in the world of the mind."
  • c. 1998 William A. Dembski
    William A. Dembski
    William Albert "Bill" Dembski is an American proponent of intelligent design, well known for promoting the concept of specified complexity...

    's The Design Inference
    The Design Inference
    The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities is a book by American philosopher William A. Dembski, a proponent of intelligent design, which sets out to establish a mechanism by which evidence of intelligent design in nature could be inferred...

    and Mere Creation

The wedge strategy

  • c. 1998 DI / CRSC Wedge document
    Wedge strategy
    The wedge strategy is a political and social action plan authored by the Discovery Institute, the hub of the intelligent design movement. The strategy was put forth in a Discovery Institute manifesto known as the Wedge Document, which describes a broad social, political, and academic agenda whose...

     leaked Feb 5, 1999.
  • 1999 Johnson speech (does not use term ID) claimed that science when applied to questions of origins means "applied materialistic philosophy" explaining "the whole world and the cosmos... without any reference to God as the Creator, without any supernatural acts, and on the basis of invariable natural laws that were the same from the beginning", so Darwinian "evolution contradicts not just the Book of Genesis, but every word in the Bible from beginning to end. I have built an intellectual movement in the universities and churches that we call The Wedge.... the Darwinian theory isn't true.... where might you get the truth? When I preach from the Bible, as I often do at churches and on Sundays, I don't start with Genesis. I start with John 1:1. In the beginning was the word. In the beginning was intelligence, purpose, and wisdom. The Bible had that right. And the materialist scientists are deluding themselves".
  • 1999 Johnson's article The Wedge says his "own writing and speaking represents the sharp edge of the Wedge. I make the first penetration, seeking always only to legitimate a line of inquiry rather than to win a debate", with Behe, Dembski and "a lot more" following into the opening.

Still need a theory, teach controversy

  • 1999 strategies: argue that individual teachers have a constitutional right to present creationist material, and that "evidence against evolution" should be taught in the science classroom as a way to improve teaching and learning. Attempts to teach IC and introduce Pandas. Resources for teachers... abundantly available from both "creation science ministries" and conservative religious groups.
  • 1999 David DeWolf, Stephen Meyer and Mark DeForrest coauthored a 40-page booklet, Intelligent Design in Public School Science Curricula: A Legal Guidebook, published by the FTE. It claims Edwards v. Aguillard
    Edwards v. Aguillard
    Edwards v. Aguillard, was a legal case about the teaching of creationism that was heard by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987. The Court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools, along with evolution, was unconstitutional because the law...

     mandated "teaching a variety of scientific theories about the origins of humankind" subject to a "clear secular intent of enhancing.. science instruction."
  • 1999 Skagit County's Burlington-Edison School District
    Burlington-Edison School District
    Burlington-Edison School District No. 100 is a public school district in Skagit County, Washington, USA and serves the communities of Alger, Bow, Burlington and Edison.As of October 2004, the district has an enrollment of 3,799 students.-Primary schools:...

     finds that for almost 10 years the high-school science teacher Roger DeHart had been omitting state-approved biology textbook teaching on evolution, and using Pandas.
  • Aug. 17, 1999, Philip Kitcher, professor of the philosophy of science at Columbia University, in online debate in Slate magazine with Johnson, coins neo-creo: "Enter the neo-creos, scavenging the scientific literature, they take claims out of context and pretend that everything about evolution is controversial. . . . But it's all a big con."
  • May 10, 2000, DI briefing of Congress, "Scientific Evidence of Intelligent Design and its Implications for Public Policy and Education," also addressed the social, moral, and political consequences of Darwinism. Creation-evolution debate had primarily been active at the state and local level, a new effort to involve Congress, took place as the Senate entered its second week of debate on overhauling federal K-12 education programs. Nancy Pearcey
    Nancy Pearcey
    Nancy Randolph Pearcey is an American evangelical author on the Christian worldview.-Career:Pearcey was the Francis A. Schaeffer Scholar for several years at the World Journalism Institute. In September 2007, Pearcey was named Scholar for Worldview Studies at the Center for University Studies at...

     "For Darwinists, religion must give way to a new science-based cosmic myth with the power to bind humans together in a new world order. She then asked what this means for morality and argued that people were right to be concerned that all the above would undercut morality."
  • July 2000 Dean Kenyon and David DeWolf of CRSC: Kenyon states "Scientific creationism... is actually one of the intellectual antecedents of the Intelligent Design movement.
  • June 2001 Rick Santorum
    Rick Santorum
    Richard John "Rick" Santorum is a lawyer and a former United States Senator from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Santorum was the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference -making him the third-ranking Senate Republican from 2001 until his leave in 2007. Santorum is considered both a social...

     introduces The Santorum Amendment
    Santorum Amendment
    The Santorum Amendment was an amendment to the 2001 education funding bill which became known as the No Child Left Behind Act, proposed by former Republican United States Senator Rick Santorum from Pennsylvania, which promotes the teaching of intelligent design while questioning the academic...

     to "Teach the Controversy
    Teach the Controversy
    Teach the Controversy is the name of a Discovery Institute campaign to promote intelligent design, a variant of traditional creationism, while attempting to discredit evolution in United States public high school science courses...

    " partially written by Johnson (and based on a law journal article written by DI activist David DeWolf) inviting , left out of bill but kept in conference report.
  • December 2002 DI lobbying to get ID into Ohio science standards Ohio House Bill 481. Bills all failed, ID excluded by name in the approved standard but it included the phrase "critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory
    Critical Analysis of Evolution
    Critical Analysis of Evolution is the name of both a proposed high school science lesson plan promoting intelligent design and a tactic to promote design using Teach the Controversy promoted by the American think tank, Discovery Institute, originators of the intelligent design movement, as part of...

    " used as excuse for the new "teach the controversy
    Teach the Controversy
    Teach the Controversy is the name of a Discovery Institute campaign to promote intelligent design, a variant of traditional creationism, while attempting to discredit evolution in United States public high school science courses...

    " strategy.
  • Jan 2004 DembskiThe Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design ISBN 0830823751 page 22 "Theism, whether Christian, Jewish, or Muslim, holds that God by wisdom created the world. The origin of the world and its subsequent ordering thus result from the designing activity of an intelligent agent, God.
    Naturalism, on the other hand, allows no place for intelligent agency, except at the end of a blind, purposeless, material process."
  • 2004 ©. FTE, draft for new version of Pandas, mentions 10th anniversary, authors listed as Michael J. Behe, Percival Davis, William A. Dembski, Dean H. Kenyon, Jonathan Wells. Contents list, preface, notes to teachers, notes to students, epilogue, but no main content.
  • March 10, 2004, Ohio State Board of Education approved model lesson Critical Analysis of Evolution
    Critical Analysis of Evolution
    Critical Analysis of Evolution is the name of both a proposed high school science lesson plan promoting intelligent design and a tactic to promote design using Teach the Controversy promoted by the American think tank, Discovery Institute, originators of the intelligent design movement, as part of...

     – Grade 10
    .
  • 2004 Paul Nelson
    Paul Nelson (creationist)
    Paul A. Nelson is an American philosopher of science, young earth creationist and intelligent design advocate.- Biography :Nelson is the grandson of the creationist author and Lutheran minister Byron Christopher Nelson and edited a book of his grandfather's writings...

     interviewed by a magazine called Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity – "Easily, the biggest challenge facing the ID community is to develop a full-fledged theory of biological design. We don't have such a theory right now, and that's a real problem. Without a theory, it's very hard to know where to direct your research focus. Right now, we've got a bag of powerful intuitions and a handful of notions such as irreducible complexity and specified complexity, but as yet, no general theory of biological design."
  • 2004 the school board of Grantsburg, Wisconsin
    Grantsburg, Wisconsin
    Grantsburg is a village in Burnett County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 1,369 at the 2000 census. The village is located within the Town of Grantsburg.-Claim to fame:...

    , voted to have ID taught as an alternative to evolution. By late summer 2005 letters urging reversal had been organised by a department of University of Wisconsin–Madison
    University of Wisconsin–Madison
    The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

     and clergy nationwide, the Clergy Letter Project
    Clergy Letter Project
    The Clergy Letter Project is an project that maintains statements in support of the teaching of evolution and in opposition to the teaching of creationism in public schools and collects signatures in support of the letter from American Christian, Jewish, and Unitarian Universalist clergy. The...

    , resulting in the board largely reversing their decision.
  • April 8, 2004 first of the Academic Freedom bills
    Academic Freedom bills
    Academic Freedom bills are a series of antievolution bills introduced in state legislatures in the United States between 2004 and 2009. They assert that teachers, students, and college professors face intimidation and retaliation when discussing scientific criticisms of evolution, and therefore...

     promoting intelligent design passed unanimously by the Alabama Senate. On May 17, 2004, the Alabama House adjourned the 2004 legislative session without voting on the bill, allowing it to lapse. On February 8, 2005, a pair of virtually identical bills were simultaneously introduced in the Alabama Senate and House, again under the description of "The Academic Freedom Act."

Kitzmiller

  • June 7, 2004, at Dover, Pennsylvania
    Dover, Pennsylvania
    Dover is a borough in York County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,007 at the 2010 census.-History:James Joner purchased in 1764 and laid out the town of Dover...

    , the Dover Area School District
    Dover Area School District
    The Dover Area School District is a public school district located in Pennsylvania, United States. It consists of Dover Township, Washington Township and the Borough of Dover in York County. The district operates Dover Area High School, Dover Intermediate School, Dover Elementary School, Leib...

     School Board considered a new biology textbook. William Buckingham
    William Buckingham
    William Buckingham VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.-Background:...

     objected, wanting a textbook that gave a balanced view between creationism and evolution. He subsequently proposed Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 school-level textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics...

    , after acrimonious debate it was left off the list on August 2.
  • October 4, 2004, Buckingham announced acceptance of 50 donated copies of Pandas. On October 18 the full School Board voted 6–3 to amend the district's curriculum to include intelligent design. Buckingham states a law firm has offered pro bono
    Pro bono
    Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms...

     legal representation.
  • December 12, 2004, Phillip Johnson
    Phillip E. Johnson
    Phillip E. Johnson is a retired UC Berkeley law professor and author. He became a born-again Christian while a tenured professor and is considered the father of the intelligent design movement...

     stated in an interview "What the Dover board did is not what I'd recommend.... Just teach evolution with a recognition that it's controversial..."
  • December 14, 2004, 11 parents, ACLU, Americans United and Pepper Hamilton LLP file lawsuit Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
    Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
    Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of intelligent design...

    , lead plaintiff Tammy Kitzmiller, the mother of a ninth grader in the biology class. On December 20, the District voted for the Thomas More Law Center
    Thomas More Law Center
    The Thomas More Law Center is a prominent conservative Christian, not-for-profit law center based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and is active throughout the United States. Its stated goals are defending the religious freedom of Christians, restoring "time honored values" and protecting the sanctity of...

     to represent it pro bono.
  • May 2005 Kansas school board hearings
    Kansas evolution hearings
    The Kansas evolution hearings were a series of hearings held in Topeka, Kansas, United States May 5 to May 12, 2005 by the Kansas State Board of Education and its State Board Science Hearing Committee to change how evolution and the origin of life would be taught in the state's public high school...

     led by John Calvert, director of the Kansas office of the Intelligent Design Network, boycotted by mainstream scientists as an "anti-science crusade."
  • September 26, 2005 to November 4, 2005, Kitzmiller trial before Judge John E. Jones III
    John E. Jones III
    John Edward Jones III is an American lawyer and jurist from the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. A Republican, Jones was appointed by President George W. Bush as federal judge on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in February 2002 and was unanimously confirmed by...

  • November 2005 Kansas school board voted 6–4 for new science standards criticising evolution, redefining science, then turned out in elections.
  • December 20, 2005, Kitzmiller decision; Judge Jones issued his findings of fact
    Question of fact
    In law, a question of fact is a question which must be answered by reference to facts and evidence, and inferences arising from those facts. Such a question is distinct from a question of law, which must be answered by applying relevant legal principles...

     and decision as his 139 page MEMORANDUM OPINION.

After Kitzmiller

  • February 2006 Kansas school board voted 6–4 for new standards supporting evolution.
  • February 2006 Ohio Governor Bob Taft requests legal review of the state's "teach the controversy" curriculum standards, Ohio State Board of Education members vote 11–4 to drop all of the "teach the controversy".
  • Spring 2006 Phillip Johnson states in interview "I also don’t think that there is really a theory of intelligent design at the present time to propose as a comparable alternative to the Darwinian theory, which is, whatever errors it might contain, a fully worked out scheme. There is no intelligent design theory that’s comparable. Working out a positive theory is the job of the scientific people that we have affiliated with the movement. Some of them are quite convinced that it’s doable, but that’s for them to prove…No product is ready for competition in the educational world."
  • June 2007 Behe's new book and new theory The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism
    The Edge of Evolution
    The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism is a book promoting intelligent design by Discovery Institute fellow Michael Behe, published by the Free Press in 2007...

    , claims that variation for the building blocks of evolution are not due to random mutation in DNA, but instead produced by an intelligent designer. Reiterates argument for irreducible complexity
    Irreducible complexity
    Irreducible complexity is an argument by proponents of intelligent design that certain biological systems are too complex to have evolved from simpler, or "less complete" predecessors, through natural selection acting upon a series of advantageous naturally occurring, chance mutations...

    , calculating improbability on 2 or more beneficial mutations happening simulataneously, rather than one by one as evolutionary theory requires.
  • 2007, A new biology textbook intended to replace Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 school-level textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics...

    , entitled Explore Evolution is published by Hill House Publishers. The book is authored by Stephen C. Meyer
    Stephen C. Meyer
    Stephen C. Meyer is an American scholar, philosopher and advocate for intelligent design. He helped found the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute , which is the main organisation behind the intelligent design movement. Before joining the DI, Meyer was a professor at...

    , Scott Minnich
    Scott Minnich
    Scott A. Minnich is an associate professor of microbiology at the University of Idaho, and a fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture...

     and Paul A. Nelson, Jonathan Moneymaker and Ralph Seelke.
  • 2007 William A. Dembski
    William A. Dembski
    William Albert "Bill" Dembski is an American proponent of intelligent design, well known for promoting the concept of specified complexity...

     and Jonathan Wells rewrote "Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People
    Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 school-level textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics...

    " as a college textbook, The Design of Life. When asked in a December interview whether his research concluded that God is the Intelligent Designer, Dembski stated "I believe God created the world for a purpose. The Designer of intelligent design is, ultimately, the Christian God."
  • April, 2008, the pro-intelligent design movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
    Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
    Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a 2008 documentary film, directed by Nathan Frankowski and hosted by Ben Stein. The film contends that the mainstream science establishment suppresses academics who believe they see evidence of intelligent design in nature and who criticize evidence supporting...

     is debuted.
  • May, 2008 a Wall Street Journal article describes the common goal of Academic Freedom bills
    Academic Freedom bills
    Academic Freedom bills are a series of antievolution bills introduced in state legislatures in the United States between 2004 and 2009. They assert that teachers, students, and college professors face intimidation and retaliation when discussing scientific criticisms of evolution, and therefore...

     is to expose more students to articles and videos that undercut evolution, most of which are produced by advocates of intelligent design or Biblical creationism.
  • December 2008 an article in Scientific American
    Scientific American
    Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...

     detailed how "Creationists continue to agitate against the teaching of evolution in public schools, adapting their tactics to match the roadblocks they encounter. Past strategies have included portraying creationism as a credible alternative to evolution and disguising it under the name "intelligent design." Other tactics misrepresent evolution as scientifically controversial and pretend that advocates for teaching creationism are defending academic freedom
    Academic freedom
    Academic freedom is the belief that the freedom of inquiry by students and faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy, and that scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts without being targeted for repression, job loss, or imprisonment.Academic freedom is a...

    . "Academic freedom" was the creationist catchphrase of choice in 2008 ... the Discovery Institute
    Discovery Institute
    The Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...

     subsequently retreated to a strategy to undermine the teaching of evolution, introducing a flurry of labels and slogans—"teach the controversy," "critical analysis" and "academic freedom"—to promote its version of the fallback strategy ... despite the lofty language, the ulterior intent and likely effect of these bills
    Academic Freedom bills
    Academic Freedom bills are a series of antievolution bills introduced in state legislatures in the United States between 2004 and 2009. They assert that teachers, students, and college professors face intimidation and retaliation when discussing scientific criticisms of evolution, and therefore...

     are evident: undermining the teaching of evolution in public schools."

See also

  • Freiler v. Tangipahoa Parish Board of Education
    Freiler v. Tangipahoa Parish Board of Education
    Freiler v. Tangipahoa Parish Board of Education was United States federal court case on the constitutionality of a policy requiring teachers to read aloud a disclaimer whenever they taught about evolution....

  • Selman v. Cobb County School District
    Selman v. Cobb County School District
    Selman v. Cobb County School District, 449 F.3d 1320 , was a 2006 American court case in Cobb County, Georgia involving a sticker placed in biology textbooks...



External links

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