Got Shovel?

Here's my car after four days parked at Snowbird, Utah.


[More here on my Utah trip later]

An Ear Into Intelligent Design at The Discovery Institute

I had a fascinating breakfast at The Brown Bag Cafe on Friday. I sat at a table next a couple of guys from The Discovery Institute. I believe one was Stephen C. Meyer , Director of Discovery’s Center for Science and Culture and the other gentleman was named Jonathan. Apparently Jonathan has done some writing for the institute but was being offered a job as Meyer's assistent. Mr. Meyer is apparnetly swamped with work, particularly answering media questions about ID. Interestingly, the CSC is apparently based in Redmond, WA.

It was an absolutley fascinating conversation. A detailed look into the propaganda machine at the center of the ID movement. The most striking, if not particularly surprising, feature of the conversation was that it was completely devoid of any science content. The whole conversation was about their various media victories and defeats. As we know, real science doesn't concern itself with popular media. Ideas stand or fall on their own merit within the science communitiy. This was not the conversation of an organization of researchers - it was a conversation about media propaganda.

Apparently this guy Jonathan was involved in some way with Coldwater Media's Icons of Evolution. Mr. Meyer was impressed with Jonathan's work there (good work, Jon). Steven was also very happy with the recent piece by Steven Meyer they managed to get planted into The London Telegraph.

Mr. Brui recounted a recent setback where the Institute had apparently sent someone to do a lecture at an unnamed university. A professor friendly to the Intelligent Design movement had hosted the event but was apparently quite angry after being embarrassed at the event saying that "if you can't send someone who can make their points better, don't send anyone at all!".Of course, Mr. Meyer didn't attribute this to any weakness in the science, rather he chalked it up to a mere weakness in the power-point slides.

The conversation was rich with Bible and Christian references. Mr. Meyer was very interested in some pictures Jonthan had brought back from England of various bible artifacts. They referred to each other as "brothers" ( i.e., "as brothers should be able to..."). They also spoke about creating "writings for kids" which would be taught in various bible school settings. Indoctrination of children seemed to be high on their agenda. I guess they have titles such as "Real Science for Kids" and "Open Door Life Sciences"?

The Institute apparently has what Mr. Meyer considers an "outstanding product" in a position to be published (you heard it here first). It will apparently explore evolution, focusing on the so-called Cambrian explosion.

Interestingly, Mr. Meyer is frustrated with e-mail as a communication tool, and people at the Institute in general using it to get their point across to the outside world. He complained about one particular instance saying "use the human voice, that's why God gave it to you!". I've always found that facts speak for themselves well enough in the written word.

In some event coming up next week, a guy named Fred Foot, who Steven called "a megabucks dude", will be hit up for a little donation. Apparently they're hoping to get John West onto the Discovery Institute staff full time, possibly with a vice president title. Way to go, John!

They also mentioned a guy named John Earl. I couldn't find anything about him, but apparently he "has a real talent for picking dogs". I wouldn't count on any favors from Steven, John.

In summary, the entire focus of the conversation was not the content of their material, but rather it's presentation. And it wasn't it's presentation to the science community, it was it's presentation to the general public (and children!). As I've written here before, these tactics are 180 degrees counter to the way science has been and must continue to be conducted.