Phillip Johnson is Getting All "Sciency" Again.

Good old Phil, founder of the Intellectually Bankrupt Intelligent Design movement, is at it again. Back in 1989, he came up with the bright idea of dressing "creation science" up with scientific-sounding jargon and relabeling it as ID to try to disguise it's religious roots. This worked quite well for him among creationists (or some of them, anyway), and resulted in the confused brouhaha we have going on today.

ID has consistently, however, run into one specific roadblock: the concept of methodological naturalism. Since ID requires a supernatural component at some level/point, it is difficult to say that it is truly a scientific pursuit and retain any credibility (not that Johnson has a surfeit in that department).

So folks like William Dembsky, Sal Cordova, and the other Disco Institute buffoons tried their hand at arguing that methodological naturalism is flawed or unnecessary. Still, no deal.

So, Johnson has gone back to his roots and is inventing new terminology to dress his tattered old ideas up in: this time, he takes on naturalism using "Theistic Realism", which is really just "goddidit" gussied up a bit. Allen McNeill over at The Evolution List has an excellent analysis of this argument, and why it fails. It's worth reading.

Obligatory "Expelled" Post

Well, little Ben Stein's gripping Intelligent Design documentary, "Expelled: No Honesty Present Intelligence Allowed" has been released, and by all indications, it's even poorer than expected. It's being thoroughly panned by critics, and not making much in ticket sales, either. Not many people out there seem to have bought the regurgitated creationist arguments and faux martyr stories that form its foundation.

For those unaware, this is a documentary-style movie (I refuse to call it a documentary, as a documentary is an exercise in journalism) which purports to show a) a pattern of persecution by eeevil utionist educators, universities, and institutions against anyone who dares mention the words "intelligent design"; b) a connection between Darwinian Evolutionary Theory and Nazi-ism and/or Soviet Communism, and c) weaknesses in evolutionary theory.

Apparently, it gets everything right except for items a-c. For an in-depth response to it's claims, see the National Center for Science Education's web site, Expelled: Exposed.

This is not really a surprise to anyone who has followed the dishonest shenanigans of those who made this movie. They interviewed scientists under false pretenses, quote-mined the hell out of their responses, and even tried to prevent the people who they interviewed from seeing the movie (with somewhat hilarious results). They apparently plagiarized graphics and used at least two artists' music without permission. This is not a group of, erm, rocket scientists.

HT: PZ Myers, ERV, Richard Dawkins, Greg Laden, the NCSE, and everybody else who has helped make sure that this travesty does not go unchallenged.