Cordova rewrites history (again)

By Richard B. Hoppe

On Uncommon Descent (to which I decline to link) Sal Cordova has resurfaced, once again rewriting history. Cordova claims that

The Darwinists have framed the ID debate as being about what should and should not be taught in the public school science classroom. I speculate that the debate over the public school classroom is another example of Bulverism.

A Bulverism is

… a logical fallacy coined by C. S. Lewis where rather than proving that an argument is wrong, a person instead assumes it is wrong, and then goes on to explain why the other person held that argument. It is essentially a circumstantial ad hominem argument.

Cordova goes on

As I pointed out here, the real issue is whether life is designed. If so, most every other question pales in comparison. And also lost in the Darwinist Bulverism is whether individuals in universities will have the chance to answer the question of design for themselves, and whether these individuals will have the freedom to tell others what they discover.

Cordova claims ID’s efforts are directed at the universities, not public school science classes. Cordova apparently thinks that the assertion that ID proponents are interested in public education is a fallacy on the part of “Darwinists,” who supposedly misrepresent proponents of ID as wanting it taught in public school science classrooms.

Unfortunately (and as usual) the data contradict Cordova. Consider a few data points from Ohio.

  1. In 2000 a creationist member of the Ohio State Board of Education, Deborah Owens Fink, offered a “two models” motion, with Intelligent Design as the alternative to evolution. The motion was defeated.

  2. In December 2002 when the Ohio State Board of Education adopted standards that opened the door to adopting the Disco Institute’s “teach the controversy” strategy first outlined by Stephen Meyers at a panel discussion, a Disco Institute operative (along with some Ohio ID supporters) was ensconced in a computer lab upstairs from the BOE’s meeting room. Immediately following the SBOE’s vote he came down the stairs handing out copies of a previously prepared press release lauding the decision.

  3. In 2004 the Ohio State BOE adopted an ID creationist lesson plan straight out of Jonathan Wells’ Icons of Evolution. See here for the original creationist lesson plan and here for Ohio Citizens for Science’s critique of it. At that time Wells’ book was featured in an advertisement on the Disco Institute’s web site over the caption “Where do you get your information about Intelligent Design?” Once again, the Disco Institute was ready with a press release lauding the adoption of the creationist model lesson plan.

4, When the Ohio State BOE abandoned the creationist lesson plan in 2006, Casey Luskin of the Disco Institute attended the meeting. (Somewhere in my archives I have a pic of Casey looking unhappy.) Disco Dancing President Bruce Chapman lamented that when Ohio abandoned the creationist lesson plan “… an effort in Ohio to include intelligent design in school curricula failed when some state school-board members said the Dover case settled the issue.” Yup. “Teach the controversy” is ID.

  1. And let’s not forget that the Disco Institute’s Seth Cooper sent ID materials (an Icons of Evolution DVD and its associated ‘study guide’) to Bill Buckingham in Dover, PA, and gave Buckingham what Buckingham claimed to be legal advice about the teaching of ID in public schools. (Cooper claims that he didn’t give Buckingham legal advice.)

If the Disco Institute isn’t interested in public school science classrooms it sure has wasted of lot of time and money giving a false impression. But then, false impressions are the DI’s sole stock in trade.

RBH