Hey Kettle, Pot calling!

Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer himself, had a great post, "The Discovery Institute has no shame", something anyone who has spent any time wading through their news releases will realize. But this one is a cake-topper to be sure. The Discovery Institute, those toothless-piranhas, those orders-of-magnitudes-less-than-stalwart fellows, are claiming religious bias is behind the reason Texas didn't get behind their Strengths and Weaknesses (S&W) argument. I kid you not, religious bias!

Read it for yourself, "Texas Board Meeting Recap for Thursday". I loved how Phil put it, " . . . it’s like Jeffrey Dahmer telling you to be a vegetarian." Luckily the Texas Freedom will not let anyone forget it too soon. It's well documented in their post "Hypocrisy and Faith-Bashing" how the DI is doing their best to push their own religious agenda on other folks, gets upset if anyone talks about a religious belief that doesn't originate at the DI.

I think they better look closer to home as to why their S&W didn't fare too well. Could it be because scientists are not fooled by their hidden agenda? Could it be that the public is catching on to their latest tactic? Could it be their own defense tends to alienate many people? How about all that and more! What are some folks going to think when "Board chairman Don McLeroy endorsed a vicious book charging that scientists who support instruction on evolution are “atheists,” parents who want their kids to learn about evolution are “monsters,” and pastors who see no conflict between faith and accepting the science of evolution are “morons.”"

What I expect to see happening is the whole S&W will go the way of the "Teach the Controversy" and "It's only a Theory" tactics and the 'Critically Analyze" will become the new watch words. That is until the next Dover-style lawsuit and they evolve (pun intended) into some other tactic. Ever since Edwards v. Aguillard the whole Intelligent Design movement has been undergoing a pretty constant evolution. They have been doing their level best to distance themselves from connections to Creationism, they have been claiming the mantle of scientific 'theory' without any actual science. The evidence during the Dover trial, not just the 'crdesign proponentist' cut and paste typo, but the testimony of Michael Behe himself . . . they all show how quickly this particular leopard will change it's spots, usually in response to a defeat.

I heartily recommend that people would read the Wedge Strategy document for themselves and they might also like to read "Understanding the ID/Creationist Movement: Its True Nature and Goals" by Eugenie Scott, NCSE to better place the strategy in context. For fun you can also read what the DI says about the Wedge Strategy. In my opinion this is a wonderful example of spin doctoring, because the original document was never meant to be made public.