I'm in the habit of watching programs like "NOVA" on PBS, and a decade or so back, I thoroughly enjoyed Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" series. Solid science, along with some of Sagan's interesting speculations based on that science—complete with often spectacular visual effects, some of which are from powerful telescopes, NOT special effects.

Within recent years, I've followed the occasional programs (and the fascinating books) by theoretical physicist Michio Kaku.

A couple of years ago, another such program (or so people were led to believe) entitled "The Privileged Planet" was show. Beautiful visuals taken from astronomical photos along with narration by rich-voiced British actor John Rhys-Davies (Gimli the Dwarf in the "Lord of the Rings" series). Right up there with all the production values of the best of "NOVA."

It wasn't until the last fifteen or twenty minutes or so that I tumbled to what the program was really all about. It had talked about how the earth was the "Goldilocks planet" of this solar system—not too cold, not too hot, but "just right." It slithered past the issue of evolution, but, in a sense, capitalized on it by indicating that this was the only planet in the solar system that was hospitable to the higher animals—and man. Futhermore, the solar system was not surrounded by thick clouds of interstellar dust, so we are able to see a great deal of the rest of the universe, and learn just how huge and magnificent it really is.

All of this, of course, is true.

But then came the sucker punch:   without really saying so in so many words, the statement was made—or the question asked—how could this have all worked out so beautifully for mankind if there were not some Intelligence behind it all?

I had damn near been sucked in! This program was a propaganda film for "Intelligent Design."

I did a bit of research and discovered (!) that it was put out by The Discovery Institute, a creationist think-tank based right here in Seattle, well-funded nationally, whose purpose was to, among other thingsm, influence school curricula nationwide in terms of replacing scientific education with Creationism—or at least "Intelligent Design," which is nothing more than Creationism in a lab coat!

The Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design. Founded in 1990, the institute describes its purpose as promoting "ideas in the common sense tradition of representative government, the free market and individual liberty."Its Teach the Controversy campaign aims to teach creationist anti-evolution beliefs in United States public high school science courses alongside accepted scientific theories, positing a scientific controversy exists over these subjects.

A federal court, along with the majority of scientific organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, say the Institute has manufactured the controversy they want to teach by promoting a false perception that evolution is "a theory in crisis", through incorrectly claiming that it is the subject of wide controversy and debate within the scientific community. In 2005, a federal court ruled that the Discovery Institute pursues "demonstrably religious, cultural, and legal missions",and the institute's manifesto, the Wedge strategy, describes a religious goal: to "reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions". It was the Federal Court's opinion that Intelligent Design was merely a redressing of Creationism and that, as such, it was not a scientific proposition.

The rest of the story HERE.

One of their chief tactics is outlined HERE.

This smacks of "conspiracy theory." But, sports fans, this is not THEORY.

Don Firth

P. S. I wonder if Iona and pete know anything about this. . . .