Book contents
Conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
Many people in the legal, scientific, and academic worlds view the intelligent design (ID) movement as a group of deceptive and fringe fanatics. The ID movement should not be underestimated in this way. There is no question that the ID movement's so-called scientific arguments are exceptionally flawed and that when ID advocates play the scientific proof game, they are destined to lose. Of course, one of their goals is to change the rules of the game. This is why it is essential to understand what the ID movement is: a market-savvy movement grounded in religious apologetics. Much of the attention has focused on what the ID movement is not, namely, a respectable scientific movement.
The risk in underestimating the ID movement is huge because if it were to succeed in changing the rules of science, it would be hard to go back, and the pace of scientific advancement we take for granted today would slow dramatically. This book explains why changing the rules of science in the way the ID movement would need to do to be accepted as science would be damaging to science; would be inconsistent with current law; would cause educational anarchy; and ironically, would undermine the very worldview espoused by the ID movement. Few have focused on the role relativism must play in the ID movement's bid to change the rules of science, yet that role has significant scientific, legal, and philosophical import.
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- Marketing Intelligent DesignLaw and the Creationist Agenda, pp. 263 - 266Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010