Wednesday, July 27, 2005

 

Hope in these Unhappy Times

Josepth P. Kahn has a profile of ID activist George Gilder, co-founder of the Discovery Institute, in the Boston Globe. Gilder is famous for championing ideas just as they go out of fashion. A quick review of his track record should be enough to reassure anyone who is worried about the threat of intelligent design to science education in this country that their fears are utterly baseless.

1970s: Gilder took on the women's movement -- he was named "Male Chavinist of the Year" (a label he still wears with pride) by the National Organization for Women.

1980s: With his book Wealth and Poverty, Gilder became the guru of supply side economics (Reganomics, Trickle Down Economics) which led to the ballooning of the federal deficit.

1990s: "[T]housands of subscribers to his newsletter lost their shirts when the telecom bubble imploded, plunging Gilder into near bankruptcy and tarnishing his reputation as a tech-sector Yoda."

2000s: Intelligent design becomes the new Gilder idee fixe.

Two things:

  1. For Gilder, being wrong means never having to say you're sorry.
  2. The great designer in the sky has an odd sense of humor, doesn't he?

BTW: If, after you've read the Boston Globe article, you can't figure out who the University of Minnesota biologist referred to in the article is, then you really ought to take a look here.


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