Red State Rabble

In a Boston Globe Op-Ed David K. DeWolf, a professor of law at Gonzaga and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, is angry because Republican presidential candidates have been asked whether or not they believe in evolution.

When Wolf Blitzer asked John McCain, for example, if the thought creationism should be taught in public schools, DeWolf saw it as a "trick question" because, "no serious advocate wants to teach 'creationism.'"

Really?

• Initially the Dover School Board wanted to teach creationism. As school board member Bill Buckingham put it, "2,000 years ago a man died on a Cross, can't someone stand up for Him now." They only settled, reluctantly, for a statement endorsing intelligent design because they mistakenly believed it to be legally defensible.


• In Kansas, Steve Abrams tried to write creationism into the curriculum by writing evolution, the Big Bang, and the age of the earth out in 1999. In 2005, they decided to go the modified limited hangout route with ID-inspired criticisms of evolution only because they didn't believe they could get what they really wanted -- Genesis in the science curriculum.


• The history of evolution cases from Scopes on is all about finding a way to teach biblical literalism in biology classrooms.


• Anyone who has ever attended a school board meeting where evolution is debated knows that virtually no one -- unless Casey Luskin has been dispatched from the Discovery Institute -- ever speaks for intelligent design. They all want that old time religion.


• Ken Ham certainly wants creationism taught -- and he's demonstrated an ability to raise money for his beliefs that dwarfs anything Discovery has done. You don't notice Ham crying about the way he's treated in the media.


• Henry Morris III wants creationism taught. Where Henry Morris IV or XIV stands we have no idea.


• Pat Robertson and James Dobson want it taught, too.

The problem for DeWolf and the Discovery Institute is that nobody really wants intelligent design. Everyone, and I mean everyone, sees it for what it is: a poor substitute for Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood.

It was once thought that the ID legal strategy might successfully open the door to creationism. After Dover, even that pipe dream has gone by the boards.

The other big problem for DeWolf and Discovery is that only three of the nine Republican presidential candidates at the first debate -- Brownback, Huckabee, and Tancredo -- were foolish enough to hold up their hands when asked whether or not they believe in evolution.

In the weeks since, two of them -- Brownback and Huckabee -- have "clarified" their positions.

Despite a certain confusion in recent polls about what Americans believe about evolution and creationism, even Republican candidates who must win over their party's socially conservative base find they can't run a credible campaign if they're on record in opposition to teaching evolution in public schools.

That's bad news for Discovery and their allies.