Live-blogging Nova, Part I

Well, sort of live-blogging. I couldn't watch the show "live", so recorded it, and am capturing my reactions to the show as I watch the recording. I have from time to time backed up the recording to enhance the accuracy of quotations. I have also taken advantage of the technology to provide links to organizations and books mentioned in the live-blog. Other than that, I have resisted editing what I wrote down as I watched the show, leaving in some clunky grammar. This is not intended to be a comprehensive analysis of the show; rather it is a record of my reactions to the show as I was watching it.

Here is approximately the 1st half hour:

We open with a mention of a rift between science and scripture. This assumes that Darwinism is science.

Pictures of a mural been burned. Reminiscent of book burning and witch burning. And we're not two minutes into the show, haven't even seen the opening credits yet.

"Intelligent design makes you stupid. " Will we hear anything as bigoted from the ID crowd?

Has the show now summed itself up in the first three minutes?

Brought to you by Howard Hughes Medical Institute-"Discovering new knowledge".

"Deliverance" music introduces Dover. "So-called" Intelligent Design. "So-called" is remarkably snotty.

"Claiming that gaps in the theory of evolution exist." Don't they?

ID is of "violation of everything ... we mean by Science." One wonders what they mean by "Science".

Future of science education, separation of church and state, very nature of scientific inquiry were all on trial. Hang in the balance. Wow! Over a 1-minute statement about gaps in the theory of evolution.

Creationists reject "much of modern science". Mainstream religions made peace with evolution years ago. Perhaps this is what has weakened mainstream churches.

The Scopes trial is brought up. No discussion of the contents of the book Scopes was using, which was racist and taught eugenics.

Natural selection explained-Darwin speculates that natural selection could lead to speciation.

Are we seeing the narrative fallacy, making up stories to "explain" a current observation? There is a puddle on the floor: describe the ice cube from which it came.

Hostility to evolution led to vandalism-we see the mural being burned again-but this must be a reenactment, since we don't know who took the mural. Do we even know that it was burned? Science teachers assert that they heard someone say, under his breath, that he gleefully watched it burn.

Local news reporter, Laurie Lebo, is daughter of man who ran a failing radio station. The station was saved from bankruptcy when a local church leased time on it, & it became a Christian radio station. "And my father (shrug) became born-again". Clear implication that he sold his soul. Good thing we have an objective reporter on the case!

Buckingham, opponent of evolution-only education, reaches out to Thomas More law firm & conservative think tank Discovery Institute "calls itself the nation's leading intelligent design proponents". Calls itself? Aren't they? Who is ahead of them?

27 minutes in-we get Buckingham, a retired policeman, to try to articulate the idea of ID. In fairness, they give Philip Johnson a couple of minutes, though they harp on his being a lawyer.

School board rejects purchase of ID texts. Ominous music. Then 60 copies of "Of Pandas and People" mysteriously show up, a gift from an anonymous donor. School board makes, "bold" policy, to suggest that the theory of evolution is a theory-& to offer "Of Pandas and People" to those who wanted to go to the library to check it out.

Parents of some students reach out to ACLU. Somehow this seems noble, where Buckingham reaching out to Thomas More law center & Discovery Institute is somehow underhanded.

Science teachers band together to refuse to state that a theory is a theory. Heroic, upbeat music.

Dictatorial assistant superintendent reads the anodyne statement. Oh, the horror! Ecrasez l'infame!