Before officially releasing my Intelligent Alien Design video on YouTube (where the geanie can’t be put back in the bottle), I’m making the following change of this:

In fact, the Discovery Institute has managed to convince a few high-level politicians to inject Intelligent Design theory directly into the public science classroom under the guise of academic freedom.

To this:

In fact, the Discovery Institute has managed to convince a few high-level politicians to allow Intelligent Design theory into the public science classroom under the guise of academic freedom.

Ironically, I had made this change at the last minute before submitting my final script to the voice-over service, but it did not make it into the final version.  I’m working to correct this because the the way it stands now does not reflect the “stated” goals of the Discovery Institute.  Yes, we all know they are not entirely up-front about their agenda.  They say one thing to the general public and then another when speaking to churches.  And prior to getting shellacked in Kitzmiller v. Dover (2005), they did actively promote a textbook that specifically mentioned intelligent design, Of Pandas and People.  But as a Christian I have to publicly give them the benefit of the doubt.

I’m also including a short 3 min epilogue at the end of the video.  Here is the script for that:

This is Gordon J. Glover and I sincerely hope my video was both entertaining and informative. The point of satire is to mockingly approve of something that you wish to criticize by using “wit, exaggeration, and self-deprecating humor.”

In the interest of truth however, I want to briefly address this point about exaggeration.

Firstly: Ancient Alien Theory is very much a popular idea, but there is no such thing as the Intelligent Alien Intervention Institute.  I made that up.

Secondly: in this video, I used a graphic of the infamous “Wedge Document” to symbolically represent the strategic goals of the Discovery Institute. However, you should know that the official position of the Discovery Institute is that the Wedge Document is outdated.

Thirdly: I was careful to not accuse the Discovery Institute of promoting legislation that explicitly requires the teaching of Intelligent Design. Ever since ID was struck down by a federal court in 2005, the Discovery Institute has absolutely discouraged the mentioning of Intelligent Design by name in any legislation it supports. But the current Academic Freedom initiatives would allow teachers to present alternate theories to students that have not yet been vetted by the professional scientific community – such as Intelligent Design. So it is correct to say that the Discovery Institute actively supports legislation that would passively allow Intelligent Design to be taught in the public science classroom.

Fourthly: The Discovery Institute has the Center for Science and Culture, and the Biologic Institute. The CSC runs the public relations and legislative efforts that advance the Intelligent Design agenda. The Biologic Institute was set up to conduct scientific research that supports Intelligent Design theory. While it was clearly an exaggeration for me to say that the Discovery Institute has completely given up on the scientific process, you can’t overlook the fact that the Center for Science and Culture has been significantly more productive than has the Biologic Institute. The very fact that the Biologic Institute did not open its doors until 2005 demonstrates to me that scientific research is really just an afterthought in what is primarily a legislative and public relations agenda.

And finally: this video is not about what is or isn’t true, but rather what is or isn’t science. The Discovery Institute would claim that Academic Freedom legislation serves the interest of science by ensuring that both the strengths and weaknesses of evolution are presented to students. But I imagine that the “Intelligent Alien Intervention Institute” might say the same thing about legislation allowing teachers who believe in UFOs to openly discuss theories of Alien visitation — theories that have not yet been vetted by the professional scientific community. That’s really the point of this video. Thanks again for watching.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 20th, 2009 at 9:34 pm and is filed under Random Things. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.