Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins". Proponents claim that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." ID is a form of creationism that lacks empirical support and offers no testable or tenable hypotheses, and is therefore not science. The leading proponents of ID are associated with the Discovery Institute, a Christian, politically conservative think tank based in the United States.
Geraldine is a town in DeKalb County, Alabama, United States. It was incorporated in February 1957. At the 2020 census, the population was 910.
Kitzmiller is a town in Garrett County, Maryland, United States. The population was 321 at the 2010 census.
Sherborn is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Located in Boston's MetroWest region, the community is within area code 508 and has the ZIP Code 01770. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the town population was 4,401.
Victory Gardens is a borough in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 1,582, an increase of 62 (+4.1%) from the 2010 census count of 1,520, which in turn reflected a decline of 26 (−1.7%) from the 1,546 counted in the 2000 census.
Orangeville is a borough in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The population was 478 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Bloomsburg-Berwick micropolitan area.
Port Allegany is a borough in McKean County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,116 at the 2020 census.
Pen Argyl is a borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. The borough's population was 3,510 as of the 2020 census.
California is a borough on the Monongahela River in Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 5,479 as of the 2020 census. It is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Founded in 1849, the borough was named for the territory of California following the gold rush. It is the home of Pennsylvania Western University, California.
Donegal is a borough in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is a distinct municipality from the adjacent Donegal Township. The population was 103 at the 2020 census. Donegal is best known as an exit on the Pennsylvania Turnpike with restaurants, gas stations, and two hotels for travelers.
Hallam is a borough in York County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,774 at the 2020 census. It is part of the York–Hanover metropolitan area.
Bynum is a town in Hill County, Texas, United States. The population was 171 at the 2020 census.
Michael Joseph Behe is an American biochemist and an advocate of the pseudoscientific principle of intelligent design (ID).
The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the pseudoscientific idea of intelligent design (ID), which asserts that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." Its chief activities are a campaign to promote public awareness of this concept, the lobbying of policymakers to include its teaching in high school science classes, and legal action, either to defend such teaching or to remove barriers otherwise preventing it. The movement arose out of the creation science movement in the United States, and is driven by a small group of proponents. The Encyclopædia Britannica explains that ID cannot be empirically tested and that it fails to solve the problem of evil; thus, it is neither sound science nor sound theology.
The Wedge Strategy is a creationist political and social agenda authored by the Discovery Institute, the hub of the pseudoscientific intelligent design movement. The strategy was presented in a Discovery Institute internal memorandum known as the Wedge Document. Its goal is to change American culture by shaping public policy to reflect politically conservative fundamentalist evangelical Protestant values. The wedge metaphor is attributed to Phillip E. Johnson and depicts a metal wedge splitting a log.
Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 school-level supplementary textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon, edited by Charles Thaxton and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics (FTE). The textbook endorses the pseudoscientific concept of intelligent design – the argument that life shows evidence of being designed by an intelligent agent which is not named specifically in the book, although proponents understand that it refers to the Christian God. The overview chapter was written by young Earth creationist Nancy Pearcey. They present various polemical arguments against the scientific theory of evolution. Before publication, early drafts used cognates of "creationist". After the Edwards v. Aguillard Supreme Court ruling that creationism is religion and not science, these were changed to refer to "intelligent design". The second edition published in 1993 included a contribution written by Michael Behe.
The "Teach the controversy" campaign of the Discovery Institute seeks to promote the pseudoscientific principle of intelligent design as part of its attempts to discredit the teaching of evolution in United States public high school science courses. Scientific organizations point out that the institute claims that there is a scientific controversy where in fact none exists.
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, 400 F. Supp. 2d 707 was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of intelligent design (ID), ultimately found by the court to not be science. In October 2004, the Dover Area School District of York County, Pennsylvania, changed its biology teaching curriculum to require that intelligent design be presented as an alternative to evolution theory, and that Of Pandas and People, a textbook advocating intelligent design, was to be used as a reference book. The prominence of this textbook during the trial was such that the case is sometimes referred to as the Dover Panda Trial, a name which recalls the popular name of the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee, 80 years earlier. The plaintiffs successfully argued that intelligent design is a form of creationism, and that the school board policy violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The judge's decision sparked considerable response from both supporters and critics.
The Dover Area School District is a midsized, rural, public school district located in York County, Pennsylvania. It serves Dover Township and the Borough of Dover. According to the 2010 United States Census, the district community's population grew to 25,779 people. The population of the district was 22,349 people, according to the 2000 federal census. The educational attainment levels for the Dover Area School District population were 87% high school graduates and 14.7% college graduates.
The Discovery Institute has conducted a series of related public relations campaigns which seek to promote intelligent design while attempting to discredit evolutionary biology, which the Institute terms "Darwinism". The Discovery Institute promotes the pseudoscientific intelligent design movement and is represented by Creative Response Concepts, a public relations firm.
