The trial presents a particular challenge for the journalists from science magazines. In the courtroom hallway during a break last week, Celeste Biever, a reporter for NewScientist, was interviewing a courtroom regular, a bearded local pastor who says he considers evolution a lie.No wonder they think evolution is nonsense: they have an image of evolution that would have to be significantly improved to be a caricature."You want half-bird, half-fish?" she asked, drawing a dotted line on her notepad.
"Yeah, why not," the pastor said.
Later, out of the pastor's hearing, Ms. Biever said with fascination, "He thinks evolution is a bird turning into a fish turning into a rabbit" - one straight line of common descent, instead of a tree with common roots.
"They're babblers," said the pastor, the Rev. Jim Grove, who leads a 40-member independent Baptist church outside of Dover. "The more Ph.D.'s you get, it seems like the further away from God you get."The Dover school board is being supported in their endeavor by Thomas More Law Center, a nonprofit law firm dedicated to providing legal representation to Christians, and its chief counsel, Richard Thompson. Here's what he had to say:
"I do feel that even though Christians are 86 percent of the population, they have become second-class citizens."I can't even begin to think of how one would hold a rational discussion with someone who is so utterly detached from reality. These people are scary.
I get those arguments all the time. My favourite is, "God made the fossils to test your faith."
Not really anywhere to go with that line of reasoning (and the snarky retort about taking faith into a lab and testing it goes right over their heads).