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On
Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for
America's Soul by Edward Humes
On
October 18, 2004 the school board of Dover, PA voted 6-3 in favor of requiring
that the ninth-grade science unit on the theory of Evolution — one
of the most universally accepted scientific theories ever devised —
be introduced with a mild, one-minute speech, to be read by a school official,
to the effect that Darwin’s theory was “not a fact,”
but rather merely one possible explanation for the development of life
on Earth. “Intelligent Design,” the speech went on, “is
an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin’s
view.” Students would then be directed to the existence of a book,
Of Pandas and People, available in the classroom for those who
want to investigate ID further. In the course of Monkey Girl, a book that
is by turns enlightening and sobering, Pulitzer winner Edward Humes explores
the cultural, legal, educational, political, and religious processes that
led to this seemingly innocuous statement, as well as those it set into
motion.
One of the many strengths of Monkey Girl lies in its recognition
of the extent to which the ID movement, for all its scientific bluster,
is primarily a legalistic one, hatched by lawyers for a very specific
purpose. Following the Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision in 1987, banning
the teaching of creationism in science classrooms, ID began to emerge
from the primordial soup of the conservative think tanks (notably Seattle’s
ironically named Discovery Institute) as a weapon to be used in an initial,
winnable skirmish in a twenty-year war. The battle plan laid out was named
the “Wedge Strategy,” and its modest goal was nothing less
than the spiritual and cultural renewal of America, rescuing the nation
from the purposeless materialism held to be the natural outgrowth of the
belief in evolution. How its proponents square this idea with the fact
that Darwin has few friends among Americans (roughly 15% of the population,
in one recent study) has, sadly, not been recorded.
(One great irony in the story of ID, incidentally, is in the way Creationism’s
swift metamorphosis into Intelligent Design represents a near-perfect
illustration of the very phenomenon it sought to contradict: Darwin’s
theory of descent with modification. Under threat from its environment,
Creationism  divested
itself of some of its most glaringly problematic elements, made some minor
changes, and propelled its progeny forward in a sleeker — but still
recognizable — form.)
ID, then, was to be the thin end of the Wedge, and its introduction was
to be accomplished via an ingenious and precise series of legislative
taps: the Discovery Institute, after greasing the theory with the thinnest
veneer of scientific respectability, set about scanning the country for
a town with a school board whose grain appeared penetrable — a town
like Dover, PA.
ID advocates went on the offensive: playing the victims and casting science
departments, school boards, and the hated ACLU that defended them (“I
fear the ACLU more than I fear Al-Qaeda,” says a pro-ID school board
member) as hidebound, obstructionist enemies of truth stubbornly denying
this most modest of proposals. “What are they so afraid of?”
runs one question often posed by ID proponents. “Is Evolution really
so weak that a simple one-minute statement can bring it down?” Another
ingenious aspect of the strategy was that of the self-fulfilling prophecy:
if you want to portray a theory as controversial, simply announce it as
such; its defenders will shoot back that no controversy exists, and, voila—instant
controversy!
The thin end of the Wedge, however, proved to be fatally thin, and Humes
goes to great lengths to chart its snapping. The author’s own sympathies
plainly lie with the opponents of ID, and he takes great relish in the
numerous body blows the theory and its boosters were dealt during their
time in Dover. One choice example of many: ID superstar Michael Behe being
forced to admit under questioning that, according to his own, necessarily
broad, definition of a scientific theory, astrology also qualified for
inclusion.
Even though the school board was roundly defeated, and ID was sent packing
with a stinging and exhaustive opinion by Judge John Jones (a conservative
Bush appointee whose credentials were salivated over by ID fans at the
start of the case), the ending of the story is not a wholly happy one
for champions of reason. By passing judgment on ID itself, Jones laid
himself bare to accusations of overreaching and judicial activism, fanning
the flames of indignance and bitterness already crackling beneath the
theory’s supporters, who are powerful and numerous and yet (thanks
to Jones) more able than ever, now, to present themselves as an oppressed
few. Two things are certain: in direct violation of the laws of nature
they will rise again from the dead, and in perfect harmony with those
laws, they will modify, they will descend. [B]
BEN STEPHENS
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