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The Devil in Dover: An Insider's Story of Dogma v. Darwin in Small-town America
Local newspaper reporter Lauri Lebo was handed the story of a lifetime when the Dover (Pennsylvania) School Board adopted a measure to require its ninth-grade biology students to learn about intelligent design. In a case that recalled the famed 1925 Scopes "monkey" trial and made international headlines, eleven parents sued the school board. When the case wound up in federal court before a George W. Bush–appointed judge, Lebo had a front-row seat. Destined to become required reading for a generation of journalists, scientists, and science teachers, as well as for anyone concerned about the separation of church and state, The Devil in Dover is Lebo's widely praised account of a perfect storm of religious intolerance, First Amendment violations, and an assault on American science education. Lebo skillfully probes the compelling background of the case, introducing us to the plaintiffs, the defendants, the lawyers, and a parade of witnesses, along with Judge John E. Jones, who would eventually condemn the school board's decision as one of "breathtaking inanity." With the antievolution battle having moved to the state level―and the recent passage of state legislation that protects the right of schools to teach alternatives to evolution―the story will continue to be relevant for years to come.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published May 13, 2008
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335 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
June 12, 2019
An interesting--although far from gripping--examination of the Intelligent Design court case involving the Dover (Pennsylvania) school board, the Discovery Institute and the People for the American Way. It demonstrates that "thou shalt not bear false witness" is, for the evangelical right, no more than an optional commandment.
Lebo--a local reporter--is particular effective when she shows how the fundamentalist members of the school board clearly lied on the witness stand, and how their fellow religionists--her own father included--declined to condemn these "bearers of false witness" because God was clearly on their side.
February 12, 2015
Orangutans split off from the common ancestor to all of today's great apes about 12 million years ago. Gorillas diverged about 4 million years after that. Then, about 4 million years ago, our evolving primate progenitor split again, one line producing today’s chimpanzees and bonobos. The other evolved to become human beings, a species with the unprecedented ability to think deeply and use reason and mathematics and science and logic. With the notable exception of “intelligent design” proponents.
If you are not alarmed at religious fundamentalist crackpots possessed of the approximate level of scientific knowledge typically seen in, say, a tuna casserole, and their attempts to foist upon unsuspecting schoolchildren a steaming pile of balderdash based on a literal acceptance of the mythology of Neolithic goat-herders, then you probably are one of the fundamentalist crackpots. That seems unlikely, though, as you have made it this far in to this review, undissuaded by vocabulary above a 4th grade level.
What is so truly disturbing about Lauri Lebo’s brilliant account of the aforementioned fundies’ attempts to veto science with their specific faith is not the ignorance of the creationists, which is too obvious to retain much shock value. If you believe that the millions of species of plant and animal with whom we now share this world are each directly descended from ancestors that, just a few thousand years ago, somehow managed to fit into a boat that measured 300 cubits long, then what, I have to wonder, with some pity and amazement, is it like to be as bad at math as you are? Also, do you know what a cubit is? I broke my cubit-stick, but I think it’s about 18 inches.
No, what’s truly astonishing, is their sheer brazen dishonesty and utter absence of any lingering shred of integrity. Because what the fundies did was lie, on stacks of bibles, in court, shamelessly perjuring themselves while jeopardizing the livelihoods and careers of others, to promote their own lunatic agenda.
It’s a fascinating account of one of the most important intellectual crises civilization has ever faced. Science itself is under a massive attack. Climate change, evolution, and basic, elementary principles of economics are all being systematically denied by people who “don’t believe” science that they don’t come remotely close to understanding, because it conflicts with their faith.
People have the right to believe whatever they want to believe. They can believe that the Garden of Eden actually existed, that Noah’s ark was real, that people in the distant past who claimed to have been designated as messengers from a Supreme Being were not simply lying charlatans. They can believe that the Earth is not 4.5 billion years old. But it’s not science. It’s the opposite of science. It’s specifically denying science because it conflicts with the superstitions of ancient goat herders, who weren’t any better at math or logical, scientific analysis than their modern day counterparts thousands of years later in the creationist movement but, apparently, not even a little bit worse.
If people want to teach their children that nearly all the world’s scientists and, in fact, the vast majority of people who can do math, are all involved in a massive conspiracy to deceive them, perhaps at the behest of some malevolent, horned boogie-man, then that is their prerogative. But they can do that at home, not in a science classroom. And if they are teaching them that there is even a whiff of a controversy within the scientific community regarding evolution, rather than an overwhelming, virtually unanimous consensus, then what they are teaching their children is a naked, shameless lie.
Lebo’s sobering tale is given a humanizing dimension by details of conflicts with her beloved father, who was, alas, firmly on the side of faith and not science. I can relate. There are fundamentalist crackpots in my own family, and I’ve met many others, most of them very nice people upon whom I would never wish any harm. It saddens me to see their capacity for critical thought brutally butchered by oppressive faith. None of them is remotely qualified to teach biology, because the sum total of their “knowledge” of where human beings came from is based entirely on the creation myths of ancient illiterate nomads.
I don’t expect to ever have any kids, so my particular evolutionary line, having come millions of years from my great-great (etc.) grandpappy, that Miocene Epoch primate mentioned above, has finally, after all this time, come to an end. But maybe you’ve squeezed out a descendent or two, and maybe you’d like them to grow up in a world in which we continue to evolve, as we have, for millions of years, and not devolve, reverting to less intelligent, less knowledgeable creatures than we once were. If so then you ought to be prepared to stand up for science, reason, rationality, and against ignorance, absurdity, and blind acceptance of scripture even when it conflicts with vast mountains of scientific data. If not, then flying spaghetti monster help us all.
If you are not alarmed at religious fundamentalist crackpots possessed of the approximate level of scientific knowledge typically seen in, say, a tuna casserole, and their attempts to foist upon unsuspecting schoolchildren a steaming pile of balderdash based on a literal acceptance of the mythology of Neolithic goat-herders, then you probably are one of the fundamentalist crackpots. That seems unlikely, though, as you have made it this far in to this review, undissuaded by vocabulary above a 4th grade level.
What is so truly disturbing about Lauri Lebo’s brilliant account of the aforementioned fundies’ attempts to veto science with their specific faith is not the ignorance of the creationists, which is too obvious to retain much shock value. If you believe that the millions of species of plant and animal with whom we now share this world are each directly descended from ancestors that, just a few thousand years ago, somehow managed to fit into a boat that measured 300 cubits long, then what, I have to wonder, with some pity and amazement, is it like to be as bad at math as you are? Also, do you know what a cubit is? I broke my cubit-stick, but I think it’s about 18 inches.
No, what’s truly astonishing, is their sheer brazen dishonesty and utter absence of any lingering shred of integrity. Because what the fundies did was lie, on stacks of bibles, in court, shamelessly perjuring themselves while jeopardizing the livelihoods and careers of others, to promote their own lunatic agenda.
It’s a fascinating account of one of the most important intellectual crises civilization has ever faced. Science itself is under a massive attack. Climate change, evolution, and basic, elementary principles of economics are all being systematically denied by people who “don’t believe” science that they don’t come remotely close to understanding, because it conflicts with their faith.
People have the right to believe whatever they want to believe. They can believe that the Garden of Eden actually existed, that Noah’s ark was real, that people in the distant past who claimed to have been designated as messengers from a Supreme Being were not simply lying charlatans. They can believe that the Earth is not 4.5 billion years old. But it’s not science. It’s the opposite of science. It’s specifically denying science because it conflicts with the superstitions of ancient goat herders, who weren’t any better at math or logical, scientific analysis than their modern day counterparts thousands of years later in the creationist movement but, apparently, not even a little bit worse.
If people want to teach their children that nearly all the world’s scientists and, in fact, the vast majority of people who can do math, are all involved in a massive conspiracy to deceive them, perhaps at the behest of some malevolent, horned boogie-man, then that is their prerogative. But they can do that at home, not in a science classroom. And if they are teaching them that there is even a whiff of a controversy within the scientific community regarding evolution, rather than an overwhelming, virtually unanimous consensus, then what they are teaching their children is a naked, shameless lie.
Lebo’s sobering tale is given a humanizing dimension by details of conflicts with her beloved father, who was, alas, firmly on the side of faith and not science. I can relate. There are fundamentalist crackpots in my own family, and I’ve met many others, most of them very nice people upon whom I would never wish any harm. It saddens me to see their capacity for critical thought brutally butchered by oppressive faith. None of them is remotely qualified to teach biology, because the sum total of their “knowledge” of where human beings came from is based entirely on the creation myths of ancient illiterate nomads.
I don’t expect to ever have any kids, so my particular evolutionary line, having come millions of years from my great-great (etc.) grandpappy, that Miocene Epoch primate mentioned above, has finally, after all this time, come to an end. But maybe you’ve squeezed out a descendent or two, and maybe you’d like them to grow up in a world in which we continue to evolve, as we have, for millions of years, and not devolve, reverting to less intelligent, less knowledgeable creatures than we once were. If so then you ought to be prepared to stand up for science, reason, rationality, and against ignorance, absurdity, and blind acceptance of scripture even when it conflicts with vast mountains of scientific data. If not, then flying spaghetti monster help us all.
August 4, 2023
Compelling and relevant are two words to describe the book I just finished! The Devil in Dover is the succinct account of the Kitzmiller vs. Dover trial on Intelligent Design. The author Lauri Lebo, who I am proud to call a friend, was one of the local reporters from the York Daily Record who covered the trial.
Besides being a story of local interest that includes places I’m familiar with, it has much more far-reaching importance. For me, Lauri’s account of how the Dover school board tried to insert the teaching of creationism into the 9th grade science curriculum, helped me to gain insight into the current sneaky attacks on the Separation of Church and State.
For example, in the Dover case, the defendants claimed that Judge Jones, who was appointed by George W Bush, was an activist judge. Jones derided the school board members’ behavior as “breathtaking inanity” and ruled that Intelligent Design was not science. Fast forward to 2019 and we hear our president claim that when the court system rules against him, the judges are biased. Lauri’s book explains why Evangelicals and Fundamentalists are trying to supplant more far-right judges in our courts.
The Devil in Dover has many other relevant comparisons to current times. There is blatant, bald- faced lies even under oath—something Lauri tried to shed light on in her writing.
There is “what aboutism”—just exchange “but Hillary” with “but Bill!”
There’s hostility and division— neighbor against neighbor; father against daughter. One of the most heartfelt and poignant parts of the story was the struggle between Lauri and her Fundamentalist father.
And there’s the dismissal and contempt for science and education. While now it’s climate change, then it was whether we teach our children that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old and our diverse natural world evolved through natural selection and survival of the fittest OR that the dinosaurs and people existed together like Fred & Wilma Flintstone and their pet Dino!
I highly recommend this to anyone who has concerns about the direction our country is headed. My prediction is that the case covered in this well-written book is not going to end the attacks on science and courts. It’s just a point on a continuum with an unknown end.
Last point! For those of you who know Lauri Lebo— ask about the Flying Spaghetti Monster!
Besides being a story of local interest that includes places I’m familiar with, it has much more far-reaching importance. For me, Lauri’s account of how the Dover school board tried to insert the teaching of creationism into the 9th grade science curriculum, helped me to gain insight into the current sneaky attacks on the Separation of Church and State.
For example, in the Dover case, the defendants claimed that Judge Jones, who was appointed by George W Bush, was an activist judge. Jones derided the school board members’ behavior as “breathtaking inanity” and ruled that Intelligent Design was not science. Fast forward to 2019 and we hear our president claim that when the court system rules against him, the judges are biased. Lauri’s book explains why Evangelicals and Fundamentalists are trying to supplant more far-right judges in our courts.
The Devil in Dover has many other relevant comparisons to current times. There is blatant, bald- faced lies even under oath—something Lauri tried to shed light on in her writing.
There is “what aboutism”—just exchange “but Hillary” with “but Bill!”
There’s hostility and division— neighbor against neighbor; father against daughter. One of the most heartfelt and poignant parts of the story was the struggle between Lauri and her Fundamentalist father.
And there’s the dismissal and contempt for science and education. While now it’s climate change, then it was whether we teach our children that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old and our diverse natural world evolved through natural selection and survival of the fittest OR that the dinosaurs and people existed together like Fred & Wilma Flintstone and their pet Dino!
I highly recommend this to anyone who has concerns about the direction our country is headed. My prediction is that the case covered in this well-written book is not going to end the attacks on science and courts. It’s just a point on a continuum with an unknown end.
Last point! For those of you who know Lauri Lebo— ask about the Flying Spaghetti Monster!
September 7, 2010
This book is not about the battle between religion and science—it’s about the battle between truth and lies. Since the Supreme Court outlawed teaching of biblical creationism in 1987, religious fundamentalist have continued to scheme to undermine the teaching of common origins and Darwinian evolution through natural selection. Fundamentalists “evolved” ‘Creation Science’ [sic] into ‘Intelligent Design’ which was adopted into the high school science curriculum of Dover, PA in 2004. For enthusiasts of science and reason, the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, is the most famous court case to date in this young century. The story is told by Lauri Lebo, a local Dover reporter for the small hometown newspaper. I have been fascinated by this case and have read and watched everything written by the principle players… Ken Miller, Barbara Forrest, Eugenie Scott, Robert Pennock, Kevin Padian, etc. PBS did a terrific job in their 2-hour documentary “God on Trial,” and Matthew Chapman authored an excellent narrative of these, dare I say ‘epic’ events in his 2007 book “40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, OxyContin, and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania.” (Chapman, interestingly, is the great, great grandson of Charles Darwin).
I went into this book with low expectations, because, after all, Lauri Leo has spent her life as a small town newspaper reporter. What a delightful surprise I found. Lebo is an excellent story-teller and captures the local flavor and local impact exceptionally well. Her personal reactions and reflections are poignant and moving, because she, like everyone in Dover, was deeply, personally effected. Lebo is charming but uses a rapier wit to expose the vacuous dissemination and outright lies of everyone, yes all the parties, on the side of God. Lebo’s presentation made me (finally) aware of why I have been so personally involved, personally obsessed, and personally just plain pissed off at this canaille. (H. L. Menken’s word describing the creationists in Dayton, TN in 1925). This rabble, with their theocratic pseudoscience is threatening our democracy, my democracy. They are laughable and absurd and extraordinarily dangerous to everything America has ever stood for. Lauri Lebo has nailed them with an iron fist. This book is a must read.
Charlie Pierce, by the way, has an excellent chapter in his little book, Idiot America, on the recent lunacy in Dover, PA. He quotes a local fundamentalist pastor just before the start of the trial as saying, ‘Our town has been invaded by the intellectual and educated.’
FROM THE BOOK:
“The job before democracy is to get rid of such canaille. If it fails, they will devour it. H. L. Mencken
“If you believe this [heaven/hell], truly believe this then how could anything else matter? The First Amendment, scientific reality, the truth? All this would mean nothing… And for those of us who don’t believe, can’t believe, we have to bear the weight of this fear.
“What would it be like to go a week without being judged?”
“According to sworn testimony, intelligent design had nothing to do with God… Then Pat Robertson says if you don’t support it, God will hate you. These clowns want it both ways.”
“It wasn’t just that its [ID] supporters—everyone from Dover’s school board to the Discovery Institute—were lying. Intelligent design’s entire premise is a lie, nothing but a bait-and-switch fraud. They promised scientific proof. But in the end, [Michael] Behe said all they had was faith that what they were espousing was true.”
Judge Jones’ opinion:
"ID’s backers have sought to avoid the scientific scrutiny which we have now determined it cannot withstand by advocating that the controversy, but not ID itself, should be taught in science class. This tactic is at best disingenuous, at worst a canard." [canard -- a deliberately false report or rumor, especially something silly intended as a joke]
"It is our view that a reasonable, objective observer would … reach the inescapable conclusion that ID is an interesting theological argument, but that it is not science.”
“The Board brazenly chose not to follow the advice of their only science-education resources [the teachers]…..”
“The breathtaking inanity of the Board’s decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop, which had now been fully revealed at this trial.” [inane – silly, absurd, ridiculous, idiotic, stupid, frivolous, childish, immature, mindless]
“Although Defendants attempt to persuade the Court that each Board member who voted for the biology curriculum change did so for the secular purpose of improving science education and to exercise critical thinking skills, their contentions are simply irreconcilable with the record evidence. Their asserted purposes are a sham.”
“The inescapable truth is that both Bonsell and Buckingham [Board members] lied…”
“The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID policy. It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in the public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID policy.”
I went into this book with low expectations, because, after all, Lauri Leo has spent her life as a small town newspaper reporter. What a delightful surprise I found. Lebo is an excellent story-teller and captures the local flavor and local impact exceptionally well. Her personal reactions and reflections are poignant and moving, because she, like everyone in Dover, was deeply, personally effected. Lebo is charming but uses a rapier wit to expose the vacuous dissemination and outright lies of everyone, yes all the parties, on the side of God. Lebo’s presentation made me (finally) aware of why I have been so personally involved, personally obsessed, and personally just plain pissed off at this canaille. (H. L. Menken’s word describing the creationists in Dayton, TN in 1925). This rabble, with their theocratic pseudoscience is threatening our democracy, my democracy. They are laughable and absurd and extraordinarily dangerous to everything America has ever stood for. Lauri Lebo has nailed them with an iron fist. This book is a must read.
Charlie Pierce, by the way, has an excellent chapter in his little book, Idiot America, on the recent lunacy in Dover, PA. He quotes a local fundamentalist pastor just before the start of the trial as saying, ‘Our town has been invaded by the intellectual and educated.’
FROM THE BOOK:
“The job before democracy is to get rid of such canaille. If it fails, they will devour it. H. L. Mencken
“If you believe this [heaven/hell], truly believe this then how could anything else matter? The First Amendment, scientific reality, the truth? All this would mean nothing… And for those of us who don’t believe, can’t believe, we have to bear the weight of this fear.
“What would it be like to go a week without being judged?”
“According to sworn testimony, intelligent design had nothing to do with God… Then Pat Robertson says if you don’t support it, God will hate you. These clowns want it both ways.”
“It wasn’t just that its [ID] supporters—everyone from Dover’s school board to the Discovery Institute—were lying. Intelligent design’s entire premise is a lie, nothing but a bait-and-switch fraud. They promised scientific proof. But in the end, [Michael] Behe said all they had was faith that what they were espousing was true.”
Judge Jones’ opinion:
"ID’s backers have sought to avoid the scientific scrutiny which we have now determined it cannot withstand by advocating that the controversy, but not ID itself, should be taught in science class. This tactic is at best disingenuous, at worst a canard." [canard -- a deliberately false report or rumor, especially something silly intended as a joke]
"It is our view that a reasonable, objective observer would … reach the inescapable conclusion that ID is an interesting theological argument, but that it is not science.”
“The Board brazenly chose not to follow the advice of their only science-education resources [the teachers]…..”
“The breathtaking inanity of the Board’s decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop, which had now been fully revealed at this trial.” [inane – silly, absurd, ridiculous, idiotic, stupid, frivolous, childish, immature, mindless]
“Although Defendants attempt to persuade the Court that each Board member who voted for the biology curriculum change did so for the secular purpose of improving science education and to exercise critical thinking skills, their contentions are simply irreconcilable with the record evidence. Their asserted purposes are a sham.”
“The inescapable truth is that both Bonsell and Buckingham [Board members] lied…”
“The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID policy. It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in the public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID policy.”
June 17, 2008
This account of the Pennsylvania "intelligent design" trial was written by a reporter for one of the local newspapers. Hence the description in the subtitle, "an insider's story of dogma v. darwinism in small town America." Ms. Lebo was personally acquainted with many of the key players. She grew up in Dover, and reported on the school board prior to the lawsuit which made Dover famous. She was well aware of the tensions and hostilities leading up to the lawsuit, which were greatly magnified by the trial. Her father was a fundamentalist Christian pastor, and she frequently found herself at odds with him about issues of science and faith.
Ms. Lebo sketches the conflict between supporters and opponents of the school board's decision to inject a reference to intelligent design into the science curriculum as well as the confict between herself and her father. But as she writes, the trial wasn't just about those conflicts. It was also "about this country. The believers and nonbelievers. Will this dividing line of religious fundamentalism always be there and always separate us -- like a fault line running through our hearts?" Anyone else pondering this question will find her book useful source material, as it is a lucid explanation of the fundamentalistic mindset, as well as the world view of those on the other side, and the gulf that separates them.
The book briefly summarizes the trial, hitting the high points, but its description of the personalities and actions of the key players, as well as the author's own ambivalence about some of them, and her role as a journalist, is what sets this book apart from other books about the trial. The book helps us to understand why the intelligent design issue and the trial evoked such strong feelings, both in Dover, and by extension in the whole country.
Why would the board take actions which its lawyer warned would trigger a costly lawsuit the board would probably lose? Why would board members commit perjury in such an obvious fashion that the judge referred the matter to the local district attorney? Why would her own newspaper ask her to re-write the story she wrote the day the board's key scientific expert was "eviscerated" on cross-examination to make it "more favorable to the pro-intelligent design side?" What does journalistic objectivity mean when the reporter comes to see or believe that one side of a controversy is right and the other is wrong? These are just a few of the knotty problems the book deals with.
While the book can be read as the tale of the "breathtaking inanity" of what the school district did, it can also be read as a story of our judicial system. When Judge John E. Jones III, a George W. Bush appointee to the federal bench, was announced as the trial judge, intelligent design supporters were enthusiastic, describing him as "a good old boy brought up through the conservative ranks," and opining that "unless Judge Jones wants to cut his career off at the knees he isn't going to rule against the wishes of his political allies." In other words, they thought he was one of them, and as such, would not and could not rule against them on an issue of such importance to fundalmentalists.
Of course, that's just what he did, leading Bill O'Reilly to brand him a "fascist," and conservative bloggers to call him "Jackass Jones." The Judge, in his decision, finding that intelligent design is not science, but is religion, and cannot constitutionally be taught in public school science courses, took care to deny that he is an "activist judge."
Nonetheless, Ann Coulter bitterly charged that the "darwinists" didn't win on science, persuasion, or the evidence, (what trial did she watch?) but by "finding a court to hand them everything they want on a silver platter." To which the Judge later responded that Ann Coulter "foments a kind of civic stupidity, in my opinion." Which only goes to prove that Judge Jones obviously read Ann Coulter's opinion pieces with far more care than she read his opinion in the Dover case.
Judge Jones believes that accusations that he is an "activist judge" threaten to tear at the fabric of our system of justice, and that the premise of those who make these accusations is that "judges can and should act in a partisan manner rather than strictly adhering to the rule of law." He says that "to those who believe that judges must cast aside precedents and rule as according to an agenda, let me say that I believe that the public's dependence upon the impartiality and the integrity of judges is absolutely essential to its confidence in its judicial system."
This book says a lot about many quintessentially American things, including our brand of religious fundamentalism and our system of public education. But perhaps the proudest portrait it draws is its depiction of our system of justice, which somehow managed to work just as it should in a democracy, despite being at the center of a maelstrom of emotion and controversy.
Ms. Lebo sketches the conflict between supporters and opponents of the school board's decision to inject a reference to intelligent design into the science curriculum as well as the confict between herself and her father. But as she writes, the trial wasn't just about those conflicts. It was also "about this country. The believers and nonbelievers. Will this dividing line of religious fundamentalism always be there and always separate us -- like a fault line running through our hearts?" Anyone else pondering this question will find her book useful source material, as it is a lucid explanation of the fundamentalistic mindset, as well as the world view of those on the other side, and the gulf that separates them.
The book briefly summarizes the trial, hitting the high points, but its description of the personalities and actions of the key players, as well as the author's own ambivalence about some of them, and her role as a journalist, is what sets this book apart from other books about the trial. The book helps us to understand why the intelligent design issue and the trial evoked such strong feelings, both in Dover, and by extension in the whole country.
Why would the board take actions which its lawyer warned would trigger a costly lawsuit the board would probably lose? Why would board members commit perjury in such an obvious fashion that the judge referred the matter to the local district attorney? Why would her own newspaper ask her to re-write the story she wrote the day the board's key scientific expert was "eviscerated" on cross-examination to make it "more favorable to the pro-intelligent design side?" What does journalistic objectivity mean when the reporter comes to see or believe that one side of a controversy is right and the other is wrong? These are just a few of the knotty problems the book deals with.
While the book can be read as the tale of the "breathtaking inanity" of what the school district did, it can also be read as a story of our judicial system. When Judge John E. Jones III, a George W. Bush appointee to the federal bench, was announced as the trial judge, intelligent design supporters were enthusiastic, describing him as "a good old boy brought up through the conservative ranks," and opining that "unless Judge Jones wants to cut his career off at the knees he isn't going to rule against the wishes of his political allies." In other words, they thought he was one of them, and as such, would not and could not rule against them on an issue of such importance to fundalmentalists.
Of course, that's just what he did, leading Bill O'Reilly to brand him a "fascist," and conservative bloggers to call him "Jackass Jones." The Judge, in his decision, finding that intelligent design is not science, but is religion, and cannot constitutionally be taught in public school science courses, took care to deny that he is an "activist judge."
Nonetheless, Ann Coulter bitterly charged that the "darwinists" didn't win on science, persuasion, or the evidence, (what trial did she watch?) but by "finding a court to hand them everything they want on a silver platter." To which the Judge later responded that Ann Coulter "foments a kind of civic stupidity, in my opinion." Which only goes to prove that Judge Jones obviously read Ann Coulter's opinion pieces with far more care than she read his opinion in the Dover case.
Judge Jones believes that accusations that he is an "activist judge" threaten to tear at the fabric of our system of justice, and that the premise of those who make these accusations is that "judges can and should act in a partisan manner rather than strictly adhering to the rule of law." He says that "to those who believe that judges must cast aside precedents and rule as according to an agenda, let me say that I believe that the public's dependence upon the impartiality and the integrity of judges is absolutely essential to its confidence in its judicial system."
This book says a lot about many quintessentially American things, including our brand of religious fundamentalism and our system of public education. But perhaps the proudest portrait it draws is its depiction of our system of justice, which somehow managed to work just as it should in a democracy, despite being at the center of a maelstrom of emotion and controversy.
November 18, 2015
The strength and weakness of this book is that Lebo is a local--she knew all of the players, knew their neighbors, knew the reporters who were called liars and compelled to testify. That knowledge allows her to paint certain individuals (such as Buckingham, an oxycontin-abusing, authoritarian, religious zealot) with sympathy. I found myself feeling sorry for him towards the end of the book. She also uses the intelligent design trial to examine her relationship with her father, a fundamentalist Christian who sees the world so differently from her, and with whom she is constantly trying to obtain some acknowledgment that the world is more complex than fundamentalists portray. Her depiction of their relationship is poignant and moving.
I also really liked her point that the new mantra that journalism should be "fair and balanced" ends up distorting the truth. There isn't real balance in the creationism/intelligent design v. evolution "controversy." The former "theories" are simply dogma; the latter is an actual scientific theory that is supported by the known evidence. To portray both sides as having equal validity undermines the one role of the media, which is to educate its readers about current events and issues. The importance of being objective and truthful, as opposed to some artificial concept of "fair and balanced," is particularly striking today, when so much of the mass media appears driven by ratings and the need to keep corporate owners and advertisers happy, but which is leading to increasingly-uneducated and polarized citizenry.
Where i thought the book was hampered by her insider status was in her depiction of the trial itself. I liked how she conveyed the energy of the courtroom, but I found her descriptions of trial to be incomplete and sometimes disjointed. She reported the highlights but, I feel, without providing enough context to allow the reader to put the case together in his/her own mind. I shared her enthusiasm as she educated herself about evolutionary theory and came to enjoy the scientific testimony, but it was sometimes hard to put all of it together. I'm not sure that Lebo understood how it all went together, which would certainly hinder any attempt to explain it to someone else. Still, this is a fascinating and human account of one of the more interesting cases from the last 20 years, and well worth a read.
I also really liked her point that the new mantra that journalism should be "fair and balanced" ends up distorting the truth. There isn't real balance in the creationism/intelligent design v. evolution "controversy." The former "theories" are simply dogma; the latter is an actual scientific theory that is supported by the known evidence. To portray both sides as having equal validity undermines the one role of the media, which is to educate its readers about current events and issues. The importance of being objective and truthful, as opposed to some artificial concept of "fair and balanced," is particularly striking today, when so much of the mass media appears driven by ratings and the need to keep corporate owners and advertisers happy, but which is leading to increasingly-uneducated and polarized citizenry.
Where i thought the book was hampered by her insider status was in her depiction of the trial itself. I liked how she conveyed the energy of the courtroom, but I found her descriptions of trial to be incomplete and sometimes disjointed. She reported the highlights but, I feel, without providing enough context to allow the reader to put the case together in his/her own mind. I shared her enthusiasm as she educated herself about evolutionary theory and came to enjoy the scientific testimony, but it was sometimes hard to put all of it together. I'm not sure that Lebo understood how it all went together, which would certainly hinder any attempt to explain it to someone else. Still, this is a fascinating and human account of one of the more interesting cases from the last 20 years, and well worth a read.
March 9, 2019
Part courtroom drama, part science lesson, part memoir all woven together to make a fascinating story. Even though the events took place in 2005, the attitudes and motivations of the central characters give insight into what is going on in our country today.
February 18, 2023
Very well done, and sadly still relevant.
April 25, 2012
The debate between Creationism and Evolution is WAY more than simple black and white. Well, it IS simple black and white, since Creationism is religion and Evolution is science, but how creationism and evolution are perceived, how they are promoted, how they are defended...THAT is way more than simple black and white.
Lebo has a unique perspective on the "debate", since she is both a journalist with the talent to do more than just quote and summarize (although how far she should take this ability, and whether it permits her to make judgments on these issues, is another relevant question in this book), and she happens to live in this particular small town where the school board tried to slip Creationism into their science classes, AND her father is a fundamentalist Christian who'd be just fine with all the kids in America learning about God instead of science.
The best quality of Lebo's writing here is to make you feel as maddened and frustrated as she clearly is--Why, those self-professed Christians are LYING!!! They're lying to promote Christian propaganda! No matter what other awful things some Christians get up to, we all know they're not supposed to LIE!!!--while still neatly working through the sometimes complicated and convoluted proceedings so that you actually understand at least what happened and when it happened, regardless of whether or not you can figure out why some of this stuff happened.
Lebo's book is a lesson to me that, even though my family homeschools, I need to stay involved with what's going on in our local school district. So far, our school board only does run-of-the-mill negligent stuff, like threatening to fire all the school librarians and middle school language teachers and all the art teachers, etc., if the community didn't approve a property tax increase, and then, when we did approve it, firing a bunch of people anyway and proposing a new plan to buy a billion ipads for the schoolchildren instead, but if they ever united under a secret agenda like this board did, who knows what mischief they could make? It's also a lesson that the separation of church and state is all well and good, but there certainly weren't any outspoken atheists at that trial reminding the world that there's also nothing wrong with having no religion at all. I wonder how THAT would have gone over in that town?
Lebo has a unique perspective on the "debate", since she is both a journalist with the talent to do more than just quote and summarize (although how far she should take this ability, and whether it permits her to make judgments on these issues, is another relevant question in this book), and she happens to live in this particular small town where the school board tried to slip Creationism into their science classes, AND her father is a fundamentalist Christian who'd be just fine with all the kids in America learning about God instead of science.
The best quality of Lebo's writing here is to make you feel as maddened and frustrated as she clearly is--Why, those self-professed Christians are LYING!!! They're lying to promote Christian propaganda! No matter what other awful things some Christians get up to, we all know they're not supposed to LIE!!!--while still neatly working through the sometimes complicated and convoluted proceedings so that you actually understand at least what happened and when it happened, regardless of whether or not you can figure out why some of this stuff happened.
Lebo's book is a lesson to me that, even though my family homeschools, I need to stay involved with what's going on in our local school district. So far, our school board only does run-of-the-mill negligent stuff, like threatening to fire all the school librarians and middle school language teachers and all the art teachers, etc., if the community didn't approve a property tax increase, and then, when we did approve it, firing a bunch of people anyway and proposing a new plan to buy a billion ipads for the schoolchildren instead, but if they ever united under a secret agenda like this board did, who knows what mischief they could make? It's also a lesson that the separation of church and state is all well and good, but there certainly weren't any outspoken atheists at that trial reminding the world that there's also nothing wrong with having no religion at all. I wonder how THAT would have gone over in that town?
January 17, 2012
A Remarkable, Poignant, and Vivid Account of the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Trial as Told By a Local Journalist
If Fundamentalist Protestant Christian religious zealots Alan Bonsell and Bill Buckingham had sought to introduce the teaching of Intelligent Design in the biology classrooms of New York City's Stuyvesant High School, then theirs would have been an utterly spectacular failure, recognized by many as a blatantly brazen attempt in injecting religion into science classrooms. Why? Though in recent years Stuyvesant High School may be better known as the high school where best-selling memoirist Frank McCourt taught English and creative writing for nearly two decades, the school itself has a nearly century-old reputation as America's foremost high school devoted to the sciences, mathematics and engineering; the prestigious alma mater of such distinguished alumni as the late Joshua Lederberg - one of the school's four Nobel Prize laureate alumni - former president of Rockefeller University and a leading pioneer of molecular biology, mathematician and University of Chicago president Robert Zimmer, political pundit Dick Morris, molecular biologist Eric Lander, leader of one of the two teams which sequenced successfully the human genome, and physicists Brian Greene and Lisa Randall. Neither its principal (who has vowed in public that Intelligent Design will never be taught there as long as he serves), nor its faculty, nor its parents would have permitted it. Furthermore, had sixty copies of Intelligent Design "textbook" "Of Pandas and People" appeared suddenly in the school's library, I am certain that some enterprising students might have used them in a "scientific experiment" testing their buoyancy in the briny waters of the Hudson River (For an insightful look at Stuyvesant High School itself, I strongly encourage readers to buy my friend Alec Klein's "A Class Apart", which is available for purchase here at Amazon.com. In the interest of full disclosure, both Klein and I are fellow alumni of Stuyvesant High School and Brown University.).
Located in the southeastern corner of the state of Pennsylvania, the small rural town of Dover is not New York City; its high school, Dover High School, probably doesn't come close to matching Stuyvesant's celebrated academic excellence. Nor does the town of Dover resemble, even remotely, New York City's cosmopolitan religious and ethnic diversity. Instead, Dover is located in Pennsylvanian Dutch country, and, like much of the United States, part of a Fundamentalist Protestant Christian "Bible Belt" in which most of its citizens are devout Christians who strongly believe in the Bible's literal truth, and they regard, with ample suspicion and hostility, an "atheistic" idea like Darwin's Theory of Evolution via Natural Selection. In such an environment, it isn't surprising that former Dover Area School District board members Bonsell and Buckingham succeeded in persuading the board to adopt a policy sympathetic to the teaching of Intelligent Design. However, it is surprising that they did so contrary to the wishes of Dover High School's science faculty, who clearly understood that theirs was a deceitful effort towards introducing a religious doctrine (Intelligent Design) into the high school's 9th grade biology classrooms. Indeed, much later, at the conclusion of the Kitzmiller vs. Dover trial, Judge John E. Jones III would harshly condemn the Dover Area School District board for ignoring the sound advice of these teachers and acting against their wishes.
Among the many reporters covering the six week-long Kitzmiller vs. Dover trial in the Fall of 2005, the finest included several local reporters, such as York Daily Record's education reporter Lauri Lebo, whose "beat" covered the First Amendment issues raised by the Dover Area School Board's advocacy of Intelligent Design. Now, in "The Devil in Dover", Lauri Lebo has written a terse, but quite compelling, personal account of the trial, told from the perspective of someone who knew many of those involved in the unfolding legal drama (For example, she mentions Bill Buckingham in the acknowledgements section of her book, still counting him as a friend simply because of their mutual admiration for bluegrass music and his excellence as a raconteur.). It is an intensely personal account, since Lebo had to wrestle with personal demons, both during and after the trial, hoping to reconcile herself to her father, a "Born Again" Fundamentalist Protestant Christian, and the owner of the local radio station devoted exclusively to "Christian" programming. It is also a splendidly written account, replete with a simple, almost poetic, prose style, that could remind readers of Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" in its sincerity. It is also the most riveting account I have read yet of the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District trial, and one which deserves to take its place alongside Edward Humes' "Monkey Girl" and Matthew Chapman's "40 Days and 40 Nights" as the finest books published so far on the trial itself.
Lebo quickly introduces us to those on the Dover Area School District board like Bonsell and Buckingham, who were passionately advocating Intelligent Design, without making a serious effort in trying to understand it and in determining whether it was truly a "viable" scientific alternative to contemporary evolutionary theory. Indeed, I am delighted that Lebo also provides a remarkably complete summary of the origins of the Intelligent Design movement, mentioning briefly the now infamous "Wedge Document", whose crypto-Fascist objectives included the successful introduction of Intelligent Design "theory" into science classrooms throughout the United States; her coverage only lacks the ample detail and insightful analysis of the movement that is found in Edward Humes' "Monkey Girl". She suggests that the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks evoked a strong spiritual reawakening among many Americans, especially those in Dover, creating a political and cultural atmosphere which led inexorably to a school board quite sympathetic to the teaching of Intelligent Design in Dover High School's science classrooms, even if its members were only vaguely familiar with its principal tenets like the concept of "Irreducible Complexity". Hers is an appealing, quite compelling, argument, but one I am quite skeptical of, for several reasons, the least of which is recognizing that Intelligent Design creationism and other kinds of creationism had enjoyed ample support among Fundamentalist Protestant Christians long before the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks. I had known people like Alan Bonsell and Bill Buckingham many years before, as a Brown University undergraduate, within its Campus Crusade for Christ campus chapter membership; many of its leaders were friends, with whom I had much in common politically, while ignoring our radically divergent interests in science and religion. Indeed, I became the "token" "Darwinist" on an "Ad Hoc Committee on Origins" which sponsored a "Creation Science vs. Evolution" debate held at Brown's hockey rink, between Henry Morris, the president of the San Diego-based Institute for Creation Research, and Ken Miller, a young assistant professor of biology, who had recently returned to his undergraduate alma mater (The debate resembled a religious revival meeting of the kind described so vividly by Lebo, since most of those present were from Fundamentalist Protestant Christian churches in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts.).
It is clear from Lebo's compelling saga that the Dover Area School District board, led by the likes of Bonsell and Buckingham, was "boldly going" where no other school board had gone before, in its blatant effort at injecting Christianity into Dover High School science classrooms during the summer and fall of 2004. A board that was ignoring not only the educational guidance provided by veteran teacher Berta Spahr and her Dover High School science colleagues, but also defying the wishes of its own attorneys, who recognized the potentially perilous course that the board was undertaking towards a potential First Amendment lawsuit against itself. Not only a potential First Amendment lawsuit, but also potential charges of perjury loomed, after several board members, including Bonsell and Buckingham, denied under oath that "creationism" was discussed at several acrimonious board meetings, which were covered by two of Lebo's York Daily Record colleagues and another journalist from a local television station. They also refused to admit, again under oath, how sixty copies of the Intelligent Design textbook "Of Pandas and People" were purchased from money raised via a "private" church donation. Lebo deftly switches back and forth between the board's shenanigans to the potential interest shown in its activities from the National Center for Science Education, the Discovery Institute, and the Thomas More Law Center, whose attorneys would serve as the board's principal defense attorneys during the Kitzmiller vs. Dover trial.
Without question, the most riveting portions of "The Devil in Dover" are Lebo's extensive recollections of the trial testimony itself. Reading her version of events during Ken Miller's cross examination by defense attorney Patrick Gillen and Intelligent Design advocate Michael Behe's bizarre exchanges with lead plaintiff attorney Eric Rothschild over the very definition of science and the evolutionary implications of immunology, one is left indelibly with a strong impression of how important these testimonies were in Judge Jones' well-reasoned, and well-stated, decision; a decision that was not replete with instances of "plagiarism" and "judicial activism" - as many Intelligent Design creationists and other creationists have contended frequently here at Amazon.com, their own websites like Bill Dembski's Uncommon Descent, and elsewhere - but instead, a brilliant legal document which underscored Jones' keen understanding of what constituted valid science - contemporary evolutionary theory - and why Intelligent Design was really a fraudulent idea whose primary aim was to inject "Christian" religious values into science classrooms. Yet the "missing link" that tied Intelligent Design to religion, was unearthed by philosopher Barbara Forrest in a brilliant piece of detective work; her courtroom testimony may be the most compelling that I have read from any of the books devoted to this trial.
In "The Devil in Dover", Lauri Lebo demonstrates how she became a committed journalist interested in reporting only the truth, ignoring the pleas from her editors to offer "balance" between the opposing sides. A commitment for which she paid dearly in losing the trust and respect of her father, and then, finally, her decades-old job as a local newspaper reporter. But a superb commitment in support of the truth that we, the public, should salute Lauri Lebo for her ample courage and determination in putting an end to "The Devil in Dover". Hers is a book which deserves a wide readership, especially since the Discovery Institute is still aggressively pursuing its crypto-Fascist Wedge Strategy, as though it was some latter day group of Visigoths, Vandals and Huns, seeking to destroy all that is noble and just in Western Civilization. Oddly enough, by mere coincidence, not by "Intelligent Design", it is being published mere weeks after the debut of Ben Stein's pathetic cinematic mendacious intellectual pornography, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed", which contends that there is a virulent mainstream scientific "witch hunt" against Intelligent Design advocates, and equates most odiously, "Darwinism" with Nazism. "The Devil in Dover" also deserves ample critical acclaim as one of the best books published this year; it is truly a spellbinding affirmation of my apt description of Intelligent Design as mendacious intellectual pornography.
(Reposted from my 2008 Amazon review)
If Fundamentalist Protestant Christian religious zealots Alan Bonsell and Bill Buckingham had sought to introduce the teaching of Intelligent Design in the biology classrooms of New York City's Stuyvesant High School, then theirs would have been an utterly spectacular failure, recognized by many as a blatantly brazen attempt in injecting religion into science classrooms. Why? Though in recent years Stuyvesant High School may be better known as the high school where best-selling memoirist Frank McCourt taught English and creative writing for nearly two decades, the school itself has a nearly century-old reputation as America's foremost high school devoted to the sciences, mathematics and engineering; the prestigious alma mater of such distinguished alumni as the late Joshua Lederberg - one of the school's four Nobel Prize laureate alumni - former president of Rockefeller University and a leading pioneer of molecular biology, mathematician and University of Chicago president Robert Zimmer, political pundit Dick Morris, molecular biologist Eric Lander, leader of one of the two teams which sequenced successfully the human genome, and physicists Brian Greene and Lisa Randall. Neither its principal (who has vowed in public that Intelligent Design will never be taught there as long as he serves), nor its faculty, nor its parents would have permitted it. Furthermore, had sixty copies of Intelligent Design "textbook" "Of Pandas and People" appeared suddenly in the school's library, I am certain that some enterprising students might have used them in a "scientific experiment" testing their buoyancy in the briny waters of the Hudson River (For an insightful look at Stuyvesant High School itself, I strongly encourage readers to buy my friend Alec Klein's "A Class Apart", which is available for purchase here at Amazon.com. In the interest of full disclosure, both Klein and I are fellow alumni of Stuyvesant High School and Brown University.).
Located in the southeastern corner of the state of Pennsylvania, the small rural town of Dover is not New York City; its high school, Dover High School, probably doesn't come close to matching Stuyvesant's celebrated academic excellence. Nor does the town of Dover resemble, even remotely, New York City's cosmopolitan religious and ethnic diversity. Instead, Dover is located in Pennsylvanian Dutch country, and, like much of the United States, part of a Fundamentalist Protestant Christian "Bible Belt" in which most of its citizens are devout Christians who strongly believe in the Bible's literal truth, and they regard, with ample suspicion and hostility, an "atheistic" idea like Darwin's Theory of Evolution via Natural Selection. In such an environment, it isn't surprising that former Dover Area School District board members Bonsell and Buckingham succeeded in persuading the board to adopt a policy sympathetic to the teaching of Intelligent Design. However, it is surprising that they did so contrary to the wishes of Dover High School's science faculty, who clearly understood that theirs was a deceitful effort towards introducing a religious doctrine (Intelligent Design) into the high school's 9th grade biology classrooms. Indeed, much later, at the conclusion of the Kitzmiller vs. Dover trial, Judge John E. Jones III would harshly condemn the Dover Area School District board for ignoring the sound advice of these teachers and acting against their wishes.
Among the many reporters covering the six week-long Kitzmiller vs. Dover trial in the Fall of 2005, the finest included several local reporters, such as York Daily Record's education reporter Lauri Lebo, whose "beat" covered the First Amendment issues raised by the Dover Area School Board's advocacy of Intelligent Design. Now, in "The Devil in Dover", Lauri Lebo has written a terse, but quite compelling, personal account of the trial, told from the perspective of someone who knew many of those involved in the unfolding legal drama (For example, she mentions Bill Buckingham in the acknowledgements section of her book, still counting him as a friend simply because of their mutual admiration for bluegrass music and his excellence as a raconteur.). It is an intensely personal account, since Lebo had to wrestle with personal demons, both during and after the trial, hoping to reconcile herself to her father, a "Born Again" Fundamentalist Protestant Christian, and the owner of the local radio station devoted exclusively to "Christian" programming. It is also a splendidly written account, replete with a simple, almost poetic, prose style, that could remind readers of Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" in its sincerity. It is also the most riveting account I have read yet of the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District trial, and one which deserves to take its place alongside Edward Humes' "Monkey Girl" and Matthew Chapman's "40 Days and 40 Nights" as the finest books published so far on the trial itself.
Lebo quickly introduces us to those on the Dover Area School District board like Bonsell and Buckingham, who were passionately advocating Intelligent Design, without making a serious effort in trying to understand it and in determining whether it was truly a "viable" scientific alternative to contemporary evolutionary theory. Indeed, I am delighted that Lebo also provides a remarkably complete summary of the origins of the Intelligent Design movement, mentioning briefly the now infamous "Wedge Document", whose crypto-Fascist objectives included the successful introduction of Intelligent Design "theory" into science classrooms throughout the United States; her coverage only lacks the ample detail and insightful analysis of the movement that is found in Edward Humes' "Monkey Girl". She suggests that the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks evoked a strong spiritual reawakening among many Americans, especially those in Dover, creating a political and cultural atmosphere which led inexorably to a school board quite sympathetic to the teaching of Intelligent Design in Dover High School's science classrooms, even if its members were only vaguely familiar with its principal tenets like the concept of "Irreducible Complexity". Hers is an appealing, quite compelling, argument, but one I am quite skeptical of, for several reasons, the least of which is recognizing that Intelligent Design creationism and other kinds of creationism had enjoyed ample support among Fundamentalist Protestant Christians long before the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks. I had known people like Alan Bonsell and Bill Buckingham many years before, as a Brown University undergraduate, within its Campus Crusade for Christ campus chapter membership; many of its leaders were friends, with whom I had much in common politically, while ignoring our radically divergent interests in science and religion. Indeed, I became the "token" "Darwinist" on an "Ad Hoc Committee on Origins" which sponsored a "Creation Science vs. Evolution" debate held at Brown's hockey rink, between Henry Morris, the president of the San Diego-based Institute for Creation Research, and Ken Miller, a young assistant professor of biology, who had recently returned to his undergraduate alma mater (The debate resembled a religious revival meeting of the kind described so vividly by Lebo, since most of those present were from Fundamentalist Protestant Christian churches in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts.).
It is clear from Lebo's compelling saga that the Dover Area School District board, led by the likes of Bonsell and Buckingham, was "boldly going" where no other school board had gone before, in its blatant effort at injecting Christianity into Dover High School science classrooms during the summer and fall of 2004. A board that was ignoring not only the educational guidance provided by veteran teacher Berta Spahr and her Dover High School science colleagues, but also defying the wishes of its own attorneys, who recognized the potentially perilous course that the board was undertaking towards a potential First Amendment lawsuit against itself. Not only a potential First Amendment lawsuit, but also potential charges of perjury loomed, after several board members, including Bonsell and Buckingham, denied under oath that "creationism" was discussed at several acrimonious board meetings, which were covered by two of Lebo's York Daily Record colleagues and another journalist from a local television station. They also refused to admit, again under oath, how sixty copies of the Intelligent Design textbook "Of Pandas and People" were purchased from money raised via a "private" church donation. Lebo deftly switches back and forth between the board's shenanigans to the potential interest shown in its activities from the National Center for Science Education, the Discovery Institute, and the Thomas More Law Center, whose attorneys would serve as the board's principal defense attorneys during the Kitzmiller vs. Dover trial.
Without question, the most riveting portions of "The Devil in Dover" are Lebo's extensive recollections of the trial testimony itself. Reading her version of events during Ken Miller's cross examination by defense attorney Patrick Gillen and Intelligent Design advocate Michael Behe's bizarre exchanges with lead plaintiff attorney Eric Rothschild over the very definition of science and the evolutionary implications of immunology, one is left indelibly with a strong impression of how important these testimonies were in Judge Jones' well-reasoned, and well-stated, decision; a decision that was not replete with instances of "plagiarism" and "judicial activism" - as many Intelligent Design creationists and other creationists have contended frequently here at Amazon.com, their own websites like Bill Dembski's Uncommon Descent, and elsewhere - but instead, a brilliant legal document which underscored Jones' keen understanding of what constituted valid science - contemporary evolutionary theory - and why Intelligent Design was really a fraudulent idea whose primary aim was to inject "Christian" religious values into science classrooms. Yet the "missing link" that tied Intelligent Design to religion, was unearthed by philosopher Barbara Forrest in a brilliant piece of detective work; her courtroom testimony may be the most compelling that I have read from any of the books devoted to this trial.
In "The Devil in Dover", Lauri Lebo demonstrates how she became a committed journalist interested in reporting only the truth, ignoring the pleas from her editors to offer "balance" between the opposing sides. A commitment for which she paid dearly in losing the trust and respect of her father, and then, finally, her decades-old job as a local newspaper reporter. But a superb commitment in support of the truth that we, the public, should salute Lauri Lebo for her ample courage and determination in putting an end to "The Devil in Dover". Hers is a book which deserves a wide readership, especially since the Discovery Institute is still aggressively pursuing its crypto-Fascist Wedge Strategy, as though it was some latter day group of Visigoths, Vandals and Huns, seeking to destroy all that is noble and just in Western Civilization. Oddly enough, by mere coincidence, not by "Intelligent Design", it is being published mere weeks after the debut of Ben Stein's pathetic cinematic mendacious intellectual pornography, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed", which contends that there is a virulent mainstream scientific "witch hunt" against Intelligent Design advocates, and equates most odiously, "Darwinism" with Nazism. "The Devil in Dover" also deserves ample critical acclaim as one of the best books published this year; it is truly a spellbinding affirmation of my apt description of Intelligent Design as mendacious intellectual pornography.
(Reposted from my 2008 Amazon review)
August 17, 2020
Evangelist: Some people would have you believe dinosaurs existed millions of years ago. It's just not true, God created the earth six thousand years ago. I tell my kids, you have to remember, dinosaurs and human beings lived on the earth at the same time.
Tony: What, like The Flintstones?
Evangelist: It's in the Bible.
Christopher: T-Rex in the garden of eden? No way. Adam and Eve would be runnin' all the time, scared shitless. The Bible says it was Paradise.
The Sopranos
Tony: What, like The Flintstones?
Evangelist: It's in the Bible.
Christopher: T-Rex in the garden of eden? No way. Adam and Eve would be runnin' all the time, scared shitless. The Bible says it was Paradise.
The Sopranos
October 5, 2023
Honestly 5 stars. This reminded me a lot of Say Nothing and is making me want to go read that again. I really like books written by journalists. I think it is a interesting book style to read. And the writing, so good. Tell me why I cried at the end. This was made into a beautifully crafted story that 1. I didn't even remember I was reading it for class and 2. forgot that this was supposed to be quasi academic.
August 10, 2024
3 ⭐️
I had to read this book for school. In my opinion, it started out a bit slow, but got a little more interesting by the end. If your rlly into gov/law, science, religious studies, journalism, or anything like that, I can see how you could really enjoy this. But unfortunately, as a psych major, it wasn’t my cup of tea.
I had to read this book for school. In my opinion, it started out a bit slow, but got a little more interesting by the end. If your rlly into gov/law, science, religious studies, journalism, or anything like that, I can see how you could really enjoy this. But unfortunately, as a psych major, it wasn’t my cup of tea.
January 8, 2025
This isn't just the story of a small town school board trying to impose their views on their school, it's also the story of a woman coming to terms with her faith and her career. I watched some of this play out in real time, but reading this brought out details I didn't know. Amazing story, and one that everyone interested in what's going on in their schools should read.
September 15, 2021
I enjoyed reading this book. It had a good pace, and I loved all the details included about the case and the people involved. I liked that the author wrote about the experience from her point of view, including personal details about her life and her relationship with her father.
April 9, 2019
I was expecting detailed debunking of the Intelligent Design claims, but found none. Almost complete waste of time.
December 29, 2014
In 1987 the US Supreme Court ruled that religious beliefs on creation cannot be taught in school science classes. Fundamentalist groups were outraged, but swiftly came up with a new approach: that of Intelligent Design. They positioned it not as a religious belief, but as a scientific alternative to ‘Darwinism’. And, simultaneously, they set about undermining the entire concept of science, explicitly trying to replace the dominant scientific worldview with a version that fit with their own theology. In many countries, this would likely be about as successful in this as someone trying to promote the idea that the moon was built by humans from the future. In some parts of the US, however, things run a little differently.
This book details the story of the first school board — in Dover, PA — who decided to introduce Intelligent Design into their science curriculum, and the legal battle that ensued. It was written by a local journalist, Lauri Lebo, who not only reported the case at the time, but who also personally knew many of the key people, and interviewed many of them numerous times. As such it goes quite deeply into a lot of the backstory, with a lot of attention to the human aspects of a battle that caused massive community distrust and division. Much of it is also set against a backdrop of the ongoing disagreement between Lebo and her father — who ran a local religious radio station — over the issues in the case. Lebo is clearly conflicted on many fronts, but the fact she keeps returning to throughout is her stunned belief that the entire school Board, who all shared devout religious beliefs, could so blatantly, deliberately, and repeatedly tell so many outright lies — to the community, to the national press, and indeed even to the court — throughout the entire process. As such she frames the story not so much about religion vs. science, but about truth vs. lies.
Throughout she also repeatedly grapples with the idea that journalists are supposed to be ‘balanced’. She bemoans the constant pressure to report things she knows to be false, simply in the name of a misguided objectivity — a notion artfully exploited and perpetuated by these same groups with their “teach the controversy” mantra.
[As a slight aside, on this topic I’m personally inclined to agree with [author:Neil Postman|41963], in a way that puts me out of step with both sides of this debate. For a great many people evolution is indeed little more than a quasi-religious belief. But this isn’t because the theory is wrong — it’s because it is often taught in such a way as to merely set it out as a truth that should simply be accepted. Rather than ignoring commonly held alternative beliefs on the grounds that religious views have nothing to do with scientific ones, science education should absolutely be teaching people how to weigh competing claims and see which ones seem to best fit the evidence we have. Good science should have nothing to fear from bad science, and showing pupils how to tell the difference is much more valuable than simply teaching them today’s truths.]
I’m sure there are many who would prefer a more dispassionate telling of this tale. But I’m originally from another part of the world that continues to mirror these same fights and the story resonates strongly with me. ★★★★★
This book details the story of the first school board — in Dover, PA — who decided to introduce Intelligent Design into their science curriculum, and the legal battle that ensued. It was written by a local journalist, Lauri Lebo, who not only reported the case at the time, but who also personally knew many of the key people, and interviewed many of them numerous times. As such it goes quite deeply into a lot of the backstory, with a lot of attention to the human aspects of a battle that caused massive community distrust and division. Much of it is also set against a backdrop of the ongoing disagreement between Lebo and her father — who ran a local religious radio station — over the issues in the case. Lebo is clearly conflicted on many fronts, but the fact she keeps returning to throughout is her stunned belief that the entire school Board, who all shared devout religious beliefs, could so blatantly, deliberately, and repeatedly tell so many outright lies — to the community, to the national press, and indeed even to the court — throughout the entire process. As such she frames the story not so much about religion vs. science, but about truth vs. lies.
Throughout she also repeatedly grapples with the idea that journalists are supposed to be ‘balanced’. She bemoans the constant pressure to report things she knows to be false, simply in the name of a misguided objectivity — a notion artfully exploited and perpetuated by these same groups with their “teach the controversy” mantra.
[As a slight aside, on this topic I’m personally inclined to agree with [author:Neil Postman|41963], in a way that puts me out of step with both sides of this debate. For a great many people evolution is indeed little more than a quasi-religious belief. But this isn’t because the theory is wrong — it’s because it is often taught in such a way as to merely set it out as a truth that should simply be accepted. Rather than ignoring commonly held alternative beliefs on the grounds that religious views have nothing to do with scientific ones, science education should absolutely be teaching people how to weigh competing claims and see which ones seem to best fit the evidence we have. Good science should have nothing to fear from bad science, and showing pupils how to tell the difference is much more valuable than simply teaching them today’s truths.]
I’m sure there are many who would prefer a more dispassionate telling of this tale. But I’m originally from another part of the world that continues to mirror these same fights and the story resonates strongly with me. ★★★★★
December 12, 2008
This is a very interesting and highly readable account of the 2004 court case in Dover, Pennsylvania, wherein local school board officials attempted to insert "Intelligent Design" (in a thinly disguised attempt to avoid openly mentioning biblical creationism) into the local high school biology curriculum. This resulted in a major federal court case, pitting local residents against each other in a 21st century reprise of the Scopes trial.
Lebo's analysis of the scientific issues (evolution, creationism, "Intelligent Design"), as well as the larger legal and constitutional questions involved, is impeccable and by itself is worth the read.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book to me was Lebo's careful documentation of repeated instances of local school board officials clearly stating their desire to insert creationism and religion into the curriculum, only later to openly denying that they said these things, even when confronted with videotapes of the event!
Lebo's account is also intensely personal. She herself was born and raised in a fundamentalist Christian household. Her father operated a fundamentalist Christian radio station in the Dover area. She recounts in agonizing detail her attempts to help him understand that the "Christians" in this case were liars, and that there is nothing inherently irreligious or unChristian about science in general or evolution in particular. Sadly, her efforts were to no avail, as he passed away shortly after the case, leaving their tense relationship unresolved.
Readers interested in this topic are encouraged to read Judge John E. Jones' original court decision in this case. In this classic of carefully-reasoned legal exposition, Jones is harshly critical of the deception on the part of the board members. He also explains in detail why "Intelligent Design" does not qualify as legitimate science, but instead is merely creationism thinly disguised. His decision is available at this URL:
http://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/kitzmill...
Lebo's analysis of the scientific issues (evolution, creationism, "Intelligent Design"), as well as the larger legal and constitutional questions involved, is impeccable and by itself is worth the read.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book to me was Lebo's careful documentation of repeated instances of local school board officials clearly stating their desire to insert creationism and religion into the curriculum, only later to openly denying that they said these things, even when confronted with videotapes of the event!
Lebo's account is also intensely personal. She herself was born and raised in a fundamentalist Christian household. Her father operated a fundamentalist Christian radio station in the Dover area. She recounts in agonizing detail her attempts to help him understand that the "Christians" in this case were liars, and that there is nothing inherently irreligious or unChristian about science in general or evolution in particular. Sadly, her efforts were to no avail, as he passed away shortly after the case, leaving their tense relationship unresolved.
Readers interested in this topic are encouraged to read Judge John E. Jones' original court decision in this case. In this classic of carefully-reasoned legal exposition, Jones is harshly critical of the deception on the part of the board members. He also explains in detail why "Intelligent Design" does not qualify as legitimate science, but instead is merely creationism thinly disguised. His decision is available at this URL:
http://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/kitzmill...
June 18, 2011
My very first Kindle purchase and full read!
Lebo's account of the Dover controversy and trial is engrossing. She's extremely skilled at sharing the drama and she's not afraid to make the story personal, since it *was* personal for her. I only found the one chapter describing her road trip between the end of the trial and Judge Jones' release of his ruling to be somewhat distracting or out of place, but since she had made her coverage so personal, even then you will grant her some leeway.
I took away a few things from this that I was not necessarily expecting to. One, a sense of the humanity of the school board members who passed the unconstitutional measure. Lebo became friends with Buckingham, too-- not as close as she did with Cyndi Sneath-- but she visited him in the hospital when none of the other school board or church members would. Which leads to number two: a sense of the tragedy involved here. The actions of the school board drove a wedge in a community that didn't have these divisions before. People who considered themselves good Christians who were just trying to stand up for Jesus lied without remorse or shame. The plaintiffs, attorneys, teachers, and scientists involved in the case all grew close, supported each other, worked together to get new board members elected (and succeeded!), and they remain friends to this day. Most of the defendants were thrown off the board, and barely spoke to each other again, and some are under investigation for perjury. Churches lost pastors, church members left, friends stopped speaking to each other, and children continue to grow up thinking that they must choose between faith and science-- a choice they shouldn't have to make. The devil was in Dover, all right. And to a certain extent, he succeeded-- but only really with the people who were most convinced that they were fighting him off.
Unfortunately, you can't really tell a fundamentalist that the only way to win (or at least to avoid losing) is not to play this game-- as Lauri Lebo found out. It simply doesn't compute for them.
Lebo's account of the Dover controversy and trial is engrossing. She's extremely skilled at sharing the drama and she's not afraid to make the story personal, since it *was* personal for her. I only found the one chapter describing her road trip between the end of the trial and Judge Jones' release of his ruling to be somewhat distracting or out of place, but since she had made her coverage so personal, even then you will grant her some leeway.
I took away a few things from this that I was not necessarily expecting to. One, a sense of the humanity of the school board members who passed the unconstitutional measure. Lebo became friends with Buckingham, too-- not as close as she did with Cyndi Sneath-- but she visited him in the hospital when none of the other school board or church members would. Which leads to number two: a sense of the tragedy involved here. The actions of the school board drove a wedge in a community that didn't have these divisions before. People who considered themselves good Christians who were just trying to stand up for Jesus lied without remorse or shame. The plaintiffs, attorneys, teachers, and scientists involved in the case all grew close, supported each other, worked together to get new board members elected (and succeeded!), and they remain friends to this day. Most of the defendants were thrown off the board, and barely spoke to each other again, and some are under investigation for perjury. Churches lost pastors, church members left, friends stopped speaking to each other, and children continue to grow up thinking that they must choose between faith and science-- a choice they shouldn't have to make. The devil was in Dover, all right. And to a certain extent, he succeeded-- but only really with the people who were most convinced that they were fighting him off.
Unfortunately, you can't really tell a fundamentalist that the only way to win (or at least to avoid losing) is not to play this game-- as Lauri Lebo found out. It simply doesn't compute for them.
March 30, 2009
I was in the library on Friday picking up an Interlibrary Loan book, and noticed the Devil in Dover sitting on the New Arrivals shelf.
Less than 48 hours later I have read it. Damn, I enjoyed this book.
First things first - Lebo is a journalist, and so the book is very clearly written and a fast read. It covers the Dover Trial in Pennsylvania, where a creationist school board attempted to alter Dover's science curriculum so that Intelligent Design would be taught alongside evolution. Local parents sued, and it became a litmus test case for the teaching of religious concepts in science classes, much like the Scopes Monkey Trial and the case that caused the ruling that teaching creation science in biology courses was unconstitutional.
It is fascinating. Lebo covered the trial and so her account is firsthand - but she is also local to the area, and grew up within shouting distance of Dover. She is probably someone who could be considered agnostic, but her father was not only religious but the owner of a local conservative religious radio station, and her account is scattered with meditations on their relationship. Beginning with no thorough scientific background, she describes her own first impressions of Intelligent Design (as a pretty good idea) and the evolution of her thoughts as she educates herself on the issues.
Many of the plaintiffs in the suit, parents of children who would be subject to the altered curriculum, were themselves religious, whether Catholic, Mormon, or Baptist. She covers the bonds that formed between people in both camps, how the battle tore the tiny town apart, the bravery of the parents, and the arrogance of the school board - it is, above all, a book about people.
I never thought the lead up to and execution of a long legal battle could be written to be a quick and interesting read, but Lebo proves me wrong.
Less than 48 hours later I have read it. Damn, I enjoyed this book.
First things first - Lebo is a journalist, and so the book is very clearly written and a fast read. It covers the Dover Trial in Pennsylvania, where a creationist school board attempted to alter Dover's science curriculum so that Intelligent Design would be taught alongside evolution. Local parents sued, and it became a litmus test case for the teaching of religious concepts in science classes, much like the Scopes Monkey Trial and the case that caused the ruling that teaching creation science in biology courses was unconstitutional.
It is fascinating. Lebo covered the trial and so her account is firsthand - but she is also local to the area, and grew up within shouting distance of Dover. She is probably someone who could be considered agnostic, but her father was not only religious but the owner of a local conservative religious radio station, and her account is scattered with meditations on their relationship. Beginning with no thorough scientific background, she describes her own first impressions of Intelligent Design (as a pretty good idea) and the evolution of her thoughts as she educates herself on the issues.
Many of the plaintiffs in the suit, parents of children who would be subject to the altered curriculum, were themselves religious, whether Catholic, Mormon, or Baptist. She covers the bonds that formed between people in both camps, how the battle tore the tiny town apart, the bravery of the parents, and the arrogance of the school board - it is, above all, a book about people.
I never thought the lead up to and execution of a long legal battle could be written to be a quick and interesting read, but Lebo proves me wrong.
July 12, 2013
If you have any interest in science education or the influence of hard-right Christianity at the local level, then this book is a must-read.
I read pretty much the entire book while flying across the country. I'd planned to spend the flight watching a movie or something to pass the time, but this book, once I got started, I had to keep going. It's as well-written as any novel with a surprisingly emotional core.
I remember when the Kitzmiller v. Dover decision came down. I was in college, just starting to learn about politics and religion, and Jones' decision warmed my heart. I knew a little about intelligent design, enough to know it's a sham. The Devil in Dover gives a clearer picture of what exactly happened in Dover, PA. Why this school board made the decision it did, and how the parents of Dover fought back. The school board's actions are stunning and infuriating. Their logic is one I know I'll never understand, no matter how much I study politics or religion.
The author, Lauri Lebo, grew up with these people. She knows them intimately, and she's as mystified as an outsider would be. The book is as much about her trying to understand this particular brand of fundamentalist Christianity as explaining the events that led to Kitzmiller v. Dover. She doesn't come to any earth-shattering conclusion, just the simple point that science is amazing. And that's something the members of the school board will never accept.
I read pretty much the entire book while flying across the country. I'd planned to spend the flight watching a movie or something to pass the time, but this book, once I got started, I had to keep going. It's as well-written as any novel with a surprisingly emotional core.
I remember when the Kitzmiller v. Dover decision came down. I was in college, just starting to learn about politics and religion, and Jones' decision warmed my heart. I knew a little about intelligent design, enough to know it's a sham. The Devil in Dover gives a clearer picture of what exactly happened in Dover, PA. Why this school board made the decision it did, and how the parents of Dover fought back. The school board's actions are stunning and infuriating. Their logic is one I know I'll never understand, no matter how much I study politics or religion.
The author, Lauri Lebo, grew up with these people. She knows them intimately, and she's as mystified as an outsider would be. The book is as much about her trying to understand this particular brand of fundamentalist Christianity as explaining the events that led to Kitzmiller v. Dover. She doesn't come to any earth-shattering conclusion, just the simple point that science is amazing. And that's something the members of the school board will never accept.
August 24, 2017
As has been noted in other reviews, The Devil in Dover is one of many stories about Kitzmiller vs. Dover, yet another battle in the war between the theory of evolution and the Christian story of creation.
What I found particularly interesting is the way Lebo weaves her personal experience of these events into the story. As the trial goes on Lebo finds herself leaning increasingly towards the theory of evolution, which brings her into inevitable conflict with her fundamentalist father. She details how neighbor is turned against neighbor over largely imaginary distinctions that never troubled anyone before the school board made its ill-fated decision to introduce "intelligent design" into the classroom.
In addition the reader is treated to a view of how Lebo grapples with the reality that the fine upstanding Christians she's been taught to revere are lying under oath. She must also deal with her publisher, who insists that journalistic standards require Lebo to treat both sides of the debate as equally substantive when the facts suggest otherwise.
The Devil in Dover manages to be about science, community, family and journalism all at once, without ever seeming scattered and unfocused. That's a successful story, and one I highly recommend.
What I found particularly interesting is the way Lebo weaves her personal experience of these events into the story. As the trial goes on Lebo finds herself leaning increasingly towards the theory of evolution, which brings her into inevitable conflict with her fundamentalist father. She details how neighbor is turned against neighbor over largely imaginary distinctions that never troubled anyone before the school board made its ill-fated decision to introduce "intelligent design" into the classroom.
In addition the reader is treated to a view of how Lebo grapples with the reality that the fine upstanding Christians she's been taught to revere are lying under oath. She must also deal with her publisher, who insists that journalistic standards require Lebo to treat both sides of the debate as equally substantive when the facts suggest otherwise.
The Devil in Dover manages to be about science, community, family and journalism all at once, without ever seeming scattered and unfocused. That's a successful story, and one I highly recommend.
December 19, 2014
This is a very good personally narrative of the Dover trial. The writer is a local journalist, and this gives her an objective overall view of everything that happened. Lebo is also a local to the area, so the book incorporates her own personal interactions with the people involved in the trial.
The one thing that bothered me was the discussion throughout that one can be both religious and accept evolution. This isn't really an issue with Lebo's writing; it's a reflection of the overall discussion of evolution. Lebo accurately portrays how this was an issue during the trial and in the community. She accurately portrays this issue as it relates to her own life and personal beliefs. So my annoyance is really at the way the religious implications of evolution are actually discussed, rather than at anything in the book itself. That aspect of the discussion minimizes the experience of religious minorities. This shows up in the book a bit: two of the plaintiffs' attorneys are Jewish. There are no nonbelievers. Everyone else in the book is Christian. I would have liked to hear some more non-Christian voices, but I understand they weren't part of the trial and surrounding discussion in Dover.
The one thing that bothered me was the discussion throughout that one can be both religious and accept evolution. This isn't really an issue with Lebo's writing; it's a reflection of the overall discussion of evolution. Lebo accurately portrays how this was an issue during the trial and in the community. She accurately portrays this issue as it relates to her own life and personal beliefs. So my annoyance is really at the way the religious implications of evolution are actually discussed, rather than at anything in the book itself. That aspect of the discussion minimizes the experience of religious minorities. This shows up in the book a bit: two of the plaintiffs' attorneys are Jewish. There are no nonbelievers. Everyone else in the book is Christian. I would have liked to hear some more non-Christian voices, but I understand they weren't part of the trial and surrounding discussion in Dover.
February 5, 2017
The Devil in Dover is a good about the Kitzmiller vs Dover Area School District Trial regarding Panda's and People and teaching Creationism. Actually Intelligent Design but both in the end were deemed the same beast. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitzmil...
It is one of the big battles regarding this and its effects have been deep.
But unlike some kind of deep technical journalism book this is about the people. About people with different opinions, how they feel, and why they support some causes. This book is about how a local journalist had to deal with family and friends on both sides. And had to deal with the media circus, the parents that joined the lawsuit and more.
This is a very human book. This shows the human side in a battle of minds. A battle of ideas and thoughts. And it shows just the damage it can do.
So don't expect deep journalistic details into the case. But expect an insight in how the people felt and thought in that time. And the long lasting effect is has had.
Great book, good insight into the human condition.
It is one of the big battles regarding this and its effects have been deep.
But unlike some kind of deep technical journalism book this is about the people. About people with different opinions, how they feel, and why they support some causes. This book is about how a local journalist had to deal with family and friends on both sides. And had to deal with the media circus, the parents that joined the lawsuit and more.
This is a very human book. This shows the human side in a battle of minds. A battle of ideas and thoughts. And it shows just the damage it can do.
So don't expect deep journalistic details into the case. But expect an insight in how the people felt and thought in that time. And the long lasting effect is has had.
Great book, good insight into the human condition.
September 14, 2011
This is a very riviting story about Kitzmiller v. Dover, written by a local journalist that was covering the trial for her local paper. This trial was over the inclusion of Intelligent Design/Creationism into the science classes in Dover. I was familiar already with most of the details (it is the only case that I have actually read the Judges ruling,) but not some of the personal aspects. The author is sympathetic to the board members and tries to understand their position and motivations. Why did they make this change in policy even though they knew they would be sued and it would tear the community apart? Why did they lie under oath even though they were representing themselves as good Christians who were fighting on behalf of their God? The personal stories and the discussions and arguments she had with her father, who ran a Christian radio station, added to the book. This book is not necessarily a science book, but it does have scientific explanations of some key evolutionary concepts. All of it is very readable.
December 29, 2016
This is the third book I’ve read on the Dover, PA Intelligent Design (ID) trial. Each book was captivating for its own reasons, like the synoptic gospels of some scientific passion narrative. The author is a Dover-area reporter who covered the trial, knew many of the figures, and narrates the small-town background better than the other books. She provides different sides of local religious nuts and intolerant School Board members, all who are in turn arrogant, endearing, and idiotic. Lebo’s own father owns a Christian radio station and her relationship with him—not the most interesting part of the book—threads its way through the account of the case. The trial’s salt-of-the-earth parents/plaintiffs—many conservative and church going—contrast nicely with the lying, rude, and simpleton School Board members; there are many “Frank Capra moments.” Dazzling is the professionalism of the journalists and the expert science witnesses; astounding is the mendacity of the ID defenders—what frauds!
December 29, 2008
This book is a journalist’s coverage of the struggle in one New England town over whether to teach “intelligent design” alongside evolution in the public school. The school board allowed itself to be a test case in the controversy by bringing in the Thomas More Law Center, a group devoted to stirring the waters in the debate over “intelligent design”. When it became clear that the board’s use of the term “creationism” would hamper their case, members flat out lied, denying they’d said stuff that many witnesses and the local media had heard. Very scary book, as it highlights the efforts of some to force their religious beliefs on others.
The book has a good definition of what makes “science” distinct from “pseudo-science”: “It must be guided by natural law; it has to be explanatory by reference to natural law; it is testable against the empirical world; its conclusions are tentative, that is, not necessarily the final word; it is falsifiable.”
The book has a good definition of what makes “science” distinct from “pseudo-science”: “It must be guided by natural law; it has to be explanatory by reference to natural law; it is testable against the empirical world; its conclusions are tentative, that is, not necessarily the final word; it is falsifiable.”
January 10, 2010
Lauri Lebo was a local reporter in Dover, Pennsylvania where the local school board tried to put intelligent design in the science curriculem in the high school. Her books is a straight forward accounting of the resultant activity and trial.
Simply, intelligent design is religion. Putting ID in the classroom was found to be, like the many cases preceding it, unconstitutional.
The local school board made every mistake in the book.
This trial, and this book, should be a warning for those who want to substitute religion for science in our schools.
Simply, intelligent design is religion. Putting ID in the classroom was found to be, like the many cases preceding it, unconstitutional.
The local school board made every mistake in the book.
This trial, and this book, should be a warning for those who want to substitute religion for science in our schools.
February 8, 2012
This book was an account of the Dover trial (the school board tried to introduce intelligent design into schools) written by a reporter who attended the whole trial. It was a good account and covered all the important events (which I already knew since I followed the trial closely) and also talked about some of her personal struggles with her fundamentalist father. Her writing is nothing special, although she does bring up some interesting points, especially about journalistic reporting for a case like this.
February 1, 2009
Lauri Lebo writes about the Kitzmiller v. Dover case from the unique perspective of someone who grew up in the local community. Her coverage of the trial is complete, if not overly thorough. If you're looking to gain an insight into how the trial affected "the locals," this is the book for you. But if you want a more detailed coverage of the trial itself, I'd recommend "40 Days and 40 Nights" instead.
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