We are forever being told by the Discovery Institute that they do not favor requiring ID to be taught in schools along with evolution. Bill Dembski doesn't appear to have gotten that memo because every time a politician comes out for that policy, he cheers them on. When President Bush came out in favor of teaching ID in public schools, Dembski said:
A lot has happened since then, with the evidence of biology now revealing a universe chock-full of design. President Bush is therefore completely on target in wanting intelligent design taught in the public school science curriculum.
Now he's doing the same thing for Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who is pushing for inclusion of ID in public school science classrooms along with evolution despite the recent Federal court ruling against that. Dembski reprints the entire article on his blog and praises it by saying, "Leave it to a Red State to come through in time of need." Perhaps Dembski needs to talk to his bosses at the DI, who insist that they do not favor the teaching of ID in public school science classrooms.
Of course, the DI itself didn't have a coherent position on Bush's statement either. Bush said that he thought that "both sides" ought to be taught, which of course means that's what he thinks should be in the curriculum, what should be required to be taught. The DI's response was to try and have it both ways:
"President Bush is to be commended for defending free speech on evolution, and supporting the right of students to hear about different scientific views about evolution," said Dr. John West, Associate Director of the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute, the nation's leading think tank supporting research on the theory of intelligent design. Intelligent design proposes that some features of the natural world are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process such as natural selection.
Discovery Institute opposes mandating the teaching of intelligent design, but it supports requiring students to know about scientific criticisms of Darwin's theory...
In other words, "President Bush is to be commended for advocating what we claim not to advocate (wink, wink)." These guys just cannot seem to get their rhetoric straight.
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An aside, Texas wasn't a "red" state until Delay managed his redistricting hocus pocus.
On a related point, Judge Jones pointed out the duplicitous nature of the ID movement in his memorandum opinion in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District. While the proponents of ID, such as the Discovery Institute, maintain that ID does not require belief in God or in any specific religious point of view, the so called "Wedge Document" drafted by the DI's "Center for Renewal of Science and Culture" specifically laid out a 5-year plan to supplant modern science with "theistic and Christian science," and to teach, in public schools, that "human beings are created by God."
At least the old "creation scientists" were honest about their attempt to bring religion directly into the science classroom. These ID folks can't even advocate their true beliefs openly and honestly. It's no wonder Judge Jones - a conservative Bush appointee - was so critical of the Dover School District.