Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2007 |
| length | 110 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Joseph McMaster Gary Johnstone |
| script | Joseph McMaster |
| production | Paula Apsell Bonnie Benjamin-Phariss Laurie Cahalane Patrick Carey David Condon Richard Hutton Gary Johnstone Joseph McMaster Lisa Mirowitz Susanne Simpson Anna Lee Strachan Stephen Sweigart Vanessa Tovell Melanie Wallace |
| music | Rob Morsberger |
| camera |
John Chater Brian Dowley Tom Kaufman Christopher Titus King Steve McCarthy Keith Walker |
| cut | Laureen Aguirre Susan K. Lewis Jonathan Sahula |
| occupation | |
| |
Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial (English for: Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on trial) is an American excellent series about the process v Kitzmiller. Dover Area School District , which dealt with the question of whether the pseudoscience “Intelligent Design” should be recognized as a science and can be taught in schools.
The documentary first appeared on PBS on November 13, 2007 and contains interviews with the judge, witnesses and attorneys. Scenes from the trial are re-enacted with actors.
Judgment Day was developed by NOVA and Vulcan Productions in collaboration with Big Table Film Company. Senior Executive Producer was Paula S. Apsell, Executive Producer was Richard Hutton and the producers were Joseph McMaster, Gary Johnstone and Vanessa Tovell. Susanne Simpson was the senior producer. Johnstone and McMaster directed and McMaster provided the script.
In 2008, the film received the Peabody Award and the Science Journalism Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science .
Summary
The documentary combines real-life interviews with reenactments of the events that took place during the controversy. The school board of Dover , a small rural town in Pennsylvania , had a school policy that required biology teachers at Dover Area High School to read a passage claiming that evolution was just a theory with gaps. The passage then pointed them out to a couple of books that advocated intelligent design theory. One of these books was called Of Pandas and People . Several biology teachers, including the interviewed Brian and Cristy Rehm, refused to read the statement. They contacted the American Civil Liberties Union and filed the lawsuit, which, under the name, Kitzmiller vs. Dover (named after the plaintiff Tammy Kitzmiller, whose child went to school) became famous. The lawsuit was designed to prevent the school from teaching the teaching of intelligent design in science classes. The defendants, members of the Dover County School Board, argued that ID was a scientific theory and therefore deserved to be taught alongside evolution in schools. The plaintiffs argued that intelligent design was a religious doctrine. There was also the question of whether the board members had promoted the teaching of intelligent design in order to covertly introduce creationism into public schools. Earlier American jurisprudence had expressly considered it unconstitutional to teach the doctrine of creationism in schools as it violated the separation of church and state . After hearing the statements of scientists in favor of and against intelligent design, Judge John E. Jones III ruled that intelligent design was a religious theory. This theory should not be part of a scientific curriculum. In addition, the film also describes how the city was divided into proponents and opponents of intelligent design and mentions that a picture painted by a student that supports Darwin's theory was stolen and burned. President George W. Bush and Pennsylvania's then-Governor Rick Santorum spoke during the trial and expressed their support for the intelligent design theory. The film also interviews Neil Shubin , who says finds of fossils derived from intermediate forms of extinct living things would provide evidence of evolution. Using a Tiktaalik fossil find, Shubin describes why the theory of evolution is correct. The scientist Kevin Padian of the University of California , Berkeley describes his appearance in court and how he described to the court how scientists work and why they came to the known results. The film also briefly describes how Charles Darwin developed the theory of evolution during his trip with the HMS Beagle to the Galapagos Islands. This theory was later confirmed by the development of molecular biology and genetics . The scientist Eugenie Scott comments on the counter-arguments of the defendant and rejects their arguments. These would cling to certain problems or unsolved questions in the theory of evolution in order to overthrow the whole theory.
The film describes the essential parts of the process in which the judge catches members of the school administration perjury. A member of the school administration, Bill Buckingham, had said in an interview that his ultimate goal was to convey creationism - a claim that the defendants actually wanted to avoid. In addition, Buckingham had claimed that he did not know where the money for the books Of Pandas and People came from. In court, he had to admit that he had prayed in church for someone to donate money to buy the books. The community members would then have donated the money. Buckingham then declared the money as a donation from an anonymous businessman . This anonymous businessman was the father of fellow ally Alan Bonsell, a school board member and creationist. Judge Jones, referred to as "Jackass" by Buckingham in the later interview, upheld the lawsuit and Buckingham and Bonsell were later opened to perjury charges . As evidence that the book Of Pandas and People had a religious agenda, predecessors to the book before 1987 served. The authors changed after 1987 after the Edwards vs. Aguillard used the terms creator by designer and brought out the book in 1989 under a new title. In addition, the words "creationists" have been replaced by "design proponents". The editors made an embarrassing mistake when they did not completely remove "creationists", but copied "design proponents" over it in such a way that the word "cdesign proponentsists" was created. The interviewed defenders of science ridiculed the authors for this.
Jones also later said that it makes no sense to teach school children bad science and then later expect them to cure illnesses. Jones received death threats following the trial, and he and his family were placed under police protection. Christian evangelical television preacher Pat Robertson also commented on the trial:
... to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city
“… To the good citizens of Dover: If there is disaster in your area, do not turn to God. You just rejected him from your city "
During the trial, the people of Dover voted out of office and replaced the entire school administration with representatives who rejected Intelligent Design .
Reactions
The documentary was positively received by many scientific organizations. The Nature Journal praised the film.
Variety magazine wrote a very positive review and named the show one of the most important television projects. This movie should be known in every high school and church.
Creationists and supporters of intelligent design criticized the film. The creationist Discovery Institute commented on the film on their website. Even Answers in Genesis spoke negatively about the film.
The Institute for Creation Research (ICR) described the film as unbalanced. The station WKNO-TV , from Memphis , Tennessee, did not want to show the film because of its controversial topic. This decision was later revoked.
additional
- Excerpts from the feature film Who sows the wind were shown.
- Judgment Day not only stands for "Judgment Day" in English, it also describes the day of judgment .
Web links
- Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Judgment Day from PBS
- Watch online
- Special Collection: Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial , Teacher's Domain Multimedia Resources
- Teacher's Guide: Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial , NOVA
- Judgment Day Intelligent Day on Trial Briefing Packet for Educators: Resources to help you meet challenges to teach evolution , PBS
Individual evidence
- ^ Cornelia Dean: Battlefield Report From the Evolution War (English) , New York Times . November 11, 2007. Retrieved November 17, 2007.
- ↑ a b Brian Lowry: Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial ( English ) In: Recently Reviewed . Variety. November 12, 2007. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
- ↑ Complete List of 2007 Peabody Award Winners ( Memento from February 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ AAAS Announces Winners of the 2008 AAAS Science Journalism Awards (English) , American Association for the Advancement of Science . April 8, 2008. Archived from the original on May 1, 2009 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved April 6, 2008.
- ↑ Television: Dover trial documentary screens (English) , Nature . November 8, 2007. Retrieved November 17, 2007.
- ^ Judgment Day Accurate, NCSE Reports , National Center for Science Education . November 13, 2007. Retrieved November 17, 2007.
- ↑ Judgment Day Praised in Nature ( English ) National Center for Science Education. November 8, 2007. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
- ↑ Darwin's Failed Predictions ( English ) In: www.judgingpbs.com . Discovery Institute. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
- ^ PBS, Darwin and Dover: an Interview with Phillip Johnson , Intelligent Design the Future podcast , November 12, 2007
- ^ Looy, Mark: Is it over after Dover? ( English ) Answers in Genesis. November 14, 2007. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
- ↑ David A. DeWitt, PhD: Biased Judgment: Comments on NOVA TV's Judgment Day and his opinion on the Dover ID process ( English ) Answers in Genesis. November 16, 2007. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
- ↑ Christine Dao: PBS '"Judgment Day" Is a Misjudgment ( English ) Institute for Creation Research. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
- ↑ Topic too hot for WKNO: Show on intelligent design didn't air here (English) , Commercial Appeal . November 15, 2007. Retrieved November 17, 2007.
