September 25, 2008

"Cdesign Proponentsists"

For years, "intelligent design" (ID) proponents denied that ID is just a new label for creationism. However, it is now well-known that the first intelligent design "textbook," Of Pandas and People, is just a revised version of a classic "two-model' creationism vs. evolution book named Creation Biology. As Barbara Forrest showed during her testimony in Kitzmiller v. Dover, Pandas was remade into an intelligent design textbook in 1987, in a few months after the Supreme Court ruling against creation science in Edwards v. Aguillard came down.

The most striking example of the transition was discovered by Dr. Forrest as she compared the drafts of Creation Biology and Of Pandas and People. Not only had "creationism" and "creationist" literally been replaced, apparently via a word processor, with "intelligent design" and "design proponent" in passages that were otherwise unchanged, but she even found a transitional form between the two labels!

Scanned images of this passage, in its various versions, are shown below.

Creation Biology (1983), p. 3-34:


Biology and Creation (1986), p. 3-33:


Biology and Origins (1987), p. 3-38:


Of Pandas and People (1987, creationist version), p. 3-40:


Of Pandas and People (1987, intelligent design version), p. 3-41:


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