THE battle between Darwinian evolution and intelligent design, its creationist would-be nemesis, is easy to caricature. The same can be said for the court case over whether the school board in Dover, Pennsylvania, should be allowed to insist that ID be taught in science lessons.
Like the infamous Scopes “monkey” trial 80 years ago, which challenged the teaching of evolution in Tennessee, the Dover case seems to slot neatly into the polarised political landscape of the day: traditionalists versus progressives, dogma versus evidence, religion versus science, rural versus urban, ignorance versus enlightenment. But the reality is more complicated and more interesting. The caricature not only obstructs proper discussion of ID, it also…
