Submitted to a Candid World

We Americans have a curious relationship with our elites. The remark of Alexis de Toqueville on American elitism, in his seminal work Democracy in America - “there is no class here” - was probably more aspirational than accurate, but it does reflect a central tenet of the American Mythology, that before the law, before God, and before one’s citizens, no man is objectively better than the other.

A noble idea, equally powerful and resonant today in our own modern struggles for egalitarianism. Unfortunately, the American anti-classist ideal - that no citizen is predestined to mediocrity, but rather has the right to work, without restraints, to the very pinnacle of society - has been parlayed into a suspicion of earned expert knowledge as “elitist.” According to this tortured understanding of democracy, citizens are entitled not merely to an equality of opportunity in the marketplace of ideas, but to an equality of result between expert and the uninformed opinion. To save the Republic and its democratic foundations, we must distinguish between the right to compete in the marketplace of ideas, democratically and without restraint, and the right to vote out uncomfortable realities. Democracy demands the former; its very survival requires us to reject the latter. (more…)

Reader(s) - thank you so much for coming to this site, reading, and commenting.  I enjoy writing, and I truly enjoy reading your responses.  Unfortunately, I don’t think I can sustain my breakneck posting rate (>2 per day) during the law school exam period.  Apologies, but please keep visiting, as I will still make every effort to post daily.  And there are good things ahead.

And candy.  I promise.

Wish me luck.

A while back, I wrote a post about how Ben Stein has legally shot the entire intelligent design movement in the foot. As a recap, the potential legality of teaching intelligent design in schools turned upon characterizing it as scientific, not religious. Stein has, at every turn, conflated science and religion, to the neverending sadness of the Discovery Institute, we can imagine.

Let’s look at the latest example. A little while back, a creationist outfit, “Creation Science Evangelism,” was running a special, by which a visitor to the site could obtain a DVD on creationism (a $17.95 value!) for free. I couldn’t resist. Enclosed in the envelope containing the DVD was the flyer you see above. I hope you can read it well. Please look at the third bullet point, which reads…

Learn how to defend your belief in God based on scientific evidence.

Stein has come clean: the entire purpose of intelligent design is to defend God. Ben Stein, thank you for making your movie, and tying it inextricably with one of the least respected “creation science” groups known to mankind. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

While you’re at it, please read an article, written on a friend site of mine, excoriating the intelligent design movement for its intellectual dishonesty.