Marketing Intelligent Design

Recently a new battle has emerged between science and religion. The battle has focused on intelligent design (ID) and the numerous legal, philosophical, and educational concerns surrounding it. Resolution of these concerns centers on two questions: Is ID science? And is ID religion? Despite the fact that ID does not meet the standards of scientific rigor, ID proponents have been able to create a remarkably well-designed marketing plan aimed at imposing a theistic naturalism in schools and scientific discourse. Both the ID movement and some of its most vociferous opponents have a vested interest in suggesting that science, especially evolutionary biology, and religion are incompatible. This book presents a philosophical and legal counterpoint by demonstrating the compatibility between religion and evolutionary biology and the incompatibility between ID and mainstream science.

Professor Frank S. Ravitch is the Walter H. Stowers Chair in Law and Religion at the Michigan State University College of Law. He is most recently the author of Masters of Illusion: The Supreme Court and the Religion Clauses (2007) and Law and Religion, A Reader: Cases, Concepts, and Theory, 2nd Edition (2008). He has also published numerous law review articles dealing with law and religion, civil rights law and disability discrimination. Ravitch regularly serves as an expert for print and broadcast media and speaks on topics related to church-state and civil rights law to a wide range of national and local organizations.