WHAT'S NEW Friday, June 03, 2005

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WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 3 Jun 05 Washington, DC

1. PRIVILEGED RELIGION: SMITHSONIAN WILL SHOW A FAITH-BASED FILM.
Saturday's NY Times had a story about the premiere of a movie,
"The Privileged Planet," to be held at the Smithsonian's Museum
of Natural History. The museum would co-sponsor the showing in
return for a $16,000 contribution from the Discovery Institute.
This is the organization that's pushing "Intelligent Design" as a
Bible-friendly alternative to evolution. If it's the money,
James Randi announced, he would offer $20,000 not to show the
film. It apparently was not the money. Yesterday, the museum
director stated that on further review the film is not consistent
with the Smithsonian mission. The museum will not sponsor the
film and will return the money -- but space for the event is
still being provided. Is this the Supernatural History Museum?
Yesterday, the WN team viewed the film. It went beyond the
"intelligent design" of humans. It seems the busy Designer-In-
The-Sky also designed a planet for us. Not just a place to live,
but a room with a view, perfectly situated to let us discover the
rest of the universe. It's the old anthropic argument that the
laws of Nature are fine tuned to make life possible, but with a
discovery requirement tossed in. So what does the Smithsonian
do? It lets them in free. That means taxpayers are subsidizing
the Discovery Institute. Which brings up the next question: this
is an expensive production where does the money come from?

2. "FOLLOW THE MONEY": THE ADVICE OF "DEEP THROAT" TO WOODWARD.
"The Privileged Planet" was produced by Illustra Media. When we
asked who paid for it they said we would have to write their
lawyers. We were able to identify the Crowell Trust, established
by the founder of Quaker Oats, which promotes "the doctrines of
Evangelical Christianity." The film was based on a book by
Guillermo Gonsalez and Jay Richards. It was published by
Regnery, whose authors are at the extreme right of the spectrum.
Richards is vice president of Discovery Institute, a non-profit
educational foundation with deep-pocket contributors. Gonzalez
is an assistant research professor at Iowa State. In the book,
he acknowledges financial support from the Templeton Foundation.

3. UNLOCKING THE MYSTERY: THE OTHER DISCOVERY INSTITUTE FILM.
Back in January, the PBS television station in Albuquerque had
scheduled a documentary on evolution, "Unlocking the Mystery of
Life." The film, which came from the Discovery Institute had
been offered as a free feed by the National Educational
Television Association. The Crowell Trust also helped on this
one. When the station realized it was funded by evangelical
Christian groups it pulled the film, saying there was a
scheduling conflict. We viewed this one too. Like "Privileged
Planet," production values were high. It's easy to see how it
could pass as serious science to non-scientists unfamiliar with
the issues. Watson and Crick might be surprised to learn that
the discovery of the structure of DNA proved there was an
intelligent designer. The important point is that we can now
expect them to attempt to get Privileged Planet on PBS stations.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.
Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
University of Maryland, but they should be.
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