Kitzmiller Study

In the case of Kitzmiller versus Dover Area School District, the plaintiff Kitzmiller argued that the defendant, Dover Area School District, changed the curriculum of a biology course on the theory of evolution to intelligent design, which is a form of creationism. The defendants tried to deny that Intelligent Design a form of creationism but a form of true science. On the topic of scientific world view, further examination will take place on how science is democratic, how illegitimate forms of argumentation take place in this case and how intelligent design is a pseudoscience. Science is democratic and a scientist hypothesis can be tested by other scientists and try to be replicate the same findings, if there is not enough evidence to support the hypothesis then the validity of the hypothesis comes into question. Biochemist from Lehigh University, Michael Behe, was crossed examined by Juris Doctor, Eric Rotchschild, who questioned the
validity of his book “Darwins Black Box” on irreducible complexity. Irreducible complexity is when an intelligent design must have taken part in the biological systems that are too complex for the theory of evolution to validate. Dr. Behe claimed his book had been meticulously peer reviewed than any scientific article. When he mentioned Dr. Michael Atchison as being a peer reviewer, Dr. Atchison had written an article stating that he never saw the manuscript and was uncertain whether Dr. Behe book was decent since his topic of origin of life was still up for debate. In this case, there are illegitimate forms of argumentation made by the defendants.
One example would be fallacy of negation. Fallacy of negation is when argument A is false and if Argument A is false then it makes Argument B true. The book “Of Pandas and People,” claimed that due to the gaps in the fossil record, it must have been created by an intelligent designer. The defendants did not challenge the theory of evolution to see if it was true in regards to the fossil record. The statement from an expert witness on the case, paleontologist Kevin Padian, mentioned that the arguments in book about the fossil record are false. Another illegitimate form of argumentation would be arguments from ignorance. Arguments from ignorance is when a person thinks a theory is wrong because it cannot be explained. Dr. Behe coined the term irreducible complexity, and thought it was true since it could not be proven otherwise. This example is an argument from ignorance irreducible complexity cannot be disproved, but that doesn’t make it
true. Lastly, intelligent design is a form of creationism. Mr. Rothschild showed a comparison slide of the early draft of Pandas and People with the published version adjacently. After the defendants denied ever speaking of creationism and insisting on intelligent design, the publishers still had the drafts that proved otherwise. The text shown was roughly similar with the exceptions that “Creation” was changed to “intelligent design” and “intelligent creator” to “intelligent agency”. Intelligent design claims that origin of life, such as DNA structure, is complex and can only be explained by “intelligent designer” and not evolved by natural selection. The case between Kitzmiller versus the Dover Area School District proved that creationism is not a form of true science but a form of pseudoscience because it shows a lack of progress as well as imprecise scientific sounding language and emphasis on confirmation rather than refuting other theories. Also in the area of science, a theory must be testable and if not testable by another scientist then it cannot be considered a theory of science.