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 You have to hand it to Sen. Rick Santorum (at left, with Goliath). With the possibility of a dogfight in the general election — and with a possible loan scandal, courtesy of Will Bunch — you might think Santorum would run toward the center. And by “run toward the center,” I mean, “avoid saying anything too controversial.” Santorum has his views out there views, and I don’t think it’s political posturing. It seems he actually believes them. And that’s fine, he can think what he wants to, &c. &c.
But you might think his handlers would be like, “Hey, Rick, lay off the gays for a little bit.” Or, you know, “Hey, Ricky, try not to tell everyone how you communicate directly with God.” But, no, Rick doesn’t do any of that. In fact, he does the opposite: He writes the foreward to an intelligent design book.
Sigh. Yes, Santorum has written the foreward to Darwin’s Nemesis: Phillip Johnson and the Intelligent Design Movement, which comes out in paperback in late April.
For those of you not in the know, intelligent design is the belief that God created the world and set up everything and bada bing, bada boom. Intelligent design rejects evolution — so it’s not like a Catholic school teaching religion one period and biology the next — yells “teach the controversy” and wants it taught alongside evolution. Except, well, there isn’t much to it besides “Wow, humans sure are complicated. Musta been God!”
Right. And so Santorum has written the foreward to a book of essays honoring Phillip Johnson, who wrote Darwin on Trial and is credited with getting this BS into classrooms. Here’s Rick’s foreward:
This volume celebrates Phillip Johnson’s leadership in the intelligent design (ID) movement. Scholars who have known Phil best and worked with him most closely assembled in April 2004 at Biola University to present him with a collection of papers in his honor. I wish I could have been there to offer my congratulations and thanks in person. Instead, I have the privilege of writing this brief foreword from Washington.
Since the publication of “Darwin on Trial” more than ten years ago, Phillip Johnson has provided extraordinary leadership for an extraordinary cause, namely, to rid science of false philosophy. The importance of the cause is clear: what could be more important than showing that only a shallow, partisan understanding of science supports the false philosophy of materialist reductionism with its thoroughly unscientific denial of formal and final causes in nature and its repudiation of the first cause of all being? As the decline of true science has been a major factor in the decline of Western culture, so too the renewal of science will play a big part in cultural renewal.
Johnson’s extraordinary leadership also is clear: rather than fall into the trap of building a cult of personality around himself and his own considerable intellectual talents, he has instead helped raise up and promote a whole group of intellectual leaders in the cause of scientific renewal. This kind of selfless Christian leadership is a shining example to us all, young and old.
Speaking of the young, I personally wish to commend Phil for the great help he has given me in my efforts to inject a renewed and unbiased understanding of science and its practice into the curricula of our public schools. There is much more for us to do, but working with Phil’s colleagues at Seattle’s Discovery Institute, we have begun the difficult fight for removing the stranglehold of philosophical materialism on textbook science.
Phil, I congratulate and praise you for your tireless work to return science to a sure philosophical grounding in the nature of things as they really are. Please know that during your Biola celebration, I was with you and your colleagues in spirit. As much as I was delighted when I first heard about this celebration in your honor, I am again delighted now that the proceedings from that celebration have appeared in book form.
Right. Rick thinks evolution isn’t science, but intelligent design is. I’m willing to bet there’s some sort of creator, some sort of God, but to discount all the evidence for evolution just because it kinda makes you squeamish to think we came from “lower” life forms seems pretty effing stupid. Then again, it’s not like Ricky has an important job where it’d be good if he analyzed the evidence or anything. Erhm.
Darwin’s Nemesis: Phillip Johnson and the Intelligent Design Movement [Amazon]
Feb. 21: Rick Santorum loves hot beef
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In a not-so-stunning decision, a district court judge has decided that, hey, 
