Overview and History of the Wedge

The Seattle Weekly has a nice article that reviews the history of the Discovery Institute. It gives some background on the founders, funding, and strategy, then summarizes the recent court defeat. It tells the story of the leaking of the document, "The Wedge Strategy," and provides a copy for your reading pleasure. (While the document was leaked in 1999, Phillip Johnson was already using the wedge analogy in at least one of his previously published books.)

Here's one of my favorite parts, referring to the recent trial:

Almost as soon as Eric Rothschild [plaintiff's attorney] began his cross-examination, Behe's cultivated scientific calm began to crumble. Rothschild baited him like a picador, dashing in, planting a barb, turning away to attack from a new direction before his victim realized it. Hour by hour, Rothschild got Behe to admit:

-That no peer-reviewed scientific journal has published research supportive of intelligent design's claims.

-That Behe's own book was not, as he had claimed, peer reviewed.

-That Behe himself criticizes the science presented as supporting intelligent design in instructional material created for that purpose.

-That intelligent design seems plausible and reasonable to inquirers in direct proportion to their belief or nonbelief in God.

-And that the basic arguments for evidence of purposeful design in nature are essentially the same as those adduced by the Christian apologist Rev. William Paley (1743–1805) in his 1802 Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected From the Appearances of Nature, where he sums up his observations of the complexity of life in the ringing words, "The marks of design are too strong to be got over. Design must have had a designer. That designer must have been a person. That person is GOD."

(via Red State Rabble.)