Francis J. Beckwith - Intelligent Design and The Discovery Institute

Intelligent Design and The Discovery Institute

Beckwith states that he is not an intelligent design advocate, and his interests lie in the legal and cultural questions raised by the movement. Beckwith has stated that although he is sympathetic to the intelligent design movement he thinks they mistakenly accept "the modern idea that an Enlightenment view of science is the paradigm of knowledge." Critics of intelligent design, such as Barbara Forrest, consider Beckwith a proponent. Beckwith often speaks on the legal permissibility of teaching intelligent design in public school science classes, arguing that it is legally permissible and arguing against the ruling in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District that intelligent design is essentially religious in nature, a form of creationism, and thus its teaching as science in public schools violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. He provided much of the legal reasoning and justification behind the claim of the Discovery Institute that intelligent design is not a religious belief and maintains that the religious motives of the policy's supporters, which he says the judge in the case relied on, should have no bearing on assessing the constitutionality of the policy, since a motive is a belief and the federal courts have, in other contexts, forbidden the government's assessing of beliefs. Beckwith is closely tied to the Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns, both from his arguments and writings being often repeated and promoted by the Discovery Institute and by receiving support from the Institute during his tenure controversy. Beckwith endorsed fellow Discovery Institute Fellow Richard Weikart's controversial book, From Darwin to Hitler, Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics and Racism in Germany.