Mr. Frost (originally aired October 16, 2005)
A Senate subcommittee investigating the potential leak of the existence of a military-operated space shuttle questions Margaret Hooper and subpoenas others in the White House, including Toby and Charlie. Matt Santos takes a question about intelligent design (1) and sparks controversy with his answer, "I believe in God, and I'd like to think He's intelligent." Bartlet and others express regret over the assassination of Palestinian leader Farad, who had agreed to a peace plan in prior episodes (see here). A mysterious CIA analyst, Charles Frost, meets with CJ about a possible conspiracy involving the assassinations of Farad, the president of Kazakhstan, and a Unocal official. Leo and CJ get subpoenaed by the Senate subcommittee, raising the potential for political fallout. Toby finally admits to CJ that he was the leak.
- Intelligent Design Lawsuit. In this episode, some Pennsylvania state or local board has taken a position questioning evolution. This is obviously inspired by the ongoing controversy surrounding the Dover (Pennsylvania) Area School District, which announced in November 2004 that it would include in its biology classes a statement questioning evolution's validity and offering a book seen as promoting intelligent design; the district does continue to teach evolution and it does not teach intelligent design. Some parents sued the school board over its policy, and a trial in the case, Kitzmiller v. Dover, began on September 26, 2005.
In terms of real-life national politics, President George W. Bush seems to have come out in support of allowing the teaching of intelligent design. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on October 6 that Bush "believes that students ought to be exposed to different theories" (transcript on-line here). It is not entirely clear what President George W. Bush himself believes. "I don't necessarily believe every single word [of the Bible] is literally true," he told the New York Times during the 2000 campaign. "I think that, for example, on the issue of evolution, the verdict is still out on how God created the earth. I don't necessarily use the Bible as necessarily a way to predict the findings of science."
For more on this, read below here.
- Leak Investigation. Toby probably has violated federal law by leaking information relating to national defense. Specifically, he seems to have violated 18 USC 793(e), which states:
| "Whoever, lawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it … shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both." (emphasis added) |
Toby seems to be free and on good terms with Bartlett in the future, as seen in the premiere to this season (on-line here). Maybe Toby will plead temporary insanity stemming from the recent death of his brother, who was a payload specialist on a prior shuttle mission? Bartlett probably could pardon Toby, but that seems unwise politically.
- Farad Assassination. The assassination of Palestinian leader Farad evokes the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995, as well as the more recent death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in November 2004. For more on this, read below here.
- Kazakhstan Reference. It still is unclear where the possible conspiracy involving the assassination of Palestinian leader Farad and the president of Kazakhstan is going. The mention of Unocal along with the reference to a country in the Caspian Sea region does evoke Michael Moore's theory that the Bush administration had an ulterior motive for going after Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks, namely, that the Bush administration wanted to help clear the way for a pipeline that would connect the oil-rich Caspian Sea region to major ports.
Unocal did work on a proposed pipeline that would have taken natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and on to the Indian Ocean, but Unocal withdrew from this project after the Taliban took control of Kabul in 1996. Unocal said in June 2004 (on-line here) and denied Moore's argument as depicted in Fahrenheit 9/11. For more on this, go here.
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Intelligent Design Lawsuit (last updated October 16, 2005) (back to top)
This episode is obviously inspired in part by the ongoing controversy surrounding the Dover (Pennslyvania) Area School District, which announced in November 2004 that it would include in biology classes a statement questioning evolution's validity and offering a book seen as promoting intelligent design; the district does continue to teach evolution and it does not teach intelligent design. Some parents sued the school board over its policy, and a trial in the case, Kitzmiller v. Dover, began on September 26, 2005.
In terms of real-life national politics, President George W. Bush seems to have come out in support of allowing the teaching of intelligent design. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on October 6 that Bush "believes that students ought to be exposed to different theories" (transcript on-line here).
Views of Evolution
The terms evolution, intelligent design, and creationism mean different things to different people. Evolution is commonly seen as a way of explaining how species change over time and can give rise to new species, whereas creationism is commonly seen as a belief that the Book of Genesis is literally true and that God created humanity in the form that it is now. Early court battles over evolution and creationism led to the Supreme Court ruling in 1987 that requiring the teaching of creationism was unconstitutional because of the religious purpose of such a law.
Intelligent design is a relatively new argument, based on the idea that purely natural forces cannot explain the development of life fully and that an intelligent cause, which may or may not be God, was involved. One leading book promoting intelligent design, Of Pandas and People, was written by Percival Davis and Dean Kenyon and was published by the Foundation of Thought and Ethics, which promotes Christian ideas. Some see intelligent design as a way around Supreme Court rulings on creationism, for better or for worse.
Polls taken by the Gallup organization in recent years have found that many people do believe God had some role in the creation or development of humanity. Polls from November 2004 found that 45 percent of those polled believed that God created humanity as it is now, that 38 percent of those polled believed that humanity developed over time with the guidance of God (a view consistent with that of intelligent design), and that 13 percent believed that humanity developed without God's guidance.
At the same time, Gallup's November 2004 polls also found that 35 percent of those polled believed that the theory of evolution was well-supported by evidence, 35 percent believed that the theory was not well-supported by evidence, and that 29 percent did not know enough to say either way.
Gallup found that belief that evolution was well-supported was strongest among "those with the most education, liberals, those living in the West, those who seldom attend church, and among Catholics" and was weakest among "those with the least education, older Americans (many of whom say they are unsure about the theory in general), frequent church attendees, conservatives, Protestants, those living in the middle of the country, and Republicans."
It is not entirely clear what President George W. Bush himself believes. "I don't necessarily believe every single word [of the Bible] is literally true," he told the New York Times during the 2000 campaign. "I think that, for example, on the issue of evolution, the verdict is still out on how God created the earth. I don't necessarily use the Bible as necessarily a way to predict the findings of science." Regarding the teaching of intelligent design, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on October 6, 2005 that Bush "believes that students ought to be exposed to different theories" (transcript on-line here).
Dover Case
The following chronology of the Dover case, Kitzmiller v. Dover, was developed largely from documents filed with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, which has made documents relating to the case available on-line here:
- June 7, 2004: In a public meeting, school board member William Buckingham criticized the biology textbook Biology, by Kenneth Miller and Joseph Levine, as "laced with Darwinism" for discussing evolution without including reference to criticisms of evolution.
- August 2, 2004: The Dover school board considered a proposal to purchase Biology along with Of Pandas and People. The board initially voted 4-4 on whether it should purchase Biology without purchasing Of Pandas and People, and then voted 5-3 to purchase Biology without purchasing Of Pandas and People. Copies of Of Pandas and People were then donated anonymously for use in biology classrooms.
- October 18, 2004. The Dover school board passed by a 6-3 vote a resolution which stated: "Students will be made aware of gaps/problems in Darwin's theory and of other theories of evolution including, but not limited to, intelligent design."
- November 19, 2004: The Dover school district announced that teachers would be required to read a statement to students in the 9th grade biology class that included the following language (release is on-line as a PDF here) :
| "Because Darwin's Theory is a theory, it is still being tested as new evidence is discovered. The Theory is not a fact. Gaps in the Theory exist for which there is no evidence. A theory is defined as a well-tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations.
"Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view. The reference boo, Of Pandas and People is available for students to see if they would like to explore this view in an effort to gain an understanding of what intelligent design actually involves." |
- December 4, 2004: A group of parents, led by parent Tammy Kitzmiller, filed a lawsuit against the Dover school district, alleging that its resolution violates the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. Their complaint is on-line as a PDF here.
- January 3, 2005: The Dover district filed its response to the complaint, in which the district denies that intelligent design is "inherently religious" and instead argue that it is a "scientific theory based on interpretation of scientific data by scientists; it is endorsed by a growing number of scientists who assert that intelligent causes are necessary to explain the complex, information-rich structures observed by biologists. It does not presuppose any supernatural being. It is not Creationism, which in its basic form holds that the biblical account of creation recorded in the Book of Genesis is scientifically accurate." This response is on-line as a PDF here.
- September 26, 2005: Trial begins as to whether the district's policy has a secular purpose and whether its effect is to advance or inhibit religion. Transcripts of the trial are available on-line here.
Other Battles
Battles over evolution in school board meetings and in courts have become more common in recent years.
For example, in 1999, the Kansas state board of education voted 6-4 to eliminate evolution and the Big Bang theory from the state curriculum. Several national science organizations then denied the board the right to use some of their copyrighted material in the school standards, which forced the state board to revise its standards somewhat. In 2000, three state board candidates were elected who promised to include evolution in the school standards, turning out two incumbents who had supported the elimination evolution. In December 2000, the board approved a new set of science standards once again incorporating evolution.
In January 2005, a federal district judge ruled that a Georgia school district could not place a sticker on some science textbooks which read: "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered." In a Jan. 13, 2005 decision, District Judge Clarence Cooper found that this policy was unconstitutional and ordered that the district stop. The school board (on-line here) announced that it was "disappointed" in the decision and voted on Jan. 17 to appeal the decision.
As for the famous Scopes trial of the 1920s, that trial ultimately did not decide whether an antievolution statute was legal. While people may think from the play "Inherit the Wind" that biology teacher John Scopes was acquitted, he actually was convicted for teaching evolution in 1925 and later had the conviction turned over by the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1927 on an unrelated technicality.
The United States Supreme Court did not rule on the constitutionality of antievolution statutes until 1967, more than four decades after the Scopes trial, when it declared an Arkansas antievolution statute unconstitutional because of its religious purpose (on-line here). The Supreme Court also ruled in a 1987 case, Edwards v. Aguillard (on-line here), that a Louisiana law prohibiting the teaching of evolution unless creationism was also taught was unconstitutional.
Sources: The Dover, Pennsylvania school district is on-line here. The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania has information about the Kitzmiller lawsuit on-line here. The Cobb County School District is on-line here. Frank Newport, Third of Americans say evidence has supported Darwin's evolution theory, Gallup (November 19, 2004). Laurie Goldstein, Bush uses religion as personal and political guide, New York Times, October 22, 2000.
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Deaths of Rabin and Arafat (last updated October 17, 2005) (back to top)
The assassination of fictional Palestinian leader Farad evokes the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995, as well as the more recent death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in November 2004.
Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Jewish radical on November 4, 1995, just weeks after the signing of a major peace agreement, the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, on September 28, 1995. President Bill Clinton said on November 4 that "I want the world to remember what Prime Minister Rabin said here at the White House barely one month ago, and I quote: 'We should not let the land flowing with milk and honey become a land flowing with blood and tears. Don't let it happen.' Now it falls to us, all those in Israel, throughout the Middle East, and around the world who yearn for and love peace to make sure it doesn't happen." Clinton attended and spoke at Rabin's funeral in Jerusalem on November 6. His November 4 statement is on-line here and his November 6 statement is on-line here.
Arafat died on November 11, 2004 in a Paris hospital after reported health problems. A funeral service was held on November 12 at a military mosque in Cairo, Egypt, and Arafat was buried in his Ramallah compound in the West Bank. The Israeli government reportedly did not send anyone to Arafat's funeral service given its long-standing view of Arafat as a terrorist. President George W. Bush President George W. Bush issued a statement on November 10 expressing "condolences to the Palestinian people" and hope for a "an independent, democratic Palestine that is at peace with its neighbors" (on-line here). Bush did not attend Arafat's funeral; the United States reportedly sent Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns to the Cairo service. Both Israel and the United States had called prior to Arafat's death for new leadership, saying that Arafat was not doing enough to stop terrorist attacks against Israelis; Israel also tried to force Arafat into exile by confining him to his compound in Ramallah for most of the three years preceding his death.
Since Arafat's death, several steps have been taken towards peace and implementation of the "roadmap" to Israeli-Palestinian peace promoted by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia in April 2003. Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in January 2005. Israel evacuated families from Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip in August 2005.
In the West Wing's reality, U.S. forces have been deployed for about a year to support a plan under which Israelis and Palestinians share control of Jerusalem, a plan that Leo McGarry opposed at the time. In real life, the United States has no forces in Israel or the Palestinian territories.
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West Wing: Santos discusses a lawsuit about intelligent design
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Daily Show: A 2004 study found that 21 percent of young people regularly get their campaign news from comedy shows like the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Saturday Night Live. So, some footnotes.
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