Analysis: Media Response

In the media response you have a variety of arguments presented. In the case of most media, they represented and took the arguments from the ACLU at face value, in that the introduction of ID was a religious argument that had no place in a public school curriculum. They seemed to accept the black box of scientific inquiry being closed (unlike its status in the court case) and proceeded to argue primarily the benefits and history of ID instead of addressing the arguments of evolution, thus creating another black box.

Several pieces analyze the community differences that came about as a result of the trial, including the intersection of faith and science, and how for some people it is a problem and how for others it is not. Faith in itself is a black box, rarely opened because to question it is to possibly discover that what is contained within may or may not be true.

The structure of the ID argument has changed since Kitzmiller, and its proponents have repackaged the argument as a "teach the controversy" movement. By continuing to go further and further downstream from the scientific argument, it is attempting to reach the greatest amount of people and sow doubt about the validity of the upstream arguments.

Many scientific observers noted that evolution's lack of answers in certain areas is not an indicator of the failings of the theory, but only that answers will be discovered as any unresolved questions are normal research problems that occur in any scientific field. The arguments that science isn't perfect, but always striving for perfection, and always amenable to being changed is a mixture of upstream and downstream argument, an effort to illustrate to the masses the tools and nature of science. A common criticism is that evolution is "just a theory," to which it is often observed "so is gravity." This court case may have illustrated to evolution proponents that the need for downstream arguments is paramount for the public to have any understanding of the upstream complications, thus the focus on establishing what science is and isn't.

The documentary Expelled argues through mainly downstream arguments that evolution is flawed and needs answers that are provided through intelligent design. The documentary argues that science is attempting to silence critics of evolution, and is denying them the opportunity to argue their case.