#549: Larry Caldwell

Skipping Herman Cain for the obvious reason (that puts his rank theocratic leanings, pseudomathematics, hilarious ranting, and conspiracy theories in perspective), we give you instead the terminally ridiculous Larry Caldwell. Caldwell is a pro-intelligent design activist and attorney – a somewhat less well-hinged alternative to the Thomas More Law Center – who has been honing the largely defensive weapon of litigation for use in various causes supporting the intelligent design movement. Caldwell and his wife, Jeanne (a Christian school teacher who “takes the Bible literally”), used to run Quality Science Education for All, which has little to do with “science” or “quality” in education, and is generally known for his “his hair-trigger willingness to sue people for just about anything in the cause of ID creationism.”

Caldwell describes his goals as getting schools to teach “some of the scientific weaknesses of evolution”, and among the numerous targets for his lawsuits we find the NCSE (also here), The Texas State Board of Education, Roseville Joint Union High School District (because they didn’t take seriously his garbled objections to their biology textbook, also here), and the University of California, Berkeley, claiming that their website “Understanding Evolution” violated the separation of church and state by linking to sites that claim that religious faith is compatible with evolution. The courts weren’t particularly interested in Caldwell’s complaints.

Caldwell has also written for the Discovery Institute blog,

Diagnosis: That’s the way to establish the scientific credentials of Intelligent Design Creationism, Larry! As a creationist activist, Caldwell has at least realized that appealing to science is gonna get him nowhere.