--- title: Darwin Victorious description: "Breathtaking inanity" is how U.S. District Judge John Jones characterized the Dover, PA school board's attempt to cast doubt on the theory of evolution —... canonical: https://time.com/archive/6931852/darwin-victorious/ author: Michael Lemonick article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2005-12-20T05:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-23T03:37:11.739Z article:section: Health og:title: Darwin Victorious og:description: "Breathtaking inanity" is how U.S. District Judge John Jones characterized the Dover, PA school board's attempt to cast doubt on the theory of evolution —... og:url: https://time.com/archive/6931852/darwin-victorious/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Darwin Victorious twitter:description: "Breathtaking inanity" is how U.S. District Judge John Jones characterized the Dover, PA school board's attempt to cast doubt on the theory of evolution —... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Health](/section/health/) # Darwin Victorious > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=0ef1cc8e-e140-4130-a761-89f979f6e424&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Weekdays | time.com/newsletters, September 2026 | | Written by | Written by TIME's health desk | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership Health conscious and health connected. A broad health-conscious audience with a credible institutional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### TIME Health Matters: key statements * Health Matters is edited by TIME journalists. Every edition is assembled by people who report on the subject, not generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923, and its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting. Readers can trust what they read. * Health Matters is free. Readers select it, along with any of TIME's other newsletters, at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=0ef1cc8e-e140-4130-a761-89f979f6e424&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1). * TIME's newsletter network reaches more than 1.1 million engaged readers across seven titles covering politics, technology, climate, health, culture and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/subscribe?i=0ef1cc8e-e140-4130-a761-89f979f6e424&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What is TIME's health newsletter? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health newsletter, written by TIME's health journalists. It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=0ef1cc8e-e140-4130-a761-89f979f6e424&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Michael Lemonick](https://time.com/author/michael-lemonick/) Dec 20, 2005 5:00 AM UTC by [Michael Lemonick](https://time.com/author/michael-lemonick/) Dec 20, 2005 5:00 AM UTC “Breathtaking inanity” is how U.S. District Judge John Jones characterized the Dover, PA school board’s attempt to cast doubt on the theory of evolution — but in fairness, the recently ousted members of that board were relative unsophisticates, snookered by the intellectual scam that calls itself “intelligent design,” or ID. Where to begin? Well, first of all, proponents of ID point to what they insist are serious flaws in Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. The truth is that the theory is not only an overwhelmingly powerful explanation for how life on Earth manages to come in such a bewildering array of different types, but the only such theory in science. Like any scientific theory, it can’t explain how every aspect of every organism came to be, but each time scientists find new evidence — fossils of dinosaurs bearing feathers; fossils of the mammals whose descendants are whales; the molecular structure DNA that carries traits from one generation to the next; the mutations that can alter DNA to introduce new traits — the case for Darwin’s theory has gotten stronger. Do any gaps remain? Sure. Shall we throw up our hands and say “Since we don’t know all the details at this moment, God” — oops, I mean, “an Intelligent Designer must be invoked?” The Discovery Institute, a pro-ID think tank favors teaching the controversy over evolution, but that’s the scam. There is no controversy, or at least, not the scientific controversy Discovery says there is.. That’s not to say there isn’t a tiny handful of actual scientists who back ID. Yes, evolution explains a lot, they say, but some things — the eye, for example, or the whiplike tails on some bacteria — are just too complex to have evolved. To which the vast majority of biologists say nonsense. We don’t have remotely enough information to make such a statement. Moreover, if ID is a valid theory on its own, it has to make testable predictions. “It’s too complex to explain” is not a prediction. So ID isn’t science, and by that measure alone the Dover school board’s attempts to make it so were indeed inane. But beyond that the board insisted that by leaving out the G-word you remove the religious connotation from ID, thus evading a 1987 Supreme Court ban on religion in science classrooms. Again, the board bought the story of people like Lehigh University biologist Michael Behe, an ID proponent, who says that ID doesn’t assume the existence of God (although Behe admitted he thinks the Intelligent Designer is God). Judge Jones didn’t buy that loophole (and for that matter the Discovery Institute stayed out of this case entirely, evidently realizing that it was a legal stinker). Alas, ID isn’t going away. The Kansas school board recently endorsed new educational standards that downplay evolution, and new assaults on Darwin’s brilliant and unsettling idea are sure to continue. Meanwhile, there are still gaps in Einstein’s theory of relativity and the germ theory of disease and the theory of plate tectonics. However, none of these contradict the sacred text of any religion — and so no school board is likely to be looking for some way to counter them. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6931852/darwin-victorious/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6931852/darwin-victorious/"},"headline":"Darwin Victorious","datePublished":"2005-12-20T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-23T03:37:11.739Z","description":"\"Breathtaking inanity\" is how U.S. District Judge John Jones characterized the Dover, PA school board's attempt to cast doubt on the theory of evolution —...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6931852/darwin-victorious/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michael Lemonick","url":"https://time.com/author/michael-lemonick/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6931852/darwin-victorious/","name":"Darwin Victorious"}}]}] ```