NASA’S CONFUSION ON INTELLIGENT DESIGN NOTED

Becy Yeh – OneNewsNow California correspondent – 11/28/2011

David CoppedgeAn attorney says NASA had a “knee-jerk reaction” when it fired a Christian employee after he mentioned intelligent design.

David Coppedge, a 14-year employee for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s mission to Saturn, was fired last year for handing out DVDs to coworkers that mentioned intelligent design (see earlier story). He was issued a written warning for “pushing his religion” on coworkers, charged with harassment, and finally demoted. When JPL veteran filed suit, the company fired him, claiming his termination was necessary to reduce the workforce due to budget problems.

JPL filed a motion for summary judgment, and the court held oral arguments, but reversed a tentative ruling. In a final decision, the court denied the summary judgment motion, and a Los Angeles Superior Court judge sent the case to a jury.

“The judge’s ruling on the summary judgment indicates that there are some very strong arguments to be made in this case that JPL is acting on biased reports from coworkers, who were claiming that my client harassed them,” says William J. Becker, Jr., the Los Angeles attorney representing Coppedge. “A jury would have to determine whether or not my client was discriminated against on the basis of religion.”

Becker tells OneNewsNow that the theory of intelligent design is often mistaken for creationism, and causes a knee-jerk reaction.

“Intelligent design has nothing to do with the doctrine of creationism, and people often confuse it with creationism because the central argument of intelligent design is that there is scientific evidence to show that the universe, and life within it, did not evolve randomly,” he explains.

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