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Avi Davis, Friend and Ally, RIP

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I have some very sad news to report. Our friend and ally Avi Davis passed away today, suddenly, at age 57. Vigorous in every way, he had suffered a heart attack while bicycling in Southern California. We at Discovery Institute are shocked and deeply dismayed by the loss.

Readers of Evolution News may recognize the name of Avi’s American Freedom Alliance (AFA), which precipitated a symbolically charged struggle over free speech in the context of the evolution debate.

In 2009, the AFA reserved a hall at the California Science Center (CSC) to show the film Darwin’s Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record and host a couple of speakers on intelligent design. The CSC, which is a publicly operated science museum, abruptly canceled AFA’s contract for the event after realizing that AFA intended to promote a viewpoint favorable to ID. Avi and the AFA filed a lawsuit, alleging viewpoint discrimination. The CSC, they pointed out, is a government-run facility that rents out rooms for events promoting Darwinian theory, but wouldn’t similarly oblige a pro-ID group.

There was a happy ending. Faced with evidence demonstrating their discriminatory motives, the CSC paid AFA $110,000 to settle the case and thus avoid having to go to a costly trial which Avi Davis would likely have won.

In the years since, the AFA hosted many of us at events around the Los Angeles area. Stephen Meyer was in Santa Monica just this past April for what Avi called a “Literary Café” to discuss Signature in the Cell. Avi organized the epic debate in Beverly Hills pitting Meyer and Richard Sternberg against Donald Prothero and Michael Shermer, described in Meyer’s book Darwin’s Doubt. The subject: “Has Evolution Adequately Explained the Origins of Life?” (Listen to it here.)

Australian-born, Avi was an intellectual matchmaker, seeking to introduce the Jewish community to some interesting and relevant ideas about the scientific evidence for design in nature. He organized memorable private meetings in Los Angeles between prominent rabbis and leading figures in the ID movement, resulting in one rabbi, a former critic, being totally turned around by a lunch conversation with David Berlinski.

He was a sweet, sweet man, warm, intellectually (and physically) adventurous, a seeker of truth, who loved freedom, God, and his country. Stephen Meyer rightly says, “He was one of the good guys.” He was loved, too, in return. Briefly in the hospital and unconscious before he died, he received so many visitors that his family posted on Facebook earnestly thanking his many friends for caring so much about him but requesting privacy.

Avi studied intelligent design, but was he an advocate? I’m not sure that’s how I would characterize him. He was interested in freewheeling discussion and no-holds-barred exploration. He cared about free speech and enjoyed a good debate.

Yet in the ID community it’s a kind of informal membership card to have been slurred by National Center for Science Education mouthpiece Joshua Rosenau. In Avi’s case the slur was particularly inept. Rosenau sought to slime Avi’s group with, of all things, anti-Semitism. Avi Davis — Orthodox Jew, ardent Zionist, passionate advocate for Israel… Actually, Rosenau had confused Avi’s AFA with another organization, totally unrelated but for sharing the same acronym. I can’t recall if we talked about this, but in my mind’s eye, I can see Avi shaking his head and laughing in appreciation of the comedy of it.

“Avi cannot be replaced,” comments Discovery Institute co-founder Bruce Chapman. “Who can do what he did? He combined extraordinary organizational flair, deep cultural insight, a vivid personal charm, and an unerring regard for the truth.”

Yes, he was just plain charming to be around. The last time I saw him was on the campus of Biola, a Christian university where some of us from Discovery Institute had gone to speak on issues of faith and science. It was the evening of the Jewish Sabbath and Avi and his sons visited me, bringing with them a huge and delicious feast from a kosher Persian restaurant in Los Angeles.

I will miss him. We will miss him. The Hebrew expression on hearing of a death is “Baruch Dayan Emet,” “Blessed is the True Judge,” meaning God. Only God can explain the untimely passing of a wonderful and brave person like Avi Davis. Another traditional formulation well expresses the feelings we wish to convey to his family and friends: May the Almighty comfort them among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

David Klinghoffer

Senior Fellow and Editor, Evolution News
David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and the editor of Evolution News & Science Today, the daily voice of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, reporting on intelligent design, evolution, and the intersection of science and culture. Klinghoffer is also the author of six books, a former senior editor and literary editor at National Review magazine, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Commentary, and other publications. Born in Santa Monica, California, he graduated from Brown University in 1987 with an A.B. magna cum laude in comparative literature and religious studies. David lives near Seattle, Washington, with his wife and children.

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