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Judge bans teaching intelligent
design
Reuters
By Jon Hurdle
December 20, 2005
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday banned the teaching of
intelligent design as an alternative to evolution by Pennsylvania's Dover Area
School District, saying the practice violated the constitutional ban on
teaching religion in public schools.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge John Jones dealt a blow to U.S. Christian
conservatives who have been pressing for the teaching of creationism in schools
and who played a significant role in the re-election of President George W.
Bush
"Our conclusion today is that it is unconstitutional to teach intelligent
design as an alternative to evolution in a public school classroom," Jones
wrote in a 139-page opinion.
The school district was sued by a group of 11 parents who claimed teaching
intelligent design was unconstitutional and unscientific and had no place in
high school biology classrooms.
The six-week Harrisburg trial, one of the highest-profile court cases on
evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial, was closely watched in at least 30
states where Christian conservatives are planning similar initiatives.
Intelligent design holds that some aspects of nature are so complex that
they must have been the work of an unnamed creator rather than the result of
random natural selection, as argued by Charles Darwin in his 1859 theory of
evolution.
Opponents argue that it is a thinly disguised version of creationism - a
belief that the world was created by God as described in the Book of Genesis -
which the Supreme Court has ruled may not be taught in public schools.
In October 2004, Dover became the first school district in the United States
to include intelligent design in its science curriculum.
Ninth-grade biology students were presented with a four-paragraph statement
saying that evolution is a theory, not a fact, and that there are "gaps" in the
theory. The statement invited students to consider other explanations of the
origins of life, including intelligent design.
In a fierce attack on the Dover board - all but one of whom have now been
ousted by voters -- the judge condemned the "breathtaking inanity" of its
policy."
Jones defended the students and teachers of Dover High School whom he said
"deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom with its
resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources."
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