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Judge rules against ‘intelligent design’
'Religious alternative' to evolution cannot be taught in public school
classes

The Associated Press
Updated: 1:59 p.m. ET Dec. 20, 2005


HARRISBURG, Pa. - In one of the biggest courtroom clashes between faith and
evolution since the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, a federal judge barred a
Pennsylvania public school district Tuesday from teaching “intelligent
design” in biology class, saying the concept is creationism in disguise.

U.S. District Judge John E. Jones delivered a stinging attack on the Dover
Area School Board, saying its first-in-the-nation decision in October 2004
to insert intelligent design into the science curriculum violates the
constitutional separation of church and state.

The ruling was a major setback to the intelligent design movement, which is
also waging battles in Georgia and Kansas. Intelligent design holds that
living organisms are so complex that they must have been created by some
kind of higher force.

Jones decried the “breathtaking inanity” of the Dover policy and accused
several board members of lying to conceal their true motive, which he said
was to promote religion.

A six-week trial over the issue yielded “overwhelming evidence” establishing
that intelligent design “is a religious view, a mere re-labeling of
creationism, and not a scientific theory,” said Jones, a Republican and a
churchgoer appointed to the federal bench three years ago.

The school system said it will probably not appeal the ruling, because the
members who backed intelligent design were ousted in November’s elections
and replaced with a new slate opposed to the policy.


During the trial, the board argued that it was trying improve science
education by exposing students to alternatives to Charles Darwin’s theory of
evolution and natural selection.

The policy required students to hear a statement about intelligent design
before ninth-grade lessons on evolution. The statement said Darwin’s theory
is “not a fact” and has inexplicable “gaps.” It referred students to an
intelligent-design textbook, “Of Pandas and People.”

But the judge said: “We find that the secular purposes claimed by the board
amount to a pretext for the board’s real purpose, which was to promote
religion in the public school classroom.”

The disclaimer, he said, "singles out the theory of evolution for special
treatment, misrepresents its status in the scientific community, causes
students to doubt its validity without scientific justification, presents
students with a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory,
directs them to consult a creationist text as though it were a science
resource and instructs students to forgo scientific inquiry in the public
school classroom and instead to seek out religious instruction elsewhere."

In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot require public
schools to balance evolution lessons by teaching creationism.


Eric Rothschild, an attorney for the families who challenged the policy,
called the ruling “a real vindication for the parents who had the courage to
stand up and say there was something wrong in their school district.”

Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center
in Ann Arbor, Mich., which represented the school district and describes its
mission as defending the religious freedom of Christians, said: “What this
really looks like is an ad hominem attack on scientists who happen to
believe in God.”

It was the latest chapter in a debate over the teaching of evolution dating
back to the Scopes trial, in which Tennessee biology teacher John T. Scopes
was fined $100 for violating a state law against teaching evolution.

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court in Georgia heard arguments over
whether a suburban Atlanta school district had the right to put stickers on
biology textbooks describing evolution as a theory, not fact. A federal
judge last January ordered the stickers removed.

In November, state education officials in Kansas adopted new classroom
science standards that call the theory of evolution into question.

President Bush also weighed in on the issue of intelligent design recently,
saying schools should present the concept when teaching about the origins of
life.

In his ruling, Jones said that while intelligent design, or ID, arguments
“may be true, a proposition on which the court takes no position, ID is not
science.” Among other things, he said intelligent design “violates the
centuries-old ground rules of science by invoking and permitting
supernatural causation”; it relies on “flawed and illogical” arguments; and
its attacks on evolution “have been refuted by the scientific community.”

“The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District
deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its
resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources,” he wrote.

Jones wrote that he wasn’t saying the intelligent design concept shouldn’t
be studied and discussed, saying its advocates “have bona fide and deeply
held beliefs which drive their scholarly endeavors.”

But, he wrote, “our conclusion today is that it is unconstitutional to teach
ID as an alternative to evolution in a public school science classroom.”

The judge also said: “It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so
staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would
time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose
behind the ID Policy.”

Former school board member William Buckingham, who advanced the policy, said
from his new home in Mt. Airy, N.C., that he still feels the board did the
right thing.

“I’m still waiting for a judge or anyone to show me anywhere in the
Constitution where there’s a separation of church and state,” he said. “We
didn’t lose; we were robbed.”

The controversy divided Dover and surrounding Dover Township, a rural area
of nearly 20,000 residents about 20 miles south of Harrisburg. It galvanized
voters to oust eight school board members who supported the policy in the
Nov. 8 school board election. The ninth board member was not up for
re-election.

The new school board president, Bernadette Reinking, said the board intends
to remove intelligent design from the science curriculum and place it in an
elective social studies class.

“As far as I can tell you, there is no intent to appeal,” she said.

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10545387/

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