Court rejects 'intelligent design' in class
| HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) -- "Intelligent design" cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, a federal judge said Tuesday, ruling in one of the biggest courtroom clashes on evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial. Dover Area School Board members violated the Constitution when they ordered that its biology curriculum must include the notion that life on Earth was produced by an unidentified intelligent cause, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III said. Several members repeatedly lied to cover their motives even while professing religious beliefs, he said. The school board policy, adopted in October 2004, was believed to have been the first of its kind in the nation. "The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy," Jones wrote. |
posted by M at 11:25 AM
Comments on "Court rejects 'intelligent design' in class"
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Partamian said ... (1:10 PM) :
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M said ... (9:48 AM) :
post a commentA good decision… Intelligent Design is just creationism in a very poorly constructed disguise.
I think the judge made a very important point in this decision. Books on intelligent design are available in the library and from places like Amazon.com. Individuals and parents who want to teach or learn about the subject have every right to do so whenever they like. The fact is, intelligent design is not a scientific theory has no place in a science class (a class that is designed to instruct students to pass an aptitude test), especially when intelligent design will not be covered by the test.
Obviously I am biased here. I have a molecular biology degree. In all honesty though, I have no problem with people believing the intelligent design conclusion. The world is pretty overwhelming, well beyond my comprehension. I spent months bioengineering a yeast cell to glow in the dark, and I still don't even understand how it worked. I am not even going to begin to say that I understand all of the forces in the universe, but what good does it do for mankind to simply conclude that the reason the world is the way it is is because of God and there is no need to ask any more questions? Darwin is not God, and Darwin does not provide the answers to life, the universe and everything. Evolution is real though. It can be observed, tested, and repeated. I have done experiments with natural selection. I don't think that natural selection is the be all, end all to everything but it is a theoretical framework that has significant value, which means it should be taught, so that maybe one day, someone will come along and expand on it or challenge it in a way that produces a greater understanding or a theory that fills in the holes in our current understanding. Making a stand that Darwin is evil doesn't help anything though, and saying that the people of this town will suffer from a natural disaster for not teaching intelligent design in Biology class is really pretty pathetic and shameful. People fear what they don't know. Instead of burning books and threatening hellfire, I think the world would be better off if the proponents of intelligent design would sit in on those Biology classes, learn the material, and try to have an intelligent conversation instead.
M