Dover ID stickers go to court
New evolution spat in U.S. schools goes to court
A new battle over teaching about man’s origins in U.S. schools goes to court for the first time next week, pitting Christian conservatives against educators and scientists in a trial viewed as the biggest test of the issue since the late 1980s. Eleven parents of students at a Pennsylvania high school are suing over the school district’s decision to include “intelligent design” — an alternative to evolution that involves a God-like creator — in the curriculum of ninth-grade biology classes. The parents and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) say the policy of the Dover Area School District in south-central Pennsylvania violates the constitutional separation of church and state, which forbids teaching religion in public schools.
They also argue that intelligent design is unscientific and has no place in a science curriculum. Intelligent design holds that nature is so complex it must have been the work of an God-like creator rather than the result of natural selection, as argued by Charles Darwin in his 1859 Theory of Evolution. The school board says there are “gaps” in evolution, which it emphasizes is a theory rather than established fact, and that students have a right to consider other views on the origins of life. In their camp is President George W. Bush, who has said schools should teach evolution and intelligent design.
One frequently heard claim is “Intelligent Design is not Creationism.” This court battle may shed more light on that claim. Indeed, it already has.
The transcript of testimony includes a telling exchange between the Foundation for Thought and Ethics (FTE) President Jon A. Buell (”A”) and Pepper Hamilton lawyer Eric Rothschild (”Q”). The book being discussed is Of Pandas and People, the supplemental textbook published by FTE.
Q And then if you could turn back to page 22, you explain that “Creation is the theory that various forms of life began abruptly, with their distinctive features already intact: Fish with fins and scales, birds with feathers and wings, mammals with fur and mammary glands.” That’s how you defined creation, correct?
A Yes.
Q All right. And I would like to take — you to take a look at an excerpt from Pandas and People. Turn to page 99 in the excerpt I gave you.
A All right.
Q Says, “Intelligent design means that various forms of life began abruptly through an intelligent agency, with their distinctive features already intact: Fish with fins and scales, birds with feathers, beaks and wings, et cetera.”
Do you see that?
A I see it.
Q So that’s pretty much the exact same sentence substituting creation for intelligent design, isn’t that right?
A The reason that you find the similarity in the two passages is because this obviously was at a time when we were developing the manuscript. We had not chosen the term “intelligent design” at that point. We were trying to — this was just a place holder term until we came to grips with which of the plausible two or three terms that are in scientific literature we would settle on. And that was the last thing we did before the book was revise — I mean was sent to the publisher.
Q It was creation, creation, creation until the end and then it was intelligent design.
Clenched fist salute: The Panda’s Thumb
The NCSE has resource site for the case: Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District - Legal documents, trial materials, updates
Panda’s Thumb timeline of the case: Waterloo In Dover: The Kitzmiller v. DASD Case, largely links to their coverage since November, 2004
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