“Intelligent Design Theory” Declared Farce By Judge
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
An important victory for the Constitution was reached today by a federal judge who has ruled against teaching “Intelligent Design” as an alternative scientific theory to evolution in the public schools. The AP reports:
HARRISBURG, Pa. - "Intelligent design" is "a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory" and 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.
“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,” he wrote in his 139-page opinion. “The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy,” Jones wrote, adding that several members repeatedly lied to cover their motives even while professing religious beliefs….
“We conclude that the religious nature of ID would be readily apparent to an objective observer, adult or child," Jones said.
This fall voters in Dover kicked out of office the school board members that had been pushing ‘Intelligent Design.”
Public schools should be teaching science and leave theological interpretations of the world to our churches and other religious bodies.
A big thank you to the voters and the courts for upholding the Constitution!