Judge Bars Intelligent Design
I saw this morning that the Dover School board case had a decision made. Here is some of the copy.
Wired AP postHARRISBURG, Pennsylvania — “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.
This is good. Regardless of ones religious beliefs or take on eveloution, Intelligent Design is not for the science classroom.
Marcia
December 27th, 2005What if “Intelligent Design” or ‘Creationism” (is that what it’s called?) would be offered in Public Schools as an elective? I am of course saying this would be Middle School or High School. That way only kids who want to study this more and their parents that are in agreement would not effect those who are opposed?
Another thing is what do the parents of children that are against evelution? I might be worng in this but doesn’t the church still not believe in Darwin? Because if a child feels that evelution goes against what they believe, don’t they have a right to not learn it? Even though it is been verified by science, it still can offend people on a religious level.
I am not saying what is right one way or the other, I just wanted to bring the other side up.
David http://
December 27th, 2005The answer in my mind is clear.
The constitution orders the separation of Church and State. Creationism and ID (same thing) are religious items. No, they should not be offered as electives in PUBLIC schools. If religion is such an institution to someone that they would be offended/upset/refuse to learn science, then they should attend a school that fulfills that. That is their right and I have no problem with that. I do have a problem with it in PUBLIC schools. Of course, if they refuse to learn science they would have a hard time getting a High School Diploma/GED as these are issued according to guidelines of the government.
And “the church” you refer to is the Catholic church. That should be here as other Christian churches do accept eveloution and the Catholic church has never commited to a position on it. And I cannot speak for non-Christian churches, but again, this strengthens the separation factor. Again, schools exist that will teach the religious beliefs that people attending there require.