A Pennsylvania Federal Court has ruled that the Dover Area School Board violated the constitutional doctrine of separation of church and state when they insisted that the theory of intelligent design be taught in their public school biology classes.
U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III held that 'The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy.'
In his 139-page decision, Judge Jones concluded that '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 theory of intelligent design says that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power. It was promoted by the religious right shortly after the theory of creationism was barred from being taught in the public schools. Creationism holds that the biblical account of the creation of the world in the book of Genesis is literal and accurate.
Critics of intelligent design have said that the theory is merely a cover for the teaching of religious beliefs in public schools. In addition, they say that because it is not testable by scientific method, it is not a scientific theory at all.
The Dover Area School Board has ordered that a statement be read in class before the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution that said that evolution was a theory and not a fact and that it had 'gaps' that could not be explained. It refers students to an intelligent-design textbook, 'Of Pandas and People,' for more information.
Judge Jones did not say that intelligent design could not be taught anywhere in public schools. He noted that the backers of intelligent design 'have bona fide and deeply held beliefs which drive their scholarly endeavors.' However, he added, '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 noted that several of the backers of intelligent design who testified before the court during the trial lied to cover up their motives.
'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.'
This is the most controversial trial regarding Darwin's theory of evolution since the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee back in 1925. In that trial, John Scopes, a public school teacher, was arrested for teaching the theory of evolution which was then forbidden by the state.
The argument over the theory of intelligent design is far from over. A federal appeals court in Georgia heard arguments about a disclaimer placed on high school biology text books with regard to the theory of evolution. Last month, Kansas adopted science standards that seriously called evolution into question and backed the teaching of intelligent design.
