Intelligent Design and Evolution in American Courts Again! (moved from ATSNN)

The parents of eleven high school students and the ACLU are suing the Dover school district for including intelligent design into the curriculum of ninth-grade biology classes. Tha ACLU states that this Pennsylvania school district is a violation of the constitutional separation of church and state, which prohibits teaching religion in public schools.
The school board which is being represented by The Thomas More Law Center, a non-profit organization who litigate to promote "the religious freedom of Christians and time-honored family values," are arguing that there are too many gaps in the Evolutionary Theory, first porposed by Charles Darwin in 1859. The school board also cites the recent reports that President George W. Bush has said that ID should be taught alongside evolution in schools today.




Once again, the lines between Church and State are being blurred and corrupted. Yes, if a student puts forth a question in class that is of a creation / ID basis, I beleive that the teachers should instruct the students as to where best to get their answers. I can not find anything that I could use to support this issue. Look at the recent issues out of Topeka, Kansas.
I knew this would happen when Bush said that he believed in teaching ID in schools.
This looks like that the Fundementalists are trying to tackle this from multiple fronts. As per the first ATSNN link below, notice that they are attempting to promote teaching the Bible in schools based on it's Literacy relevance.
Next question.... who's version of creationism / ID should be taught?

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
NEWS: Bible Textbook for Public Schools Planned
Bush Advocates Teaching ID in Schools

Edited to add the following for a more rounded argument :O
Here are some more interesting links for this story that I just came across
Enjoy :O

“Intelligent design is simply the most recent version of creationism, which is admittedly a religious concept,” said Alan Leshner, chief executive of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science and publisher of the journal Science. “There is no scientific basis to intelligent design.”

MSNBC Report on ID/Evolution Court Battle

The next has a very good argument against ID but also presents reasons ID why ID worries some scientists

In his highly influential book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," science philosopher Thomas Kuhn presented the idea that science is not a gradual progression toward truth, but a series of insurgencies, with scientific theories constantly usurping one another.

Why Scientists Dismiss ID

An open argument on ID

"The question that we're facing in biology is that when we look at nature, we see design," said Scott Minnich, a microbiologist at the University of Idaho and an ID proponent. "But is it real design or apparent design? There are two answers to the question and both are profound in terms of their metaphysical implications."

LiveScience

Another good page by LiveScience
Unfortunately, if it is distorted science, How about teaching the correct way to use the scientific method?

Prominent scientists Thursday called a teleconference with reporters to say that intelligent design distorts science and would bring religion into science classrooms.

Court Case Can Cross Over to the Supernatural
The Below link speaks for itself:

Students in Cobb County, Georgia, are being told by the school board that scientific material should be approached “with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.” And this has irritated some so much that a lawsuit was filed, demanding that this outrage be stopped. U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Cooper ruled that the outrage should be stopped. His ruling demonstrated what the Cobb County School Board called “unnecessary judicial intrusion into local control of schools”—judicial activism run amok, according to full page ads in the local paper. The school board has voted to appeal the judge’s decision. Local writers of letters to the editor have made it abundantly clear that the ACLU and those who support the case are anti-freedom, anti-science, anti-religion, socialists, and atheist devils to boot.

Yes, Evolution is a Theory. It's Religion and Politics that are the Problems

Thirty-eight Nobel Prize laureates asked state educators to reject proposed science standards that treat evolution as a seriously questionable theory, calling it instead the "indispensable'' foundation of biology.

Nobel Prize Winners Speak Up to Support Evolution

The Top 10 ID Designs (or Creation Myths



[edit on 23-9-2005 by kenshiro2012]

First off, who does bush think he is? God?
Why can he dictate what is taught to american children?
I dont recall that under presidential powers

Second: if they teach ID, then they have to teach all of them...
I am personally outraged that they haven't mandated the teachings of the church of the Spagetti Monster...
It is just idiotic that they can not see the obvious evidence that the Spagetti Monster created everything...

all hail the great and wriggley Spagetti Monster, stringy be thy name...

Bush released the Gene out of the bottle and now the entity has to be teach in school as an arternative to creation.

I guess the battle has been around for over one hundred years and will keep on going.

Amen bratha Lazerus. It's so obvious and logical that it has to be taught along side Evolution and Creationism.

Pastafarianism is the truth we gotta make them relize this and push our agenda down the throats of people we don't even know or care about. All we care about is more political influence! Onward Pastafarian Soldiers.

I have added a bunch more information as well as links to the opening post.
Did this so as to present a more rounded argument for both sides

If they do end up teaching Intelligent Design in schools the it should be as Religious Education and not science.
Why you may ask? It is very simple really, evolution is rooted in science and based upon principles of bio-chemistry.
It is also something that is observable in micro-organisms (those that reproduce the fastest).

Intelligent Design could be either that of 'God' or as some Scientologists believe,
an alien race of far superior beings.
At least with Scientology it involves the use of science to create life, that of the vastly intelligent aliens.
But seriously, could you listen to Tom Cruise talk about this and believe him?
With God, what it boils down to is that (and this also applies to creationism) some bloke clicked his fingers together and stuff which resulted in this #e stain we call the human race.

You can probably guess I am not a supporter of Creationism or Intelligent Design.