Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[Barry Karr <SkeptInq@AOL.COM>]

State Your Case

Anti-evolutionist activism, inspired and rejuvenated by the Intelligent Design movement, is spreading across the country. Get ready for lawsuits.

Chris Mooney; October 26, 2004

Last week, the Dover Area School Board, with responsibility for a school district in southern Pennsylvania, did something extraordinary. By a six to three vote, the board added the following to the district's biology curriculum:

Students will be made aware of gaps/problems in Darwin's Theory and of other theories of evolution including, but not limited to, intelligent design. Note: Origins of life will not be taught.

Both sides in the interminable dispute over the teaching of evolution in our nation's public schools agree that this language appears to represent the first time that any state or locality has specifically mandated the teaching of "intelligent design," or ID, alongside evolution. In fact, the Dover Area has gone farther than even ID proponents at Seattle's Discovery Institute recommend, and could well face a First Amendment lawsuit as a consequence.

The focus of the evolution battle now shifts to Dover, for obvious reasons. But developments in Pennsylvania merely represent the leading front in the ever-expanding fight over the teaching of evolution today. Thanks largely to the growing influence of the Intelligent Design movement, we seem on the verge of a flare-up not seen since the "creation science" conflagration of the 1970s and 1980s.

To Read More of this Column Visit:

 www.csicop.org  and http://www.csicop.org/doubtandabout/anti-evolution/

To Read More Articles by Chris Mooney Visit: http://www.csicop.org/doubtandabout/

http://www.chriscmooney.com/

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