Intelligent design battle rages on

AMANDA POPOVITCH STAFF WRITER AVP722@CABRINI EDU

The clash between faith and science is an age-old war, but the most recent battle was fought close to home in the district court in Harrisburg. On Dec. 20, 2005, federal court judge John E. Jones ruled that an attempt by the Dover school board to insert an intelligent design statement into the science curriculum violated the separation of church and state. The ruling has also had sweeping effects on the legitimacy of the intelligent design theory, and on the possibility of future court cases challenging the teaching of evolution in schools.

The six-week trial that took place in Nov. 2005 brought the controversy over the theory of intelligent design into the national spotlight. The trial was the first to test the legality of teaching intelligent design and also the first time that the theory was brought seriously into the public spotlight. Judge Jones delivered a broad-based ruling declaring that the teaching of intelligent design in schools violated the constitutional separation of church and state. In his ruling Jones also noted that the origins of intelligent design were clearly faith based, and even went so far as to connect intelligent design to the previously discredited theory of creationism. A1987 ruling in the state of Louisiana stated that creationism was a religiously based theory and could not be taught in a science class.

Further complicating the controversy were the eight members of the Dover school board who supported the teaching of intelligent design. All eight members were not reelected in the Nov. 2005 local elections due to allegations by Judge Jones that several members had lied to conceal