Revisiting an intellectual battle that has raged intermittently for the last 80 years, a Pennsylvania trial begins this week to decide the constitutionality of teaching intelligent design in public schools. Although the issue seems rather simple from an objective standpoint, it has been complicated by church officials and religious-minded politicians bent on blurring the line separating church and state. The concept of intelligent design - ultimately religion under the guise of science - still has no place within the halls of public schools.
Judicial precedent stands opposed to the teaching of creationism - the less politically correct term - in public schools, with the Supreme Court banning it in a 1987 ruling. Some have responded by engineering a pseudo-scientific theory that never explicitly mentions God. Nonetheless, intelligent design is no more than a tailored version of creationism - the purely religious belief that a creator built the world - intended to circumvent the ruling of the high court. The Supreme Court banned creationism because it directly violates the important democratic principle of the separation of church and state. Special interests who cannot cast aside their personal bias toward the matter have chosen to violate that principle in a less direct manner through their promotion of that blatantly unscientific theory.
Intelligent design, which holds that nature is so complex it must have been the work of a God-like creator, is supposed to be an alternative to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Darwin's theory is founded in empirical observation and is fully accepted by the scientific mainstream. In contrast, intelligent design is a vague and mystical abstraction that should be recognized as a feeble attempt to inject religion into science and, consequently, school curriculums. Some, including President Bush, have advocated teaching both, but that is akin to teaching speculation alongside scientific reality.
Attacking intelligent design as the farce that it is often raises the ire of devoutly religious individuals. What the faithful must realize, however, is that the argument is not about the existence or lack thereof of God. Teaching creationism, intelligent design or any other pseudo-science in a public school science class ignores science. God can remain the topic in churches, homes, private schools, philosophy classes and elsewhere. In the biology classes of publicly funded school systems, however, only science should be discussed.
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Keep intelligent design out of schools
