Attorney: Despite Dover Ruling, Intelligent Design Won't Go Away
by Jim Brown
January 6, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A pro-family attorney is expressing dismay over a Pennsylvania school board's decision to drop a science policy that generated widespread controversy and national media attention. The newly elected Dover Area School Board has voted unanimously to rescind a policy designed to inform students that the theory of intelligent design, or ID, is an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution.Last month a federal judge declared the Dover Area School District's policy unconstitutional, saying it violated the Establishment Clause, or separation of church and state. Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, says the ruling and the recent school board vote have effectively inoculated the teaching of evolutionary theory in the Pennsylvania school system against any and all criticism.
"The judge specifically ordered the school board never to denigrate or disparage the theory of evolution," Thompson contends, "which now makes that theory sacrosanct and violates one of the major principles of America -- that no official, high or petty, should establish dogma or orthodoxy in a method of thinking."
The Law Center spokesman says he was astounded by the court's ruling. "Our founding fathers would be rolling over in their graves if they realized that this First Amendment language that they adopted would now be used to destroy a policy that a local school board made regarding students being made aware of the theory of intelligent design," he asserts.
However, Thompson points out, regardless of the court ruling and the school board's vote, the issue of ID theory is not likely to go away because other school boards across the United States are even now weighing the evidence and considering the idea that Darwin's theory of evolution has a lot of gaps in it. Also, he notes, many in the academic and scientific communities are realizing that evolution does not explain the complex biological systems scientists are now discovering through advanced technology.
Thompson is hopeful the ruling and the Dover Area School Board's vote will generate even more discussion about the theory of intelligent design and other alternatives to evolution.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
