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Intelligent-Design Case Has Little Effect Locally

Posted on: Friday, 23 December 2005, 15:00 CST

By Bettye Wells Miller, The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Calif.

Dec. 22--Inland residents this week said they were not surprised that a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled that teaching intelligent design in science classes is unconstitutional.

Some disagreed with Tuesday's decision, but others said the judge made the right call. And a Palm Springs school board member who once supported the teaching of intelligent design said the ruling sets a precedent that may guide school districts pressed to alter their science curricula.

U.S. District Judge John Jones ruled Tuesday that teaching intelligent design violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

"We have concluded that it is not (science), and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents," he wrote in a 139-page opinion.

Proponents of intelligent design believe that Earth and its life forms are so complex that they cannot be explained by evolution and that their development can be explained only by the intervention of a designer or supernatural being.

Meredy Shoenberger, a Palm Springs school board member, said she briefly supported teaching intelligent design when the subject came up during the election last fall. She has changed her mind.

"I agree with the Pennsylvania ruling," she said. "In science classes only the theory of evolution as we know it should be taught. Intelligent design and creationism should be taught in the family or at the student's church." Shoenberger said no one has asked the Palm Springs board to include intelligent design in its science curriculum.

Although the Pennsylvania ruling applies specifically to the Dover Area School District, near Harrisburg, it could set precedent in other federal courts and empower districts asked to teach intelligent design, Schoenberger said.

A July 2005 national poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religious & Public Life found that nearly two-thirds of Americans favor teaching creationism along with evolution in public schools. Nearly eight in 10 said they believe that God was responsible for creating life on Earth.

In California, the issue has come up in one Northern California school district. "There hasn't been an organized statewide effort, but it's something that school boards are wary of," said Hillary McLean, spokeswoman for Jack O'Connell, the state superintendent of public instruction.

California requires that public schools teach Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection and evolution and prohibits the teaching of religious or philosophical beliefs in science classes, according to the California School Boards Association Web site.

Maria Garcia, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino City Unified School District, said the issue has not come up in her district.

Evolution is taught in seventh, ninth- and 10th-grade cellular-biology lessons that relate to DNA and genetic traits, she said.

"Teachers recognize there are different beliefs on this topic, but they don't teach the curriculum from an advocacy standpoint either way," she said.

John Emerson, a retired elementary-school teacher and administrator from Highland, said he taught evolution but did not belittle students who raised questions about creation based on their religious beliefs. "I didn't try to dissuade the kids," he said.

He supports the court ruling "because there are so many intelligent-design theories. If you're going to be required to teach intelligent design, you ought to teach them all. ... I have a book with 140 creation theories from societies all over the world. Which one am I supposed to teach?" Emerson, who said he is a Christian, believes there is scientific support for Darwin's theory of evolution.

"Intelligent design is a matter of faith," he said.

Riverside resident Don Cicchetti, the parent of a high school freshman, favors teaching both evolution and intelligent design.

"My kid is a committed Christian. I tell her if you don't learn Darwin, you won't learn science," he said.

But there are gaps in Darwin's theory, he said.

"There had to be a designer," Cicchetti said. "Intelligent design is not the latest version of creationism. ID offers a genuine scientific challenge to Darwinism. It's not the latest Christian challenge to godless Darwinists. ... ID people run the gamut from agnostics to deists to Catholics." Ron Harvey, an associate pastor at Magnolia Avenue Baptist Church in Riverside, said he was disappointed by the Pennsylvania court decision.

"We don't see a conflict between teaching intelligent design and Darwin's theory of evolution," he said. "... If there are theories that help stimulate thinking and help with reasoning development of young minds, give them an option. Nobody's saying you have to believe this."

Harvey said it is possible to teach intelligent design without endorsing religion by taking care with the language used.

"We've never felt that teaching creationism is a violation of church and state," Harvey said.

DEFINITIONS:

--Creationism: The belief that the Bible's account of Earth's creation is literally true and accurate. Creationists cite Genesis 1:1-2a in the Old Testament, where God creates Earth and all life forms in six days. They believe Earth was formed between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. Some creationists believe Earth was created in six consecutive 24-hour days, while others believe the days may have been longer with gaps of time between them.

--Evolution: The theory that all living things share a common ancestry and that complex life forms today evolved from single-cell organisms over millions of years.

--Darwinism: A theory of evolution, developed by Charles Darwin in the 19th century, that holds that natural selection drives evolution.

--Intelligent design: The belief that some life forms are so complex that they could not have developed without the intervention of a designer or supernatural being. Many supporters do not believe that life forms share a common ancestor, although some do.

Source: ReligionLink .org

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Source: The Press-Enterprise

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