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Intelligent Design

Updated 11.18.09  Despite its scientific-sounding name, civil libertarians consider intelligent design (ID) another attempt to get creationism into public schools’ curriculum -- which is a violation of the First Amendment’s requirement of separation of church and state. 
 
What is intelligent design?
ID theory proposes that life and the natural universe could not have developed through random processes.  Proponents claim that postulates of complexity show nature to be the work of some unnamed “designer.” While philosopher William Paley set forth this argument in 1802, it has since been updated to include allegedly scientific principles such as “irreducible complexity” and “specified complexity.”
 
Tactics to advance intelligent design
After losing a legal challenge in Kitzmiller v. Dover, ID proponents now  emphasize “teaching the controversy.”  They argue that teaching evolution without criticism and alternatives violates the principle of objectivity because it does not allow a place for supernatural "teleological” causes in scientific explanation.  The scientific method, they claim, requires consideration of all possible theories, including the supernatural, unless proven false.
 
However, nearly all scientists reject this argument because metaphysical explanations are unverifiable and unscientific. 


What's Happening in Ohio

In 2002, the state school board approved a plan that opened the door to teaching intelligent design in Ohio's schools, but in February 2006, after the Kitzmiller decision, the state school board rescinded the lesson plan, “Critical Analysis of Evolution.”

Governor Ted Strickland, who took office in 2007, and several state school board members have publicly expressed their disapproval of the concept of intelligent design.

Nonetheless, some teachers admit to including intelligent design in their lessons. In 2006, the ACLU sent a letter to the Toledo Public Schools superintendent after news reports that teachers were presenting intelligent design as part of their science curriculum. Read the ACLU news release.


Resources

In the landmark 1987 case Edwards v. Aguillard, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the teaching of creation science in public schools is a violation of the Constitution's Establishment Clause.

Our Students! Know Your Rights guide contains a section on intelligent design.

Download our booklet, The Scopes Monkey Trial: A Look Back 85 Years Later.

View the national ACLU web page on religion and belief.

Check out the websites of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the National Center for Science Education.

Read news releases and articles about religious liberty and intelligent design in our News Center.