Updated 08.18.08 Despite its
scientific-sounding name, intelligent design, or ID theory, is simply
another way of getting creationism into public schools’ curriculum --
which is a violation of the First Amendment’s requirement of separation
of church and state.
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.” Although philosopher William Paley originally enunciated
this argument in 1802, it has since been updated to include allegedly
“scientific” principles such as “irreducible complexity” and “specified
complexity.”
It became the focus of modern interest following the Supreme Court’s
1987 ruling in Edwards v. Aguillard that the teaching of
“creation science” in public schools is an unconstitutional violation of
the Establishment Clause. In response, the 1989 publication of the
textbook Of Pandas and People, which claimed
that life was brought into existence “abruptly… with distinctive
features already intact,” marked the emergence of ID theory into the
debate over how biology is taught in America’s schools.
ID theory faced a definitive legal challenge from the ACLU, along with
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, in
Kitzmiller v. Dover. In late 2005, U.S. District Court
Judge John E. Jones issued his opinion, siding with the ACLU, that the
Pennsylvania Dover School District’s inclusion of ID theory in its
schools’ curricula was a thinly disguised attempt to subvert Edwards
v. Aguillard and restore the unconstitutional instruction of
creation science in public schools.
Since Kitzmiller, ID proponents have refocused their strategy
to emphasize “teaching the controversy.” They argue that a course
on 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 a priori unverifiable and, therefore, unscientific.
 What's Happening in Ohio
In late 2002, the Ohio state school board approved a plan that
opened the door to teaching intelligent design in Ohio's schools.
Immediately following the trial in Dover, in February 2006, the
state school board voted to rescind the intelligent design lesson
plan, entitled “Critical Analysis of Evolution.”
Governor Ted Strickland and several state school board members
have publicly expressed their disapproval of the concept of
intelligent design.
Resources
Students! Know Your Rights
This guide contains a section on intelligent design.
go»
View the
national ACLU web page on intelligent design.
Check out the websites of
Ohio Citizens for Science,
Americans
United for Separation of Church and State, and the
National Center
for Science Education.
Read intelligent design press releases and news articles in our
News Center.
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