[at-l] Gracious! What would the Flying Spaghetti Monster say?

[sloetoe at yahoo.com (Sloetoe)]

W.W.F.S.M.D.?
http://www.venganza.org
versus:

Judge Rules Against Pa. Biology Curriculum By MARTHA RAFFAELE,
Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 28 minutes ago

"Intelligent design" cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a
Pennsylvania public school district, a federal judge said
Tuesday, ruling in one of the biggest courtroom clashes on
evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial.

Dover Area School Board members violated the Constitution when
they ordered that its biology curriculum must include the notion
that life on Earth was produced by an unidentified intelligent
cause, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III said. Several
members repeatedly lied to cover their motives even while
professing religious beliefs, he said.

The school board policy, adopted in October 2004, was believed
to have been the first of its kind in the nation.

"The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the
members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy," Jones wrote.

The board's attorneys had said members were seeking to improve
science education by exposing students to alternatives to
Charles Darwin's theory that evolution develops through natural
selection. Intelligent-design proponents argue that the theory
cannot fully explain the existence of complex life forms.

The plaintiffs challenging the policy argued that intelligent
design amounts to a secular repackaging of creationism, which
the courts have already ruled cannot be taught in public
schools. The judge agreed.

"We find that the secular purposes claimed by the Board amount
to a pretext for the Board's real purpose, which was to promote
religion in the public school classroom," he wrote in his
139-page opinion.

The Dover policy required students to hear a statement about
intelligent design before ninth-grade biology lessons on
evolution. The statement said Charles Darwin's theory is "not a
fact" and has inexplicable "gaps." It refers students to an
intelligent-design textbook, "Of Pandas and People," for more
information.

Jones wrote that he wasn't saying the intelligent design concept
shouldn't be studied and discussed, saying its advocates "have
bona fide and deeply held beliefs which drive their scholarly
endeavors."

But, he wrote, "our conclusion today is that it is
unconstitutional to teach ID as an alternative to evolution in a
public school science classroom."

The controversy divided the community and galvanized voters to
oust eight incumbent school board members who supported the
policy in the Nov. 8 school board election.

Said the judge: "It is ironic that several of these individuals,
who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions
in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and
disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy."

The board members were replaced by a slate of eight opponents
who pledged to remove intelligent design from the science
curriculum.

Eric Rothschild, the lead attorney for the families who
challenged the policy, called the ruling "a real vindication for
the parents who had the courage to stand up and say there was
something wrong in their school district."

Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More
Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., which represented the school
board, did not immediately return a telephone message seeking
comment.

The dispute is the latest chapter in a long-running debate over
the teaching of evolution dating back to the famous 1925 Scopes
Monkey Trial, in which Tennessee biology teacher John T. Scopes
was fined $100 for violating a state law that forbade teaching
evolution. The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed his conviction
on a technicality, and the law was repealed in 1967.

Jones heard arguments in the fall during a six-week trial in
which expert witnesses for each side debated intelligent
design's scientific merits. Other witnesses, including current
and former school board members, disagreed over whether
creationism was discussed in board meetings months before the
curriculum change was adopted.

The case is among at least a handful that have focused new
attention on the teaching of evolution in the nation's schools. 

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court in Georgia heard
arguments over whether evolution disclaimer stickers placed in a
school system's biology textbooks were unconstitutional. A
federal judge in January ordered Cobb County school officials to
immediately remove the stickers, which called evolution a
theory, not a fact. 

In November, state education officials in Kansas adopted new
classroom science standards that call the theory of evolution
into question. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Dover Area School District: http://www.dover.k12.pa.us 

National Center for Science Education: http://www.ncseweb.org 

Thomas More Law Center: http://www.thomasmore.org

Thanks to The Good Rev. 
Dr. BushDriver for turning the Indyscent Hash on to FSMism.