Jill Lawrence, "'Intelligent design' ruling may have ripples" (2005)

		The ruling means science classes in Dover, Pa. will not teach "intelligent design."
		Bradley C. Bower, AP

Intelligent design, or ID, is the idea that some forms of life are so complex, they show the distinct hand of a designer. Federal Judge John Jones ruled this week that intelligent design is creationism with a new label and can't be taught in public school science classes.

William Dembski, an ID proponent who teaches science and theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, says evolution supporters lost the Scopes trial of 1925 and turned it into a rallying cry. He suggested backers of intelligent design may do the same with the Jones opinion: "There are cultural voices in play that can render that verdict obsolete."

Although the ruling against the Dover, Pa., school board is not binding outside Jones' Pennsylvania district, opponents of intelligent design hope it influences curricula in Kansas, Ohio and Cobb County, Ga. School boards in all three places have adopted policies that encourage skepticism about evolution.

The Dover school board had required biology students to hear a statement saying evolution was flawed and intelligent design was an alternative.

The Seattle-based Discovery Institute, the leading proponent of ID, told Dover its policy would invite a lawsuit. Instead, the think tank urges schools to "teach the controversy" about evolution without mandating intelligent design.

That's the approach several boards are taking. Jones tried to drive a stake through it. "This tactic is at best disingenuous and at worst a canard," he wrote. "The goal of (ID) is not to encourage critical thought, but to foment a revolution which would supplant evolutionary theory with ID."

He said no other part of the science curriculum was criticized in Dover, there was no evidence of disclaimers on other subjects and science has refuted ID critiques of evolution.

The cases Jones could affect:

• In Kansas, the state board of education adopted standards that opponents say single out evolution for criticism and open the door to supernatural causation. Steve Abrams, chairman of the school board, says the Jones decision won't affect Kansas.

"It's apples and oranges," he says. Abrams says the board won't revisit its policy but voters can decide next year when five of 10 board seats are up: "They will have the final say."

• In Cobb County, Ga., a three-judge federal appeals panel is weighing whether to uphold a lower court ban on a textbook sticker that said evolution is "a theory, not a fact" and should be "critically considered." The stickers were removed from more than 34,000 books in the summer.

• In Ohio, the state board of education adopted a statement supporting critical analysis of evolution and lesson plans opponents say were lifted straight from creationist and intelligent design literature.

"It's the same stuff that went to trial in Dover and was found not to be science," says Patricia Princehouse, a biology professor at Case Western Reserve University.

She says she hopes the Dover ruling changes some board members' minds. Two board members could not be reached for comment.

Stephen Meyer, director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, says "it would really be a stretch" to find it unconstitutional for "students to learn scientific criticism of Darwinian evolution."

He also says there's more to ID than attacking evolution. "We're building a very strong scientific research program," he says. "There are lots of scientists friendly to this position."

Richard Katskee, a lawyer for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, says lawsuits are possible in Kansas and Ohio if voters or board members don't bring about change.

"They've taken the plan from ID without using the label," he says of the two states. "That plan is really about attacking evolution. That's all there is to ID."

Most scientists, including White House science adviser John Marburger, call evolution a pillar of biology. President Bush has said intelligent design should be taught along with evolution.

The subject has proven to be risky for some politicians. In Dover last month, voters ousted eight school board members who approved the ID policy.

The Jones decision prompted a quick move by a social conservative up for re-election next year. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said he'd resign from the board of the Christian-oriented Thomas More Law Center, a Michigan firm that represented the Dover board.

The center "made a huge mistake" in taking the case and pushing it so far, Santorum told ThePhiladelphia Inquirer.