JURIST - Paper Chase: ACLU to file first lawsuit against teaching of "intelligent design" creationism

[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union will file a federal suit Tuesday against a Pennsylvania school district for requiring that ninth-grade biology students be instructed in "intelligent design" as an alternative to the theory of evolution. "Intelligent design" suggests that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by some higher intelligent power. The ACLU and parents of children in the Dover Area School District contend that the policy of the school district - the first in the nation to mandate intelligent design instruction - infringes their religious liberty "by promoting religious beliefs to their children under the guise of science education." AP has more. The Pennsylvania York County Patriot News provides local coverage. Last month the Dover Area School Board issued this press release on its biology curriculum. From the other side of the political spectrum the school policy has also been criticized for being "incoherent" by the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, a Seattle-based intelligent design think-tank. Read their press release here.

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