As most of us who have evolved with brains in our heads are aware, "intelligent design" (ID) is a complete crock o' crap. More to the point, it is an attempted repackaging of the same old discredited garbage, "creationism," that has already been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Fortunately, we still live in a country that has not been completely taken over by the theocrats and flat earthers. Today, in Pennsylvania, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III completely slammed the teaching of ID in high school biology classes as an alternative to evolution, ruling that:
To preserve the separation of church and state mandated by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and Art. I, ? 3 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, we will enter an order permanently enjoining Defendants from maintaining the ID Policy in any school within the Dover Area School District, from requiring teachers to denigrate or disparage the scientific theory of evolution, and from requiring teachers to refer to a religious, alternative theory known as ID.
There are too many fantastic quotes from the judge's ruling to list on this blog, so I would refer you to the PDF of his complete ruling. Here's one such quote, and then I'll leave it at that:
Both Defendants and many of the leading proponents of ID make a bedrock assumption which is utterly false. Their presupposition is that evolutionary theory is antithetical to a belief in the existence of a supreme being and to religion in general. Repeatedly in this trial, Plaintiffs? scientific experts testified that the theory of evolution represents good science, is overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community, and that it in no way conflicts with, nor does it deny, the existence of a divine creator.To be sure, Darwin?s theory of evolution is imperfect. However, the fact that a scientific theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent well-established scientific propositions.
Thank you Judge Jones. You are one smart man.