Intelligent Design: Wrong?

(source) - U.S. District Judge John E. Jones ruled that a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania public school district is barred from teaching "intelligent design" in biology class. The judge said that the concept is creationism in disguise, and it violated the constitutional separation of church and state. (read the U.S. Constitution)

The theory of intelligent design believes that living organisms are so complex that they must have been created by "some kind" of higher force, without claiming a specific branch of religion. The judge, a Republican and a churchgoer, said that intelligent design is "a religious view, a mere re-labeling of creationism, and not a scientific theory." He also added: "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."

In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot require public schools to balance evolution lessons by teaching creationism, in a stunning ruling that only added fuel to the religion vs. Evolution battle waging in American society.

The judge also said that intelligent design arguments "may be true, a proposition on which the court takes no position, I.D. is not science." Additionally, he said that it was "flawed and illogical" in its arguments. The judge also said: "It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in the public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the I.D." He feels that I.D. is a religion, and not a science, and therefore it doesn't belong in the class.

Former school board member William Buckingham, who advanced the policy, said that he still feels the school board was justified in its decision. "I'm still waiting for a judge or anyone to show me anywhere in the Constitution where there's a separation of church and state."

The current school board President intends to remove intelligence design from the science unit and place it in an elective social studies class.

Oponnets of evolution feel that intelligent design - or creationism - should be taught again in schools, if anything as an alternative to Darwinism and evolution. But those ideas have been met with amazing resistant from individuals and interest groups in a fierce cultural war that has been waged for decades.

Creationist have also offered plenty of evidence to refuse Darwinist, but get refuted by scientist for holding fast to a deity, rather than to science. You can read up on this evidence and learn more about them by visiting Answers in Genesis.

You can read the ruling in .PDF by clicking here, and come to your own conclusion on this deeply divisive issue.