IT IS being billed as Scopes II – a reprise of the infamous 1925 court battle between John Scopes and the state of Tennessee over the teaching of evolution in US schools. Except this time, the Kitzmiller vs Dover case is putting intelligent design (ID), the latest creationist alternative to Darwinian evolution, on trial.
The case, which began in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on 26 September, has been brought by the parents, including Tammy Kitzmiller, of 11 children who attend Dover High School. They disagree with the area school board’s requirement for students to be made aware of ID in science lessons. That imposes a particular religious view on their children, the parents say, and violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
That same argument convinced the US Supreme Court to ban the teaching of “creation science” 18 years ago. Yet ID may prove to be a more guileful opponent. Creation science selectively sought evidence that appeared to support one particular version of the creation myth. ID seeks to answer an absence of evidence. If you can’t prove that evolution created complex structures and organisms, it argues, then it is reasonable to suppose they are part of nature’s design, and by extension, the work of a “designer” (91av, 9 July, p 8). This need not be God in the conventional sense, its supporters say, though most are themselves fundamentalist Christians.
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It is an empty argument – one that has no place in a science lesson, and we hope the judge will quickly reject it. Yet the stakes are high for both sides in fighting this court case.
The ID project has made considerable headway by claiming that children are entitled to hear both sides of the argument and make up their own minds. The plea sounds reasonable. But the Kitzmiller vs Dover trial will finally subject the “teach the controversy” soundbite to deeper scrutiny. Searching questions about the religious motivation behind the ID project, and its lack of scientific credentials, should give it a bumpier ride than the more lenient court of public opinion.
That doesn’t mean the evolutionists will have an easy time. Some argue that adversarial court arguments will give the impression of scientific controversy where none exists. It may also offer the media an opportunity to portray scientists as dogmatic, censorious aggressors. If the parents win, teaching policy will change, but only in Dover. If they lose, it could send a signal across the US that teaching ID in science classes is legitimate.
Nonetheless it is a case that must be fought. Dover is the first US school district to make the teaching of ID, a religiously inspired alternative to science, compulsory. And it must be challenged. The education of America’s schoolchildren, and the future of American science, depends on it.