education

Tempers Flare over Intelligent Design Curriculum

By Darla Sitton
CBN News Producer

CBN.com – (CBN News) - Biology students in Dover, Pennsylvania are learning about an alternative to the theory of evolution in the classroom. But the new curriculum is re-igniting a national debate.

The theory that man evolved randomly from apes is popular with scientists, but according to a recent poll, 61 percent of Americans take the biblical view of creation.

And in rural Pennsylvania, the controversy is raging. The school board voted to tell kids about intelligent design, which teaches that life is so complex it had to be created by a supernatural force.

That now has one science teacher angry. Parent and teacher Steven Stough says, "It doesn't name a master intellect, but it's not that big of a leap from a master intellect to God."

He and 10 other parents are suing.

Stough complains, "It's not science. It's creationism in camouflage."

Stough says the decision is a brazen attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court's 1987 ruling, which banned the teaching of creation in public schools.

But many Dover residents agree with the board.

Basketball coach Gary Sutton said, "We shouldn't be running from religion. We ought to be able to say to them, ‘There's a question I really can't answer now.’"

As in Dover, across America, there is a battle to squelch any hint of intelligent design. So far, since 2001, at least 43 states have battled about the teaching of origins in public school.

Many believe that intelligent design is more credible than the theory of evolution.

ID advocates say intelligent design provides a great way to introduce students to the controversies around evolution, and to provide a way of thinking through related topics.

A number of scientists wonder, as many Americans do, why science should be tied to Charles Darwin's 150-year-old theory, rather than the latest findings on intelligent design.

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