ACLU Sues Pa. School District Over 'Intelligent Design' Curriculum

[billbuckhead]

ACLU Sues Pa. School District Over 'Intelligent Design' Curriculum
By Martha Raffaele
Associated Press
posted: 14 December 2004
05:02 pm ET

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Eight families have filed a lawsuit against a school district that is requiring students to learn about alternatives to the theory of evolution, claiming the curriculum violates the separation of church and state.


The ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State said the lawsuit is the first to challenge whether public schools should teach ``intelligent design,'' which holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by some higher power. The two organizations are representing the parents in the federal lawsuit.


The Dover Area School District voted 6-3 on Oct. 18 to include intelligent design in the ninth-grade science curriculum, in what is believed to be the first such requirement in the country.

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<http://www.livescience.com/othernews/intelligent_lawsuit_041214.html>

[AllegroRondo]

1. If your idea of science inolves a 'higher power'

it belongs in a philosophy class. Science is about facts, not unprovable higher powers.

[Disturbed]

2. Design

Does not this idea indicate that the designer is also the creator? If so, then that is a philosophical or religious concept. If this notion is included then all concepts of creation notions have to be open to study.
There are probably hundreds of creation stories available. It is not science. It is speculation and does not belong in public school under the science umbrella.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. BINGO!

Doesn't science have a set of rules that must be met before it can even be called a science? On DU I saw someone post information on astrology and they were shooed off the forum because it wasn't science enough. And, Behavioral sciences are referred to a pseudo science, so how can Creationism even be taken seriously when it is entirely based on faith?

[Bill McBlueState]

5. astrology

You saw an astrologer get "shooed off" a DU forum? Wow, it's usually the people who dare to question their woo-woo explanations of reality who get shooed off the forum.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. It was a science forum. And the other DUer was questioning whether

it qualified as a pure science. (BTW, I thing the subject was astrology as a science, can't be sure, but I remember it was one of those times when I thought it was best not to interject in the conversation. I found the article very interesting, despite the academic quarrel. -- I'll look it up and get back to you.)

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. It was about archeology! Not astrology!

My memory has blips like that on peripheral topics. Here's the link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=228&topic_id=351&mesg_id=351

[jackster]

4. hmmmm...

what I don't get is if we must teach creationsim, why must it be one version of creationsim? Why not add Native American beliefs, and Indian, Muslim, Hindu....

indeed, that would be called PHILOSPHY!

[Bill McBlueState]

6. 'Intelligent Design' Curriculum

I'm really curious to see an intelligent design curriculum, or even a single day's lesson plan. How does it go? The teacher says, "Some people believe their God created the universe." Then what?

It's not like there are any labs students can do, or vocabulary words they can learn.