Calif. School Scraps 'Intelligent Design' [El Tejon litigation]

The Dispatch (Lexington, N.C.) ^ | 17 January 2006 | JULIANA BARBASSA

[PatrickHenry]

A rural school district agreed to stop teaching a religion-based alternative to evolution as part of a court settlement filed Tuesday, a legal group said.

Frazier Mountain High School will stop teaching a philosophy class discussing the theory of "intelligent design" this week and won't teach it in the future, said Ayesha N. Khan, legal director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Officials at the El Tejon Unified School District were not immediately available for comment.

A federal judge in Fresno had been scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday afternoon on whether to halt the class midway through the monthlong winter term.

A group of parents sued the district last week, saying it violated the constitutional separation of church and state by offering "Philosophy of Design," a course taught by a minister's wife that advanced the theory that life is so complex it must have been created by God.

"The course was designed to advance religious theories on the origins of life, including creationism and its offshoot, 'intelligent design,'" said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.

In a landmark lawsuit, Americans United for Separation of Church and State had successfully blocked Dover, Pa., schools last month from teaching intelligent design in science courses. [Kitzmiller et al. v Dover Area School District et al..]

El Tejon school officials had claimed the subject was proper for a philosophy class.

The high school in the Tehachapi Mountains about 75 miles north of Los Angeles draws 500 students from a dozen small communities.

Sharon Lemburg, a social studies teacher and soccer coach who was teaching "Philosophy of Design," defended the course in a letter to the weekly Mountain Enterprise.

"I believe this is the class that the Lord wanted me to teach," she wrote.

Similar battles are being fought in Georgia and Kansas. Critics of "intelligent design" say it is biblical creationism in disguise, but defenders argue it is based on science and doesn't require adherence to any religious belief.

[mlc9852]

A woman would have to be pretty desperate to have an affair with Hillary!

[wallcrawlr]

Welcome to another evo backslapping fest.

Revelation 4:11Intelligent Design
See my profile for info

[Stultis]

The Darwinists are about to have a bad few decades; they just don't know it yet.

Oh, yes we do. In fact evolution has already "collapsed," "passed," "fallen" and utterly withered away and been replaced by creation science triumphant many, many times in the twentieth century. How come YOU didn't know this? I've got dozens of creationist screeds in my own library, of various publication dates stretching back some 80 years, that declare the imminent or (then) presently discernible demise of evolution as clearly as you have just done.

[wyattearp]

Under the terms of the settlement, the course will terminate one week early.

What is going to happen to the kids who took the class, and sat through it for all but the last week? Do they still get to claim a credit for the class (as an elective, or whatever) or do they have to eat it?

In every case so far, whether it was Georgia, Kansas, Dover, or wherever, every time that the creationists/ID people do this the kids have been the ones that have lost out because of it. Whether it is precious school funds wasted on litigation, schoolbooks damaged, or class credits lost, it has been the kids that have gotten the short end of the stick.

At least these folks bailed out before they bankrupted the school district. What is it going to take before they stop wasting time, money, and children's educations on something that doesn't even rise to the level of pseudoscience?

[microgood]

The substance of this "philosophy" class consisted of videos presenting young-earth, flood-geology creationism. I've followed the antievolution movement for many years, and have studied its history extensively. Young-earth, flood-geology creationism has ALWAYS been identified -- by its own advocates and practitioners -- as either "Biblical Creationism" or "Scientific Creationism" or "Creation Science" or some formulation of the sort. It's never, ever been put forward as a subject of "philosophy".

The article did not state what was in the class. And of course you cannot believe anything the ACLU or AU say about anything. Do you have any information about this course that says it is not about intelligent design besides the lying communist scum? I do not have a cause. I have a degree in Philosophy and every Department and every college have Philosophy of Religion classes and Philosophy of Science classes. The discussion of Intelligent Design would fit in one of those without any problem.

You can't possibly believe this utterly transparent dodge. Have you no shame? Or is any level of obvious deceit and baloney acceptable if it advances the cause?

You cannot possibly believe anything the AU or ACLU had to say, CAN YOU? Have you no shame? The people cancelled the class because they could not afford to get sued. Not because there is any validity in the what the scumbags said.

[CarolinaGuitarman]

Nice quote mining. I notice you fail to post Darwin's response to this hypothetical question, where he shows that there is no problem with the fossil record and we see what is expected. Typical creationist trick.

" If the fossil record is as expected - why abandon Darwinism for punctuated equilibrium?"

Another quote mine, this time with Gould. Nobody *abandoned* Darwin. Darwin explained speciation in terms of stasis and increased change. PE is not against Darwin; properly understood it's always been a part of evolutionary thinking.

" In the end the emperor has no clothes and God gets the last laugh!"

Yes, he's laughing at you for being so ignorant about what he created.

[DaveyB]

What is it going to take before they stop wasting time, money, and children's educations on something that doesn't even rise to the level of pseudoscience?

I don't know - when do you think they will stop teaching evolution?

[Dimensio]

The article did not state what was in the class.

Are you under the mistaken impression that absolutely no information regarding this class has been made public knowledged prior to this article, or are you just ignoring that fact because your argument crashes to pieces otherwise?

[wyattearp]

A woman would have to be pretty desperate to have an affair with Hillary!

(please, oh please, nobody post a picture of Helen Thomas...)

[wyattearp]

I don't know - when do you think they will stop teaching evolution?

When somebody shows evidence that falsifies the theory. People have been trying for 150 years, and it hasn't happened yet. With the recent discoveries in genetics, it probably never will.

[DaveyB]

Yes, he's laughing at you for being so ignorant about what he created.

Yes, that is true I am ignorant. That I freely confess, and I will remain so if I do not look both to general and special revelation to lift me from my ignorance. When I read what God has written I understand ..."For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened" Rom 1

It is not just your epistemological rebellion, but your thanklessness to the God of creation that has so darkened your thinking.

Ignorance is a part of the human condition - atheism just makes it permanent.

[Dimensio]

Ignorance is a part of the human condition - atheism just makes it permanent.

Creationist lie #324: all who accept evolution are atheists.

[shuckmaster]

This is great news. When I see the great progress we are making at driving the idiots who want to teach ID and other bizarre theological pseudo sciences out of our schools, there's still hope we can apply the same pressure to left wing socialists also. Let's put the skeer to them!!!

[mlc9852]

"Ignorance is a part of the human condition - atheism just makes it permanent."

That would sure make a great tagline! Love it.

[DaveyB]

Creationist lie #324...

Then the straw-man sang ... "If I only had a brain..."

[CarolinaGuitarman]

"It is not just your epistemological rebellion, but your thanklessness to the God of creation that has so darkened your thinking."

This has to be a joke, because I am not the one who has abandoned the physical world, it is you.

" Ignorance is a part of the human condition - atheism just makes it permanent."

Change atheism to creationism and I'll agree.

[shuckmaster]

I am that cancer - be afraid be very afraid -

Afraid? At best you'll get a mild chuckle out of me! lol!!!

[DaveyB]

...I am not the one who has abandoned the physical world, it is you...

I still live and study the physical world, I just do not presume to make man's reasoning superior to God's special revelation. In other words if I want to know how my car was designed and assembled, I ask the manufacturer not the car.

[shuckmaster]

even the Discovery Institute thought the class was a pile of crap

The DI is the main instigator of this pile of crap. But, knowing that what they are pushing on to suckers is a pile of crap, whenever they see a court case coming they disavow any connection and hide under their rocks until the coast is clear to come out and fire up some more ignorant suckers.

[narby]

funny how few people were persuaded prior to 1800?

Maybe because Darwin didn't even publish until much later?

You do know that the scientific culture didn't really get going until around that time, don't you?