Poor Dover - poor, poor Dover (rejecting, Earth, evolution, creation)

[Pah]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State filed a lawsuit challenging the Dover (Pennsylvania) Area School District's adoption of the theory of "intelligent design" -- which maintains that an "intelligent force" has directed the evolution of life on earth -- as part of its schools' science curriculum on the grounds that it is a violation of the separation of church and state. Following reports of the lawsuit on December 15, Reverend Pat Robertson expressed full support on The 700 Club for teaching the theory, and former Republican presidential candidate and MSNBC analyst Pat Buchanan led a Scarborough Country panel discussion that was heavily imbalanced in favor of teaching "intelligent design" alongside evolution -- rejecting the idea that "intelligent design" is disguised creationism. Despite the efforts of Robertson and the majority of the Scarborough Country panel to characterize "intelligent design" as science-based, most scientists and educators dismiss it, with some identifying the formulation as a thinly veiled effort to dress up creationism as science, on a par with the theory of evolution.

According to the Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Center (IDEA), "intelligent design" is "a scientific theory" that maintains that "life is not the result of purely natural processes, but that it was in some way designed by an 'intelligence.'"

"Intelligent design" has found its strongest support in the media from religious conservatives who consider it a viable, scientific alternative to the theory of evolution. The heavily imbalanced December 15 Scarborough Country panel, led by Buchanan, promoted this view. The panel consisted of Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Christian music artist Natalie Grant; Republican strategist Jack Burkman; and David Silverman, communications director for American Atheists and the lone dissenting voice.

In the course of the discussion, .... (continued here)