Question

What was the 2005 Dover court case about?

What is intelligent design (ID), and how does it differ from Darwin’s theory of evolution by means of natural selection?

Why is ID considered not to be science by the scientific community? Is there a difference between ID and creationism?

Why are scientists opposed to “equal time” for creationism/ID in science classes?

What evidence is put forward during the trial to support evolution and counter ID?

What evidence is put forward in support of ID? Does it hold up to scientific scrutiny?

What is ID’s notion of “irreducible complexity” and how is it refuted by evolutionary biologists?

Do you agree or disagree with the Judge’s decision in this case? Why?

Answer 1

it was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of intelligent design. In October 2004, the Dover Area School District of York County, Pennsylvania changed its biology teaching curriculum to require that intelligent design be presented as an alternative to evolution theory, and that Of Pandas and People, a textbook advocating intelligent design, was to be used as a reference book. The prominence of this textbook during the trial was such that the case is sometimes referred to as the Dover Panda Trial,a name which recalls the popular name of the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee, 80 years earlier. The plaintiffs successfully argued that intelligent design is a form of creationism, and that the school board policy violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The judge's decision sparked considerable response from both supporters and critics.

Intelligent design:

It is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins .

Darwinism: Evolution by natural selection is one of the best substantiated theories in the history of science, supported by evidence from a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including paleontology, geology, genetics and developmental biology.

Creatonism : the belief that the universe and living organisms originate from specific acts of divine creation, as in the biblical account, rather than by natural processes such as evolution.