On November 4, the closing arguments were presented to the Judge in the Dover, PA case which was brought to court by a group of parents in Dover against the Dover School District and Board. You can read the transcripts of this 21 day trial and learn a great deal about science education, evolutionary theory, Intelligent Design, and how a small community was pulled apart by a four-paragraph statement that was imposed on science teachers in the district. The case has a lot of similarities to the the case brought against the Cobb County (Georgia) School District by a group of parents who objected to a sticker that was ordered placed in every life science and biology text book declaring that evolution was “just” a theory, and that it should be studied critically. In this case, the Judge ruled in favor of the parents claim, and the school district had to remove each sticker from every life science/biology textbook in the district.

What will happend in the Dover case? My hope is that the same ruling will result as did in the Georgia case. Clearly, in the Dover case, the district was endorsing a religious view, and directly changing the nature of science, and the integrity of science teaching. Intelligent design is not science; it is not the result of scientific investigation (although the proponents will try and convince you so); it is religous dogma.

In his closing argument, the plaintiffs’ attorney reminded the court that it was ironic that the case was being decided in the only colony, and the only place under British rule in the 18th century where religious freedom was the law, and yet the school board defied this principle, this law to impose their own religious views on students in the school district by disguising a religous idea (intelligent design, formerly known as creationism) as a scientific idea—the government school’s attorney actually suggested that it was a “new paridigm” in science. Interestingly, the school board members that supported this idea were tossed out of office four days after the closing argument!