There's a new ID lawsuit in the works, this one in El Tejon, California.
The school hastily accepted an elective course on the "Philosophy of
Design" (originally "Philosophy of Intelligent Design") to be taught by
a teacher who is a creationism advocate with no training or
certification in science teaching whatsoever. According to the complaint
(http://www.au.org/site/DocServer/Final_Complaint.pdf?docID=541) and
news reports, the original syllabus for the class included 24 videos to
be shown to the class, all of them from creationist organizations. The
quickly revised second syllabus included one video on evolution and all
the rest from a creationist perspective - and this includes not only
"intelligent design" but traditional young earth creationism as well.
The course description sent out to parents in December said, "the class
will take a close look at evolution as a theory and will discuss the
scientific, biological and biblical aspects that suggest why Darwin's
philosophy is not rock solid. The class will discuss intelligent design
as an alternative response to evolution. Physical and chemical evidence
will be presented suggesting the earth is thousands of years old, not
billions."
Here are some other links to relevant documents:
The original syllabus -
http://www.mountainenterprise.com/IntelDesignSyl/IntelDesignSyllabus051209.htm
A critique of that syllabus -
http://www.mountainenterprise.com/IntelDesignSyl/IntelDesignSyllabus051209_kjh_markup.htm
The second syllabus -
http://www.mountainenterprise.com/IntelDesignSyl/Syllabus-051229.html
I am of the opinion that it is possible to teach a course that taught
about such issues without advocating a creationist position and
therefore violating the law. But it certainly doesn't look like this is
the course that does that. This is scheduled for a hearing this week on
a preliminary injunction with the actual trial, should it get that far,
being much later.
Ed Brayton
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