It's Constitutional But Not Smart to Teach Intelligent Design in Schools

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Yet despite Dover's poor policy choices, they did nothing unconstitutional simply by requiring that teachers mention ID. So why the lawsuit? To greatly oversimplify this case, the ACLU's arguments can be broken into three categories:

The ACLU's first argument is specific to the facts, actions, and events that have taken place in the Dover Area School District. Those facts are being argued in court, and we have no way to know their veracity. But regardless of what the Dover Area School Board has actually done, a school district can teach about intelligent design for a variety of secular purposes, including informing students about competing scientific theories of biological origins, helping students to better understand Neo-Darwinism, and enhancing critical thinking skills. Regarding the second argument, intelligent design could be taught without using controversial "evolution is theory . not fact" language. Thus, Discovery is most interested in the ACLU's third argument.

Yet, in the third argument, the ACLU states that teaching design is unconstitutional in all circumstances because it postulates a "supernatural designer" and could not be taught for legitimate secular purposes. But the ACLU's arguments do not hold up to scrutiny.

The textbook referred to in the Dover disclaimer, "Of Pandas and People," explains that intelligent design theory does not address religious about the nature or identity of the designer. Consider these two clear disclaimers from "Pandas":

"[I]f we go further and conclude that the intelligence responsible for biological origins is outside the universe (supernatural) or within it, we do so without the help of science." (pg. 127)

"[T]he concept of design implies absolutely nothing about beliefs and normally associated with Christian fundamentalism, such as a young earth, a global flood, or even the existence of the Christian God. All it implies is that life had an intelligent source." (pg. 161)

"Pandas" makes it clear that when it comes to the nature or identity of the designer, "the intelligent design explanation has unanswered questions." (pg. 126) Thus design refrains from untestable, unscientific, or unconstitutional claims about God, or the "supernatural." There should be nothing illegal about teaching students something we can learn through scientific method: that life bears the informational characteristics we commonly find in objects we know were designed.

Admittedly, these issues can be challenging for courts. When a biology classroom investigates "how humans arose," it is going to provide answers that might support, or conflict with a wide variety of religious beliefs of students. For example, teaching that life was designed by intelligence might conflict with the religious beliefs of an atheist student. Similarly, teaching that humans arose through blind, purposeless Neo-Darwinian processes conflicts with the religious beliefs of many theist students who believe that God supernaturally intervened to make humans or other organisms through "special creation." How, then, can we teach biological origins?

Thankfully, courts have legal doctrines to cope with such quandaries. Government policies can be constitutional if the "principal" or "primary" effect does not "advance" or "inhibit" religion. If teaching about intelligent design establishes religion, then by the same logic teaching Neo-Darwinism should have a similar primary effect, since (as even plaintiffs have acknowledged) both theories have larger religious, or anti-religious implications. However, since both intelligent design and Neo-Darwinism make their claims based upon empirical evidence, teaching both theories has a primary effect that advances scientific knowledge. Any effects upon religion are merely "incidental," or "secondary."

In the Scopes Trial of 1925, the ACLU rightly sought to prevent a state from banning the teaching of evolution. Today the roles are reversed: now it is the Darwinists and the ACLU who seek to ban the legitimate science of intelligent design from the classroom.