US school's evolution teaching goes on trial
Staff and agencies
Monday September 26, 2005
Supporters of the theory of evolution go head-to-head with proponents of "intelligent design" in a Pennsylvania court today in what is being billed as a crucial cultural battle for American education.
A group of parents in the small town of Dover, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), is seeking to overturn a decision by the local school board insisting that intelligent design - the claim that complex organisms have been designed rather than evolved in response to natural selection - must be included in the curriculum.
The case, to be heard in the US district court in nearby Harrisburg, will revisit the clash between creationism and Darwinism in the 1925 Scopes Monkey trial and highlight the growing influence of the religious right.
Any verdict in the case could end up before the supreme court because of the importance of the issues at stake.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schoolsworldwide/story/0,14062,1578678,00.html