reality-based educator

At least a judge in Pennsylvnia threw "intelligent design" out of the science classroom and back into Bible school where it belongs. From the LA Times:

Federal Judge Rules Against 'Intelligent Design'
By Henry Weinstein, Times Staff Writer

A federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled today that it is unconstitutional to compel teachers there to present "intelligent design" as an alternative explanation to evolution because it amounts to establishing religion in public schools.

U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III wrote that the Dover, Pa. school board cannot require teachers "to denigrate or disparage the scientific theory of evolution" or "refer to a religious, alternative theory known as I.D."

Jones' ruling came in Tammy Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board, the first legal challenge to teaching intelligent design, which holds that organisms are so complex and highly perfected, a designer must have created them. The designer is not identified in the theory, though some supporters believe it is God.

Kitzmiller, a parent of two Dover high school students, and 10 other individuals challenged a Dover Area School District policy requiring the teaching of "intelligent design" in ninth-grade biology. The parents asserted that the district violated the First Amendment provision prohibiting establishment of religion.

The school board asserted that it was merely attempting to present an alternative to Charles Darwin's widely accepted theory of evolution.

But Judge Jones, an appointee of President George W. Bush, ruled that the board was trying to mask religious teaching in the guise of science. He used unusually strong language for a federal judge, going so far as to excoriate some members of the school board for lying.

"We find that the secular purposes claimed by the Board amount to pretext for the Board's real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom, in violation of the Establishment Clause," Jones wrote.

"Repeatedly in this trial, plaintiff's scientific experts testified that theory of evolution represents good science, is overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community, and that it in no way conflicts with, nor does it deny, the existence of a divine creator," the judge added.

Nice. Judge Jones (a Dubya appointee) called some wingnuts on their religious wingnuttery.

And I agree with the judge.

If you want to teach intelligent design, fine. Teach it in a religious class.

Let's leave "good science" for the science class.