Intelligent Design is Religion

A Federal judge today ruled that Intelligent Design constitutes religion and therefore, by the establishment clause of the 1st Amendment cannot be taught in public schools. The controversy over the teaching of Intelligent Design (ID) as a science class is unlikely to end here, but there is now another court ruling that Intelligent Design, like other attempts to discredit Darwin, are not science but religion. The Dover School Board had passed the following directive:

Students will be made aware of gaps/problems in Darwin’s theory and of other theories of evolution including, but not limited to, intelligent design. Note: Origins of Life is not taught.

The judge used a test for establishment sanctioned by the Supreme Court:

School sponsorship of a religious message is impermissible because it sends the ancillary message to members of the audience who are nonadherents ‘that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.’

Under this test, the teaching of ID is a violation of the Establishment clause of the 1st Amendment because:

An Objective Observer Would Know that ID and Teaching About “Gaps” and “Problems” in Evolutionary Theory are Creationist, Religious Strategies that Evolved from Earlier Forms of Creationism

Essentially, ID is religion because it cannot be separated from the movement to teach creationism in schools, which has been deemed religion.

The full text of the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District ruling is available here (pdf).