‘Intelligent Design’ Goes on Trial in Pa.

Case tests constitutionality of teaching an alternative to evolution in science class.

Harrisburg, Pa.

The question of whether “intelligent design” amounts to legitimate science, pseudo-science, or religion masquerading as science is undergoing a potentially historic legal test, as a federal court here considers whether a public school district can require that students be exposed to the controversial concept.

Eleven parents from the Dover district in south-central Pennsylvania are suing to halt a policy that mandates students be told about intelligent design in a 9th grade biology class alongside the theory of evolution.

The case stems from the Dover school board’s decision a year ago this month to revise the district’s science curriculum by requiring that students be made aware of “gaps/problems” in the theory of evolution and be introduced to intelligent design. That concept posits that the development of living things, including humans, shows signs of having been directed by an unnamed master architect, rather than generated by an undirected process of evolution through natural...