To the Editor:
Regarding your front-page article (“‘Intelligent Design’ Goes on Trial in Pa.,” Oct. 5, 2005), it should be noted that evolution is the only scientific and nonreligious explanation for the existence and diversity of living organisms.
Teaching “intelligent design” would undermine students’ understanding of science by improperly placing an unsubstantiated article of faith on the same footing as recognized science. The Dover, Pa., school board should avoid this kind of religious indoctrination and put district students’ education first by providing science curricula based on science, not theology.
Religiously drenched assumptions such as intelligent design and creationism have no place in taxpayer-funded public schools. U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III has a clear obligation to uphold church-state separation.
Roy Speckhardt
Executive Director
American Humanist Association
Washington, D.C.
