The "Monkey Trial" began in 2005 - in Dover County in Pennsylvania

11 parents sued the Dover County School Board for its decision to teach XNUMXth graders about intelligent design before studying evolution

The theory of intelligent design is a religious theory that was introduced into the schools in the district's curriculum without checking at all whether it has any scientific basis at all." This is what the representative of the plaintiffs told a federal judge on Monday in a trial that is an important milestone in the US."
A group of 11 parents in the small town of Dover, Pennsylvania, with the support of a civil rights organization, petitioned the court demanding to change a decision of the local school board, which ruled that the theory of intelligent design would be taught in school. At the base of this theory, which is supported by religious Christian institutions, is the assumption that complex organisms had to be designed, this is in contrast to Darwin's secular theory of evolution, which believes that it is a process of natural selection without a guiding hand.
"They did everything they could to inject religious views into science classes and didn't care at all about the validity of the science," said Eric Rothschild, who represents eight of the 11 families seeking to overturn the Dover County School Board's decision.
However, in his opening remarks, the school's attorney in the district defended the policy requiring XNUMXth grade students to hear a short message about the theory of intelligent design before the biology lessons dealing with evolution.
"This is a free inquiry into education, not a religious agenda," said Patrick Gillen of the Thomas Moore Justice Center in Ann Harbor, Michigan. "Dover County's moderate curriculum saps the essence of liberal education," he added. The center serves as a lobby for Christian religious freedom, defending the county's school board in court.
Eighty years after the monkey trial, the opening of the trial in federal court marks the latest legal chapter in the debate over the teaching of the theory of evolution in public schools.
The eight families claim that the district's policy violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
District Judge John A. Jones began the hearing, in a trial that will not be decided by a jury.
Rothschild, who claims that the theory of intelligent design is a religious and not a scientific theory, says that he will prove that the language used by the school board indicates religious intentions.
The Dover Hira education system is the first in the country to require students to be exposed to the concept of intelligent planning, as part of the policy adopted by a majority of 6 to 3 members in October 2004.